Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[CharlieVoda]

Charlie, someone sent me a copy of a very old paper (was that you, Kathy?) written by a longtime breeder of the silver penciled rock - the article talked of choosing a cock bird with specific traits that would well with two different types of hen - when I say type, I mean coloring - one hen would product good males and the other good females - both using the same male. I am unsure what this is called, but the article specifically called out "look for a cock bird with XXX" type of thing. Fantastic article, very helpful, and it's what I'll use when I resolve some basic issues. I hope it works for me!

That would be what I (key word I) would call pen breeding. This can work quite well. It is probably the easier way of double mating. Depending on the color variety it can and does work. The color defect you are trying to correct is probably the real determining factor though.

It would also be what I was referring to above when I said you can get by for a few years single mating and then have to revert back to double mating. This is due to subtle color differences that are slowly becoming more prominent.

It would be well worth the time to see what the book The Mating and Breeding of Poultry link I posted above tells you. It will specifically give you ideas as to what color traits you should use for males and females. I have posted this link before. It makes for interesting reading.

Charlie

 

[OSUman]

That is more propagating....

Well, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with breeding... Get an example book, put together two birds who exemplify the breed, mate them, get the fertile eggs, incubate, and PRESTO!!! is it more complicated then that?

 

[thedragonlady]

Walt, If you use your finger nail you will find the slick spot where it was shaved. Me and the man who owns the poultry press were at a show in Kentucky and a couple of fellows came in carrying a large Blue Muscovy Drake and preceded to use a magi marker on the white ticking around the head. That person has since become an APA judge.

At a show you are selecting BREEDING birds. If you fake, pretty soon you are fooling yourself, and producing nothing. What's the point of that ?

 

[Bentley]

I am the one, or at least one of them, that talked about running turkeys with chickens for Marek's immunity. I have tried it, it works. The year I started, I lost a whole hatch to Mareks. After that, I acquired some turkey droppings/litter from a 4H family and scattered it around all my pens. I haven't had Marek's since. To me, that is proof enough.
I can believe this.

Good sense tells me I probably shouldn't comment on this right now but I just want to add a bit of information to this as a cause of warning. Besides, on more than one occasion I have been accused of not having good sense.... I think I can count two times this has happened

Anyway, yes running turkeys with chickens can help chickens to develop some immunity to Mareks and has been shown to work in many cases. Some turkeys, not all, carry what is called HVT or herpes Virus of Turkeys which was initially commonly used to create the Mareks vaccine used in chickens. Currently there are other methods of creating the vaccine but when a turkey flock does harbor low levels of HVT then effective immunity for Mareks in the chickens can be created.

So my word of caution when doing this. Chickens often carry cecal worms which can carry the blackhead causing organism Histomonas. While both chickens and turkeys can get blackhead when an outbreak occurs Blackhead is much more detrimental and damaging to the turkeys, and if the turkeys come down with severe blackhead then the high levels of exposure to the blackhead by the chickens can result in the chickens then suffering from blackhead too. However, the biggest possible problem when running turkeys and chickens together is the possible loss of turkeys to blackhead they picked up from being with the chickens.

Just a small work of caution in case people try this. It can and often does work to control Mareks in chickens but watch to make sure you are not causing other problems if the turkeys have value.

 

[Chloe77]

Hmmm. I'll have to research.

Btw, my Mom may pay for the feed, but I'm the one who has to take care of 17 chickens, and soon, more...

 

[NYREDS]

Well, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with breeding... Get an example book, put together two birds who exemplify the breed, mate them, get the fertile eggs, incubate, and PRESTO!!! is it more complicated then that?

No, you got it. That's all there is to it. Can't understand why so many people have a problem with it.

 

[Chloe77]

No, you got it. That's all there is to it. Can't understand why so many people have a problem with it.

Aahhh, good. I'm not alone!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Good sense tells me I probably shouldn't comment on this right now but I just want to add a bit of information to this as a cause of warning. Besides, on more than one occasion I have been accused of not having good sense.... I think I can count two times this has happened

Anyway, yes running turkeys with chickens can help chickens to develop some immunity to Mareks and has been shown to work in many cases. Some turkeys, not all, carry what is called HVT or herpes Virus of Turkeys which was initially commonly used to create the Mareks vaccine used in chickens. Currently there are other methods of creating the vaccine but when a turkey flock does harbor low levels of HVT then effective immunity for Mareks in the chickens can be created.

So my word of caution when doing this. Chickens often carry cecal worms which can carry the blackhead causing organism Histomonas. While both chickens and turkeys can get blackhead when an outbreak occurs Blackhead is much more detrimental and damaging to the turkeys, and if the turkeys come down with severe blackhead then the high levels of exposure to the blackhead by the chickens can result in the chickens then suffering from blackhead too. However, the biggest possible problem when running turkeys and chickens together is the possible loss of turkeys to blackhead they picked up from being with the chickens.

Just a small work of caution in case people try this. It can and often does work to control Mareks in chickens but watch to make sure you are not causing other problems if the turkeys have value.

Yes, I've heard/read about this potential problem. However, I have known people who run turkeys and chickens together all the time and have never had problems. I know of others who have so it all depends on your situation I guess.

Or if you want to try this, if you know some kids who got their 4H turkeys from a reputable hatchery (NPIP approved flock) then you don't have to raise turkeys at all. At the end of their time with the turkeys and they take them to the county fair and sell them, you can offer to clean out their pens for them and haul away the debris. That way you're not running turkeys with your chickens and vice versa and there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[OSUman]

A breeder near me, who raises his birds in commercial brooders, top dresses his chick feed for a couple days with dried turkey manure in order to vaccinate them for Mereks, and he told me its working. This might be a successful way to do it without penning the birds together.

Good sense tells me I probably shouldn't comment on this right now but I just want to add a bit of information to this as a cause of warning. Besides, on more than one occasion I have been accused of not having good sense.... I think I can count two times this has happened

Anyway, yes running turkeys with chickens can help chickens to develop some immunity to Mareks and has been shown to work in many cases. Some turkeys, not all, carry what is called HVT or herpes Virus of Turkeys which was initially commonly used to create the Mareks vaccine used in chickens. Currently there are other methods of creating the vaccine but when a turkey flock does harbor low levels of HVT then effective immunity for Mareks in the chickens can be created.

So my word of caution when doing this. Chickens often carry cecal worms which can carry the blackhead causing organism Histomonas. While both chickens and turkeys can get blackhead when an outbreak occurs Blackhead is much more detrimental and damaging to the turkeys, and if the turkeys come down with severe blackhead then the high levels of exposure to the blackhead by the chickens can result in the chickens then suffering from blackhead too. However, the biggest possible problem when running turkeys and chickens together is the possible loss of turkeys to blackhead they picked up from being with the chickens.

Just a small work of caution in case people try this. It can and often does work to control Mareks in chickens but watch to make sure you are not causing other problems if the turkeys have value.

 

[Lacy Blues]

A breeder near me, who raises his birds in commercial brooders, top dresses his chick feed for a couple days with dried turkey manure in order to vaccinate them for Mereks, and he told me its working. This might be a successful way to do it without penning the birds together.