Poultry Keepers Podcast

Discover the true taste of chicken and how heritage dual-purpose breeds enhance flavor. Learn about the decline of flavor in store-bought birds and the environmental factors affecting poultry taste. Dive into the controversial world of Cornish cross breed, their breeding process, health issues, and compromised behavior. Explore the impact of terroir, variations in bird sizes for cooking, and differences in taste between poultry and pork. Understand how age and activity impact the texture and flavor of heritage poultry.

Learn how to give your chicks the best start in life with crucial insights on their first 14 days. Topics include the right diet, importance of clean water, homemade electrolyte mix, preparing the brooder, and the benefits of handling and socializing chicks.

Discover the crucial details for a chick's first week, including weight monitoring. Learn about feeding practices, such as using crumbles or mash as a starter feed. Find out about the risks of choking and how to slow down a chick's eating pace. Explore the importance of temperature regulation and early nutrition for chick development. Gain insights into observing crop fill and the development of respiratory and immune systems.

Explore the world of dual-purpose poultry breeds. Learn about the differences between heritage, standard, and show-quality breeds. Discover the complexities of heritage poultry and the implications of breeding for size alone. Uncover the challenges of handling surplus males in urban flocks. Gain insights into improving egg production and evaluating poultry breeds. Delve into the potential of bantam poultry breeds and the advantages of dual-purpose birds.

Learn about poultry nutrition and the differences between regular chicken feed and game bird feed. Discover strategies to protect your flock from predators in urban environments. Explore valuable resources for poultry keepers such as the Hubbard Breeder Management Guide and the Livestock Conservancy's Heritage Poultry Manual. Understand the importance of observing chicken health and diagnostics, and learn about bird testing and evaluation for good husbandry practices.

This episode of the podcast covers line breeding, spiral clan mating system, selecting the right birds, breeding and incubation essentials, flock care, nutrition, and optimizing chicken feed for growth and development.

Join poultry experts Rip Stalvey, Mandolin Royle, and John Gunterman as they discuss pastured versus cooped birds, predator threats, and weather considerations in chicken keeping. Topics include breeding strategies, insights on electric fencing, and training birds to avoid danger. They also cover cold weather care, ventilation, insulation, different breed tolerances, heating systems, feed intake, brooding boxes, and predator protection. Get expert tips on keeping your flock happy, healthy, and productive!

Learn about wing and leg banding techniques for showcasing poultry, the risks of breeding for extreme sizes, the impact of breeding on form and function, and the importance of feed and nutrition in improving bird health. Discover the behavior of chickens when feeding and a unique compost system. Get tips on providing appropriate nutrition and the significance of balanced diets for poultry breeders.

Delve into poultry breeding and learn about the impact of male bird behavior on fertility, the role of grit and gizzard in extracting nutrients, and the delicate balance of inbreeding. Discover the significance of breeding value and the resources needed for successful breeding. Explore the importance of consistent quality, identifying individual birds accurately, and the benefits of single matings. Dive into insights from processing poultry carcasses and the use of handheld security devices for animal scanning. Learn about methods of identifying and tracking poultry birds, and the importance of band tags for quality assurance and marketing.

Join this thrilling journey into poultry breeding to learn about selecting breeding stock, double mating challenges, insights on poultry management and breeding strategies, pros and cons of out-crossing, and understanding line breeding for uniformity and consistency.