How does she look , safe to eat ?

[U_Stormcrow]

What kind of meat birds do you have? I agree that's too much fat for an egg laying hen, but if you have broilers, that's an average amount of fat, I've seen worse. It's just about impossible to keep broiler hens from getting fat without practically starving them. I feed my breeder meat birds twice a day only what they will clean up in a few minutes and they have to forage for anything else they get.

I readily accept the correction. Meat birds aren't intended for long life, that wouldn't bother me if that's what you are seeing at butchering age. I thought I read "layer" in the original post, and in fact I did, but not quite in the context I thought I had.

If that's a butcher age meaty, and you feed your layers the same diet? I would consider sacrificing one of the layer girls to get a good handle on her fat levels, since a meaty you keep 8 to maybe 14 weeks typically, and a layer you probably want till at least 18 months.

 

[raingarden]

That liver doesn't look healthy for the bird but maybe it makes better liver pate that way.

 

[MarketGardener]

What kind of meat birds do you have? I agree that's too much fat for an egg laying hen, but if you have broilers, that's an average amount of fat, I've seen worse. It's just about impossible to keep broiler hens from getting fat without practically starving them. I feed my breeder meat birds twice a day only what they will clean up in a few minutes and they have to forage for anything else they get.

There my meaters not full Cornish cross
They are dekalb cross Wyandotte mut
The Dekalb I have got rid of as there savages for eggs and feathers they make themself fat if your not careful they was eggers apparently these can be crazy as the opposite of the Cornish from a similar program they are small till they get a bug for food
But left with the baby’s who Wyandotte bulked up they was 22 weeks grain fed on corn wheat oat pea flax meat n scraps
All scraps from a big family though it’s healthy good I feel the high corn diet did it

I’ve changed the diet on my others and string food up so they have to jump for it and stopped giving them scraps I’m throwing them in compost or bin now Feels wrong lol

Eating them tonight so will find out how they taste soon


Yeah I have my flock as follows to try clean it up @u_storm
A team
3 year old flock of 6 birds and cockerel family pets /layers
B team
3breeders pure herretage stock 29 weeks and a Indian game cock 26 weeks
They have 2 cross birds the kids loved 16 weeks that will go in the egg area eventually

C team
And have 3/16 left for meat now at 18 weeks

 

[Geena]

I would switch over to pellets or crumble, layer/all flock/starter instead of the grain mix. Then you know that your birds getting all the nutrients that they need and not getting harmful amounts of fat. Too much corn, flax or fat laden scraps is most likely the reason why your bird had fatty liver disease.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

There my meaters not full Cornish cross
They are dekalb cross Wyandotte mut
The Dekalb I have got rid of as there savages for eggs and feathers they make themself fat if your not careful they was eggers apparently these can be crazy as the opposite of the Cornish from a similar program they are small till they get a bug for food
But left with the baby’s who Wyandotte bulked up they was 22 weeks grain fed on corn wheat oat pea flax meat n scraps
All scraps from a big family though it’s healthy good I feel the high corn diet did it

I’ve changed the diet on my others and string food up so they have to jump for it and stopped giving them scraps I’m throwing them in compost or bin now Feels wrong lol

Eating them tonight so will find out how they taste soon


Yeah I have my flock as follows to try clean it up @u_storm
A team
3 year old flock of 6 birds and cockerel family pets /layers
B team
3breeders pure herretage stock 29 weeks and a Indian game cock 26 weeks
They have 2 cross birds the kids loved 16 weeks that will go in the egg area eventually

C team
And have 3/16 left for meat now at 18 weeks

Do keep us in the loop, its how the community grows its knowledge base - to be able to say poster X grew these birds for 18 weeks, and they looked like this on this diet. Then they grew them the next year to 18 weeks on this different diet, and they looked like this.

Everyone's got anecdotes, but photos? Photos speak volumes.

 

[MarketGardener]

Do keep us in the loop, its how the community grows its knowledge base - to be able to say poster X grew these birds for 18 weeks, and they looked like this on this diet. Then they grew them the next year to 18 weeks on this different diet, and they looked like this.

