Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[hellbender]

oh boy. you guys struck a nerve with me. how can you not like a heritage rhode island red. not are the just beautiful . they are very sweet,, good egg producers and provide a good caucus for meat. the heritage red is the all bases covered bird. the heritage red is not to be confused with the hatchery production red.. 2 different birds. i wanted to drop the reds at one point. i just can not do it. for me that bird can not be replaced. now i breed them.
now as for the naked necks. humm. this what i think. i want some in my pens. i just got to try them. i have heard wonderful things about them. in my opinion, next to the silkie, they are the ugliest darn things. however the silkie i got no use for.. i raised some of those misfits. never had cocci before. what did the silkies get cocci. i don't like them nor do i ever want to see one in a show. what possible good are they. constantly broody, lays a tiny egg, and the caucus., never mind.

now i got a question. i have 6 orpington roosters marked for slaughter in jan. they are 5 months old, and 100% english. they are on pasture. so how do you guys finish your birds for flavor .

i raised a commercial black to 9 months. he was the most non flavored bird i ever ate. could not even use larry for chicken salad. well the birds ate larry. i guess he tasted good to them .

i have eaten old hens great flavor. older cockerels i need help.

bruce h

Hi Bruce. I'm not a great fan of RIRs but I appreciate them for what they are...excellent dual purpose birds, leaning toward being one of the better egg producers.

I must also take exception to one of your allusions about hatchery RIR's being nothing more than 'production reds'. That may well be the case with SOME hatcheries but Cackle sells RIR's that are as pure as you can get anywhere and are not the same bird they sell as 'production reds'. Just wanted to make that clear.

As for older cockerels...turn them into eunuchs!

That makes such a difference in meat quality that it's difficult to describe in just a few words.

Good luck with what you have.

 

[BCMaraniac]

NN = Kassaundra

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NN = Hellbender

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[hellbender]

ALIEN

noun
1.
a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization (distinguished from citizen ).

2.
a foreigner.
3.
a person who has been estranged or excluded.
4.
a creature from outer space; extraterrestrial.
adjective
5.
residing under a government or in a country other than that of one's birth without having or obtaining the status of citizenship there.
6.
belonging or relating to aliens: alien property.
7.
unlike one's own; strange; not belonging to one: alien speech.
8.
adverse; hostile; opposed (usually followed by to or from ): ideas alien to modern thinking.
9.
extraterrestrial


Bee,

I think he was referring to #7........

NN's look like #9 to me!!!

I'll go with #3 and #7

and I can certainly understany why some folks feel like #9. I have 'ninish' feelings toward frizzled and top-hatted birds!

 

[Beekissed]

I was thinking #4.

Cackle Hatchery has heritage line, pure RIR stock??? When I looked on their site for RIRs there was some pictures of birds that were at a show and the title over them said "Production Reds"...very confusing. Either they are RIRs or they are production reds, which is it? Are the birds in the pics parent stock or merely pictures of birds at a show they used to depict the breed?

 

[bruceh]

i mean no harm. i speak in a comical natter. i have not posted in a long time. so most of you do not know me.
i will look up crackle hatchery and call them to see what lines of reds they are using. i am curious. i have nothing against hatchery birds at all. if you want a great egg layer. they lay the best. if you want to be a breeder then hatchery birds do not come close.

i understand caponizing a bird. however these birds are way to old. a bird must be castrated at 3 weeks of age . i obtained them at 8 weeks old.

 

[bruceh]

I was thinking #4.

Cackle Hatchery has heritage line, pure RIR stock??? When I looked on their site for RIRs there was some pictures of birds that were at a show and the title over them said "Production Reds"...very confusing. Either they are RIRs or they are production reds, which is it? Are the birds in the pics parent stock or merely pictures of birds at a show they used to depict the breed?

 

[BCMaraniac]

i mean no harm. i speak in a comical natter. i have not posted in a long time. so most of you do not know me.
i will look up crackle hatchery and call them to see what lines of reds they are using. i am curious. i have nothing against hatchery birds at all. if you want a great egg layer. they lay the best. if you want to be a breeder then hatchery birds do not come close.

i understand caponizing a bird. however these birds are way to old. a bird must be castrated at 3 weeks of age . i obtained them at 8 weeks old.

There are several folks here who have caponized at 8 weeks or older...myself included. I think many of us started with the slightly older birds because of Nervous Nellie Syndrome associated with first timers. Several of us newbies have gradually caponized younger birds as confidence has increased.

 

[hellbender]

i mean no harm. i speak in a comical natter. i have not posted in a long time. so most of you do not know me.
i will look up crackle hatchery and call them to see what lines of reds they are using. i am curious. i have nothing against hatchery birds at all. if you want a great egg layer. they lay the best. if you want to be a breeder then hatchery birds do not come close.

i understand caponizing a bird. however these birds are way to old. a bird must be castrated at 3 weeks of age . i obtained them at 8 weeks old.

I t takes a LOT to rile or offend me. I like to have lots of fun and I do banter when I get a chance. Long before I get into a big argument about anything on a site...I leave.

I was thinking #4.

Cackle Hatchery has heritage line, pure RIR stock??? When I looked on their site for RIRs there was some pictures of birds that were at a show and the title over them said "Production Reds"...very confusing. Either they are RIRs or they are production reds, which is it? Are the birds in the pics parent stock or merely pictures of birds at a show they used to depict the breed?

Oh...I knew I shouldn't have gotten into this one.

Are we talking about Heritage lines or show lines? Both have had frequent infusion of 'alien' genes to produce a desired conformation.

Go back to Cackle and watch their videos of the RIR's. Those are reasonably good examples of production RIR's.

The 'production reds' are actually a cross of RIR and one or more other breeds.

#4 huh...

 

[hellbender]

NN = Kassaundra

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NN = Hellbender

.

back at you..lol

 

[hellbender]

Darn it, I forgot Bee...those pics are certainly pics they have from shows to depict breeds. They say as much somewhere on the site...