E's flock - chicken math is real! (and working towards sustainable meat bird flock)

[imacowgirl2]

Bachelor pad finally created; we separated the roos/cockerels from the main flock last night and moved them to their coop. We still need to finish putting up their own run, but for the next couple days the hens will just free-range and the boys will have the existing run. Truck was NOT impressed to be moved last night, and he was even less impressed this morning when he realized his hens were on the outside of the run and he was on the inside. I have a feeling we'll be moving roos out of the run and into their new coop the next few nights after dark, since I suspect they may try to roost in the run.

Still need to band the rest of the flock, but that will be easier now that the bachelor crew is separated.

In other news, it seems that Firecracker may be thinking about going broody -- she's been in the nest increasingly long periods of time throughout the day, and has stayed in the nest overnight the past couple nights. She currently has 2-3 eggs under her, so we'll let her incubate those if she so chooses and see what happens.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I've come to realize...New Hampshires drink a lot more water than the other birds. Which makes sense since I knew that meat birds like Cornish cross drink a ton of water...I just never really put 2 and 2 together until I saw how much the NH were at the waterer.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Sold our first eggs this week! E designed a business label, we printed labels, I gifted her an order of blank egg cartons, and she's in business. She's also tracking income and expenses...told her now that her chickens are producing some income, Mom isn't buying everything

 

[imacowgirl2]

Also thinking ahead to breeding...and trying to figure out how much of a total pain it would be to put my breeders in one of the runs together during the day and separate back out into their same-sex flocks at night. I just don't think there is any way that I can afford to build a separate secure coop right now, which is what would be required to keep the breeding sets together day and night. Also need to figure out how I'm going to separate the hens so I know which eggs are fertile and need to be set. I think giving the breeding groups the rooster run might solve that problem...then just put a nest box inside one of the shelters in there. That though, would limit the fertile eggs I could collect...couldn't collect more than one breed at a time since only one breed at a time is going into the run with a roo. Dilemmas, dilemmas...

 

[imacowgirl2]

Processed 3 NH birds today. 2 hens and a rooster, leaving me 3 NH hens and 2 NH roos for breeding. I butchered the heaviest roo, as I was afraid he might get too big too breed, and then butchered one hen that was limping (she ended up being the lightest) and then one that was the largest. Live weights were 9.3 for the roo, and 7.0 and 6.5 on the hens. Processed weights were 3.2, 3.8, and 5.8. However, I did use two different scales, a hanging fish scale for live weights and a kitchen scale for processed weights because I couldn't find my fish scale back this morning...so there could be a difference in scales, since that seems like a large difference.

We skinned them, and the process went much faster than I expected, and much easier as well. My son's girlfriend helped, as she has done processing before and she was a great help. The two of us got all three done in about 2.5 hours, including setup and cleanup - we averaged about 25 mins per bird from dispatch to bagged in the fridge for the actual processing part.

Birds are resting in the fridge now... If I like the taste of the meat we will DEFINITELY be processing a larger number next year. If we do them next year, I think I will let the hens go an extra week or two to get them a bit bigger, and we will keep the meat birds in their own run and not let them free range with the layers... It seemed like the hen who wasnt limping had tougher meat then the other hen and the limping hen -- she free ranged with the flock every day whereas the limper didn't usually, and the roo was in the bachelor pad where there was no free ranging available.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Ate the first New Hampshire last night....it had more flavor than I was expecting, but I liked the texture, so I'll definitely be ordering some more so that we can get some raised again. I think I will probably order a batch of 25 or so in time to process this spring, then save a few more hens from that batch -- then after that we should have enough hens to lay enough eggs that we can hatch our own from there on out.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Also ordered an incubator earlier this week...with egg prices continuing to rise, E really wants to add some more white egg layers to her flock, so I'll probably let her hatch out a batch of Leghorns and/or California Whites as soon as we get enough fertile eggs collected.

Which brings me back to breeding pens...still contemplating how to handle that -- I think E hit it on the head when she said it would be easiest to build them in the rooster run, since those guys have plenty of room in their run, and we'll always have some of them in the actual breeding pens any time the pens are in use. When the breeding pens aren't in use, it will give them extra line of sight breaks for the lower totem pole guys to avoid the dominant roos. Now just to figure out logistics. Contemplated building little enclosures with pallet sides/backs and netting tops and a dog exercise pen as the front -- but I'd like a little more structure on the top so that we're not limited to breeding on good days, so still thinking and contemplating options. Could possibly also do pallet tops covered with tarp/plastic, with wire bowed out on the front of the pen for extra room and netting over that top front -- that seems the best option so far, honestly, now that I've thought of it.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Incubator arrived yesterday, and we got a breeding pen mostly built today — it will be finished tomorrow and the California Whites and Leghorn roo will be going in first.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Today is first day of breeding...we have Truck in with the two Blue Australorp girls and the Black Australorp girl and both Leghorn roosters in with the 3 Leghorn and California White girls that are laying.

We put up a breeding pen inside the rooster run - Truck and his ladies are in there, then the Leghorns/California Whites are all in the rooster coop/run, and the extra roosters are chillin' in the hen's run today while the hens free range from the coop with no access to the run.

Everyone has shelter in case of inclement weather and everyone has food/water. I need to get another nipple waterer made ASAP so that as soon as we get another little shelter built in the rooster run, we can put the Leghorns/California Whites in the rooster run and the Buff Orpingtons in the rooster coop.

 

[imacowgirl2]

In other news, at least one of the New Hampshire roos started crowing yesterday -- it was hysterical and pathetic at the same time LOL

Waiting for those three ladies to start laying and we'll be hatching from them too.