Comments on: Catalog shopping: chickens on order!

By: Mike Campitelli

Mike Campitelli — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:39:30 +0000

i like your cickens, they have damn fine legs

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:24:50 +0000

Jean Ann: I took a look at your blog. Sounds like a cool adventure! If my working through this first chickens stuff sounds a little complicated, it’s cause I’m getting a fair (although still very small) number, 75 birds in all, it’ll be a few hundred bucks outlay by the end, and even if they’re for our own use, I want a reasonably reliable result for my first time. So I’m getting 2-week old chicks for meat, and grown “ready-to-lay” birds for eggs, to kinda hopefully make things simpler this time around (I’m gonna be swamped with market garden stuff at the same time). I’ve found research is indispensable, the more the better, BUT I wouldn’t let it eclipse TRYING! ;) Everything is so much clearer with a little first hand experience. I found http://backyardchickens.com seems to have solid, pretty much one-stop stripped down chicken info for a quick start…

By: Jean Ann

Jean Ann — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:14:52 +0000

I have been reading the McMurray catalog and drooling…I hope to add some chickens to my little half acre. As I read your post, I realize I have no idea all of the things that would be involved…much more research to do!

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:24:35 +0000

Thanks!! What a luxury, all of this on point experience and advice! I read the comments earlier today, did a near 180 on yesterday’s 180 on the original meat bird decision, and phoned in an order change. So now it’s 10 Frey’s Special, and 40 White Rock. The results of WR’s extreme breeding is a little offputting, but I don’t consider them freaks as I would genetically modified animals, and I REALLY don’t like the idea of a lot of rubbery chicken, I know exactly what that’s like! Hopefully over time, I’ll be able to find a good, more traditional free-range meat bird, but for this first round, I’m all for playing it safe! It’ll be easy to make a new third section and door in the chickenhouse and a separate yard outside, so the breeds will be apart. And maybe the Frey’s will be a pleasant surprise!

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:19:33 +0000

Woo hoo! Congrats on making the order. Now you’ve got to get that chicken house all set up, huh? Have fun!

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:35:29 +0000

I’m in agreement with Rick - say good bye to any free time you may have had :-D

I’ve got Silver Laced Wyandottes mainly because they look pretty. I do hope to raise some chicks but have yet to research fully their meat status. While they lay sufficiently for me (3 out of the 4 are laying and I average about 2.5 eggs per day) I will be looking at some other (pretty) traditional birds to add to the flock this year.

Thank you for your comment on your Plugging away post - I’ve been without Internet connection for the last 4 days and now have 42 posts on my reader to catch up on!

By: willing hands organic farm

willing hands organic farm — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:40:17 +0000

I also agree with keeping them separate. We had a cannibal problem raising several varieties together. Our worst problem was legs, too much growth, too quickly for the legs to support. Their bones just do not match the rapid weight gain. Ours were a 4-H project , done collectively, so no free range or outside conditions allowed.

Julie

By: Lisa Brown

Lisa Brown — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:00:00 +0000

I have to echo what Chris said about raising them with other breeds they do get picked on.
We only raised them once, because they were so disgusting to raise. Big dump eating machines. They would just lay in front of the feeder and poop. They did taste great but…We call them frankenchickens. Even taking them out into the alfalfa they didn’t recognize it as food.
Have heard of freedom ranger which are supposed to grow almost as fast but are free rangers and “gourmet” birds. Have heard good things about them. Plan to try some this year.
Good luck. Lisa

By: Chris DeVries

Chris DeVries — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:35:35 +0000

Mike,

We were in exactly your position last year. I was ordering from Frey’s with the same thoughts you are having. I decided to order 20 of each. I free-ranged them (well, I used the Joel Salatin style “chicken tractors”) and this is what I found:

- the WR are definitely harder to raise. They are delicate birds that grow very fast. They can be grown outside and I think growing them inside wouldn’t really make them easier to grow. They do however turn feed into meat very efficiently and taste wonderful when done. At about 7-8 weeks we had roughly 4 lb birds.

- the Frey’s special dual purpose is just a cross of a couple of the regular breeds. They grow MUCH slower than the WR. At 8 weeks they would have been under 2 lbs each I think. We waited until 15 weeks and we got an average of maybe 3.2 lbs. Note that we had almost all female so males might be a pound heavier I guess. On the good side, these birds had no problems at all and were very resilient. On the bad side, they were not roasters at all. Roasted in the oven they came out tasty, but rubbery. That and the yellow fat makes them not what people are used to eating (maybe a couple generations ago it is what people were used to). We started slow cooking and pressure cooking them only. That way the meat was really good tasting and the resulting stock was fabulous.

One mistake we made was putting the two varieties together. The WR got harrassed by the other birds and one was even killed outright and partially eaten. The WR don’t feather out fully for a long time and they can’t get away from curious and aggressive other birds. If you rais them, keep them separate from other breeds.

If I do more this year I will do the hybrid WR meat birds again, despite the more difficulty in raising them. The meat texture was definitely superior and if I want to sell to anybody, I wouldn’t want to sell them a rubbery chicken. For our own use I’d be willing to use the Frey’s dual purpose again but it’s really only best for chicken salad, stock, pot pies, etc. Might not be worth the amount of feed you put into them, especially if you are buying organic (we did).

Oh, and the red sex-link’s are great! We have 3 of them now that haven’t missed a day of egg laying since December. Amazing birds. We kept a rooster too, just to see some chicks hatch.

Anyway, I hope our experience helps you somewhat.

Chris

By: Alan Roberts

Alan Roberts — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:43:55 +0000

We haven’t done meat chickens yet, but our we have experimented a lot with laying hens. Really like the red sex-link (we get ours from McMurray’s), we tried the black sex-link hens and found them to be quite aggressive. A lot more cannibalization. We also have a few traditional breeds. They all do well on pasture, though the traditional breeds seem to lay a bit less. You can see our chickens, goats, and other micro-farm stuff on my blog http://robertsroost-alan.blogspot.com/. You’ve a great site here. Keep it up.