Making Babies

[thegawd]

Yeah thats a good point, your not forced to process them all at once. We process our own as well. We're thinking of doing 2 batches of meat birds consisting of 30 birds at a time. Maybe, we should get half white rocks and half slow growth so we dont have to process them all at once.

[thegawd]

Well, since our last hatch didn't work out so well, I just set another 60 of all the freshest eggs I could find. Everything laid today, and likely everything laid yesterday and the day before that because, I took them all out of the fridge in order of freshness.

Cream Legbars and RSL crosses. I wouldn't bother with the crosses but their eggs are bigger and were pretty sure that we can still tell the cockerals from the pullets at hatch. We can also tell the crosses from the pure. Sex-link genes are pretty cool.

[thegawd]

Broody momma had 100% hatch rate and hatched 7 babies! Woo-hoo momma, way to go! There was a slight miracle here.... there were only 6 chicks yesterday and no eggs to be found. I think one of the chicks was missing but found her way back! We got them in a dog crate but of course the chicks can get out. Looks like they are off to great start at 3 days old. I'll open the door in a day or 2 to let them out to explore. Looks like there's 4 pullets so thats also great news!

Yay!

[thegawd]

Oh I guess she could have been hiding the 7th chick in her wings for 2 days.

[Killerbunny]

Mine can hold the poults inside the curve and you have to pick up and shake!

[ross]

I process my own whenever I need one for the table , can’t get any fresher than that.I had a citiot ask me how I prepare it , I said “ I just tell it it’s going to die “

[Killerbunny]

@ross That's one of the reasons I got the slow growth meat birds from Freys. They don't have the same issues as Cornish cross and don't have to be processed urgently. I can use them as I need them!

[ross]

Only 2 of us to feed . Mine are large bantam crosses Kill as needed all year round , I call um ROSCOEs LOL

[thegawd]

Those are great looking Roscoes Ross! I Like em!

Well, we'll see what happens but I'm pretty sure we just blew our poultry budget on a puppy. So we likely won't be getting any meat birds this year or at least any time soon. We're still hatching eggs though and can set more if we want, then make some sort of selection and then butcher. The cream legbars don't seem to be very edible after a couple years, but they are always great for stock.

I'd like to get some bifelders, I definitely didn't spell that right. LOL like the legbar they can also be sexed by a light spot on there heads upon hatch but are a much heavier and dual purpose breed. Pretty sure they lay light brown or cream eggs and that would be a nice addition to the egg basket. They are a similar color pattern but with a 'wavey' pattern in there plumage. Thats probably not the correct term but it'll do. Haha

To bad neither of these birds are recognized by the APA. I would renew my membership and show them if they were. Oh well. I got back to our original goals Ross... meat and eggs, its nice to keep it simple.

[ross]

Can’t make a mistake if no standard to follow lol I always say . Just eat them & their eggs & you’ll have more fun . Take Care you & family. Any married yet