Meat birds

[treerooted]

FYI I think those birds are gorgeous as well. Almost makes me wish I had kept an Orpington roo, 'cause I plan on getting barred rock in the spring

 

[Chic Rustler]

I'd like to mix up my egg basket a bit. One day I might get some Easter eggers and white leghorns

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh that's awesome. Wish we had something like that! Our Dominiques came from a local breeder and they're the best birds we've had.

 

[sumi]

We have a "poultry merchant" that sells a number of breeds of chickens, ducks, geese etc and he delivers all over the southern half of Ireland. Unfortunately he doesn't have the breeds I'd really love to keep, but I like rare breeds. It's handy and dang tempting to have chickens and ducks delivered to your door though and when I bump into him at the market and he hands me a duckling

Back to topic though, I'm thinking about raising birds for meat, so I'm getting good ideas from you all's experiences here.

 

[NH Homesteader]

We are experimenting come spring with crosses of our 3 main breeds. We want to leg band them and track weights, flavor, etc with male/female crosses of the 3. Well technically 4 because the orpingtons might be an interesting addition. I'll start a thread when we start incubating!

 

[treerooted]

Cool - I like people who actually keep records, lol. I'm baaaaad about that - always think I'm gonna remember. I don't!

That's my 2018 goal!

The only thing I've kept track of is egg production; I have a chalk board with "today's egg count" that I mark through the day, then that night I transfer to an excel sheet with the date and daily count.

 

[treerooted]

Dorking, Dark Cornish, Dominique are our primary birds. We have a roo/hens of each. We're super into heritage/rare breeds. Then we let DD choose a breed out of the catalogue and she picked White Orpingtons. They're pretty solid birds so we'll cross them in there also. We only have hens of that breed.

It's DH's pet project. That and our heritage turkeys. But I am a list maker, experiment designer, number cruncher type so I'll keep records for his ADHD self lol!

Nice, I'm planning on getting Dorkings for 2019 and was thinking about trying some crosses with them I will most definitely be following your thread!

 

[sumi]

I used to keep track of the eggs I got, because I sold most of them, so I kept track of feed purchases, eggs laid, chicks hatched, chickens sold, everything. For myself and for the accountant for our farm income. It's handy to know what's going on in the flock when you have a large one, like I did. I'm happy to say they more than paid for their keep

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Well....h*ll....I'm a total slacker, lol. I just feed 'em and hope for something back!

Guess I could make a New Years Resolution to be better. I do keep track of feed purchases though - does that count?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm afraid to know, lol! Ok - actually I'm not as terrible as I make out. I do keep every farm receipt and keep track of what I spend. I break it down as far as if it's feed, hay, supplies and/or equipment. I also keep track of how much I make off of selling goats and eggs and chickens. I just don't break it down into how much feed for chickens, or pigs, or goats...it's lumped together in feed expenses. It's scary! And, I certainly don't make a profit very often...only year I did was during my divorce when I downsized a LOT and didn't have expenses like a tractor and a new barn.