Ideas on a self-sustainable flock?

[lomine]

You have a lovely looking flock Minky. I picked my breeds based on egg color because I too love a colorful egg basket. Many are still too young to lay but I’m looking forward to having almost every color egg. Right now no one is paying rent, bunch of free loaders.

I wanted to share my experience. I set some eggs from my flock because I wanted to hatch a few more pullets. My rooster is an Ameraucana and I also have his son, an AM/Wyandotte cross. Many of my older girls are classified as dual purpose. So what I hatched are smaller then what would be expected of a DP breed because of the smaller size of the AM. (Because they have the blue egg gene and many of the typical characteristics I call my hatched birds EEs.) I didn’t have much luck and ended up with a lot of cockerels.

I also decided to do my very first run of CX. I have a yardbird plucker and do the whole process by myself. With the set-up and clean-up I think it’s better to do more at once. I can’t see it being worth all the effort to do just one or two birds at a time every couple of weeks. I just did the last 6 of my hatched EE cockerels yesterday and it took me a few hours. I’m still new at this though so I hope to get faster in the future.

Here’s a picture from when I did CX and EE at the same time. In the picture the CX was 8 weeks old and the EE was 14 weeks. You can see the difference in the bodies of the two. I think you have to keep this in mind if you want to raise DP birds, especially if your family loves breast meat.

I don’t know if I missed this in the thread, but something else to keep in mind is that broody hens stop laying while they are sitting on eggs and raising chicks. It takes 21 days to hatch an egg and they may care for their chicks for many weeks after that. It could be several months before she starts laying again. And broodies aren’t always successful. I’ve had one so far. She was very devoted but ultimately unsuccessful. I ended up buying day old chicks for her; which she was a very good mother to. It was worth it because a mama with her chicks is super cute.

 

[Minky]

Thanks for that photo @lomine , Thats really helpful. I am leaning more and more towards having meat birds instead of dual purpose, since you just get so much more meat, and I could keep them separate (from "pet" status of the egg birds). Im not sure I can eat my friends, so if there are many and they dont have names it will be easier for me and the kids. I hope I didnt just open a can of worms by saying that.

How does a broody hen not be successful- does she just lose interest? How will I know if she will raise day olds? Any signs ??

 

[lomine]

I don’t have too much trouble doing the dead on the extra cockerels, though it isn’t something I like doing. It would probably be different with an older hen. I actually liked the CX and thought they were pretty cute in their own way. But I was happy when their time came because they were eating a lot by the end. And they were just becoming big lazy lumps too. I’ll do them again because they put a lot of meat in my freezer. I got a couple that were over 6 pounds.

I don’t know why she wasn’t able to hatch any eggs. I’ve had trouble myself incubating because I’m at high altitude and I didn’t realize it was an issue until some very helpful BYCers pointed it out. It may be part of the reason she couldn’t hatch any. She was actually very dedicated to her nest so I don’t think it was that.

I didn’t know if she would take day olds but I took the chance. It actually cost me a lot to order her some but I wanted to see if she would take them. It seemed like such a waste for her to have nothing after all her hard work and she was still sitting on her nest on day 25. At first she didn’t want the chicks and I had to shove them under her to show everyone where they belonged. After a day or so she took to them fully and has been a very good mama, espiecally for a first time broody. Unfortunately some of the chicks died but I think that was actually the fault of the hatchery and the post office since they were very weak when I got them.

Even if you go with meat birds, I think if you can you should let one of your layers brood. It’s a very cool thing to watch a broody raise chicks.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks Aart and RR for correcting me. I knew that if I got it wrong, some one would jump in to fix it!

After all is done and said, I choose to stay away breeds with lethal genes, or deformities that are bred into the SOP.

Probably a good call

Well, even separated they might peck each other. You could probably make some sort of helmet, but idk how well a bird would take to it. I'd just say let the bird live a normal life and if it gets pecked, that's just survival of the fittest. If you already have one of these birds you might also just put a hair tie on so they can at least see threats a bit better. You really can't do much for them.

That's so sad

And oh no, sorry for the confusion, I don't own one now. I was just wondering hypothetically.

I am curious about the dogs too, as dogs live longer and are more exposed to stuff. Seems extremely dangerous for a puppy

 

[bobbi-j]

You have a lovely looking flock Minky. I picked my breeds based on egg color because I too love a colorful egg basket. Many are still too young to lay but I’m looking forward to having almost every color egg. Right now no one is paying rent, bunch of free loaders.

I wanted to share my experience. I set some eggs from my flock because I wanted to hatch a few more pullets. My rooster is an Ameraucana and I also have his son, an AM/Wyandotte cross. Many of my older girls are classified as dual purpose. So what I hatched are smaller then what would be expected of a DP breed because of the smaller size of the AM. (Because they have the blue egg gene and many of the typical characteristics I call my hatched birds EEs.) I didn’t have much luck and ended up with a lot of cockerels.

