Sustainable Meat / Standard Bred Dual Purpose Bird Thread.

[chickenmanIL89]

At 4 wks weighing 1.5lbs. Sexond hatch 2 weeks old with more chicks and 3rd set going in bator thursday night. Got a bit busy with farming but will get more precise records on hatch 2 and 3. The birds are hatched red then develop a mahogony color with the cornish lacing, some darker than others. Quite breasty considering they are only F1's.

 

[chickenmanIL89]

Dad

 

[chickenmanIL89]

#1

 

[lpatelski]

Egghead, i havent quite figured out how to posts pics, 1st hatch is doing great at

choose upload files
select small/med/large then click submit!

 

[chickenmanIL89]

#2
Too 2 performing from first hatch.

 

[chickenmanIL89]

Thanks!

 

[DesertChic]

I'm loving how this hatch has turned out so far, with really good growth rates and beautiful chicks. Unfortunately I think my standard luck of hatching more cockerels than pullets is still holding true. I guess I'll just have more chicks for my caponizing project. Here are the 4-week old photos for most of my chicks:




















My largest cockerel weighs in at 13.23 ounces @ 4 wks.

 

[AnthNDacula]

I just collected data for the first time on my oldest group of Silver Gray Dorkings from P. Allen Smith's line. These birds will ultimately be part of my Christmas Capon project. At 4 weeks there is a clear winner and loser at 12 and 9 ounces. The leader appears to be a cockerel and is consistently tops on ever marker I assessed from head width to body depth. I don't think I'd ever have ever noticed the actual differences in chicks without a check list and the guidelines to evaluation from the Livestock Conservancy, but the variation is pretty big even in a tiny group of 5. The second place chick seems to be a pullet and also weighed in at 12 ounces although markers varied a bit from the #1 chick. She (I'm assuming) had a slightly shorter back and slightly shorter keel bone but more heart girth than the chick I'm calling #1. I'll be collecting data on a monthly basis for each group of birds and reporting back to you all. My next groups will be 10 White Dorkings and 15 New Hamps and a second and a second group of 15 Silver Gray Dorkings following that.

I've also got Marans which I'm not tracking formally but will note that I've already banded two for culling at about 7 weeks because they are feathering in a full month behind the others in their group. The cockerel will be practice for caponizing and the pullet will end up in the general egg laying flock. Nothing going to waist here.

Best Regards,
Anthony

 

[millbrookfarm]

Does anyone know here I can get production bred Welsummers, New Hamphires, and Barred Rocks? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DesertChic]

My last hatch reached 6 weeks this past weekend and I'm pretty sure I've selected my breeders:


Monty: my largest cockerel at 24.8 ounces; He's outpaced every other cockerel I've ever hatched in size by this age.


Simon: My largest NN breeder @ 24.02 ounces. Only a little lighter than Monty, but has displayed the fastest growth rate of any cockerel I've ever hatched.



Haley: 21.2 ounce pullet....I hope. She's growing even faster and larger than her White Rock mother, who dominated the growth rate & size among all of my females.


And a couple I'm watching closely.

Willow: 19.93 ounce NN pullet - She may not weigh as much as Haley, but her body is very dense and compact.



Senna: 22.93 ounces...pullet??? Outstanding growth rate if Senna is in fact a pullet.