Heritage Large Fowl Thread - Page 480

Nice from New Hampshire thank you. Those black and white chickens are extremely rare. In regards to your reds the one male must have the fast feat hing gene in him so he should be considered to breed back to his fast feathering daughters next year. If you have three or four of the best females you only need to hatch about 15 chicks from each female to get a good spread of what she can offer. Then raise and cull hard the say fifty chicks you hatch from three females. Watch again look for the speedy ones who mature and start laying first and crowing first. Get rid of all the slow feathering bird unless you got a good one and you want to show him but in the long run in three to five years all of the chicks will have this trait. Try to get then the ones with the nicest heads keep birds with five or six point combs and nice blades. A great typed red will not beat a good white rock pullet if he has a bad head. She will get best American every time. Once you fix the good type traits then start working on wing color, neck color and make sure your males tails are green inside and out. The deeper the green on the inside gives you more power in color. Then watch the female neck feathers in five years. Try to get pure ticking only and avoid the stripes that so many have. It will take maybe ten years to do this but when you do the black will go to the wings and tail like its suppose to.

If you ever see a chick with mouse color or blue this is a lost gene from the Rose Combs dont kill the chick is will help you with dark surface color. If you get a female that has weak color in black in the wings but is dead on in type hold her till one day you get a male that has killer type but is a little over to much in wing color . She will help in the matting absorb this fault he has.

Most important pick birds with vigor, then type, then egg product on and last color. I think the rookie can wait three to five years on worrying about color. Just master breeding and selecting for type. I talked to a friend last night who has hatched over 100 Rose Comb large fowl and from these he should have two good males and four females to breed with next year. One day this breeder Will have the best Rose Comb Reds in the USA. They lay and hatch like crazy so that is a good sign. This is a very good line from Urch and he got his from Rev John Melchert from Minn many years ago. He got his I think from Harold Thompkins so if selected for good type they will be great.

Keep up the good work and learn all you can from your standard for type. If you dont what in the heck are you looking for?

Great list of Judges Walt also a great web site for all of us to go to when you are looking for those rare chickens. bob

http://vimeo.com/12778477

Here is a wonderful link sent to me today. I hope you enjoy these folks they are from a great area of the Pacific Northwest where I use to show as a junior.

I hope some of you will not only get involved with Standard Breed Poultry the old breeds but also attend a Poultry Show and then maybe one day enjoy the fun of showing your birds.

bob

I just wrote a revised article with a old Line Breeding Chart that my wife made for me twenty years ago. I lost the chart but found it in a old computer I fired up about six months ago. Many have asked for the chart and how it is used.

Send me a personnel message and I will send you the article if you want to learn how to Line Breed Your Standard Breed Poultry.

bob