4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[TAJ]

The first two of our first batch were culled last Sunday when OH took them with him to a culling course. We were waiting to see how this went before getting any more OH was fine with it and we have 2 more to cull that we will leave for a couple more weeks (to get bigger and have freezer space). I would recommend this course down at Hook Farm £40 for 2 hrs where you 'kill, pluck, gut and bone' using basic methods that are humane and suitable for small scale production (stick dislocation method & manual plucking) - plus you get to take home 2 cobbs - one oven ready and one needing to be gutted included in the price. Other courses I enquired about were £150 - £180 and used so much equipment they were really designed for the smallholder not for a domestic handful at a time meat bird producer.

 

I was also surpised that I did fine gutting them, but I am still not convinced I could be involved in the killing and plucking - as they look too much like chickens not meat at that stage. I was amazed how big the livers were and have already made a batch of chicken liver pate and boiled up the bones (from the boned bird from the course) for chicken stock - this will be a fine warm soup for New Year's Day.

 

Yesterday I got 6 * 1 day old meat chicks - the last ones we got were 3 weeks old so having them from the start will be interesting, though they are just too cute this young so I hope we do not get attached to them. We have got a mix of Ross and Cobb types, plus a mix of male & female - they were 65p or 90p each dependant on breed and sex. When we collected from the hatchery (who usually sell 1000s at a time commercially) for a grand total of £4.90 they also gave me some charts to record their progress and a free 2009 diary. I will let you know how I get on with these, some are the fast commercial breed and some are for the free range market and slower growing - I think all will be white, so whether I will know which is which type I do not know as they all look the same at the moment!

 

Tracy

Edited January 31, 2009 by Guest

[Lesley]

The course for £40 sounds brilliant Tracey! - I'm glad you got on well with it.

 

Do you have a link to the course?

[Lindy Loo]

I would be very interested in the course - I looked at one the other day - £170 the cost of which is just too prohibitive to consider!

[TAJ]

The link is www.chickenkeeper.co.uk it is under courses, plus she has a Hook Farm website as she has pigs as well as chickens and she sells POL as well.

 

Tracy

[BeckyBoo]

Thank you SO much for that link - I couldn't find anywhere that did it at a price I could afford either so this is SUCH a fab idea!

Be interested to hear from you and everyone else as to which chooks are good to eat - my Buff Orpington appears to be a boy (four boys and one girl from our first hatch - very bad!) so he'll be for the pot if there's anything of him underneath the ridiculous amount of feathers! Our Brahma is being rehomes as I heard there was only breast and leg and not much else, plus he's just TOO stunning to eat. We've a Rhode Island red boy that will be good in 10 weeks or so.

We hatch under a broody and now I've killed one I'm hoping to keep hatching as there won't be a problem with any boys, trouble is I tend to pick "pretty" birds to hatch so need to know if any are definite no nos

 

If anyones interested Buff Sussex boys are to die for!

 

Mrs B

[bronze]

How many do you do at a time? You must be eating a lot of chicken. We do two batches of just over a dozen at a time a year and that easily does us for for a years supply of chicken meat.

[TAJ]

She actually did a one-off course for OH and he took 2 of ours with him, so the one ready killed and ready to be gutted was a buff orpington cockeral, not the normal cobbs on the standard course. He was a surplus cockeral and certainly looks pretty meaty and has been fully boned out, so you fill with stuffing and you have a bone free whole chciken joint - easy to carve.

 

He is in the freezer at present.

 

Tracy

[Lesley]

Thanks for the link Tracey

[Lindy Loo]

I've booked myself on to the course on the 14th March- something to really look forward to!

 

Also, I just couldn't help myself.... I'm doing the sausage making at the same place on the 11th Jan. Cant wait!!!

[Lesley]

....and we're both booked on the course for April 5th

[Egluntyne]

I wish it wasn't so far away.....I'd be very tempted.

[Griffin]

I wish it wasn't so far away.....I'd be very tempted.

 

Looks like they're running a course near you. According to the website it's in Sheffield on April 25th.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Egluntine was so tempted that she organised the Sheffield course with the lady from Hook!

 

See viewtopic.php?f=21&t=36949&view=unread#unread

(I hope that links properly )

 

Sha x

[Egluntyne]

I wish it wasn't so far away.....I'd be very tempted.

 

Looks like they're running a course near you. According to the website it's in Sheffield on April 25th.

 

 

I know.

[TAJ]

Here's just an update on meat birds batch 2 progress. I was amazed how quickly in their first week they got wing feathers. As I am sure I said 4 are 'fast growing' and 2 are 'slower growing' meat birds - I was worried that they all looked the same and I wouldn't know what was what - I was wrong! The 4 quicker growing ones now at 10 days old have full wing feathers and tail feathers are developing, the other 2 have no sign of tails and wings are developing, but only half the length of the others.

