I have a question for breeders

[punky rooster]

Quote:
Awesome!

So I take you have a dual purpose breed

Yes, I am between buckeyes and barred Plymouth rocks.

I would imagine the answer would be different for those with bantam and ornamental breeds.

correct, all depends on purpose.

I'd also be interested to know what you guys get for your eggs and culled birds, and what price would you have to get to make your eggs/culls to expensive to eat?

I don't think I can help you much there. I try to sell eggs for $2 a dozen.
The worst quality birds get eaten and the best that don't make my cut will be sold.​

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I eat the silkie eggs, but don't eat the extras/culls. I couldn't kill them, and I don't have anybody else that would. Plus, I don't think I could eat them with their black skin.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I only use my very finest birds for breeding stock. So, if I hatch 20 for myself, I choose the very best to keep and the rest go into the freezer. If there are more excellent quality birds than I want for myself, they go to other fanciers. Anything with a disqualification is roast duck.

I couldn't possibly hatch every egg. So omelets it is.

Birds can get culled for temperament flaws, or because they don't lay up to standard, or because they don't have a good feed conversion ratio. If they get too old before I realize they aren't good enough, the dogs get roast duck dog food. Or they are ground and made into duck sausage.

Yes, it makes for an expensive meal, but I can't expect anyone to pay what I have in them for a pet duck, and I prefer to not sell them for less than they have cost me.

 

[backyardmenagerie]

Quote:
Thank you for answering! I hadn't even thought about other poultry, and I would imagine some ducks and geese are more valuable than most chickens. That's interesting that you would prefer to eat your culls than sell them for less than they are worth. Definitely goes back to the original intention of keeping poultry, but, like you said, it makes for an expensive meal.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

we buy eggs, but I do take eggs from the chicken house if I need them...we have also put a few roosters in the freezer. The SLW roosters can feed us for 3 days.

 

[cubalaya]

we eat our eggs, we sell eggs for $3 a dozen, we sell hatching eggs for $24 a dozen. we eat our cull cockerels. we sell our cull hens. we sell straight run chicks. we sell a few pullets and cockerels. we sell adult breeding pairs.

 

[white01]

this is an interesting thread, thanx for asking it and for the people replying...

 

[tgrlily]

Silkie culls get sold as pet quality or breeder quality. I only keep the very best.

Many excess roosters go to the auction. Orpington is not my favorite meat & I can't bring myself to eat a silkie! We are growing Cornish X to eat. The excess Dorking roos that don't make the cut for the breeding programs will be eaten this year. All the chicks here are sold as straight run, then I sell started pairs later on. Otherwise I'd end up with all roosters in the end.

Eggs --- we only have 1 hen that we don't hatch from, but her eggs are easily identifiable. I don't hatch from all breeds all year, so we do eat the eggs or sell them for $3 per dozen. My husband asked me if he could take a lav Orp egg so he could finish a dozen to sell for eating during prime hatching egg sales. No way. Now that I'm winding down a bit, that would be fine.

 

[jsimon]

I think the important thing to remember with exhibition strain poultry is that the bird is only valuable if it is of exceptional quality. Only about 25% of birds from a show line will be show quality, and the rest have no more value than a hatchery bird. Only the eggs from exceptional females are worth anything, so for me the cull females get thrown in the laying flock and are kept seperate from the show flock. For males if they do not make the grade young then they are fed to my dog because its honestly not worth feeding them up for the price of feed (at least to me its not). If the flaw that they are culled for is color which can only be evaluated on a fully grown male then it is butchered and eaten. So to answer the question do you eat eggs and culls from a show line or are they too valuable: the culls and their eggs are no more valuable then a hatchery quality bird. I also eat eggs when the birds are not in breeding pens.

 

[ultasol]

I eat silkie, wyandotte, duck eggs. I also eat silkie, wyandotte, duck, and goose. All are good. If the bird is older I cook them in the crockpot and make soup or pot pie out of them. Leftovers get turned into pot pie. Dogs get cleaned feet and organ meats.

If I have to kill an animal, if it isn't ill, I will use as much of it as possible. I don't want to waste their sacrifice.

....and yes, silkies. There are only so many homes for cockerels, and there aren't any local auctions nor would I send them there as at least I know I butcher humanely.