Drew Lamb

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Selective breeding makes sense.

Though I confess the thread title had me thinking about Lego.

Foghorn Lego!

Timothy Norton wrote:I have one Bielfelder hen in my mixed flock and she 'is built like a brick shithouse'.

I can only imagined having a flock of them and developing a landrace version. It'd be an amazing project for sure.

I recently hatched some and I have 14 in the brooder right now.  8 are roosters!  These are the most solid, cold tolerant, fast growing, calm, and friendly chickens that I have ever raised.  So far, I'm pleased.  

Nick Katz wrote:Thanks for sharing! I raised a few 'rescued' bullheads from a friends leaking tank many years back, and was impressed with how resilient they were and how large they grew.

I'd be super curious to learn more about your results over time. Have you continued raising? How's hatching your own fry worked for you?

After the USDA took over the regulation of catfish, they made it impossible for small and boutique farmers to operate.  They put wild catch guys totally out of business.  I was producing for a local restaurant and we were receiving rave reviews from customers.  It was a nice niche, but not worth building a multi-million dollar facility for inspectors.  So, sadly, I shut down that operation.  

This is a video series that I created in my shop that details how to breed Brown Bullhead Catfish for small scale aquaculture and aquaponics.  It's a bit different than how the big producers aka "Big Catfish" spawn their channel cats.  I get a lot of questions about different types of catfish, but I only work with this local species.  This pair, Sylvia and Sylvester, were born in my facility and were my breeders for about 5 years.  Over the late spring and summer, they spawn three times beginning at the end of May.

My setup is an aquarium fitted with an airlift/siphon/bucket filtration system.  Some folks have boasted to me that their catfish breed in their ponds without any effort on their part.  Indeed, they will, but if you wanna be a bona fide farmer and maximize production for food, then I recommend a managed breeding program; otherwise, most of the larvae and fry will be eaten by other fish.

I like using catfish for aquaponics.  They do well in the confined quarters as opposed to bass or bluegill that scare easily and can be aggressive toward one another.  They can handle a wide range of temperatures and water conditions.

Drew's Catfish Breeding Videos

hans muster wrote:Great post, thanks a lot!

When you will be talking about your malting setup, can you add a few pictures? I am highly interested in trying out some malts from other cereals, and would love to see a small scale setup that works!

Hey Hans!  The extended weather forecast is looking snowy, so it might be a good time to work on a tutorial over the upcoming week.  

Thanks for the kind words!  I enjoy the malting process.  The delicious results are worth the effort.  If I miss a brew a day, the malt becomes well modified chicken feed.  I'll write a tutorial on malting.  I'm going to build a biogas fired rotating drum kiln.  Your oven build looks awesome and will surely get the job done.

In the early 90s, when Rogue had a brewery down on Water St in Ashland, Todd was the brewmaster and we founded a homebrew club with Ross Litton called the Southern Oregon Beer Farmers.  Following the 1997 New Years Day flood, Rogue closed the Ashland brewery.  Ross founded Walkabout in Central Point and I brewed on his 7 bbl system from time to time if he needed a hand.  I even blew up the brewery when the igniter malfunctioned on the kettle!

These are my LGDs, Cupid and Mona.  They are 1/2 Sarplaninac, 1/4 Akbash and 1/4 Great Pyrenees.  

It all started at a brew pub located on a creek at the foot of the Siskiyou mountains back in 1991. I was barely old enough to drink and I was sharing homebrews with an old guy who taught high school Spanish in Grants Pass. During that conversation, he piqued my interest in Belgian style beers. They became somewhat of an obsession and a heavy influence on my own style of craft brewing that has continued throughout my life.

Spontaneous fermentation in open vats. Barn doors wide open to let the wind inoculate the wort with wild yeasts and bacteria. Secondary fermentation in old wine barrels with additions of peaches or raspberries. Dry, fruity beers, with flavor descriptors such as “horse blanket” and “sour”. Beers crafted by farmers after the harvest to refresh their workers during the following season. Monks solemnly crafting intoxicating Abbey ales with copious quantities of candy sugar. What’s not to love about the beers of Belgium where anything goes and the brewers often work with the ingredients and equipment that they have readily on hand or can afford?

For nearly a decade I had been operating my aquaponics farm that I started just a few hundred feet from that brew pub. I produced fish, herbs, and microgreens that I sold to local restaurants. Government regulations had whittled the operation down to just microgreen production.  Then, the building was sold, so I downsized and moved production to my greenhouse. The 2020 lockdown closed the restaurants; finishing it off for a while.

I repurposed some of my microgreen equipment for chicken fodder production for my layers and broilers. Soon, I realized that I could also make my own barley malt for brewing. I learned that another brew pub was downsizing their brewery and needed money to cover payroll, so I was able to level up my little homebrewery with a good deal on professional equipment.

