Devonviolet Acres

[HomeOnTheRange]

I sell my old layers and most of my roos for $5.00, I hate processing birds.

I like that, then you can go to Costco and buy a whole cooked chicken for 4.99. No fuss.

Its too bad we don't have a feeder pig to give it to.

Get some KuneKunes!! Come on @Devonviolet, I will even start a drift (or drove) of KuneKunes with you...

....maybe time for an eye exam....

Maybe time for some of that eggnog!

 

[Latestarter]

Hmmm let's see, initial cost of the bird, if you start with chicks you need to feed them and wait 6 months for them to get to eating size or start laying eggs. Guess it's worth it for when the zombie apocalypse happens and there are no more cooked birds at costco... Nice to be prepared.

 

[Bruce]

True, the cheap meat birds are what, $3.00 plus shipping if you aren't lucky enough to live close to a hatchery? The shipping can easily double the cost per bird unless you get a LOT of birds. Likely way more than anyone would need for personal consumption. Yep, come the zombie apocalypse one might want to have a breeding program in place

 

[farmerjan]

There is a poultry swap that is held twice a year about 2 hours from us that we try to go to even if we don't have anything to sell. I have regularly gotten as much as $8.00 for old cull hens if they are fat. There are alot of different ethnic groups that come; mexicans, phillipinos, middle eastern types, orientals, that are looking for chicken to kill and eat. There are also some that come looking for roosters; our purebred game chickens often go home to other "purposes" I think..... But there are usually about 150 to 200 "vendors".... They have everything from plants, to cages, to many breeds of chickens, and baby chicks, to small animals like pigs, and sheep and goats, and "mini-breeds" of most anything you want, to rabbits, geese, ducks, pheasants, turkeys, to baby calves. I don't bother to kill any old hens or roosters, but take them there and then just raise some of the cornish/rock cross meat birds. They are more tender, grow out with alot of meat on the carcass, even when they are raised in "chicken tractors" so they are on grass.

 

[Devonviolet]

Get some KuneKunes!! Come on @Devonviolet, I will even start a drift (or drove) of KuneKunes with you...

That sounds like an interesting proposition. DH & I have been talking about taking one of @Baymule's piglets, if her sow gets preggo during her next he's & before her boar goes to freezer camp.

 

[babsbag]

I could hatch out chicks every week year round. As long as I can buy feed I won't run out of chickens. But I agree with @HomeOnTheRange...for now go to Costco and buy a cooked chicken. I few years back when I lost (and have since found most of it) 60lbs I ate Costco chicken 4 nights a week...cold on salad...glad I wasn't processing my own.

I wondered about salt in my house and the flies...not a good trade off in my opinion. I was flyless a few weeks ago but now that it is 90° again the flies are back.

 

[Devonviolet]

K. ,

Get some KuneKunes!! Come on @Devonviolet, I will even start a drift (or drove) of KuneKunes with you...

I had never heard of Kunekune pigs before. So, I looked them up. They are a smaller heritage pigs, with a turned up snout, that graze, rather than root, and tear up pastures. They are very intelligent, docile and friendly pigs. I'm thinking, that would make them difficult to butcher.

I looked at the registry of Kunekune pigs, and found out there is a breeder in Terrell, TX, which is about an hour and forty minutes from us. They do not have any available until Spring, and they don't indicate how much they are.

 

[CntryBoy777]

With them being smaller, that would mean double the duty, too and smaller pcs to mess with...less meat.

 

[Bruce]

I think @luvmypets has Kunekune. IIRC they are pretty expensive probably due to breeders limiting them specifically to keep the prices up. Or not, I tend to forget stuff.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Naw Bruce, hers are not Kune Kune...they are Mangalistas...or something like that....