Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[Mylied]

I feel like first it’s wanting all eggs to be fertilized. Then all eggs to develop properly. Then to make it to lockdown. Then for all to hatch safely and without issues. after all that stress then it’s “okay who’s a girl?”

(For those of you who have eaten a rooster before do they taste or smell weird/different compared to a hen?)

Are you comparing to home raised hens or store chicken. There's no difference in taste and smell between home raised males and females. The males are a bit scrawnier. If you raise cornish cross they are just like store chicken. My rule for non cornish cross is low temp for a longer amount of time. Think smoker or slow cooker instead of grill. I raise pigs and have raised other mammals for meat, including intact males, so I know what you mean by smell. Not a problem in chickens.

 

[Mylied]

I can't use any bedding even paper towels with turkeys they will impact their crops every time. I try and make sure the feed store keep mine in a box instead of putting them on the bedding until I get there to pick them up they are just not smart. My first season I lost 6 in one night cause they ate all their bedding instead of their food.

The chickens I start on paper towels so I can spinkle their food on the floor to start then when I have a few to teach the others it doesn't really matter cause the older ones show the youngers how to find food and water.

Weird, I've not had that experience. My poults have been slow to eat and drink, but I've not had any die from eating paper towels or bedding.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I can't use any bedding even paper towels with turkeys they will impact their crops every time. I try and make sure the feed store keep mine in a box instead of putting them on the bedding until I get there to pick them up they are just not smart. My first season I lost 6 in one night cause they ate all their bedding instead of their food.

The chickens I start on paper towels so I can spinkle their food on the floor to start then when I have a few to teach the others it doesn't really matter cause the older ones show the youngers how to find food and water.

I used the pine pellets with turkeys with no issues. I really think it's because it breaks down into saw dust and doesn't get impacted. I do sprinkle chick grit in the food after a couple days just to be safe though.

 

[LilyD]

Weird, I've not had that experience. My poults have been slow to eat and drink, but I've not had any die from eating paper towels or bedding.

I've only had it from hatchery poults if I get the heritage ones they seem to be better. The BBW and BBB are not as smart and tend to eat and follow anything lol.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I've only had it from hatchery poults if I get the heritage ones they seem to be better. The BBW and BBB are not as smart and tend to eat and follow anything lol.

I hatched Miget Whites and Royal Palms. Maybe they're smarter because they're heritage breeds. Lol

 

[hysop]

Are you comparing to home raised hens or store chicken. There's no difference in taste and smell between home raised males and females. The males are a bit scrawnier. If you raise cornish cross they are just like store chicken. My rule for non cornish cross is low temp for a longer amount of time. Think smoker or slow cooker instead of grill. I raise pigs and have raised other mammals for meat, including intact males, so I know what you mean by smell. Not a problem in chickens.

We harvested a 2 year old rooster and my MIL tried roasting it (thought she knew to boil since it was an older rooster). She said it reeked. My husband also agreed, I didn’t visit that day so I can’t say. I have a 9 month old rooster in my fridge tenderizing that I will be boiling low and slow, but I’m scared to have my house smell horrendous how my husband described. I just didn’t know if all roosters were like that or just old ones or what.

 

[julskinka]

Woooo at least 4 rockers, and I may be going mental because I thought I heard faint chirping. But then I realized it was the songbirds outside. But then the song birds went away, and I heard it again. Or I imagined it. Auditory hallucinations, maybe. Even now . . . there is maybe a like squeaking coming from over there? They don't do it when my ear is pressed to the incubator tho, of course.

Update: I DEFINITELY just heard a cheep. Wheeeeeeeeee!!!

 

[jolenesdad]

@LilyD is here!!!!!

I just was skimming but someone asked about rooster taste? Taste is pretty linked to age. Then heritage versus conventional broiler. If you’re asking if the cockerel would taste different than store bough chicken/Cornish hens, then yes. Because it is a heritage breed that builds its body differently as it grows and exercises its muscles differently. Between chickens of the same breed that are raised for the same amount of time, here’s not a taste difference.

also I’m a member of several pastured poultry groups and since we are talking about brooder bedding, I was just informed of what all the pasture Farms do and that is brood on corrugated kraft paper. That might be good for your turkeys @LilyD? The contrast is just enough in color with feed to just scatter the feed across and get them to peck. They brood on this for a few days, with food scattered everywhere (rule of thumb is a chick shouldn’t need to move more than 6 inches to get food), and then move them to a brood pen.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Not everyone is good at cooking chicken. Fogetaboutit.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Also you have to let it rest a day before putting in freezer.