Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[mountaindog66]

There's a lot written about it throughout the body of this thread. What are your particular concerns?

OK, I'll go back further and catch up on what I've not yet read, I started about 50 pages back and may have missed some specifics on age at processing for heritage breeds vs hybrids, how best to finish them, etc. I have a few books on pasture-raising livestock for meat (beef, pork, lamb) but they did not get specific on the poultry aspect other than for egg production. For example, if I started out with a flock of dual-purpose laying chicks, and needed to cull some roosters or others for some reason, I was wondering what would be the optimal age for processing these slower-growing birds. It looks like the book by Harvey Ussery, which I don't have yet, goes into that so perhaps I'll start there as well.

Thanks again!

 

[bnjrob]

OK, I'll go back further and catch up on what I've not yet read, I started about 50 pages back and may have missed some specifics on age at processing for heritage breeds vs hybrids, how best to finish them, etc. I have a few books on pasture-raising livestock for meat (beef, pork, lamb) but they did not get specific on the poultry aspect other than for egg production. For example, if I started out with a flock of dual-purpose laying chicks, and needed to cull some roosters or others for some reason, I was wondering what would be the optimal age for processing these slower-growing birds. It looks like the book by Harvey Ussery, which I don't have yet, goes into that so perhaps I'll start there as well.

Thanks again!

Optimal age for dual purpose.... that's a novel idea. I wouldn't know what that is. Ours get culled at different times usually because of a specific issue - space getting tight, snarky male that decides to be a butthead to me or is too rough with the females - that kind of thing. I don't think we've ever paid attention to a specific time period for butchering, it happens when it's needed.

Have a 5 month old cockerel right now that we need to butcher. He was turning out great and then grew a side sprig on his comb and wings are too low. Then he started running the other cockerel nearly to death that he was living with - in this heat the other cockerel was wheezing and looking rough. So now they are separated and it's a pain to have to carry them from their separate cages to "playpens" outside. I'd like to get him butchered right away, but it's been over 100* and kinda hot to be outside butchering a chicken and hauling around scalding water.

Since we use the resting the meat after butchering and then brining method before cooking, we have not experienced a tough bird yet. The 4 month olds that we've butchered made smaller meals and the older ones made leftovers. Of course with them being dual purpose, they don't have as much breast on them as "meat birds" but they have some big ol legs to eat.

 

[Arielle]

I personally like the dark meat, and that pic of those massive leggs on that french bird caught my interest.

Yellow HOuse-- you have clients to butcher for, do you have a prefered age to market the dorkings, and if so why that age?

 

[Arielle]

Mountain dog-- I have butchered at different months. Last fall I sent 40 birds to the freezer, some at 6 months others 1 year. HOnestly, they all seem the same to me, and while the flavor and texture is to my liking, the lack of meat was surprising. Now I should have known better, as these were mostly hatchery dual purpose aka very good layers. So I was expecting a beef cow of cuts from a dairy cow. In other words, I was expecting a nicely plump roast not a lightly muscled bird.Even my ameraucanas were not much better, nor the marans. As you will see in past conversations, very few lines have been restored to the plumpness of ole. What I understand so far is that most are fair layers; some are super layers, and a rare few are super meat birds.

 

[mountaindog66]

I personally like the dark meat, and that pic of those massive leggs on that french bird caught my interest.

Yellow HOuse-- you have clients to butcher for, do you have a prefered age to market the dorkings, and if so why that age?

Yes, this is exactly what I was wondering too...

Mountain dog-- I have butchered at different months. Last fall I sent 40 birds to the freezer, some at 6 months others 1 year. HOnestly, they all seem the same to me, and while the flavor and texture is to my liking, the lack of meat was surprising. Now I should have known better, as these were mostly hatchery dual purpose aka very good layers. So I was expecting a beef cow of cuts from a dairy cow. In other words, I was expecting a nicely plump roast not a lightly muscled bird.Even my ameraucanas were not much better, nor the marans. As you will see in past conversations, very few lines have been restored to the plumpness of ole. What I understand so far is that most are fair layers; some are super layers, and a rare few are super meat birds.

Thanks for the info Arielle. The Marans seem like they should be such nice, big birds, but that most are breeding for the dark egg color over the dual purpose nature? I'd love to have those if I could find some that had a good balance between providing meat and providing eggs. I guess that is what everyone is looking for though.

 

[BGMatt]

Yes, this is exactly what I was wondering too...

Thanks for the info Arielle. The Marans seem like they should be such nice, big birds, but that most are breeding for the dark egg color over the dual purpose nature? I'd love to have those if I could find some that had a good balance between providing meat and providing eggs. I guess that is what everyone is looking for though.

Might want to check out Langshans, which are one of the parent breeds that Marans were developed from. Big, great homesteading fowl, excellent layers, good meat, and haven't been ruined by breeding for egg color alone.

 

[Extra Java]

I've always been curious as to what a Langshan looks like on a platter.

 

[BGMatt]

I'd love to show you but I'm just getting back into the breed after 3+ years out of poultry and haven't had extra cockerels yet. Might be worth asking the Langshan thread.

 

[mountaindog66]

Might want to check out Langshans, which are one of the parent breeds that Marans were developed from. Big, great homesteading fowl, excellent layers, good meat, and haven't been ruined by breeding for egg color alone.

Thank you for the suggestion, I didn't realize they were good layers, they are certainly big beautiful birds. I will check out that thread.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: From what I have gathered, and I could be wrong, even the poorest layers are actually pretty good when you start counting how many eggs you have to eat to keep up with the hens. 3-4 eggs a week from a hen is a lot of eggs to eat. If a flock can free range getting most of its feed off the land, then those eggs are almost free.

I have a flock of 7 speckled sussex and they are great foragers. OUt and about all day and somehow managing to avoid the coyotes. THese are hatchery, but they give 1 egg a day each, of med size. With very thick orange yolks.