Foraging And Feed Effeciency Comparing Breeds

[islandgirl82]

The reviews are not worth much are they? I try recommending trying them for ourselves and going with what interests us the most. We should enjoy what we have. I have my opinions to, but yours would be different. Plus one experience with one strain does not necessarily describe them all. Much is strain based.

Personally, I have come to appreciate the lighter breeds and their active industrious nature.

I enjoyed reading the description of your Hamburg. It is a beautiful breed.

In regards to the reviews, I like that people have the opportunity to share their experiences with particular breeds and to get a basic idea of what's to be expected from each but at the same time there is the whole "power of suggestion" aspect.

Take the Hamburg for example; they're dubbed "flighty" in every one of the reviews I had read under "Cons". That's what was most off-putting to me when deciding on this spring's additions. I don't want a flock who is afraid of me and I associate flightiness with fear. It took a lot of patience and just simple observation to see past the "flightiness" and decided that's not how I would describe them. They are, after all, birds and have instincts that have been left intact but I don't see fear. I would say alert, cautious and fast moving but also curious, bold and territorial.

Maybe I just got lucky that day and got a bird from a more docile strain (if so, I'm glad the 2015 chicks are coming from the same source), maybe I have more patience than some other reviewers had or maybe reading all those reviews prepared me for a "flighty" (fearful) bird so I view every little treat taken from my hand or her always being at my heels or every time she decides to leave the flock to find me and nestle down beside me as a major milestone. Regardless, there's no doubt about it that I've had to earn her trust.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: If you look at the feed tag of ingredients there is more than corn and oats. Usually many grain by products which are much cheaper. Each item listed has a pro and con as a feed ingredient.

Part of the increase in our freed prices is the amount of grain we are shipping over seas now, the high prices of oil and the ethanol demand. With the decrease in oil prices I hope to see our grain prices come down ( and still give farmers a fair price). I"m not a fan of selling our basic resources when we have so many folks starving here in the US. HEar that 1 out of 5 children are below the povertyline in the US. UNACCEPTABLE. My kids work food drives to stock the local food pantrys and the food goes fast here. Of course this is canned and dried goods which is not nearly as nutritional as fresh vegies and fresh/frozen meats.


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Which is part of why I started this thread: to understand how to economically raise chickens that are good quality meat. A chicken is what she/he eats: bugs, worms, grasses, grains. ANd if there are any contaminents that too is concentrated into the fats. IMO this is the bases for the studies that show fat is a possible cause for cancers. We are eating fats contaminated with pesticides, etc.

I was looking at amaranthe for both leafy material and easy to harvest seeds.

And trying to figure out how to grow corn as huge grasses for the sheep and horses as supplemental feed.

As for chickens, they hussle all aound the barn and into the stall and help themselves. We have had far fewer pesty flies since getting the chickens so I'm guessing they are eating the larvae stage of the flies. Free food. ANd less fly repellent for the horses. I have noticed those birds that live at the feed bunk versus those that go off to find food.

 

[maranfarmer563]

I had a free range flock of hamburgs but the hawks kept getting them. I've switched to game fowl 16 years ago. They have never been caged.they have been self sustaining all these years. Two years ago I got down to one rooster with the darn hawks, but now I have over a dozen.

 

[maranfarmer563]

The lowest number of hens I ever got to was two,My oldest hen is around 7 years old. My oldest rooster is around 5

 

[islandgirl82]

I do have concerns about predators where I'm currently living; right across the road is a Nature Preserve and there have been fox, bear, coyotes and of course coons, skunks and aerial predators. All of my neighbors have dogs as well but most are either too old to give chase or fenced in their own yards. One neighbor has two Australian shepards who had been a problem for me but between a year and a half working with the neighbor's to train them and my newfoundland who has a "no shenanigans" policy, they have learned to leave my flock alone. I do have plenty of cover to help them hide from hawks and such and I work from home so they free range the vast majority of their time with me keeping an eye on them. So far, I haven't lost any since moving to this neighborhood but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

My Hamburg is a bit of a loner with the rest of the flock and seems to prefer my company over theirs but when she is with them, she's always with my two oldest hens...the rest seem too spastic/playful (they're all about the same age she is; 5-8 months) for her liking. Her nature is far too serious to be bothered with them.

One of the things I like about the Golden Spangled variety is that they blend in marvelously with their environment unlike the Silver Spangled or just white birds in general, which is another reason why I find them ideal for free-ranging but as far as feed conversion to meat there's obviously not a whole lot to them so they wouldn't be for anything more than making stock.

 

[maranfarmer563]

This year I'm trying crow decoys to keep hawks away. If I had started with Golden Hamburgs ,I would probably still have them,mine were white. The hawks picked them off easy.

 

[islandgirl82]

I've heard a lot of people say they've lost their SSH's to predators because they do stand out. I had originally wanted that variety because they're gorgeous but they were all spoken for when I got mine so I ended up with the Golden by default and I'm glad I did.

 

[maranfarmer563]

They have pencil Hamburg too

 

[islandgirl82]

I think all the varieties of hamburg are gorgeous. Do you think you'd every try them again in a different variety or are you set on your games?

 

[maranfarmer563]

I got them because my wife wanted white eggs. They have a blue color Hamburg I might try.