Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[igorsMistress]

Merry Christmas

 

[chickengr]

best wishes to all!

where is everyone?

 

[draye]

Hibernating. It's 13 degrees here in Arkansas.

 

[ambe0487]

Yep Hibernating! It’s going to get a balmy 14 degrees here today in Iowa. That is a 25 degree swing from our over night low! The girls will love the warm up!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Hatching turkeys..... lol I hope to have more NN in my next hatch that just went in the oven sunday, so due in just under 3 weeks

 

[DesertChic]

Enjoying winter in AZ. Our daytime temps have been in the mid- to upper-70s with lots of sunshine.

 

[Aimer]

My favorite pullet that I've hatched this year. I'm thinking with that long tail of hers she's half blue Sumatra or half red shouldered Yokohama. Not many of my birds have been willing to brave the up to 32 below zero weather we've been having and leave the coop but this little girl doesn't seem to mind it

 

[chickengr]

My favorite pullet that I've hatched this year. I'm thinking with that long tail of hers she's half blue Sumatra or half red shouldered Yokohama. Not many of my birds have been willing to brave the up to 32 below zero weather we've been having and leave the coop but this little girl doesn't seem to mind itView attachment 1225885

brave and very pretty!

 

[igorsMistress]

I have a few questions for those of you that raise NNs for meat. I think I've got my husband convinced to raise a few

I've never raised chickens for meat and I know there's an age range for broiler, fryer etc. Is that supposed to be the same for dual purpose chickens though? How old do you let them get before you butcher? Do you feed them differently because you're going to eat them rather than use for eggs?
Sorry, I have no clue what I'm doing.

 

[cactusrota]

I've found with my dual purpose birds they really aren't worth butchering before 4 months of age (16 weeks). The breeder I got my Bresse birds from says he butchers at 6 months. You can speed it up with selective breeding. Maybe cross breed with some broiler rangers or plain white cornish to speed up the growth to 3 months or so. I also feed a higher protein, like turkey grower, and you'll want to keep in mind they won't have nearly as much fat as a store bought chicken. If you like lots of fat to cook the chicken in you can cage them up the last couple weeks to reduce movement and free feed a meat bird crumble moistened with whole milk, but that's not going to increase muscle meat, just fat.

side note: my dual purpose birds look much different than broiler birds, although they provide probably the same amount of meat. They have a longer breast bone which makes them feel skinnier, but what that does is make the breast muscles long and narrow instead of short and wide like the cornish crosses. So it looks like less, but is actually about the same.