Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
This is a timely discussion for me. My pullets are all on the small side. I have a few relatively large cockerels and a lot of smaller ones. I was going to work on size and back length over the next couple of years. But the largest cockerels will grab any opportunity to nip at me if I don't have a stick in hand. The smaller cockerels look more like the standard even though they are under-sized. They are assertive with each other but not with me. I am beginning to realize I would be very happy with a bunch of good-looking-but-undersized birds in my yard. I don't care how wide and long-backed those big boys are! The thought of passing on their human-aggressive traits makes me shudder. So I am definitely re-thinking next year's breeding priorities.

In the meantime, I'm going to cull my pacifist cockerel. He broke the tip off his beak a while back and has been on the bottom of the pecking order ever since. The other cockerels are relentless about attacking him. His beak had mostly regrown and he was starting to fend for himself when he re-broke the tip. Now he is hiding again. It's time to put him out of his misery and let him serve a good purpose in life as stew. Poor guy, I kinda like him but I sure don't want to reproduce the weak beak and cowardly attitude.

Sarah

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

At this time of the year, with multiple hatches, it's shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. A couple of starchy old hens are just the ticket for straightening juvenile delinquent boys out.

Vickie.....you are OH SO RIGHT. Anytime the "boys" get outta line and a bit to much testosterone flowing, I have 2 hens ("Big Foot", the matriarch of my Col Rock bunch and "Madea", a Col Rock male crossed to a Wheeler BR female) that I toss into their midst. Within a VERY short period of time the boys are QUIET, MEEK and MILD and a couple are normally a bit bloody!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

This is a timely discussion for me. My pullets are all on the small side. I have a few relatively large cockerels and a lot of smaller ones. I was going to work on size and back length over the next couple of years. But the largest cockerels will grab any opportunity to nip at me if I don't have a stick in hand. The smaller cockerels look more like the standard even though they are under-sized. They are assertive with each other but not with me. I am beginning to realize I would be very happy with a bunch of good-looking-but-undersized birds in my yard. I don't care how wide and long-backed those big boys are! The thought of passing on their human-aggressive traits makes me shudder. So I am definitely re-thinking next year's breeding priorities.

In the meantime, I'm going to cull my pacifist cockerel. He broke the tip off his beak a while back and has been on the bottom of the pecking order ever since. The other cockerels are relentless about attacking him. His beak had mostly regrown and he was starting to fend for himself when he re-broke the tip. Now he is hiding again. It's time to put him out of his misery and let him serve a good purpose in life as stew. Poor guy, I kinda like him but I sure don't want to reproduce the weak beak and cowardly attitude.

Sarah

Sarah, these are not easy choices, but they have to be made. Do I use a bird with a fault, like split wing? Should I use this hen with a pinched tail and hope she doesn't dominate the hatch but the rooster can cover that? Not easy.

The temperament issue has been an issue with me for years and years. We talked earlier this week here about "enjoying" the birds as a major reason to have them, not merely egg machines. Well, if I'm gonna enjoy them, they need to be what I want in temperament. I'm used to birds of different temperament and I want them proud and confident, but if you've had birds as long as some of us have, hens or roosters, you know there are days when you gasp, "Alright, that's about enough!". You know how that ends, right? LOL

 

[cbnovick]

Vickie.....you are OH SO RIGHT. Anytime the "boys" get outta line and a bit to much testosterone flowing, I have 2 hens ("Big Foot", the matriarch of my Col Rock bunch and "Madea", a Col Rock male crossed to a Wheeler BR female) that I toss into their midst. Within a VERY short period of time the boys are QUIET, MEEK and MILD and a couple are normally a bit bloody!!

X 2...those big, older hens (and old cocks) are good at teaching 'manners' lol!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I keep an old "trainer" hen around for "lessons". She whips my pullets into shape, shows them where to lay, puts them through finishing school where they buff their manners. She'll also put the hurt on any young cockerel who has gotten way too big for his little saddle feathers.

Those old gals are invaluable. It doesn't matter how much she lays either. Oh she still does, a few nice eggs each week, but again, I'll feed her until she is very old for the other value she brings to this place. This is stuff they just don't talk about on many other threads. This thread is indeed a treasure.

 

[bnjrob]

Ok. pulled the chicken tractor to beside the big run. Took out the 4 least dominant of the cockerels. They seemed grateful. The "bully" and the other cockerel about his size, I left in the big run with the girls. That seemed to do it. Things seem copacetic. There's a bit of scuffing in the tractor between the cockerels there, but nothing like what was going on earlier in the big run. March, the brood hen seems more settled too. She still isn't socializing with the youngsters, but isn't as standoffish as she was.

Thanks!
Karen

Great! I tell you, some days you just have to do a chicken-basket-upset to try and get everyone to behave.

 

[flowerchild59]

I keep an old "trainer" hen around for "lessons". She whips my pullets into shape, shows them where to lay, puts them through finishing school where they buff their manners. She'll also put the hurt on any young cockerel who has gotten way too big for his little saddle feathers.

Those old gals are invaluable. It doesn't matter how much she lays either. Oh she still does, a few nice eggs each week, but again, I'll feed her until she is very old for the other value she brings to this place. This is stuff they just don't talk about on many other threads. This thread is indeed a treasure.

Great words of wisdom. Well said.

 

[3riverschick]

The inheritance of fecundity in fowls (1917)
Author: Smart, Oscar
Publisher: Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex
http://archive.org/details/cu31924003138710
Oscar Smart was highly respected English poultry-man. One of the early scientific
Mendelian poultry breeders. He apparently died unexpectedly while creating a
breed called the Mendel Fowl. A poultry breed which would have the egg laying
abilities of the Leghorn and the table qualities of the Sussex.
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Fecundity
Information on the Mendel Fowl:
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924003138710#page/n97/mode/2up
pages 57 thru 61 ; 81 .

 

[cluck-cluck]

I always read about how the sire passes on his temperament to the offspring, but I'm wondering how much of the hen's temperament is passed on?

 

[thedragonlady]

I always read about how the sire passes on his temperament to the offspring, but I'm wondering how much of the hen's temperament is passed on?

A good calm broody is worth her weight in gold. Her chicks will be fast learners, and calm like mom. Incubator hatched babies need to be worked with a bit. It is soon very apparent that some chicks are calmer, and friendlier than others. I believe in this case the temperament is influenced by the sire , as I have seen a difference in chicks hand reared from the same hens, but by a different sire.