Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[U_Stormcrow]

Honestly, being wet wasn't helping. We went to 25 last night. I won't claim it was sub 40s when I stopped work last evening, because I don't know. I know it was sub 50, because that's what it was an hour before sunset. I finished most of an hour+ after susnet. But my fingers and toes ached, and I couldn't stop shivering.

Yes, I'm going to have a butcher block countertop big enough for doing real prep, not one of those cutting board sized things for people who think a primal is a rock band.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sage:

7.5# cavity fat for Soap?? Still needs to be rendered, no idea what the cleaned fat yield will be.

3.75# loins and sirloins
0.88# (inside) loin - this has another name
10.5# boneless shoulder roasts
3.0# heart, liver, kidneys for dog food (mostly liver)
16.75# meat for sausage - most could have been brisket, very fatty.
10.0# blade roasts
3.0# legs

Basically, about 45# of meat, plus 3# to make dog food with (heart/liver/kidney), plus whatever I get off the carcass.

That puts his live weight north of 160#. Which helps to explain why there isn't a huge commercial goat industry in the US - yields are too low. ...and also why I couldn't dead lift him onto the pole for butchering - bigger than I am, as a body, and in weight.

 

[3KillerBs]

Honestly, being wet wasn't helping.

I can sympathize. I learned to kill chickens on a day like that when it was an absolute relief to put my hands inside a nice, warm bird in order to gut him.

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

I can sympathize. I learned to kill chickens on a day like that when it was an absolute relief to put my hands inside a nice, warm bird in order to gut him.

Like climbing inside a big beast to survive a blizzard
I grew up with dairy goats. You learn how to pour without spilling! Down in the teens or negatives pouring milk replacer from jugs into soda bottles to bottle feed kids. With ten of them butting and jumping on you excitedly to get their bottle.
Sticking your face into the goat's side to keep from freezing off your nose while you milk.

 

[MysteryChicken]

What's your next crossing going to be for the culling project of yours @U_Stormcrow ?

I haven't gotten notifications in awhile.

Gonna do a new cross to try for some meaties this year. Gonna see how well, EE/Brahma X Malay will preform with breast meat.

The hen I have, has nice filled out breast muscles. Gonna get her weigh today if I have time.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Goliath is the Malay cock I'm gonna be using. He's 9.87lbs.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

What's your next crossing going to be for the culling project of yours @U_Stormcrow ?

I haven't gotten notifications in awhile.

Gonna do a new cross to try for some meaties this year. Gonna see how well, EE/Brahma X Malay will preform with breast meat.

The hen I have, has nice filled out breast muscles. Gonna get her weigh today if I have time.View attachment 3028770

I have some birds that look like her, curious as to your weight at age. Mine are solidly middle of the pack.

As to my next crossing? I'm still culling down. Egg sales aren't happening this year, and I've got fowl pox slowly working its way thru, so no chick sales, either. I did set a dozen duck eggs, to replace my older Pekins, since my ducks don't seem to be either affected by, or carriers of, this variety of the plague.

I'm also working my @$$ off on the house - just passed a bunch of inspection, have the sub-floor termite treatment on Monday morning, have to dig out the dirt that's washed up against the foundations before that happens. The plumbing, at least, is reburied, tamped, watered in, back filled, tamped some more, and... did I mention its raining?

So apart from more culling pics next week, first time I either get a break, or am too sore to shovel/wire steel/construct formworks, the head count will be shy at least five more.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have some birds that look like her, curious as to your weight at age. Mine are solidly middle of the pack.

As to my next crossing? I'm still culling down. Egg sales aren't happening this year, and I've got fowl pox slowly working its way thru, so no chick sales, either. I did set a dozen duck eggs, to replace my older Pekins, since my ducks don't seem to be either affected by, or carriers of, this variety of the plague.

I'm also working my @$$ off on the house - just passed a bunch of inspection, have the sub-floor termite treatment on Monday morning, have to dig out the dirt that's washed up against the foundations before that happens. The plumbing, at least, is reburied, tamped, watered in, back filled, tamped some more, and... did I mention its raining?

So apart from more culling pics next week, first time I either get a break, or am too sore to shovel/wire steel/construct formworks, the head count will be shy at least five more.

She's 2 this year. So, I'll post weight later.

Very busy I see, but what do you have planned for crossing after you're done culling, & the fowl pox runs it's coarse?(Fowl Pox isn't that bad, as long as it's the dry pox, not wet pox)

It's raining here too .

 

[U_Stormcrow]

She's 2 this year. So, I'll post weight later.

Very busy I see, but what do you have planned for crossing after you're done culling, & the fowl pox runs it's coarse?(Fowl Pox isn't that bad, as long as it's the dry pox, not wet pox)

It's raining here too .

Its dry pox, and I'm going to continue crossing the red roosters (plus Ugly) over patterned hens with the red tones. Will be culling out whites, greys. The almost entirely blacks will follow, with the blacks with gold necklaces (like the bird above) the absolute last.

Once I've gotten rid of the dominant colors I don't like, I can focus on reinforcing the pattern genes (which will hopefully be more visible), and cleaning up the legs.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Its dry pox, and I'm going to continue crossing the red roosters (plus Ugly) over patterned hens with the red tones. Will be culling out whites, greys. The almost entirely blacks will follow, with the blacks with gold necklaces (like the bird above) the absolute last.

Once I've gotten rid of the dominant colors I don't like, I can focus on reinforcing the pattern genes (which will hopefully be more visible), and cleaning up the legs.

Ugly appears to be silver based, so if bred to red hens, you get more silvers girls, & silver, or silver/gold split males.

The girls could be either silver, or gold, since the girls can only carry one copy.

Silver is dominant over gold, so lots of silvers are to be expected.