Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Fentress]

Bee, it would be slower.

It still boils down to hatching a qty. of growers and selection though. I do not think that anyone can logically dispute that.

I think that it is less risky, and a good way for someone to get their feet wet (or stick their toe in the water). The reason is the variability. You haven't put yourself in a corner to start off with. That might go against conventional wisdom, but I still believe that flock mating is not a bad place to start.

The biggest thing us newbies need to learn is selection. Developing an eye for the birds, and becoming familiar with the strengths and weaknesses in our birds. It takes a generation or two to do that when we are new. In the mean time, the added variability might help keep us from getting into too much trouble. At least not to a point of no return. A little more room for error.

Been out of town, so I am just catching up. Great discussion. It helps more than you may realize. Quite a while ago I knew that I would have some problems, but I thought I would work my way through it, the more I learned. That is sort of the case, but now I know that a focused breeding program will be a challenge for me. I agree with gjensen, that for now learn how to make good selections, enjoy your birds and wait and see where this hobby takes me.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Well my adult poultry ruined their organic healthy only diet today!!!! I was sitting in a chair watching the juvenile cockerels set the order in the grow up pen. I was eating a couple oatmeal/raisin cookies my neighbors Grand daughter had made and gave me after I let her collect the eggs....... well you can guess what happened.... a blur went past me and my cookie was gone!!!! I blinked and looked and when I yelled "hey" my oldest rock looked at me and slammed her foot down on my cookie with an I dare you to try and get it back look in her eye.

Juveniles stopped their tat and watched her break it up... they begged at the fencing for what she had instead of laying their claim to the feed I had just given them. When she finished she went over and talked to them and they went back to eating theirs! Other than my lost cookie it was funny.

 

[bnjrob]

Well my adult poultry ruined their organic healthy only diet today!!!! I was sitting in a chair watching the juvenile cockerels set the order in the grow up pen. I was eating a couple oatmeal/raisin cookies my neighbors Grand daughter had made and gave me after I let her collect the eggs....... well you can guess what happened.... a blur went past me and my cookie was gone!!!! I blinked and looked and when I yelled "hey" my oldest rock looked at me and slammed her foot down on my cookie with an I dare you to try and get it back look in her eye.

Juveniles stopped their tat and watched her break it up... they begged at the fencing for what she had instead of laying their claim to the feed I had just given them. When she finished she went over and talked to them and they went back to eating theirs! Other than my lost cookie it was funny.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well my adult poultry ruined their organic healthy only diet today!!!! I was sitting in a chair watching the juvenile cockerels set the order in the grow up pen. I was eating a couple oatmeal/raisin cookies my neighbors Grand daughter had made and gave me after I let her collect the eggs....... well you can guess what happened.... a blur went past me and my cookie was gone!!!! I blinked and looked and when I yelled "hey" my oldest rock looked at me and slammed her foot down on my cookie with an I dare you to try and get it back look in her eye.

Juveniles stopped their tat and watched her break it up... they begged at the fencing for what she had instead of laying their claim to the feed I had just given them. When she finished she went over and talked to them and they went back to eating theirs! Other than my lost cookie it was funny.

Lifeway Lowfat Kefir Probiotic smoothies by the glassful and oatmeal raisin cookies! Sounds like they know what's good for them. Same bird doing the tackle?

 

[LindaB220]

LOL - partly because we are trying to become more self sufficient and at some point we will have a cow to provide us with the ability to make butter from the ground up so I decided to start getting comfortable making it routinely a couple of years ago.

And partly because homemade butter tastes nothing like storebought. I actually make cultured butter, which tastes different than most butter readily available, but even making sweet cream butter - it tastes different than storebought sweet cream butter.

Right now I have to buy whipping cream but it still tastes better than storebought pre-made butter.

As far as storebought being wrapped in quarters - I usually portion out butter by weight to make it easier to use in recipes.

To make a fresh batch of cultured butter I use either leftover buttermilk from the last batch or a bit of plain live-culture yogurt - whatever I happen to have.

I don't make it all at once for a year's supply though, since I don't have the freezer space. We're also trying to be able to do more things without electrical conveniences since power outages are unfortunately becoming more common and being accustomed to making it as we need it, if we don't have electricity, is more important to me than making a ton of it at once. My next project with butter will be to make ghee so that we can have "canned" butter that will last a good long while without having to keep it cool.

I've heard good things about canned butter. (ghee)

 

[bnjrob]

I've heard good things about canned butter. (ghee)

There's supposed to be several reasons why you would want to use ghee instead of another kind of fat, but I can't remember what specifically the book said about why ghee was good to use. Reading so many antique cookbooks, things start to run together sometimes and I can't remember which book said what specifically.

 

[LindaB220]

I don't care to drink it but it sure tastes great in stuff. Tried a new recipe last month to make "Buttermilk Syrup" to go on pancakes/waffles, and used the buttermilk leftovers from making butter. Good stuff!

Yes, we really do need that recipe.

 

[bnjrob]

Yes, we really do need that recipe.

LOL.

Buttermilk Syrup from the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook

makes about 3 cups

1 c butter
1 c buttermilk
1 1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking SODA
2 tsp vanilla

Combine butter, buttermilk, and sugar in a LARGE saucepan with tall sides over med-hi heat, stir occasionally sill butter melts and sugar dissolves.

When mixture starts to boil, remove from heat - add baking soda and vanilla. Stir. It will foam up a lot. Serve hot or let cool. Store in airtight container in refrig. up to 2 weeks.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, do you make your own, or buy it?? I'm guessing you make it-- goat, or cows milk??

Sadly, we buy it. No more cows or sheep in my yard any longer. My grandma used to make her own and it was par excellent. What you can buy in the store has some good cultures..sorta...and that's about all you can say about it that's good. Buttermilk no longer even tastes like buttermilk should as we are so far away from any real foods being produced commercially any longer.

There used to be a local dairy that made the old fashioned buttermilk and it was like granny used to make but they went out of business and it was like a light went out of the community...no more real cream, no more real ice cream, buttermilk, milk. They used to sell it in the glass jugs.....oh, the loss to America when the small time dairy men are put out of business.

They used to sell Blackberry Cobbler ice cream...which was just vanilla ice cream with a big ol' cobbler mixed into it, crust and all. My mouth waters to remember it....

 

[bnjrob]

Sadly, we buy it. No more cows or sheep in my yard any longer. My grandma used to make her own and it was par excellent. What you can buy in the store has some good cultures..sorta...and that's about all you can say about it that's good. Buttermilk no longer even tastes like buttermilk should as we are so far away from any real foods being produced commercially any longer.

There used to be a local dairy that made the old fashioned buttermilk and it was like granny used to make but they went out of business and it was like a light went out of the community...no more real cream, no more real ice cream, buttermilk, milk. They used to sell it in the glass jugs.....oh, the loss to America when the small time dairy men are put out of business.

They used to sell Blackberry Cobbler ice cream...which was just vanilla ice cream with a big ol' cobbler mixed into it, crust and all. My mouth waters to remember it....

My grandfather was a cowboy on dairy farms back in the day. The stories of the wonderfully fresh dairy products....

Blue Bell here in TX has blackberry cobbler ice cream like you described. It's delish!