I also decided to do my very first run of CX. I have a yardbird plucker and do the whole process by myself. With the set-up and clean-up I think it’s better to do more at once. I can’t see it being worth all the effort to do just one or two birds at a time every couple of weeks. I just did the last 6 of my hatched EE cockerels yesterday and it took me a few hours. I’m still new at this though so I hope to get faster in the future.

Here’s a picture from when I did CX and EE at the same time. In the picture the CX was 8 weeks old and the EE was 14 weeks. You can see the difference in the bodies of the two. I think you have to keep this in mind if you want to raise DP birds, especially if your family loves breast meat.
View attachment 1211599

I love this comparison picture! You can tell people that there is a difference, but it's hard to describe. We just processed a 6-month old EE cross cockerel that had a good bit more meat on him, but nothing compared to that CX (that looks like a small turkey!)

Thanks for that photo @lomine , Thats really helpful. I am leaning more and more towards having meat birds instead of dual purpose, since you just get so much more meat, and I could keep them separate (from "pet" status of the egg birds). Im not sure I can eat my friends, so if there are many and they dont have names it will be easier for me and the kids. I hope I didnt just open a can of worms by saying that.

How does a broody hen not be successful- does she just lose interest? How will I know if she will raise day olds? Any signs ??

Don't worry about the worms. There is NOTHING wrong with raising chickens for meat. It's personal choice. I don't judge those who won't, and they shouldn't judge me because I do. Meat birds are nice if you want something with a lot of meat on it, and want them ready to go in shorter amount of time. If I remember right, my Freedom Rangers didn't dress out quite like that CX pictured, but they did dress out at 5-7 or so lbs. each. I don't remember for sure, though. They were enough for DH and me.

As far as eating older hens goes, that, too, is personal preference. I choose to process them at 2-3 years for a couple of reasons. (I will keep a good broody longer than that, and every now and then one insists on becoming almost a pet. I keep them, too.) Egg production goes down, and if I want optimal egg production, I need the younger ones. I only have so much coop and run space, so I have to make choices. I have also learned that much past 3 years, my hens tend to develop problems. I'd rather process them while they're still somewhat healthy and happy. I've had a few with ascites. I put them down, but didn't eat them. I won't eat anything that looks diseased, or off. The younger cockerels go in the freezer, the older hens have gotten pressure canned in the past, but now that I have an electric pressure cooker, they will probably go in the freezer, too. (Although I love having canned chicken on hand. You can do so much with it!)

 

[lomine]

I love this comparison picture! You can tell people that there is a difference, but it's hard to describe. We just processed a 6-month old EE cross cockerel that had a good bit more meat on him, but nothing compared to that CX (that looks like a small turkey!)


Don't worry about the worms. There is NOTHING wrong with raising chickens for meat. It's personal choice. I don't judge those who won't, and they shouldn't judge me because I do. Meat birds are nice if you want something with a lot of meat on it, and want them ready to go in shorter amount of time. If I remember right, my Freedom Rangers didn't dress out quite like that CX pictured, but they did dress out at 5-7 or so lbs. each. I don't remember for sure, though. They were enough for DH and me.

As far as eating older hens goes, that, too, is personal preference. I choose to process them at 2-3 years for a couple of reasons. (I will keep a good broody longer than that, and every now and then one insists on becoming almost a pet. I keep them, too.) Egg production goes down, and if I want optimal egg production, I need the younger ones. I only have so much coop and run space, so I have to make choices. I have also learned that much past 3 years, my hens tend to develop problems. I'd rather process them while they're still somewhat healthy and happy. I've had a few with ascites. I put them down, but didn't eat them. I won't eat anything that looks diseased, or off. The younger cockerels go in the freezer, the older hens have gotten pressure canned in the past, but now that I have an electric pressure cooker, they will probably go in the freezer, too. (Although I love having canned chicken on hand. You can do so much with it!)

Thanks, I really like this picture too. I took it because, seeing them side-by-side, even I was surprised at the difference. It’s probably a bit of an optical illusion though because that CX was just over 6 pounds. It was one of the bigger ones but they were all 4.5 to 6 pounds. I did a 22 week EE once and it had a lot more meat but I didn’t like the way it turned out after cooking. The young ones aren’t nearly as big but I can pretty much cook them whatever way I want.

 

[Whittni]

Probably a good call



That's so sad

And oh no, sorry for the confusion, I don't own one now. I was just wondering hypothetically.

I am curious about the dogs too, as dogs live longer and are more exposed to stuff. Seems extremely dangerous for a puppy

The puppies are super vulnerable, yes. But with age the dogs get a slightly thicker skull at least. Even without vaulted skulls, all animals are vulnerable on their temples.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The puppies are super vulnerable, yes. But with age the dogs get a slightly thicker skull at least. Even without vaulted skulls, all animals are vulnerable on their temples.

That's good at least! And that makes sense. Humans are too right?

 

[ShrekDawg]

And good breeders don't breed for it right?

 

[Whittni]

That's good at least! And that makes sense. Humans are too right?....And good breeders don't breed for it right?

Yes, people are vulnerable on their temples too. A good breeder might breed it occasionally just due to the wrong combination, however, I don't think many actively breed for it anyway.