From the time that Wyatt and I kept getting sent tot he poultry section of the petting zoo, to Wyatt earning his first chickens, then Bailey joining the poultry project so that Wyatt could sit in the back and learn along with her, the Patriot's Dream poultry journey has been a winding one.
The year after our first chickens arrived, Wyatt and Charlie talked Bailey into trying the meat pen project in 4-H. We knew it would be a learning experience, and we had no idea how right we were!
For those of you who have raised the cornish rock cross birds, you already know they are a laboratory created bird which is designed for optimal meat production in a short period of time. These birds do not live long enough to lay eggs and cannot reproduce naturally. The commercial poultry industry standard is for them to live 49 days from hatch to slaughter, and are almost exclusively the chicken you purchase as a broiler or fryer in the marketplace, regardless of whether you purchase organic or not. In the 4-H project, those birds are brought to fair at 6-8 weeks of age. After that first year, Bailey spent some time researching better breeds, as those fast growing created birds might put on lots of breast meat fast, but come with their own set of stomach and skeletal issues. She tried newer, slower growing breeds the following year, and then turned the project over to Wyatt Clay.
Last year, he incorporated the project into his science fair project, and raised White cornish rock cross meat birds, slower growing red broilers (often called red rangers) and heritage Delaware birds side by side. The birds all went to fair, with special permission to take the Delawares as a demonstration project, and judge felt that they all would have been competitive, but that he started them all at the same time instead of on the timelines for them to be ready at the proper timing for each breed. But the county premium book was set for the 6-8 week line, without provisions for heritage breeds. The white broilers he took would win grand champion, and earned Wyatt a new record in his first year at auction. And now, he wanted to do more.
Armed with knowledge and experience (and another trip to regional science fair competition), he looked back at the Delawares and didn't really like how their color had help up in the Arizona weather. He selected Brahmas - light and buff- and Buckeyes to try for the coming year. He also liked their finishing weights, and egg size and color, so that extra hens would do well in the laying flock and extra roos could fill out his business goals of the meat.
It turned out hard to time the number of birds he needed for hatching on the fair schedule, so he ordered in more, and the buff Brahmas had color variations that he thought could be a problem for uniformity, so in the end two pens of light Brahmas went to fair a little over a week ago.
The birds were unmistakable. When you looked down the line at meat pens, heritage and otherwise, you really noticed the light Brahmas. There were regular cornish rock cross meat pens, sure, and some of those looked better than others, but those just sit and lay around, and have no personality There were other heritage pens, too, but it was the first year these heritage projects were allowed so it was a learning curve. There were some beautiful barred rock ones, which earned the reserve champion heritage slot, as they were perfectly uniform in weight and one of Wyatt's Brahma pens was off by a 1/4 pound. But the color didn't stand out quite the same. That really showed Wyatt that he was right about the light Brahmas over the Buff Brahmas.
This is Wyatt Clay with his Champion Heritage Meat Pen plaque and blue ribbon. There had been a lot of apprehension about this first year of the project, but the youth did a beautiful job, and educated the public, too!
These are Wyatt's heritage meat birds in the pre-auction viewing area. He was so excited. Apparently, the poultry judge had come through and spoken with several of the youth, then even bid on their birds in auction. Talk about exciting for the kids!!!
A couple fo the boys from his 4-H club helped Wyatt carry the birds through the auction. I love those big smiles! I especially love that the youth work together so well!
Another special moment of excitement for Wyatt- not only did he have the Champion Heritage Meat pen inits first year as a project, the judge said it would have held its own again the regular meat birds had they been allowed to compete for grand champion, but the same duo of buyers who have been purchasing the regular broilers and bought at auction from Wyatt last year, still bought from him in the Heritage project! Lots of work from the youth is really gratified in moments like this, and the fact that they remember him, and remember his letters and projects means so much to him in recognition of his hard work over time.
Next- this weekend, we will make some adjustments to the breeding stock for the qualities that did the best for him, and the not quite perfect attributes he wants to remove from the breeding stock to put in the laying flock. I love that the hard work and a little success has him ready to work more! And I guess now, the incubator won't be going back to the shed for a while.
He wants to get his timing down and incubators rolling to hatch all of his birds on a perfect schedule next year! I guess no rest for mama just yet!
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