Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Vamvakas]

If you have to many roosters either kill them for meat or if you can't kill them yourself, get a foreign guy to kill them for meat cause Europeans, and Spanish people love farm heritage raised poultry and will kill the birds for you. Why do people in America say "cull" is that a nicer word for saying "kill"?

 

[ronott1]

If you have to many roosters either kill them for meat or if you can't kill them yourself, get a foreign guy to kill them for meat cause Europeans, and Spanish people love farm heritage raised poultry and will kill the birds for you. Why do people in America say "cull" is that a nicer word for saying "kill"?

Cull does not mean kill but to remove from the breeding program. Culled birds can move into the layer flock if pullets or sold.

I usually wait until the Cockerels are at least 16 weeks old before processing them. This American of European Ancestry has been doing this since he was a child living on a Farm in California.

 

[gjensen]

If you have to many roosters either kill them for meat or if you can't kill them yourself, get a foreign guy to kill them for meat cause Europeans, and Spanish people love farm heritage raised poultry and will kill the birds for you. Why do people in America say "cull" is that a nicer word for saying "kill"?

To cull means to separate or to pick out. Usually separating the bad from the good. When I use the word cull, I do not always mean kill. When I am strictly mentioning the act of killing, then I use the word kill. Because the cull is often killed the words are often used interchangeably. I think it becomes more of a habit than a conscience effort to say it "in a nicer way". I am speaking for myself.

 

[Vamvakas]

Olympiakos FC has beat Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League 2-0, first leg. This shows Greek power in Naked Necks and English breeds are scared by old European breeds.

 

[hellbender]

Olympiakos FC has beat Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League 2-0, first leg. This shows Greek power in Naked Necks and English breeds are scared by old European breeds.

I love Greek logic!



EDIT: Perhaps I should have posted the fact that I simply love Greeks! I learned enough Greek while on Cyprus to get myself into serious trouble with the Greek Cypriot women!

But a good time was had by (almost) all.....great place for R&R...

 

[gjensen]

No worries - I didn't think you were being critical. You are right - more cockerel pen space would be great and I would do it if I had help. On the other hand, I'm already maintaining 6 separate chicken facilities - 2 large coop/runs, 3 breeding/grow out pens and a brooder. Not counting the incubator and hatcher. That is nothing compared with a lot of folks on this thread. But it is near the limit of what I can handle by myself, given that I have a full time job and other interests that also take time.

I do separate the cockerels from the females once they start pestering the hens. They have a 168 square foot coop/run all to themselves, and they get out to free range on alternate days. Last year I tried to keep 14 young cockerels in that space. Won't do that again. It can handle about six of them before they start tearing each other to pieces.

If I could get more female eggs to hatch I would be able to keep more birds longer. Last year the cockerel to pullet ratio was about 2:1. The fall broody hatch had a 5:1 ratio. This season's hatches are looking closer to 2:1 again, but it's too soon to tell for most of the chicks. I am overrun with cockerels and can't eat them fast enough. Hence my looking for any excuse to cull them early...

Keep contributing!

Thanks,

Sarah

I look for things that I can cull early for to. Like I mentioned, I have identified some things that I can see early on. I probably will not have some of those things much longer . . .

Like Ron mentions in a later post, I am scheming improvements. I have some new physical limitations, and I do not intend on quitting with the birds. I am going to have to adapt. Automation may be more important for me than it was before. Why was I doing it the hard way anyways?

I get you on the cockerels. Some breeds/strains are easier than others. I do not know your Javas, so I could not make suggestions. They always struck me as a breed where I would want to run the males in a big yard and let them develop those frames in their own time. Catch up who I liked at a point and pen them individually.
One of the traits that I liked about the NHs was that I could cull for early size, process them, and be keeping with the breed's characteristics. I could see who was who less the details before there was all out war.

Maybe at a point you can divide that 168 sf. into some individual pens and automate it?

 

[gjensen]

Olympiakos FC has beat Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League 2-0, first leg. This shows Greek power in Naked Necks and English breeds are scared by old European breeds.

And the rest of Europe is paying for it.

Sorry, I could not resist.

 

[thedragonlady]

And on another topic.......I don't know what else the birds are trying to tell me now. Cold here, again this morning, and I have chicks hatching. I have one lonely, week old, nice sized chick in the brooder. The just hatched chicks are simply HUGE.They are as heavy as the week old chick, and have the thickest down I've ever seen. I've never had this before. Most times my chicks look like peas in a pod. Both hatches came from the same pen, so I'm trying to figure out just what is going on.




Hard to show just how big these chicks are, as they are still pretty tired from hatching, but I'm going to toe punch these, and the others hatching, just to see if there is a difference at maturity.

 

[armorfirelady]

And on another topic.......I don't know what else the birds are trying to tell me now. Cold here, again this morning, and I have chicks hatching. I have one lonely, week old, nice sized chick in the brooder. The just hatched chicks are simply HUGE.They are as heavy as the week old chick, and have the thickest down I've ever seen. I've never had this before. Most times my chicks look like peas in a pod. Both hatches came from the same pen, so I'm trying to figure out just what is going on.




Hard to show just how big these chicks are, as they are still pretty tired from hatching, but I'm going to toe punch these, and the others hatching, just to see if there is a difference at maturity.

Maybe because of the unusual cold temps everyone is having they were born with more down? My hens fluffy butt feathers seem more fluffy & full than they have been in past winters.

 

[RiddleMe]

Quote: Walt, can you clarify, I've read the APA bylaws about applying to get a new breed admitted and didn't see where they specify the breeders have to have been APA members for the 5 years. Is this just implied by some of the show certification requirements, or... Just trying to understand the process. Thank you!