Utility breed ?

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Utility breed ?
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SandraR

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 2346
Location: Devon

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 4:17 pm Post subject:
Informed well written post, much like your blog fascinating to read. Thanks.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 6:47 pm Post subject:
Top notch .

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 7:26 pm Post subject:

bodger wrote:

Top notch .

Couldn't agree more.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 7:34 pm Post subject:
Yes, thank you - really interesting. And also really interesting to compare it to my Dad's stories about his first job in a chicken farm in the early thirties. He always talked about the light sussex as his favourite bird because of that - they had six thousand in various barns. He reckoned that he could pluck a bird in six minutes and was paid by piecework

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 7:40 pm Post subject:
You aren't supposed to pull em to pieces.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 7:47 pm Post subject:
Doh . Serious question, CF - 'killing line' - how did you kill? Someone I used to work with worked in the packing station on Deeside one summer and told me some horror stories about birds going in to the plucker alive. It threw me a bit. Was it that mechanised then?

Castle Farm

Joined: 17 Sep 2008
Posts: 457
Location: Powys/Hereford Border.Near Hay-on-Wye

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 9:12 pm Post subject:
It was a hellova lot kinder on the birds thats a fact. It's a discrace to man kind the way we handle animals and I recon the chicken has seen some at the sharp end. I'll open a new post, as it will be how it is and was then.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9867
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 10:03 pm Post subject:

GSHP wrote:

Informed well written post, much like your blog fascinating to read. Thanks.

yup, agree here!

Castle Farm

Joined: 17 Sep 2008
Posts: 457
Location: Powys/Hereford Border.Near Hay-on-Wye

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 09 10:27 pm Post subject:
Posted Killing lines in other thred.

Mrs R

Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 8:55 am Post subject:

Thinking about it there could be a new category - what about feathers? You get eider ducks (sp?) giving the down for duvets I'm wondering if, perhaps not in this country, chickens are bred for their feathers, perhaps for ornamental purposes? We have the game feathers for the fishing hooks here don't we?

The definition of the term is:

- The state or quality of being useful; usefulness:
- Economics. the capacity of a commodity or a service to satisfy some human want.
- (of domestic animals) raised or kept as a potentially profitable product rather than for show or as pets: utility breeds; utility livestock.

I guess if you bred your birds specifically for their feathers because you got some gain out of it that they could also be described as utility, it's still a 'use'. Interesting one.

I've found the term going back as far as at least 1909 in 'Poultry for Profit - Egg and Poultry Raising at Home' by James Long. It makes sense to me that it first came about when showing became popular enough that they needed a term to differentiate between foodbirds and showbirds. This seems to be bourne out by the chapter 'Selection of a Utility Breed':

"Happily, utility breeders of the present day have realised the utter foolishness of relying on fanciers' cast-offs....and they are now adopting the more practical policy of breeding for themselves, selecting birds...without regard to show points."

It then goes on to mention the Utility Poultry Club and their laying trials from 1899!

Castle Farm

Joined: 17 Sep 2008
Posts: 457
Location: Powys/Hereford Border.Near Hay-on-Wye

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 10:01 am Post subject:
There is quite a market for capes from game fowl. A good condtion cape from a well feathered bird can make £70 or more.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 10:09 am Post subject:

The best capes & saddles (the long back feathers) come from 2nd year birds (killed after 2nd moult) I think, but like CF says they can command a good price.
I've sold silver & buff sussex saddles before but they didn't command such a high price.
Still haven't mastered skinning the capes off them, by the time I've finished its not fit to feed to flies let alone tie flies from them.
The best ones come from birds bred purely for that purpose.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 10:22 am Post subject:
Website for what claims to be the worlds largest fly tying feather farm. Interesting how they do it. According to their blurb the birds would moult naturally twice a year?

Mrs R

Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 4:46 pm Post subject:
wow 70,000 birds in air conditioned buildings just for feathers

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 18 6:44 am Post subject:
Unfortunately, many of the folks that I was talking to back in 2009 are no longer with us but just to show that you have a bee in your bonnet, it can be quite hard to get rid of. I started this small group a few months ago. I loved Downsizer and it will always be somewhere that I'll visit. https://www.facebook.com/groups/698543637023476/

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