Everyone's got anecdotes, but photos? Photos speak volumes.

Kept at home over winter the outside whites will go down allotment shortly there my meat baby’s but the small one the kids adopted

The gingers and the Cornish are my breeders for this year good meaters

In the run is my eggers of 3 years the origional chickens the whites came from the decalb we rehomed as they are savages known to go loopy they scoff every egg and started eating feathers off the others in the coops farmer said it’s why he gets a new flock every year and rehomes them so they went leaving my mut cock and rhodeisland red flock now whites gone their feather all coming back nicely this cockerel is sweet he calls n chooks all day giving treats to all chickens and never gets violent he’s soft and oppasite to my black male Cornish

The baby’s in the run are the new batch which only difference was they was off eBay
Seems my baby’s all hatched fine grew fine always been fine
This problems I’ve had was from eBay eggs only time my feed had problems too to be honest there 16 week old and stil look like chicks I had another chicken in the main run same age full size same food from my stock

They was weak at hatch crooked legs I had to fix with paddles and a cup method as hips were too they was very weak and haven’t ever hopped up on pirches running around like my others they eat drink sleep have a scratch and sit down

My old ones NEVER stopped running even in the dark
So I’m wondering if eggs can be effected by the mothers nutrition from eBay ?

Apart from fat in the latest chop which were 8weeks older than my whites there in the pic they run allover

My Cornish goes mental in the mornings chases em out the coop then puts em back in then gets em out again he never stops commanding them he charges them wings down allover lol they get out his way first thing after ten mins he calms down and is a sweety all day

 

[MarketGardener]

Do keep us in the loop, its how the community grows its knowledge base - to be able to say poster X grew these birds for 18 weeks, and they looked like this on this diet. Then they grew them the next year to 18 weeks on this different diet, and they looked like this.

Everyone's got anecdotes, but photos? Photos speak volumes.

Hey crow I took advice and harvested 2 cockerels at 18wk old they looked like girls lol
Stretch necking each other showed the maleness of them past days

So one has amazing leg meat the other has amazing breast meat both have enormous wings and meat
Barely any fat compared to the girls “pad” still some

But my main observation I want confirmation on is this
These chickens smelt when harvesting like a fart lol the mrs ran away
The girls didn’t stink

Boys guts out it’s them that had a smell guess whatever they ate uggh

Here is a pic of the innards and I’m not sure about that blackness if it’s a stain from guts or what but it’s a few mill in the tissue
What is the black ? Cancer or whatnot they had a lot less fat than others on organs

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes, cockerels are leaner. Heart looks good, gizzard looks good, maybe a bit lean, but not to the point of concern. The liver turns darker when fasting - though I didn't think it did so unevenly. Did you fsat them 24-36 hours before culling?

 

[MarketGardener]

Yes, cockerels are leaner. Heart looks good, gizzard looks good, maybe a bit lean, but not to the point of concern. The liver turns darker when fasting - though I didn't think it did so unevenly. Did you fsat them 24-36 hours before culling?

A post on here said 12hours fasting is enough and didn’t seem cruel so I let them fast from 5pm till 9:30am little over 12

So the black is healthy wow that’s mad haha explains a lot as my first chickens was all red and we tasted them 24 hours but they scratched down and ate full gizzards of grain they found n the dust lol so didn’t get a fast , this time we confined them in a box without sawdust food just water the pouches were empty n stinky as hell lol

So any liver disease or bad seen ? I ask as my beauty cockerel is in the same group my Herat age and he’s so healthy , but after them fat girls it made me nervous of how he was inside too and these birds where in the same group so good reference to him I guess lol

We have separated the garden with benches so they all have to hop up and down like a gauntlet run lol they get a lot more exercise now lol

 

[Geena]

We always fast ours for about 12 or so hours, just overnight and then not feed them that morning. I've never seen that sort of dark discoloration or smelled anything like you describe, other than the typical gut smell.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing the pics.
Were these some of the birds you were feeding the grain mix to?