Had an interesting processing experience this morning and curious if anyone has had this before.
We processed the one pullet that I spoke of a couple weeks ago. This bird was approximately 8 months old give or take a week. Her lower abdomen was FULL OF FAT. Never seen anything like it before. HUGE AMOUNT OF FAT.
My Bucks that are this age have not started laying yet, though possibly one has this week. Haven't caught her in the act so not sure.
This girl that we processed had SO MUCH FAT that it seems like it would have been difficult for her to lay an egg. Anyhow, just wondering if anyone has seen this with Buckeyes? I haven't seen this on any of the birds I've processed before but I have to admit that I haven't done many and the ones I did were males.
It's making me nervous that more of my birds may had that kind of fat. But I have SFH that seem to be bony kids that are the same age as this girl.
Thoughts? Experiences with this?
Refresh me, are these hatchery Buckeyes? Are you sure it was fat? Could it have been just lumps of whitish/yellow that could have been something else? I am getting at internal laying. Did it smell? If not, and it was fat, I have heard of bird who get excessively fat and it does interfere with laying. They are not healthy birds for whatever reason. If you are feeding a good quality feed and not giving them a lot of excess corn, then they should not have problems. She may have had a metabolic disorder of some sort that caused it too. So, I think you should feel good that you went ahead and processed her and put her to better use. Who knows? Maybe there was something about her attitude that came from the fact that she was an unhealthy bird?
I don't see nearly the problems with birds ending up with things like prolapse, internal laying, and short laying life with birds that are not from the big hatcheries. Most breeders take better care at selecting their breeding stock to produce a healthier line, better breeders, better layers, all around quality birds. Weather folks are breeding to show or not, if they are interested in keeping looks and production in mind, then they will produce better quality.
Unfortunately, the large hatcheries tend to select for good laying, but when you breed for higher laying rate than is normal for a bird, you will start seeing reproductive issues arise.
The other thing I had a few of my big hatchery hens come down with is perienteritis (water belly), which was always fatal. I mean those hatcheries are great for people who want to get a wide variety and they don't mind getting new birds every other year. I prefer that I have them laying about 200 eggs, maybe a little more, and lasting a good 3 seasons after their pullet year. I have had some hens who were 5 years before culling because they still laid enough eggs to make them worth keeping.
With my Buckeyes, I expect to get about 230-250 eggs that first full hen season, then about 200 the next and maybe 175 the following. Then I start culling them out unless they are exceptional type birds to use for breeding.
@paula307 if you are worried about birds that will produce in your climate, I have mine here in Minnesota, and I have been getting eggs from my Buckeye hens for a couple of weeks now that it has been pretty cold. I put lights on them starting about 5am, it goes off about 8am, comes back on about 4pm, off at 9:30pm. It is enough that with the natural daylight, they are back to work. True, I sometimes get frozen eggs
I have a large building that does not have any heat. The walls are not insulated but they are double walled with siding on the outside and OSB on the interior. It is an open air design, which means, there are big windows on the South side that are open (only 1/2" hardware cloth), the outdoor runs are attached and covered and there is plastic over the wire to keep the snow from blowing it, but it is not airtight by any stretch. It stays about 10-15 degrees warmer inside the building than outside, and there are no drafts in there. I have some of the birds out in those runs, and still, it is slightly warmer than outside. Even out there where I don't have lights on them like inside, I have a couple of Buckeye pullets laying eggs, but they do get light from through that window to the interior pens. If you are looking for hardy birds to live where it gets cold, I can't think of a better breed to fit that requirement. Holm lives even further north than I do, by about 5 hours, and his are doing quite well with the weather too.
I do have breeds that don't hold up well with the climate I am in too, like Welsummer roosters who get their combs froze off every year, no matter what I try to prevent it. My New Hampshire roosters too get frostbite, but not as bad as the Wellies. I like the pea combs though, they are the way to go. I do some showing, so keeping some single combs around is kind of the reason there, I really like my NHs.
I think overall what we are getting at here is that just because a bird may be a Buckeye, doesn't mean it is going to meet everything you might read about the breed. Every strain, every line is different in how it was developed. It is true of any breed.
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