Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[stonykill]

llol, I think I was commenting that I don't leave eggs with the hens, rather I use an incubator. BUt you never know I may take you up on your offer.

I've been processing today. I do it alone, and can take the time to look the carcasses over. For the effort just to process I sure would like to get more meat. And the cost of feed, too, of course. I also think I need to have only a few breeder birds thru the winter a ka pare down my numbers of breeds. Hatchery egg layers don't make a nice roast but they do make a good stew. Would rather have more muscle.

I'm learning!!

lol, rereading that I clearly see that now.... a duh moment on my part

 

[Arielle]

Quote: no problem.

 

[stonykill]

no problem.

that's what happens when I type without enough coffee

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

I stopped the coffee years ago, drank 4-6 cups a day, love the stuff. Took about a week and an addiction migraine to get off the stuff. Well worth it. Only defa now-- gotta keeep those little gray cells functioning!!! Lots of chicken helps too!!


The five processed birds went into a big turkey roaster, and then an hour later three went into the soup pot. Loved my son wanted to help clean the chickens--but maybe that was due to the knives involved!

What ever works!

 

[Arielle]

I'm still researching pasture renovation and improvement. ALl no-till methods as our fields are great at growing stones. Found a couple fruit tree sources-- figured the birds would eat the drops. THough I had a dog that plucked the peaches right off the tree!

I am also diappointed in the birds headed to the oven. Not worth the effort for the amount of meat-- do taste good though. I guess I really am in that transition phase, realizing the stock I have is not the bird I want long term. Very hard to come down to one breed.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

u have to have a different mind set about your birds... I'm not saying that some heritage breeds wont have a meaty carcase but most are way less than CX... so u have to look at it differently they are your birds raised in a healthy environment no growth hormones or antibiotics and processed humanly... that is worth allot more per pound than the nasty CX's u get from the store... so it is still worth it to raise and process your own birds even the small breeds IMHO...

I'm still researching pasture renovation and improvement. ALl no-till methods as our fields are great at growing stones. Found a couple fruit tree sources-- figured the birds would eat the drops. THough I had a dog that plucked the peaches right off the tree!

I am also diappointed in the birds headed to the oven. Not worth the effort for the amount of meat-- do taste good though. I guess I really am in that transition phase, realizing the stock I have is not the bird I want long term. Very hard to come down to one breed.

 

[tadpole98]

I'm still researching pasture renovation and improvement. ALl no-till methods as our fields are great at growing stones. Found a couple fruit tree sources-- figured the birds would eat the drops. THough I had a dog that plucked the peaches right off the tree!

I am also diappointed in the birds headed to the oven. Not worth the effort for the amount of meat-- do taste good though. I guess I really am in that transition phase, realizing the stock I have is not the bird I want long term. Very hard to come down to one breed.

we raised a bunch of broilers last year that we got from a hatchery (100 of them) and thank goodness we got that many because between the four of us it takes 3 chickens to feed us. barely any meat on those things.

 

[cukooformarans]

3 birds for four people!? Wow! What kind of broilers were these? (And what age people?) Even with our least meaty heritage birds we get enough from one bird to feed my husband, daughter and I! And most of our heritage birds feed the three of us with leftovers! (The least meaty one I referred to was a young rooster that had strictly free ranged. All of the others that I recall have fed us with enough for one or two lunches to spare! Of course, our daughter is four, so that would be two adult portions and one child portion, but with leftovers.

 

[tadpole98]

3 birds for four people!? Wow! What kind of broilers were these? (And what age people?) Even with our least meaty heritage birds we get enough from one bird to feed my husband, daughter and I! And most of our heritage birds feed the three of us with leftovers! (The least meaty one I referred to was a young rooster that had strictly free ranged. All of the others that I recall have fed us with enough for one or two lunches to spare! Of course, our daughter is four, so that would be two adult portions and one child portion, but with leftovers.

they were just 'broilers'. i dont know what breed, the guy didnt know. They were 20 weeks old and were fed a good diet and got to free range. we would have waited longer but those things were all roosters and were starting to tear eachother up.

 

[Maggiesdad]

I find we don't eat as much of our farm raised bird as we did store chicken. The meat is more satisfying. Two grown ups, a 16yo daughter and 8 yo twins will eat a half of a 5lb(dressed out) roasted Basque cockerel at dinner, make sandwiches or chicken salad for lunch from the big portions of the other half, and then soup from the pickins and the bones, skin, neck and feet. So one bird makes part of 3 meals for the 5 of us.