what is the best meat breed

[NatJ]

i feel silly asking this but we have 21 girls and 8 eggs daily. Many of our girls have retired. I want more eggs. How do we tell which hens are laying and which ones are not?

There is a chance that each hen is laying, but only about 1 egg every 3 days.

But you can tell who is laying by examining their vent (the hole where eggs and poop come out.)

If the hen is not laying, the vent will look fairly small and dry, and be puckered up. If you have a rooster, check him for a perfect example of a chicken who is not laying. A hen's vent will look like that if she is not laying.

If the hen is laying, her vent will look quite a bit wider, and sort of moist, and look like it is able to stretch enough for an egg to come out.

If I am not sure about a particular chicken, I just look at some more, then check her again. That usually makes it obvious to me.

If you have two chicken pens, or can divide your pen, you can separate them into ones you think are laying, and ones you think are not. Then wait a few days to see if you are right (any eggs from the "not laying" pen will mean you have a layer in there.)

I do not know where you are in the world, but hens usually stop laying for a while in the fall or winter, to molt and grow new feathers. Then they start up again in the spring (unless they are so old they never start laying again.) So you might consider what season it is, when you decide which hens to keep or not.

 

[snood dude]

)7

i feel silly asking this but we have 21 girls and 8 eggs daily. Many of our girls have retired. I want more eggs. How do we tell which hens are laying and which ones are not?

If you have more than one coop I would separate one he from the other and see if she is laying. If she isn't get rid of her or eat her. Continue doing this till they are all checked to see if they are laying.

 

[Timmy59]

Our 9 meat bird hens gave us 9 eggs today, they also have 70 eggs in the bator right now.. They also have 48 pound and a half chicks in the tractor that will butcher 1st part of June.. So the meat birds we're keeping are the best for us.. They're along the line of a freedom ranger but white.. Hens 81/2 plus lbs and the rooster 12+..

 

[Ridgerunner]

i feel silly asking this but we have 21 girls and 8 eggs daily. Many of our girls have retired. I want more eggs. How do we tell which hens are laying and which ones are not?

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined. Never be afraid to ask a question. The silly question is the one that is not asked, You would not want the flock to be hurt because you were afraid to ask a question.

There are many reasons you may think your hens have retired when they really haven't. If you can tell us a little about your situation we may be able to help. Things like your general location, how old the chickens are, and the laying history. How many eggs were you getting, was the change sudden or gradual, and when did this occur?

Location comes up a lot on many different questions. If you modify your profile so your general location shows up that info is always available. We don't need to know your street address, credit card number, or mother's maiden name, but a general location can really help.

The most common cause of hens not laying is the molt. The most common cause of the molt is the days getting shorter in the fall so if you are south of the equator this is a likely cause. But they can molt at other times for other reasons. Are you seeing a lot of feathers flying around?

One common cause is that the hens are hiding a nest instead of laying in a nest. There was a recent thread where somebody found a huge pile of eggs in a hidden nest when she thought her hens had stopped laying. We don't know how you manage them, can they be hiding a nest.

Sometimes critters get your eggs. Most critters leave some type of debris, either egg shells or wet spots. I don't know where you are so I don't know what the normal suspects are for you but here in the US a snake, canines, or humans are the typical critters that take eggs without leaving a trace. Snakes are inconsistent. The eat some eggs, how many depends on their size, and disappear for two or three days to digest them before they come back for more. If it is a steady number of eggs it is not a snake. Foxes and coyotes would probably be more interested in a chicken dinner than eggs but a dog will often eat eggs without bothering the chickens. Does a dog have access. Human doesn't always mean thief, some practical jokers think this could be funny.

When hens get old they lay less. The typical cycle is that they lay a lot during their first laying cycle. Some pullets may even lay through their first winter instead of molting. After their first adult molt they usually come back laying like gangbusters for the next laying cycle. But after their second adult molt they usually cut back some on laying. For some hens it's not that much, for some it can be pretty dramatic. It's typically not that they just stop laying, they just don't lay as much. After each molt after that they cut back more so soon they don't lay as much.

It's possible something is going on other than they are retired. It would be a shame for you to permanently remove hens that will soon be laying really well again or maybe still are. So what is going on with your flock?

This link talks about some ways to determine which might be laying and which are not, plus talks about how to find your better layers. I've used the tight dry vent versus the soft moist vent a lot but that doesn't tell if she is laying every day or once a week.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/4aj/4aj07po/4aj07po.PDF

Good luck!

 

[Xouie]

Big Cornish x fan here. Super fast growth makes for very tender meat. And their personalities -- love 'em! It's easier to give extra love and spoiling to our meaties if we actually like them in the first place.

 

[MandaRae]

I am curious too. I have a Buff Orpington mix with Brahma he is massive. I was thinking of using him and a few other large breed Hens as a breeding program for myself. As in all the off spring will be sold or used for food.

I was just trying to decide which breeds would be good hens for him

 

[speedy2020]

I am curious too. I have a Buff Orpington mix with Brahma he is massive. I was thinking of using him and a few other large breed Hens as a breeding program for myself. As in all the off spring will be sold or used for food.

I was just trying to decide which breeds would be good hens for him

Give White Bresse a try.

 

[Eva2020]

They all taste like chicken! I am sad when I have to heat a hen that is not working out, but she tastes good. I used to raise a batch of the Cornish-X once a year, now that I live in the mountains I am looking at a "red ranger" type bird suited to our altitude. When I order chicks, I get st. run, because I think it is wrong to dispose of the day-old cockerels. Here they live 10-12 weeks, and have a good, if short, chicken life. I just hatched some ducks, the young drakes will also be good eating. Ducks are finished in 7-8 weeks, and are something not readily available or cheap in the store, so I think they are a good meat bird. I like how they taste.

As my mom always says, "thank you for your service" and then they're on their way

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Give White Bresse a try.

Cache. nothing more. A good advertising/PR campaign plus the attraction of rarity.

To the typical palette, frogs legs taste like chicken. Rattlesnake tastes like (white meat) chicken. Alligator? Chicken. Lizard? Chicken.

So chicken [breed] will taste like... Chicken.

Maybe you can make an argument for means of management and diet - but I'd bet real money that a similar bird to the bresse, raised on the same lands, with the same methods, will be indistinguishable from the bresse - and that, for most, it will be indistinguishable from almost any other chicken prepared by the same methods.

The human palette simply isn't that good.

 

[Brooks_]

To the typical palette, frogs legs taste like chicken.

Not just chicken, but the moistest most tender chicken wing you've ever had.