Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[chickendreams24]

Thanks

 

[wekiva bird]

Can't take credit for idea as I used information from BYC member @wekiva bird
 . 
Used kit from http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incukit-xl.html
a lot of accessory parts came from Wally world.
It was a fun project the biggest problem for me was finding a defunct freezer out in the country.
I actually bought a working one on craigs list for $50 -  when not hatching I could use it to freeze culls  but I haven't .

Thanks for passing the info, finnfur. Sorry it took so long to respond. I have a broken radius in my arm.

 

[finnfur]

Thanks for passing the info, finnfur. Sorry it took so long to respond. I have a broken radius in my arm.

Sorry to hear that - hope ya have a speedy recovery.
Better make it quick Hunting season is getting close .

 

[wekiva bird]

Sorry to hear that - hope ya have a speedy recovery.
Better make it quick Hunting season is getting close .

Deer season already here! Started August 15. Jerry got a 7 pts buck that morning.

 

[Beekissed]

Wow!!! That's early!!!!! We don't get into hunting season until the end of September and that's our fave part, as we are bowhunters around here.

Congrats on the deer harvest!!!

 

[finnfur]

Wow!!! That's early!!!!! We don't get into hunting season until the end of September and that's our fave part, as we are bowhunters around here.

Congrats on the deer harvest!!!

Yea and that was rifle season there ! They must be thick as flies at the outhouse down there.

 

[pinusresinosa]

This is a great thread that I'll be subscribing to here in a second. But first I wanted to thank the originators of it. The first couple of pages in this discussion talked about one exact problem I've run into again and again since we began with chickens. In fact, it's almost come to a point where we feel like simply ordering hybrids for eggs and meat and just going on and on that way. I've had problems locally with breeders and finding someone with a line of chickens good for our needs here. It's always about looks. I always ask about eggs, carcass quality and dress weights at certain ages, disease resistance, cold and heat tolerance, range-ability (are they oblivious hawk bait or what?), and broodiness. No... they want to talk about feather colors. Which is nice- I do like pretty birds, but it's not a requirement whether it's laced or Birchen or what. I'd be fine with a yard full of plain birds if they were ideal utility on our central Minnesota range.

I've been toying with the idea of breeding my own ugly bird. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll order a load of dixie rainbows in the spring, they seem pretty good. Maybe I'll just stick with golden comets and cornish crosses as we've been doing. I would like things to be somewhat self-sustaining though.

 

[bnjrob]

This is a great thread that I'll be subscribing to here in a second. But first I wanted to thank the originators of it. The first couple of pages in this discussion talked about one exact problem I've run into again and again since we began with chickens. In fact, it's almost come to a point where we feel like simply ordering hybrids for eggs and meat and just going on and on that way. I've had problems locally with breeders and finding someone with a line of chickens good for our needs here. It's always about looks. I always ask about eggs, carcass quality and dress weights at certain ages, disease resistance, cold and heat tolerance, range-ability (are they oblivious hawk bait or what?), and broodiness. No... they want to talk about feather colors. Which is nice- I do like pretty birds, but it's not a requirement whether it's laced or Birchen or what. I'd be fine with a yard full of plain birds if they were ideal utility on our central Minnesota range.

I've been toying with the idea of breeding my own ugly bird. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll order a load of dixie rainbows in the spring, they seem pretty good. Maybe I'll just stick with golden comets and cornish crosses as we've been doing. I would like things to be somewhat self-sustaining though.

I think the problem is that most folks are not willing to breed for anything but appearance because they aren't comfortable killing and eating birds that they have raised. I'm coming across more people that want to show their birds, so are interested in breeding to an appearance standard, but they aren't willing to eat one of their own birds at all. They wig out if you even talk about killing and eating a bird. It's part of today's citified society that is disconnected from the food supply.

I don't like the idea of the meat mutts from the hatchery because too many of them require you to go back to the source for more birds, rather than being able to have a self-sustaining flock for the long term. And the extra fast growing hybrids - well those are good for getting a lot of meat in a short amount of time, but again you're stuck going back to the source to get them because you have to kill them all at 8 weeks old before they start dying of organ failure.

There are birds out there that will do fine for a self-sustaining egg and meat flock, you just have to look at what your expectations are and then look for the birds.

We love our Javas and they do well for us. Even with just a handful of hens, we had more than enough eggs for us to eat and were able to share some. We aren't at the point where we can completely rely on them for all our chicken meat needs, but we're working toward that goal as well. Since they are dual-purpose, they don't have as much meat on them as a meat-only bird, and they grow a lot slower than a modern meat-hybrid, but we think that we will eventually find the right balance of how many we need to hatch and grow out each year in order to supply our meat needs. And our birds are hardy. They do well confined or free range. We did have to change our expectations a little bit to get accustomed to what a true, oldfashioned farm bird could offer us, compared to what we were accustomed to buying at the store.

You can find what you're looking for, you may have to alter your expectations or how far you're willing to go to get the birds you want, but they are out there.

 

[Fentress]

This is a great thread that I'll be subscribing to here in a second. But first I wanted to thank the originators of it. The first couple of pages in this discussion talked about one exact problem I've run into again and again since we began with chickens. In fact, it's almost come to a point where we feel like simply ordering hybrids for eggs and meat and just going on and on that way. I've had problems locally with breeders and finding someone with a line of chickens good for our needs here. It's always about looks. I always ask about eggs, carcass quality and dress weights at certain ages, disease resistance, cold and heat tolerance, range-ability (are they oblivious hawk bait or what?), and broodiness. No... they want to talk about feather colors. Which is nice- I do like pretty birds, but it's not a requirement whether it's laced or Birchen or what. I'd be fine with a yard full of plain birds if they were ideal utility on our central Minnesota range.

I've been toying with the idea of breeding my own ugly bird. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll order a load of dixie rainbows in the spring, they seem pretty good. Maybe I'll just stick with golden comets and cornish crosses as we've been doing. I would like things to be somewhat self-sustaining though.

Welcome. I hear ya. Their might be good Dual Purpose birds available from a hatchery somewhere, but I doubt it. After a couple of orders, they were so off base with their product I gave up and turned to standard bred poultry for the answer and the jury is still out, in my opinion. Be careful. Get to know the breeder and the particular strain that they have. I do think that eventually breeders will emerge to meet the needs of people like us. Will that be with the traditional breeds or something else?

 

[pinusresinosa]

Welcome. I hear ya. Their might be good Dual Purpose birds available from a hatchery somewhere, but I doubt it. After a couple of orders, they were so off base with their product I gave up and turned to standard bred poultry for the answer and the jury is still out, in my opinion. Be careful. Get to know the breeder and the particular strain that they have. I do think that eventually breeders will emerge to meet the needs of people like us. Will that be with the traditional breeds or something else?

There are so many lovely breeds out there. I think I would love it if breeders went either way- something new, or something old but bred back to utility.