A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

[Yellow House Farm]

These aren't sprigs; it's not an ideal blade, but they're not sprigs. However, that is not your priority at this time. 7lbs, isn't bad; in theory he should be eight-ish at this point, but all good things come in time. He seems to be well marked, and conversely from your other males, he appears more centered on his legs. His tail is bad both in structure and in angle. He is not as deep in the front as he should be, and he appears a tad high on the shank. However, the opposite is the usual problem; so don't sweat it.

A breeding scheme would be to consider your pullets/hens carefully. Look for one with a full breast, a tad--and I mean a tad--lower on the leg, and with a tail angle no higher than 35 degrees.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Greetings!
This evening I will put this season's first batch of eggs in the incubator. I intend to do a better job of culling obvious undesirable traits as early as possible this year. As I check the hatchlings' foot/toe conformation, is there any reason to expect an undesirable toe to improve after hatching? (Some of last year's chicks had weird positions of their 4th and 5th toes.)
Best wishes,
Angela

 

[GreenRiverHen]

This aren't springs; it's not an ideal blade, but they're not sprigs.  However, that is not your priority at this time.  7lbs, isn't bad; in theory he should be eight-ish at this point, but all good things come in time.  He seems to be well marked, and conversely from your other males, he appears more centered on his legs.   His tail is bad both in structure and in angle.  He is not as deep in the front as he should be, and he appears a tad high on the shank.  However, the opposite is the usual problem; so don't sweat it.

A breeding scheme would be to consider your pullets/hens carefully.  Look for one with a full breast, a tad--and I mean a tad--lower on the leg, and with a tail angle no higher than 35 degrees.  

 

Thank you for your help--I really appreciate it. Will do my best to set up breeding pens!

 

[kimberly35042]

Greetings!
This evening I will put this season's first batch of eggs in the incubator. I intend to do a better job of culling obvious undesirable traits as early as possible this year. As I check the hatchlings' foot/toe conformation, is there any reason to expect an undesirable toe to improve after hatching? (Some of last year's chicks had weird positions of their 4th and 5th toes.)
Best wishes,
Angela

I'd love to know the same thing as well and also the quickest way to cull at hatch.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I'd love to know the same thing as well and also the quickest way to cull at hatch.

Toes can be done ASAP.

 

[brahmabreeder]

The buffs just started laying yesterday and they're fertile! I'll be setting eggs here writhin the next month.

 

[NanaKat]

Does anyone else have their breeding pens setup yet? I have two buff Brahma pens and three light Brahma pens. Each pen has three females and one male. Looks my buff pullets will be laying soon. They're getting red in the face and their pubic bones have spread to like two and a half of my fingers wide. Hopefully I'll see chicks the first of February!

After posting photos in November,, I did a test hatch with the Columbian Wyandotte cock over 3 hens. So far there are 5 hatched and a few more due this week. These are being marked with wing tags and toe punched. I removed the cock and waited two weeks,
There are a few young cocks that have matured over these past 6 weeks that have nicer combs. So I selected the best type with the nicest comb and added him to the pen with the 3 hens. I am collecting test eggs with this cock. My mentor is coming soon to help look over the cocks and hens and advise me on other pen selections.

Then I purchased a lovely trio of White Wyandotte from Larry Dye at the Shawnee show Dec 13. Amazingly one of these hens began laying the next day in the quarantine pen. The second hen began laying at the middle of that next week. The first eggs went into the incubator and at candling, I removed half of the eggs but the rest are growing. These will be from a different cock than the one I purchased so those chicks will have a toe punch separate from the new cock. He is covering the hens now and the eggs collected are marked differently and the chicks will be toe punched accordingly.
Larry had a gorgeous White Wyandotte pullet entered in the show that just stopped you in mid-step. (I'm hoping there will be a photo of her in the show results. I was helping with the raffle and wasn't able to take photos like I did last year).

I have two pens of Delaware Bantam. One pen is laying like gangbusters and I just set 14 eggs. This pen is inside the barn while the other pen is outside with a weatherproof coop.

The Buckeye trio is set up but not laying and there are progeny from 2014 still to review.
The Cochin pen is set up, but they are not laying.
My Spangled OEGB pair is not laying yet.
The two Serama pair are laying and those eggs are incubating.
There are other Bantams that will be going in pens as trios...OEGB, d'Anver and Rosecomb.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
If you are selling "started birds" only, how old is that? I don't want to sell chicks or eggs.
But last season I think I kept them too long, selling at 4 months. I fed a lot of birds I didn't keep
and it was really costly. What is the earliest age I should be able to see all the features I need
to evaluate for culling?
Happy New Year!
Karen

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hi,
If you are selling "started birds" only, how old is that? I don't want to sell chicks or eggs.
But last season I think I kept them too long, selling at 4 months. I fed a lot of birds I didn't keep
and it was really costly. What is the earliest age I should be able to see all the features I need
to evaluate for culling?
Happy New Year!
Karen

Well, that depends on what breed you're selling, and how you define "started birds."

There are some breeds that mature fairly quickly, and others that mature painfully slow. In the slow maturing breeds, many of those birds can be culled early for obvious flaws. In my Red Dorkings, I evaluate at hatch, then again every two months to further narrow down my potential breeding quality birds as time goes on.

If you're selling breeding quality trios, pairs, or individuals, then you have to give them enough time to mature, or at least show important features. That is often 8-12 months or longer, especially in the larger dual purpose breeds. I had an experienced breeder once tell me to wait to breed hens until they were in their second year. I assumed that it was because the pullet eggs are smaller and the chicks from them would be more fragile. I laterI found out that he meant that a pullet is not yet fully developed, so why waste resources on the offspring of a bird that can't yet be fully evaluated. A second year hen has nothing to hide. Certainly many people disagree with this, but if you want to see ALL features, it can take a while.

If you're selling layer-quality hens, then as soon as you can be 100% sure of gender you can sell your obvious culls as "started" pullets, as long as they're feathered out and don't have to be brooded inside anymore, assuming the outside temps are high enough. Many people sell started pullets at 6-12 weeks. Other people sell them as "point of lay" pullets at 15-20 weeks for a higher price. That can be done with your later culls.

Cockerels are more difficult to sell at any age, much less make up your feeding costs. It is important to either move them out as early as possible, or to be able to sell them at point of slaughter for at least feed costs, or ideally more if the market is available. There are many things that can increase the price of a cockerel -- "free range," "non-GMO organic," "heritage breed," "humanely raised," "old-fashioned taste," etc are all labels that can increase their price. I free range my birds and give them very flavorful, free "produce waste" from the local grocery store to really bring out their flavor. I have a small enough breeding program to be able to grow out and process all my cull cockerels for personal use, but larger breeders wouldn't have that option.

Many breeders recommend hatching out every egg available, and getting rid of every cull the moment it is determined to not be of breeding quality to make room for more chicks. That means either having a large enough market for utility chicks of any age, or killing a lot of chicks before they reach market or consumable age. While I agree that a breeder will progress much faster with less infrastructure and expense that way, it is not in my temperament to do that. Once I hatch out a chick, I take care of every cull until it has reached an age where it can be slaughtered for use. Otherwise, I feel that I have killed without adequate reason. I am only comfortable killing birds for either consumption or humane euthanasia, not simply for the convenience of depopulation. But that's just me. I don't judge those who approach it differently, as long as everything is done humanely.

 

[kimberly35042]

Quote:
Wow....nicely said