TINY
TEXAS RANCH
HARLINGEN, TX
Your Source for
All Natural Meats Raised The Way God Intended
  
Why Birds:
Here on the ranch, we have more birds than we can
count. I must admit, I have had a love affair with poultry since I was a
child. I grew up on farm fresh eggs from chickens that ate grass. As a result,
I never knew egg yolks could be yellow instead of orange until I was in school.
I remember the first egg I tried to eat that came from a store. I thought it
was sick or something was wrong with it. I didn't like that it had so little
color and so little taste. Now, I see children look at my eggs with surprise at
how "strong" the color and taste are. They think something is wrong with
country eggs. It is all a matter of what you have been exposed to but once you
do your research, you'll want nothing less than pasture eggs.
But eggs and meat are only part of it. I think
poultry add so much to the farm. They have
entertaining personalities and are simply beautiful animals. They are
small enough that most children are not afraid of them and they ask so little
from us. If you are just starting out with livestock, you must try a few
birds. There are so many varieties to choose from though so we had to
be selective. Each breed of poultry on the farm was selected for a
particular reason. We narrowed our flock down to geese, turkeys, and chickens
but only keep one breed of each to keep them pure.
MIDGET WHITE TURKEY:
We
selected the Midget White Turkey for the taste. The
number one reason we began raising heritage livestock in the first place was
because of their taste. If we didn't feel they have something to offer, we
would not spend the time or money to raise and care for them. We think the best
way to raise any meat is on fresh green pasture and the heritage breeds do best
in that situation. So for us, raising the commercial broad breasted Butterball
style turkey just was not an option. If you prefer those, the stores are full
of them but if you want superior taste in a safe and humanely raised turkey then
you owe it to yourself to try our impressive Midget White Turkey.
HISTORY:
The Midget White was created in the early
1960's by Dr. Robert Smyth at the University of Massachusetts. This bird was
developed by crossing the standard white turkey with the Royal Palm (another
rare and endangered turkey) and the resulting offspring were meticulously
selected for taste and meat quality. The result was a smaller version of the
large breasted white with a superior texture and taste. Unlike the commercial
white turkey that must be bred artificially, this bird mates naturally and they
have a very docile if not friendly temperament. In spite of its quality, it was
never accepted by the commercial operations due to it's smaller size so this
breed almost became extinct.
We became interested in raising Midget Whites
after reading an article about their placing in a blind taste test. After all,
our goal has always been to find the absolute best tasting varieties and then
raise them to taste even better. If the Midget White is the best tasting turkey
on earth, that's what I want. Here's a link to the article for your
enjoyment: http://sifting-the-sandhills.blogspot.com/2008/04/heritage-turkey-taste-test.html
FRENCH COOPER MARANS:
I came across these on a farm forum once and had never heard of
them so I was intrigued. They are from France and are still fairly new to this country
so they can be hard to locate. The only way I could get my own was to order the
eggs over ebay and hatch them in my incubator. I ended up with a small
flock and then culled what I didn't like and and used the remaining birds to
raise more. Well, I got a little carried away and ended up with more
birds than I intended but loved them so much, I kept them all. They are a
striking black color for the hens and a cooper and black color for the roosters.
The best thing though is their eggs. They have the darkest eggs
of any chicken and they live up to the French reputation of being great for
cooking. What a treat with some fresh bacon in the mornings. So, we
got rid of all our chickens except the Marans because we prefer the color and
taste of their eggs.
EMBDEN GEESE:
This is a large goose that is solid white once mature.
They make a great table bird and lay a good amount of eggs. They are also the best guard animal for the farm you can
find. Nothing new comes around without them knowing and they certainly
sound out the alert. They
hate snakes and will rid the area of any they find so if you have children out
playing in the grass, this is a bit of insurance against snake bites.
Geese are grazing
birds and were once very common on farms before the small farm became extinct. Where we grew up in the southern
delta of Arkansas, they were used to remove grass from cotton fields long before
Roundup was invented. Goose was the traditional fare for the Christmas
table but are no longer available in most markets. Unlike turkeys or chickens, geese cannot be raised indoors on
grain so they simply are not produced commercially. They need room and they need grass,
which is what we give
ours.
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