theuglychick
Crowing
Thanks for the great advice!
I got my first trio from The Old Farmhouse in Cross Roads, Tx. I think the last name is Eiland.
I got my first trio from The Old Farmhouse in Cross Roads, Tx. I think the last name is Eiland.
I don't remember the target weight for the EO cockerels, but there is a recommended harvest age and a target weight for EO cockerels in the Spanish Standards for the breed. If my memory serves me well the harvest age was 14 weeks and the targets weight was 4-1/2 lbs. Mine EO's never made the target weights.
I experimented with milk fattening them for two weeks to get the weight up and I want to try doing Capons with the EO's. I couldn't find anyone to mentor me on caponizing and my wife felt it was cruelty to animals to try to learn it on my own with out a mentor.
We were working on building a breeding flock every year with the EO's so we culled a little later in the 20-22 weeks range so that we had more time to see the development of the cockerels. To get to 14 weeks harvest target you would probably have to breed specifically for growth rates for several years to establish utilities before working on other things.
Our EO's didn't start laying until 26-28 weeks. I believe this to be a line specific things though so your flock will depend on what the breeder in Texas and Georgia were selecting for. Laying age is also feed dependent. One year we put a test group of EO's on 24/7 free range and only feed them a low protein (i.e. 12-14%) diet to encourage them to forage. They didn't start to lay until 31+ weeks. We didn't do a high protein diet with the EO's but did do high protein with Marans and Legbars and they were laying as early as 18 weeks (when the group on the standard feed were laying in 21-22 weeks range).
Yes, EO's are a lot larger than Legbars. I would have to go back to my flock notes to check on wight comparisons but if the EO's were 3-4 lbs at 14 weeks the Legbars were probably 2-3 lbs at 14 weeks.
The legbar is a light weight laying breed that should see cockerels 4-5 lbs and cocks 5-7 lbs. The EO's is a medium weight dual purpose breed and should see cockerels in the 5-6 lbs and cocks from 6-8 lbs.
Who did you get you Texas EO's from? It has been 2-1/2 year since I moved from Texas, but we had lot of contact in the state for the breed before the move.