Lacking kilning equipment to create specialty malts, I’ve had to formulate recipes and mashing schedules for unkilned malt or “green” malt made from feed barley purchased from the local co-op. This poses challenges as it cannot be stored, so brew days must be coordinated with malting which takes roughly 5 days. I’ve adopted practices much like those of the Scottish distillers. We’ll discuss that in another article. I can, however, kiln small quantities in the oven for additional flavor and color.

Milling the green malt is especially challenging. I have a roller mill and it basically squishes the malt instead of crushing it. Mashing the green malt is particularly difficult as well. The mash schedule must provide ample rests at the appropriate temperatures to break down beta glucans and modify and hydrolize the starch; otherwise, it will remain in the husk as a gummy blob yielding low extract.

My wife, like a good Irish girl, asked me to brew her a stout that was like an Imperial stout that I brewed back in 1994. I found my old notebook and set about formulating the grist with my current equipment and raw materials. Making stout with green malt? Has that been done? Searching the interwebs yielded an old article from Guinness’ archives. It was a technical paper from the 1950s discussing experiments that they had done using unkilned malt and roasted barley. It looked promising, but they had difficulties milling with a roller mill which caused a lower extract yield, so they used a hammer mill instead.

Back in the 90s, the variety of yeasts for brewing beer was somewhat limited. Often, I would pick up a bottle conditioned beer like Chimay or Sierra Nevada and make a culture from the yeast at the bottom of the bottle. For a few years, I lived near the Hillsdale pub, Oregon’s first brew pub, in southwest Portland. They sold beer to go in Mason jars. Their hefeweizen had large chunks of yeast floating in it and it made a good yeast starter when pitched into a batch of wheat beer.

According to my notes, I needed a yeast that could handle the high original gravity of my Imperial stout (1.084), so I turned to those Belgian monks and cultured my yeast from a bottle of Chimay. I remember my ‘94 Imperial stout as being an estery beer that needed to breathe a bit. My sensei, Todd Kemp, who was a brewmaster for Rogue, described it as being a perfect example of an Imperial stout.

Now we have hundreds of yeast varieties to choose from and even the dry yeasts perform well without a yeast starter. For this batch, I went with Mangrove Jack’s Belgian Triple Yeast M31. Surprisingly, this yeast pooped out at a specific gravity of 1.022 after two weeks of fermentation. Like a good monk, I said a prayer and pitched the old standby EC-1118; usually used to ferment wines and hard ciders.

I’ll write more about malting barley in the near future. For this batch, I prepared my specialty grains a few weeks in advance, then stored them in Mason jars. The specialty grains were roasted barley (unmalted) and Biscuit malt. Roasted barley is the one ingredient that defines a Stout ale. It is the main difference between a Stout and a Porter. Honestly, I care more about making beer that my wife likes than staying true to a style. I kilned the roasted barley until it was the color and aroma that I was aiming for. I’d compare it to a medium roast coffee bean.

The Biscuit malt was something new to me altogether. It was something that I found in a book called the Craft Maltster’s Handbook by Dave Thomas and wanted to try. I kilned the malt until it had a subtle reddish hue and an aroma that reminded me of dry roasted peanuts, but without the peanuts.

I wanted this ale to be reminiscent of sitting around a campfire in the middle of a forest in the Pacific Northwest. I was looking for pine, woody, and earthy flavors and aromas that would pair well with the roasted, chocolate, and coffee characteristics of the specialty grain and malt. Chinook and Saaz hops were my choice and they did not disappoint.

I don’t mean to brag, but I have brewed for corporate events and weddings; I’ve been offered brewmaster positions; partnerships; and even capital to start my own brewery. I’ve won champion ribbons. My wife says that this was a masterpiece. Don’t argue with Irish women. Accept the compliment and keep brewing. Name your best beers after them.

the Kelness (if Belgian Monks Brewed Guinness with Green Malt)

Recipe for 10 gallons

Yeast: Mangrove Jack’s Belgian Triple M31 and Lalvin EC 1118

24 lbs Green (unkilned) Malted Barley

2 lbs Biscuit Malt

2 lbs Oatmeal

6 lbs Sugar (Add to boil. Brew like the monks!)

4 oz Chinook Hops (3 oz at 45 mins, 1 oz at 1 hr 15 mins)

1 oz Saaz Hops (15 mins)

Water: 10 gallons in mash. (We are using green roller milled malt, a watery mash works best in this scenario.) Sparge to 12.5 gallons.

Mash Schedule:

Heat to 122 F, hold for 15 mins

Heat to 130 F, hold for 20 mins

Heat to 140 F, hold for 30 mins

Heat to 155 F, hold for 20 mins

Iodine test until you are satisfied with the starch conversion.

Typically, I’d mash out around 170 F to denature the enzymes. With this recipe, the enzymes will remain active during fermentation. Since the base malt wasn’t kilned, remaining enzymes will continue to modify starch and convert it to sugar.

