Recent content by Kev

Yep, this. People who try to cross and breed for big meat birds for eating all too often miss the part about growth rate. Big beautiful birds for sure(I absolutely love big birds myself).. but not worth eating for many weeks, months.. you can get around this by caponizing them or learn how...

NN makes everything more heat tolerant. It's been proven several times in broiler studies(NN broilers gaining more weight than non NN broilers. the effect gets more dramatic the hotter it gets etc), personal experience etc.

I haven't noticed a reduction in leg feathering on the showgirl legs. But then their leg feathers are huge... did you notice a reduction on birds with shorter/smaller leg feathers? It will be hard to tell if the bird has reduced leg feathers directly due to NN or just the genetic combination...

Yep, not a leg feather fan here either. Messiness is a big part of the reason. I suspect the claim about keeping chicken legs warm or drier probably is nonsense.. collects water, mud, brings far more blood vessels to the legs etc.. Most walking birds in very cold climates still have scaly...

There is no good reason to tolerate roosters that attack people. There's a whole bunch of stuff on 'training aggressive roosters' and how to 'properly raise cockerels' but the reality is, aggression IS genetic but is also variable, not either-or thing and so that is why there is so much talking...

Can't find the pic of Sissy.. :(

So nice when family members help out! They deserve a nice fresh cool dust bath as a reward. :)

Yeah that would have been nice-make it go on a chicken free diet for life. Might eventually get a trail camera.

NOOOOOooooooooooo.... :barnie btw hen finally stopped losing her chicks after pen switch around. Never found out what it was(her chicks was disappearing in twos and threes).

Oh that's a huge clue, somehow. Interesting! I wish there was some way to get you another one to check if performance is the same or not. p.s. any more nakeds?

Mixes are fun for some of those "allrighty, what's going on here?!" surprises. :) It seems like a normal case of cockerel with the slow feathering gene. It's widespread in the hobby, more common in some large/dual production breeds like brahmas, barred rocks etc. but is not that rare in...

Actually it can happen, but it would be a long haul getting there. Examples: Cream Legbars, Blue Isbars, Arkansas Blue Egg Layers. Naming a few. Yep it's called crossing over, when closely linked genes happen to split up and cross over to a chromosome. In central and south america, single...

Isbars are a nice looking breed. Egg size looks good also.

Very interesting question. She definitely has a nest and is broody by that description. It would be an incredible experiment if the rooster actually managed to properly breed her. It's certainly possible if he is big enough and able to move her tail feathers out of the way to reach her vent...

I looked around to see pricing on isbars. There was a low priced one on ebay but ahem, rooster has a pea comb. cough-it'snotisbar-cough....