Our flocks are in God's hands and we don't always understand why things happen. We just have to accept them and press on.
Out in the kid stall is a batch of RIR chicks that we're raising as replacement layers. We had a RIR hen sneak under the bank of nest boxes and hatch them out, so we're planning to raise the pullets to keep, the roos will make good dumplings or will be canned. In with them is a half dozen meat birds, our "Generation B" meat chixperiment that has been successful. We have not had to buy chicken from the grocery store since Nov '09 other than for dog food.
In our big brooder we have 8 meat birds. These are more "Generation B" birds that will provide us with chicken meat for July. Yes that is a wild bird type feeder we're using. The boys had used it as target practice, the wind blew it over and broke part of it...but instead of throwing it away we use it in the brooder as a chick feeder. It works fine for the purpose.
In the next brooder we have a combination of 2 unidentified bantam chicks....that my daughter talked me into buying. *Sigh* They are the big ones with feathers. The other chicks are 1-3 day old meat chicks that we've hatched. Since our original roo for the chixperiment was Angus (Americana X RIR cross), we still get color in the generation B birds. I kind of like the surprise when the eggs hatch. These will be our chicken meat supply for August. We are 10 months into this "chixperiment", and been feeding our family for a solid 5 months. What a blessing! No mystery meat in these birds, no meds, antibiotics, steroids....and every step of their life has been humane, including when it comes to butcher time.
Now for the most exciting news of the day.......We had our very first ever turkey hatch!!! Despite the recent problems with the BB turkey poults, our adult birds (a trio of bronze and a Royal Palm hen) have been doing very well. Our Bronze tom has been mating with the Royal Palm hen and I've been scooping up the eggs and putting them in the incubator. (well, until she hid the nest from me..). Well we had our first turkey egg hatch overnight!!!
He/she sure is an interesting looking poult! I can't wait to see how many other eggs hatch (11 left).
2 comments:
Sorry to read about your turkey losses, Susan. I have never had much luck with turkeys so I stopped raising them.
I'm curious about your cornish crosses, specifically the roos you keep for breeding. I kept on of those once, even named him Able because he was mounting the hens. Let a hen sit on a clutch but not a one of them hatched. All duds. Any advice on what to look for in a cornish cross roo?
Sharon
My original roo for this experiment was a RIR/Americana cross. He's a very large bird with lots of instinct. I crossed him with 4 CC hens, and still got nice fat chicks that were superb meat birds (generation A). I kept one roo from those chicks, plus 2 hens...and I still have 3 of the 4 original CC hens plus 3 more CC pullets. All of the GenA birds and the CC's are in a pen together and I've been hatching eggs from them. I am very pleased with the results (gen B). The CC roos are not good for breeding...at least none that I have tried keeping...which is a lot. Their fertility rate is very low and they are hard on the hens due to their size. If you want a meat roo, then I would pick a large breed roo and cross it with a CC hen, keep the best roos from those and make your pick from there.
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