Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[U_Stormcrow]

And as a very minor clarifying point for those late to this party, I do not judge these birds to be unhealthy. I would be quite pleased with this level of fat on a bird I intended to use as a fryer or on the grill. But as an older laying hen, in my temperatures, there really isn't much benefit to a girl carrying a little extra weight. Particularly as I am not fond of poultry fat in sausage.

Rather than minor complaints about fatty hens, I should probably be celebrating the production of my pasture. I'm just not naturally a positive person. Always want to know what can be done better?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

View attachment 3187303

Better, still a little more fatty than I like. Maybe I've been overfeeding, given the condition of the pasture right now

Plans to use the egg yolks for anything?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

3 part brahma.

 

[Molpet]

But as an older laying hen, in my temperatures, there really isn't much benefit to a girl carrying a little extra weight

She would need it if she went broody

 

[U_Stormcrow]

She would need it if she went broody

Yes, but the ones currently broody didn't get culled Time after next unless they have hatchlings in tow...

I just took another hen, no picture, all black. 4.18# live weight. Also brahma ancestry, legs were pale white, which I take to mean not currently laying. Her fat was right where I want it - but the storm rolling in made me rush the job.

Didn't get to either of the roosters I wanted to take today, or the ducks I need to remove.

...and I have two small birds I didn't incubate, one white, one grey, who are coming up on 2 months of age.

So, I foresee another culling in the very near future, since those last two birds will make very moist and tender baked chicken, while the ducks will add to the "meatiness" of the poultry I'm soon to grind.

Plans to use the egg yolks for anything?

I thru them to the rest of the flock to keep them away from the table I was butchering on. I have way too many eggs right now, with my main buyer gone, which is also motivating the cull.

 

[NatJ]

legs were pale white, which I take to mean not currently laying.

Why do you say that?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Why do you say that?

because they were previously yellow, and I understood that chickens loose coloration in their legs, beak, and elsewhere as they lay, then start putting color back on when they pause.

But the order in which the coloring is lost is one I can never remember.

...and apparently she was still laying - I handed a fully formed (but no shell) egg to my wife from the interior of the last hen. There were a few more "in the pipes".

I'm still learning.

 

[MysteryChicken]

because they were previously yellow, and I understood that chickens loose coloration in their legs, beak, and elsewhere as they lay, then start putting color back on when they pause.

But the order in which the coloring is lost is one I can never remember.

...and apparently she was still laying - I handed a fully formed (but no shell) egg to my wife from the interior of the last hen. There were a few more "in the pipes".

I'm still learning.

Color loss(Yellow Pigment), is called Bleaching, & usually seen in those that lay lots of eggs. They usually continue laying, but eventually stop as they get too old.(Speaking Heritage type)

 

[NatJ]

because they were previously yellow, and I understood that chickens loose coloration in their legs, beak, and elsewhere as they lay, then start putting color back on when they pause.

But the order in which the coloring is lost is one I can never remember.

Yes, that sounds right to me.

But pale legs do not tell whether she is laying now. They just mean she has laid well in the sem-recent past.

I think legs are the slowest to bleach and to re-color, with the beak being faster and the vent very fast. I think it has to do with which parts have how much blood flow, and grow how fast. The vent gets a lot of blood flow.

For the beak, the yellow color is deposited or not as it forms at the base, and then moves out toward the tip as new material is formed at the base. So the beak can (theoretically) give you a nice picture of whether she laid continuously or was stopping and starting. Of course, this doesn't work well on chickens with dark beaks, so I've never found it useful in practice, because all my favorite chicken colors & breeds have dark beaks.

For the legs, I don't know what the mechanism is, but I remember that it is the slowest to change, so it tells the most about the longer-term history of laying.

...and apparently she was still laying - I handed a fully formed (but no shell) egg to my wife from the interior of the last hen. There were a few more "in the pipes".

As you just noticed, a hen with pale legs can still be laying.

If I want to know whether a hen is an active layer, I typically check the size & shape of the vent, and feel for the tips of the bones below it. A laying hen has a vent that looks like an egg could come out (large, looks moist, looks stretchy). The tips of those bones are spread wide apart (like an egg could fit between them.) A non-laying hen, or a rooster or chick, has a much smaller vent and the tips of the bones are very close together. If I put a fingertip on each bone, my fingers are tight against each other.

I have way too many eggs right now, with my main buyer gone, which is also motivating the cull.

So how to recognize a laying hen is just an academic question right now, because you probably would have culled this one anyway

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So how to recognize a laying hen is just an academic question right now, because you probably would have culled this one anyway

I LIKE Academic questions.

But yes, any all black hen I could lay hands on was the target (because the last two grey ones were in the nesting boxes, forgotten, where I couldn't see them), and she was visually both smallest and palest in color - so I figured she had either just stopped laying or was soon to stop laying.

And I still need to remove at least two Roos. My poor girls are being overmated. Some of them, anyways.