Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[gjensen]

This year I am hatching and raising Blue Laced Red Wyandottes after having MAJOR problems last year with the Silver Gray Dorkings. The Dorkings were the center of my "happy chicken daydreams" for ~40 years and I find I am still wishing for them, despite the fact that the Wyandottes are in every respect laying/hatching/growing better and are overall much closer to standard. This afternoon is slated for moving all the little chicken tractors to new grass and doing a partial cleaning of the brooder. Hopefully, tomorrow we will hit Lowes/Home Depot to pick up the materials for our first panel hoop house.

Spatchcock is one of my new vocabulary words, and it refers to a way to cut the butchered chicken carcass. After plucking or skinning, one uses sharp, heavy-duty shears to cut the neck/spine/tail free from the remainder of the bird, allowing the internal organs to fall out easily. One then splits the bird along the sternum/keel producing a right and left half to the carcass. These halves are well suited to grilling or barbecuing and are favored for young-ish cockerel culls, around 12-13 weeks of age.

Best wishes,
Angela

Good birds are a pleasure to raise.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I feel busier with the chickens this year. I'm trying to connect more with other Delaware breeders in real life to help support the breed. Today/tomorrow the last of the chicks from one male are due to hatch and I'm collecting eggs from the second male. I'm culling the last of the cockerels from last year tomorrow if everyone is feeling up to it, then I can start preparing a trio I'm donating to a youth poultry fundraiser as a mentorship thing.

I think this is all happening earlier this year compared to last year.

 

[finnfur]

I feel busier with the chickens this year. I'm trying to connect more with other Delaware breeders in real life to help support the breed. Today/tomorrow the last of the chicks from one male are due to hatch and I'm collecting eggs from the second male. I'm culling the last of the cockerels from last year tomorrow if everyone is feeling up to it, then I can start preparing a trio I'm donating to a youth poultry fundraiser as a mentorship thing.

I think this is all happening earlier this year compared to last year.

You west coasters have done a excellent job improving the Del line . Keep up the good work.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

You west coasters have done a excellent job improving the Del line . Keep up the good work.

It feels pretty precarious in some ways. I'm glad to have one other breeder so close and another "just down the highway a bit" so we can help each other out. But we need more breeders to give the line a good couple years' worth of work to really see what we can make of it.

 

[Wisher1000]

Hello all! Good to see some activity in this thread.

Talk about precarious! I am working with the Silver Campine. I feel fortunate to have located, and partnered with, two experienced breeders that have them, even though both only keep a few as a sideline breed. I am in Alabama, my closest partner is in Texas (Gleason) and the other is in Massachusetts (Bob Rhodes.)

I have one hen that I got from Urch two years ago. I also have one nice cock that I got from Bob Rhodes last year. I have five hens from Gleason and two that I kept from a cross with a large silver hen (an effort to increase the size of the birds.)

While I have a dozen five month old cockerels, two of which look promising, all of my pullets from that batch fell prey to a dog.

I also have about 100 Campine chicks that are growing out now.

I am one predator attack from starting over and that would be the fifth time I essentially started over in about 5 years. It is trying and nerve wracking, but I love it!

I can't wait to see a whole flock of nice quality Silver Campines peacefully foraging over a green field at my farm. They are striking in color and when they have the type they are supposed to have, they will be stunning! Call me a dreamer.... I mean Wisher.........

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Today I'm contemplating putting my one breeding cockerel that I kept in my own flock out with the free range laying birds. He would have a much nicer life out there and help keep the laying hens in line, and I've got 40 of his chicks on the ground so I'm sure he will be well represented for years to come, but he would be somewhat more vulnerable to predators as there is no fencing in a large part of the free-range area. I have yet to lose a free-ranging cockerel/cock to predators, but the coyotes treat the free-range hens a bit like a lunch buffet.

I'll keep the sire cock in the breeding coop/run with the nicest females ...

Am I insane to contemplate turning the cockerel out? Right now he is all alone in his own medium-sized coop & run.

 

[gjensen]

Wisher, that is good to hear. It sounds like you have something to work with, and have a good sized batch hatched out. Hopefully out of the hundred, you will identify some that you are happy with.
It is a beautiful breed.

I have about 120 growing out. It is too early to say much about them, but I can see some reasons to be hopeful. I feel like they are heading in the right direction.

 

[gjensen]

Today I'm contemplating putting my one breeding cockerel that I kept in my own flock out with the free range laying birds. He would have a much nicer life out there and help keep the laying hens in line, and I've got 40 of his chicks on the ground so I'm sure he will be well represented for years to come, but he would be somewhat more vulnerable to predators as there is no fencing in a large part of the free-range area. I have yet to lose a free-ranging cockerel/cock to predators, but the coyotes treat the free-range hens a bit like a lunch buffet.

I'll keep the sire cock in the breeding coop/run with the nicest females ...

Am I insane to contemplate turning the cockerel out? Right now he is all alone in his own medium-sized coop & run.

I do not like to keep them confined and alone for too long. I would be cautious though. It is possible to lose your best, and it can seam there is a bulls eye painted on them. The old cliché was to keep half again what you intend to use. Things happen, and birds die.

Hopefully you will not have any problems at all. I am sure that he appreciates the time free, and all of the hens. He will be better for it if you can keep the predators at bay.

 

[bnjrob]

Today I'm contemplating putting my one breeding cockerel that I kept in my own flock out with the free range laying birds. He would have a much nicer life out there and help keep the laying hens in line, and I've got 40 of his chicks on the ground so I'm sure he will be well represented for years to come, but he would be somewhat more vulnerable to predators as there is no fencing in a large part of the free-range area. I have yet to lose a free-ranging cockerel/cock to predators, but the coyotes treat the free-range hens a bit like a lunch buffet.

I'll keep the sire cock in the breeding coop/run with the nicest females ...

Am I insane to contemplate turning the cockerel out? Right now he is all alone in his own medium-sized coop & run.

If there is any possibility of wanting him for breeding, I wouldn't turn him out. We just had a coyote attack Saturday, broad daylight at 0930 in the morning, not 30 feet from the back door and our large dogs. Lost a cock and 2 hens. One hen is in the garage hospital for injuries but should survive. Two hens were missing, one of them survived 2 nights in the neighbor's pasture, and they have returned to the flock now. There is a reason we do not allow our breeder birds to free range unless we are with them, armed, giving them our undivided attention, and actively scanning the pasture and the sky for problems.

 

[finnfur]

I agree with Jensen - don't like to coop them long times.
Maybe switch when your not collecting hatching eggs .
That said ,we free range in Enet and the coop stays open 24/7.
Only loss in five years was Hawk , I put scare Hawks out and none in 2 years .
But if they get hungry enough who knows - they are opportunists.
Hawk losses were always dark or black birds ?

Edited to add: Except my son's chicken killing dog- But after the Enet he won't go closer than 15 feet to the net.
Like a cat on a hot stove it won't jump on a cold one anymore either.