Boil for 1.5 hours, add Chinooks at 45 mins, add Saaz and 1 oz of Chinooks at 1 hr 15 mins. Chill with plate wort chiller to room temperature. Original gravity should be around 1.080 to 1.084.

Primary fermentation (M31 yeast): 7 days in an open fermenter

Secondary fermentation (EC 1118 yeast): 3-7 seven days closed with an airlock until terminal gravity is .990. ABV will be between 9-10%.

Keg in 2 Corn cans and force carbonate at 30 psi. Aim for a high rate of saturation. Should be like Champagne. Cold condition for 2 weeks.

Many of us in the homestead movement have realized that our dependence upon commercial hatcheries for our broiler chicks is a weakness in our sustainable food chain.  Our best defense is to decentralize it by breeding, raising, and processing our own livestock and to resist any attempts to stop us from doing so.

The most popular broiler raised by farmers, small and large, is the Cornish Rock; also known as the Cornish Cross.  This hybrid has been refined over the decades to meet the needs of the poultry industry.  Given that it is a hybrid, it does not lend itself to breeding a Cornish Rock rooster to a Cornish Rock hen to produce Cornish Rock offspring.

There are a lot of opportunities for farmers and homesteaders to develop their own poultry breeds and strains.  In brief, the key is to make a list of goals and desired traits and then select one of the breeding programs described in this video:



In addition to the strategies described in the video, devising an ethical breeding program can yield the greatest overall benefits.  An ethical breeding program is one that is designed to promote the health and welfare of the animals being bred, while also minimizing any negative impacts on the environment or other animals. Ethical breeding programs prioritize the well-being of the animals and strive to minimize any negative effects on genetic diversity or other aspects of the population.

Some key components of an ethical breeding program may include:

Maintaining genetic diversity: Ethical breeding programs work to maintain genetic diversity within the population, in order to reduce the risk of genetic issues that can arise from inbreeding or other breeding practices.

Ensuring animal welfare: Ethical breeding programs prioritize the health and well-being of the animals being bred, providing them with appropriate housing, nutrition, and veterinary care as needed.

Minimizing negative impacts: Ethical breeding programs work to minimize any negative impacts on the environment or other animals, through responsible breeding practices and appropriate management of the population.

Transparency: Ethical breeding programs are transparent about their practices and outcomes, sharing information with other breeders and interested parties in order to promote the development of best practices and the overall well-being of the animals being bred.

Ultimately, the goal of an ethical breeding program is to promote the health and welfare of the animals being bred, while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of the population and minimizing any negative impacts on the environment or other animals.

Here’s a few traits that I would look for in my breed and resulting strains:

1.  Rapid growth rate

2.  Abundant breast meat

3.  Four legs and no wings  (I can dream!)

4.  Calm and friendly demeanor

5.  Heat and cold tolerant

6.  Hard feathers for repelling rain and snow

7.  Predator resistant: Smells and sees predators at a distance, alerts, and runs for cover.  Feather colors and patterns provide good camouflage.

Other traits could be dependent upon your goals.  Perhaps, you want an SUV chicken that free ranges, lays eggs in the coop, and is meaty enough to make a good stewer when she is too old to lay eggs.

For pastured poultry (raised in movable pens or shelters on grass), I'd start by crossing a White Plymouth Rock rooster with a dozen or so Cornish hens to create your own Cornish Rock breed.  I would also try developing the Delaware chicken by crossing a Barred Plymouth Rock rooster to New Hampshire hens.  I think that the Delaware could be an excellent utility breed for both eggs and meat.

Another utility breed that homesteaders should consider is the German Bielefelder.  This is a very large breed that is good for meat and eggs.  It is hardy and cold tolerant.  They like to free range and do well on pasture.

I have learned that I can co-culture layers and broilers.  I designed a coop that is low to the ground.  The Cornish Rocks do not roost, they get too large and cannot jump, but they will go inside the coop at night after a day of free ranging and foraging as long as the ramp is not too steep.  My layers are Barnevelders and they tend to head in early to roost.  The Cornish Rocks hang around and eat and drink until it's nearly dark, then they head in and find a spot on the floor to the side of the roost.  So, it is possible to forgo the Salatin chicken tractor design (often used to shelter broilers on pasture) and use a "lowrider" version of his Eggmobile type structure to house both breeds.

I was in 4-H when I was a kid and won many blue and purple ribbons with my Red and Copper Satin rabbit breeds.  Developing your own lines is fun and fulfilling.  I recommend keeping good records.  All of my rabbits had identifying tattoos on their ears and pedigrees. With chickens, I'd maintain pedigrees and use leg bands for identification.  I suppose you could use chips, too.  Chew carefully!

By selecting a breed and a breeding program that works best for you, you can create your own resilient, sustainable chicken breed and eliminate your dependence upon the failing, centralized food system.