 

They seem to be weighing more when I pick them up now. Given the weather they are still under the heat lamp on the floor in the house - the first lot went into the garage with the heat lamp at 3 weeks, but I will wait to see what the temperature is in the next couple of weeks before they are moved.

 

All going well at present - the last 2 of the first batch are still to be dispatched, but we will not need the Rablu for the next lot for a month or so yet and the freezer is full at the moment so we will leave them to grow on a bit for now.

 

Tracy

[Lesley]

They are growing quickly aren't they!

[TAJ]

Thank you SO much for that link - I couldn't find anywhere that did it at a price I could afford either so this is SUCH a fab idea!

Be interested to hear from you and everyone else as to which chooks are good to eat - my Buff Orpington appears to be a boy (four boys and one girl from our first hatch - very bad!) so he'll be for the pot if there's anything of him underneath the ridiculous amount of feathers! Our Brahma is being rehomes as I heard there was only breast and leg and not much else, plus he's just TOO stunning to eat. We've a Rhode Island red boy that will be good in 10 weeks or so.

We hatch under a broody and now I've killed one I'm hoping to keep hatching as there won't be a problem with any boys, trouble is I tend to pick "pretty" birds to hatch so need to know if any are definite no nos

 

If anyones interested Buff Sussex boys are to die for!

 

Mrs B

 

We have just had the buff orpington OH boned on the course - very tasty boned out and stuffed with homemade stufiing with onions and herbs from the allotment.

 

Tracy

[TAJ]

They will be 4 weeks old next Monday but are already fully feathered, except heads, but even those have feathers growing! The different sexes of the fast growing breed you can still tell apart and it is amazing to see the slower feather development on the other slower growing breed.

 

They are 25 days, but commercially these birds would be killed at 39 days! Once they are off the heat lamp and outside (in Rablu) they will not eat so much due to the longer nights than under the brooder heat lamp, so hopefully they will slow down a bit.

 

The last two of the original batch get done tomorrow morning and are about 14 weeks now - it is time for them to go and then I can do a deep clean before the others move out, depending on the weather in a couple of weeks time.

 

Tracy

[Lesley]

It's amazing how quickly the meat birds feather up isn't it!

 

do you have any photos of them Tracey?

[TAJ]

I shall try and take a photo - difficult to catch them! I put them in a cat basket today when I cleaned them out - they are not 4 weeks until Monday, but the combined weight of 6 birds was 12 pounds already. For the two most feathered even their heads are now white feathers - I am sure they still looked yellow headed 2 days ago.

 

Tracy

[TAJ]

So they are now 4 weeks and 5 days old - in a week the combined weight of 6 chciks has gone from 12½ lbs to 16½ lbs. As you know I have two types the attached photos hopefully show you the difference between the ones grown commercially that are killed at 39 days and the ones grown for free range and killed around 48-50 days. Without the intensive conditions and food these will grow slower than that, but as you can see in the photos not too much slower!

 

Tracy

 

The big one

 

 

The slower one

 

[bronze]

Another example of the difference in treatment is that the intensively reared ones need to be culled when they are otherwise their legs start to give.

I still have two of my girls as pets. they were hatched the last day of the summer term and are happily bouncing around the run with their bantam mates bot lookign like their hearts are strained or their legs will buckle in any way.

[Lewis]

There really is a big difference.

I don't know if it's because they haven't grown into them yet, or jus the photo, but to me the larger ones legs look really big

[TAJ]

Another example of the difference in treatment is that the intensively reared ones need to be culled when they are otherwise their legs start to give.

I still have two of my girls as pets. they were hatched the last day of the summer term and are happily bouncing around the run with their bantam mates bot lookign like their hearts are strained or their legs will buckle in any way.

 

OH is now finding watching them eat obscene. I have taken the food away in the eglu so they all have to walk to the end of the run for food & drink and have nothing when they are locked up at night. The two slower growing birds and the two female fast growing ones still walk normally. The two fast growing cockerals now sit down for a rest frequently (just walking up the run!) and their walk has turned it to a waddle.

 

They are due for another weigh at the weekend, but I think it is sad to see chcikens that have had obesity bred into them so much they just cannot stop eating - even one of the 'normal' size ones would sit in the eglu all day if I didn't shove her outside for a bit of exercise.

 

I know it will come down to meat quality, but on current performance (I got 2 * 3 types on purpose to try them) I wouldn't get the fast growing cockerals again - they are not being reared in intensive conditions and have no light/food 12 hrs a night, but they are still eating machines that do not seem to value their space/freedom.

 

Tracy

[The Dogmother]

It's such a shame isn't it?

 

I think I'd prefer a slower growing hybrid too.