Chickens
- Thread starter Firky
- Start date
cliche guevara
Well-Known Member
So you bought some then? Or are you still thinking about it? The gf wants some chickens so badly.
CharlieAddict
nekomimi rocks!!!
better tasting than the free-range ones too!
Stobart Stopper
Well-Known Member
Hit them on the head with your knob!
mrsfran
Well-Known Member
Got them on Friday and keep forgetting about them
Perhaps that's because you've been off your face all weekend?
Irresponsible chicken owner
crustychick
doo-woop-de-doo
awwwwwwwwwr.... chickeees!
Leave off them! They're still shy 
Another popular hybrid, derived from original Rhode Island Red and Leghorn breeds, is the Goldline. They are supreme egg-layers, producing up to 320 light brown eggs in a year - that’s right! Three hundred and twenty, and after the first couple of weeks of laying, they are likely to be big ones too, averaging out around sixty grams (that’s a large egg to the man or woman in the street. The Goldline, is a quiet and docile bird, inquisitive and likely to follow you around in the garden if that is where you’re keeping her.
Chickens
Another popular hybrid, derived from original Rhode Island Red and Leghorn breeds, is the Goldline. They are supreme egg-layers, producing up to 320 light brown eggs in a year - that’s right! Three hundred and twenty, and after the first couple of weeks of laying, they are likely to be big ones too, averaging out around sixty grams (that’s a large egg to the man or woman in the street. The Goldline, is a quiet and docile bird, inquisitive and likely to follow you around in the garden if that is where you’re keeping her.
Chickens
I'll babysit them for you if you like
will you babysit my sweet cocks too?
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Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
There is one massive one amongst them. I hope it isn't a cockrel otherwise it'll have to go
Depends on how bothered you are by paying to feed one, to be honest. You could try carding them, or wait till it grows a comb and starts to crow.
I have six hens and have a cockerel running with them, used to have two, but one was a bit too shag-crazy and the birds were losing too many feathers, so I ate him. I find, contrary to some books that he will marshall the hens nicely and keep a lookout for danger. There is then the added bonus that your eggs will be fertile, so if a hen becomes broody, you can shove a few under her and hopefully get a few meat birds/next years layers.
I have six new pullets arriving tomorrow, a similar sort of thing, but £4 each, so I've been bloody had! We've got a baby on the way and I fancy flogging a few more eggs for pin money.
Good luck!
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Nowt wrong with swallowing some cock.
On a more serious note, cockerels are supposed to be quite good eating, and their meat is meant to be a bit richer than female chickens.
Mind you, I'm from Devon, so I'll eat anything with a face.
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Did you kill it yourself? I fucking love meat, but I don't think I could do the killing myself- even for an animal I'd never met before, let alone one I'd looked after and stuff
The humane way to kill a chicken is, apparently, to hypnotise them or simply gain their trust by being all nice and friendly, stroking them and talking softly and so on.
Then you snap their neck and bung them in the pot.
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
Did you kill it yourself? I fucking love meat, but I don't think I could do the killing myself- even for an animal I'd never met before, let alone one I'd looked after and stuff
I wrung his neck, there was nowt else to do for him, no-one wants a cockerel and this one was damaging my laying birds. It is a bit upsetting at first, but you get used to it, I definitley keep animals in two categores: Pets and farm animals. The distinction is that pets have names, although my wife has named a couple of the hens, but strangely not all of them.
Cockerels don't have much breast meat to speak of, in fact its quite strange at first, when you are used to seeing plump-breasted young chickens in the shops to see the breast sloping away from the breastbone. Gurt big legs though. I tend to either joint em for a genuine coq-au-vin if I'm feeling all poncey, but usually they go in a pie. Cockerels are also a bastard to pluck, but it seems to be fine if you scald em. I tend to keep a boiled kettle by the sink when I'm doing it.
The dogs like to eat the feet (uncooked, cooked chicken bones splinter and are bad for dogs, but raw is fine), and the offal I'm not using (gizzard for one, I know the French eat em, but I cannot imagine them being owt but dead tough and they stink, to boot).
Oh, and Firky, I reckon if your pullets are a modern laying hybrid, the coulor will be sex-linked, so theres little change theres a cockerel in amongst em, people want to weed them out at day-old to be honest.
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
Badger Kitten
oof
Are they Rhode island reds? Golden Comets?
Do the chickens have names?
Nope, feel free to give them a name. At the moment they're collectively called a pain in the arse.
Yeah they're hybrids, bought at 12 weeks old so should be laying in a couple of months. It probably isn't a cockrel it is just twice the size of the rest and quite confident. She's a big lass if it isn't a cockrel. If it is a cockrel he'll be oven roasted - or I may see if the pub down the road want him. They have ducks and things.
There's one renegade chicken too - don't know where she goes when I go to lock them in at night. I think she scampers off into the trees and goes a bit feral.
If I didn't live so close to the river I might have thought about a duck!
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
You wanna watch that, she might start laying away.
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Aye, thats about right, 'cept no-one ever really made friends with a mature cockerel.
This is true.
Knowing the average mature cockerel, I'd recommend a more assertive method.
A cockerel/shotgun interface, perhaps.
Yup, I think she gets bullied by the others.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
I hate chickens, all except eating them. How does such tasty meat come from such a gawky, horrific creatures. If chickens were ten times as big, they'd be fucking evil things, but hopefully better tasting than a turkey.
Funky_monks
Neo-Rustic
Hopefully, they'll settle into a proper pecking order soon, I'd be dead worried about her being out at night. This is the other good thing about a cockerel, he is undisputed top of the pile (if he isn't, the hens will probably kill him), and he has a 'vested' interest in keeping his harem together. I have a 'wanderer', but the cockerel wont let her get too far.
Having said that, this might not be the case with all cockerels. Chickens can be dead stupid at times.
Bakunin said:
You can still wring 'em, you just have to make sure you hold the feet tight, its easier if you aint feeling strong if you hold his neck under a broomhandle with your feet and pull with both hands so you make sure you snap his neck (this is how one usually kills a goose). I can just about do it the 'chicken' way, you forget how tough they are.
