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Several months ago I started documenting my flock and methods on YT. Finally got to do a processing video. Our freezer didn't have any chicken in it, since we were between harvest batches, but I did have a group of 14 week old American Bresse cockerels. So I went out and selected one that looked...

I feel like I've been through the gauntlet of poultry raising now, 25ish years into it. We've had most varieties at this point. I used to think it would be "quaint" to have a different variety in each of our pens, like a collection. Then I went down the rabbit hole of breeding and learning about...

There's something about the contrast between the black and the silver that makes it my favorite chicken color. Especially when the color is clean and correct and it took me 5 years to breed my group towards better feather color. This year a couple sprouted up pretty decent! There's so...

For 5 years now we've been solidly, personal use, dual purpose and haven't had to buy any chicken or eggs at the store. It took a lot of learning to figure it out, but through selective breeding, decent flock size (50+ birds at any given time) and growing out a LOT of chicks in order to find the...

I've reduced our flock down to just Black/Blue Silver Marans and Bresse, so that I could use the pen space to breed those better. I'll be splitting each breed into 3 groups for next season. The last time we processed I had a first, a Marans the same weight as a Bresse! With age it can happen...

I've searched and searched since like a dummy I didn't save it. There was a post made where someone was showing pictures of birds and the differences between breeder quality and hatchery quality. Going through breed by breed, a very nice breakdown. I was looking for it to show to beginners to...

This guy is 7 weeks old and 2 pounds, 9 ounces! He's 50% Bresse, 25% Marans, 12.5% Legbar and 12.5% Twentse. I did a project pen and I'd say it worked! I will say though that my Marans are especially deep bodied stock compared to what's typical for them. The parents...

With everything going on in the world right now, this would be the year that I hatch my first show quality pullet. When everything is canceled or postponed or plain shut down. You know what though? She wins a blue ribbon anyways, for being the result of 4 years worth of selective breeding...

Took the geese down to the creek today for a swim, twice. The Chinese boy is SO noisy, so I've been trying to work his brain out and keep them entertained. It's really cute how I can call them with "Come on goose-goose" and in saying that he starts following me, where ever I'm going. She...

I was looking to add a Walnut comb into colorful egg layers with an eye on easy sexing traits (barred feathers). Also keeping an eye on table qualities, aiming for dual purpose. It's too soon to tell if I nailed it or not but I'm off to a great start with this guy, a F2 in the project. Thus far...

I had liked the look of this rooster as he was built nice and wide. When I started hatching from him though I wasn't crazy about the offspring, the boys were coming up TOO wide. So we swapped him for his younger brother and we're back on track again. He was 1 year old, dressed out at 5 lbs...

For Valentine's day I was gifted a 2 year old mismatched pair of geese. He's a Chinese and I think she's a Toulouse. She just started laying, the 1st one was not fertile. He is very imprinted on people... pretty sure he thinks I'm his girlfriend. He is SO noisy! Not a bad goose though, I've not...

Yesterday we sat down and did math for 7 hours. My head still hurts! We have a clear picture on where we're at with the birds though. For the extra cockerels, they work out to be $1.45/lb with an average weight of 3 pounds at 16 weeks. We have Marans, Bresse and my Hybrids. The Hybrids are a...

Based on initial hatches, it looks like our Bresse are dominant white. I set a couple of Bresse pullets aside with a Black Silver Olive Egger rooster, the resulting chicks are white with a couple of random black spots. Nicely built, stacked little babies! To get away from the mostly white, I'm...

While I work hard on my Bresse and Marans for consistency in their details, I throw all that out the window with the hybrids looking for other traits instead of feathers and watching how the "genes unfold" through the generations. In breeding both ways simultaneously, it's been a learning...

I work hard, my husband is disabled. We need a solid piece of furniture to tend our aches and pains and lifestyle... as well as something that isn't junk that will hold up for awhile, without costing a fortune. We had this cheap sectional that lasted through the military life and into the 1st...

A story about how a young cockerel promoted himself to flock leader. We raise a lot of cockerels, 90% for the freezer, 1% to keep for breeding, 9% to sell on with decent pullets/hens. Sometimes a young cockerel will find a way to sneak past the odds. The young males land in rooster coop when...

This Pyramid shows a breakdown of our general flock size proportions over the course of a grow season. Each bar is a point where I sort and make cull/sell/eat decisions, as they move through our grow spaces. From the hatch room brooder to the outbuilding brooders, to the grow pens without runs...

We're working on "The wall of brooders" I've been asking for. It's the missing link in my whole method, having spaces for chicks between 2 weeks and 8 weeks old. We're starting with 6, each one 2ftx4ftx2ft at minimum, some are closer to 6 with the wall length. In my mind I had a 14ft section...

I'm a German Shepherd person but then we came by this Bully girl when she was in bad shape at 6 weeks old and needing better care than she had been getting. I took her from a co-worker and found myself with a breed I hadn't had before. She's now 2 years old and has turned out to be quite the...