RUNuts 2018 Garden thread (attempt)

[baymule]

For what the Parrots do to your garden, they should be talking and doing tricks.

Meat birds....have you raised them before? I have always butchered excess roos or spent laying hens. Got crazy-have 53 meat chicks.

 

[RUNuts]

Do the 7 barred rock hens count? Raised them to 18 weeks. Scrawny, delicious, chewy, wholesome things. I just decided against Naked Neck Turkens this summer because my tractor is too small for as many birds as I thought I wanted. Do I hear build another tractor?!? What?

No experience with CX. (Do 4 hours count? LOL) The 6 should be comfortable in the tractor. These are CX and OMG the difference between the ready to go and my hens are big.

The plan, for the next 10 minutes, is to get 6 EE after the CX are processed. The 2 egg customers are intrigued by green eggs. They should be laying through the big girls' molt this winter. I may cull the flock down to account for the EEs. Then integrate at that point in the fall. November will be target. That will give me these 6 CX for summer and some more for winter. Along with venison.

I'm not enjoying the store bought chicken at all now. The taste of home grown! I relish wild duck and don't hunt them now. Getting closer. No, I don't want ducks in the backyard, yet...

To be honest, this may be my only go with CX. If the taste isn't up to par to my memory of the barred rocks, I'm trying other breeds. My buddy sold me some and I was underwhelmed. Needed chicken, so give it another whirl. My method versus his. Same CX.

Bottom line, I'm going for taste. Garden is same thought process.

 

[RUNuts]

@baymule Where did you order your CX from? These came from Campbell, Texas at $1.30/chick delivered. You are close enough to pick them up at $1.10 with no shipping.
https://windymeadowshatchery.com/

I want to try Austrolorps too. They are on the short list. Wish I could breed and raise chicks. Brother is trying and the coons are loving it. Along with the owls, rats, possum, hawks... He is on the edge of a nature preserve.

 

[baymule]

@baymule Where did you order your CX from? These came from Campbell, Texas at $1.30/chick delivered. You are close enough to pick them up at $1.10 with no shipping.
https://windymeadowshatchery.com/

I want to try Austrolorps too. They are on the short list. Wish I could breed and raise chicks. Brother is trying and the coons are loving it. Along with the owls, rats, possum, hawks... He is on the edge of a nature preserve.

That is a fantastic price! I thought $1.60 was a good price. I got mine from Alabama and thought I had a bargain. Thanks for the link! I know I will do this again and I know where to order from!

 

[RUNuts]

I read the stories about the CX, but didn't grok them. I've had these birds for a week now in a tractor at soon to be 3 weeks. A little different than hatchery stock. Will see how this develops. The adults appear to be straight out of the factory farm movies. See if I can do better. How do yours turn out? More chicken or featherless meat lump?

 

[flowerbug]

i hear ya on taste. i don't really like much commercial parrot, tastes like sawdust, i like dark meat instead, haven't had much duck. i also pretty much only like it off the grill with the bones and skin still on it or how they make it at the one Chinese place we frequent (for over 40yrs) (battered, deep fried and smothered in sweet and sour sauce ).

boneless parrot, pretty green eggs, easter without having to paint them.

do any parrots do speckled eggs like the killdeer?

 

[RUNuts]

Speckled like in the bottom row? Occasionally, but nothing consistent. I think there is one breed that will give speckled. Let me check tonight. The speckled are blotches of pigment. Nothing like quail eggs. Scrubbed vigorously, they come off.

Amercauna (sp?) crosses give Easter eggs. Blues & greens. Depends on the hen & genetics. Pretty eggs. Taste the same.

 

[flowerbug]

View attachment 25259
Speckled like in the bottom row? Occasionally, but nothing consistent. I think there is one breed that will give speckled. Let me check tonight. The speckled are blotches of pigment. Nothing like quail eggs. Scrubbed vigorously, they come off.

Amercauna (sp?) crosses give Easter eggs. Blues & greens. Depends on the hen & genetics. Pretty eggs. Taste the same.

i wonder how long it will be before we have parrots that can sign their own eggs for tracking purposes... Piccasso watch out...

as it goes, i've only noticed some differences between mass market eggs and some home raised eggs. i'd much prefer the latter, but it won't happen here. for the cost of how many eggs we use here (baking at times several hundred cookies a week or other things like cakes and muffins) we've never sourced the more expensive kinds. i don't think it makes that much sense and very few items would you be able to notice the difference (very fine yellow pound cakes). as we tend to be more chocolate and molasses in most cookies it's not often we have to worry about delicate.

 

[baymule]

I read the stories about the CX, but didn't grok them. I've had these birds for a week now in a tractor at soon to be 3 weeks. A little different than hatchery stock. Will see how this develops. The adults appear to be straight out of the factory farm movies. See if I can do better. How do yours turn out? More chicken or featherless meat lump?

This is my first time to grow CCX. I have just always had plenty of spent layers, extra roosters and they were my "chicken" meat. So of course I veer off into CCX as an experiment and now I have 53 of them.

 

[RUNuts]

First try here also. But I was stopping at 10. Glad I did. My tractor turned out 4x8 and looks really small for that many birds.

Tomatoes are really growing well. That's one.