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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 15051 Location: East Midlands
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 17 7:58 pm Post subject: mulling over my table bird flock |
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Mr Poulet de Bresse (who was going to be the father of my flock of both pure bred PdB and my DIY crossbred table birds) has started attacking Jenna, so he needs permanent penning, or roasting. This is a shame, as he grew fast, forages well and is looking like a good weighty bird. But I can't have an aggressive cockerel around, and he's the only male PdB.
If I pen him, he will need some companions. Shall I pen him with some adult females (I could rotate them if he bothers them excessively) or see if he will settle down with another male bird? I also have Dorkings, Faverolles, Transylvanian Naked necks, Croad Langshans, Light Sussex and Ixworths. I was planning to keep hens from all of them and see how the crosses with Mr PdB ate next year, along with the pure bred PdB (I have two strains, but hatched mostly females. Typical!)
If I do keep another male bird, which would make the best father for my flock? I'm wondering about the Dorkings, as they grew quite fast and are looking nicely stocky. I am interested in meat birds only, not dual purpose. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46055 Location: yes
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chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 35935 Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 15051 Location: East Midlands
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chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 35935 Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 15051 Location: East Midlands
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chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 35935 Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
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alison Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 12918 Location: North Devon
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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 15051 Location: East Midlands
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Posted: Sun Sep 17, 17 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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Chez wrote: |
What are your reasons for not breeding back, then? Just that you want to try different breeds? |
Well, I mostly meant about not breeding siblings. I think it's good practice to keep unrelated breeding stock if you can. I'm not breeding for show or sale, only for the table and my own amusement. When I bought the Poulet de Bresse, the lady was selling was selling two strains especially so you could breed your own birds for the table in subsequent years. And they seem to be very nice table birds, they forage well and grew more quickly than the Dorkings and and Croads I hatched them with. They hatched well for my first hatch with posted eggs, too.
My plan was to breed the Poulet de Bresse, but also to raise crosses from all the other traditional meat breeds I have, to see if I can find a hybrid that works well for us, while keeping only one cockerel and not having to bother with penning anything. I'm looking for something that forages well and finishes in around four months for good roasters on a traditional diet and tastes good. Obviously that would mean occasionally buying in new parent stock, which means that someone has to raise pure breeds. I could contribute to that by raising PdB, which are supposed to be good dual purpose birds. In the interests of fast(ish) finishing to good weights (for a traditional breed) Mr PdB is the best choice to keep. Only he's taken exception to Jenna. So the choice is pen him, start again by hatching a replacement cockerell next year, or choose another bird for the crosses, and forgo the purebreds for this year at least.
I really want to start hatching homelaid eggs. The hatch rate for posted eggs is depressing, and means I have lots of small groups of different aged birds. Which is a pita. I know that won't be automatically better with my eggs, but at least they won't have been bashed about by Royal Mail. |
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