Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Fred's Hens]

Fred,
I bred hard to breed dogs , Mastiffs, for years. I always found that the key to a good breeding male was to put him inwith some old hussies. I've used this theory in poultry for years,and it works. Put a cockerel yoy are planning to use in with some old hens. They will teach him manners,and you will get many more fertile eggs.

thedragonlady,

You got that right. That is exactly where the crown prince is right now.

 

[bruceh]

i have to go back and read some more. however, from what i gathered fred is sentimental as his chickens are growing up .and bee our bee got excited. omg bee got excited.

i am on the phone now calling ripley's believe it or not . 2 phenomenons happened right here on backyard chickens. fred got sentimental , bee got excited and. both happening

on the same day.

excuse me while i gather myself.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[stonykill]

 

[thedragonlady]

A trio is a good place to start. Breed what you have. Hatch 30-40 chicks, if you can. Now, you have a full year before the next breeding period. Grow them out and take your time culling. Wait until 8 months to do your major culling (as in kill or sell, but remove from flock). No sense carrying all those "less than wonderful" birds through the following winter. Bob Blosi preaches, "go slow, go small, and go down the middle". He means don't flock breed, for one thing. Choose your very best two cockerels and pen one each to breed back to his mother. Choose two or three very best pullets and put those back in under their father.

This is how one gets started. When you setup your breeding pens for the second go 'round, you already have three "families" or houses. Hope that's clear. You'll have three sub-lines going now. Round three breeding season, should you get that far, then requires yet another matchup. I suggest you might enjoy Mr Robert Blosl wonderful blog on breeding in this fashion. http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id60.html

In Bob's world, one never mixes in "new blood". One does get blood, but only from the same line you have, at the 10th generation mark from another reputable breeder who is also breeding your line.

Hope that helps some.

thedragonlady, or KathyinMO please jump in here.

You can surely be of more help here than I.

Fred,
Not sure about that , but I used one cock bird in making buff Silkies for 5 generations. I was lucky enough that my Silkies were very long lived. I had also kept a few in bred to the good females in the third generation. I then crossed those lines. Kept getting better and better.. It only works if you are keeping what you SEE! None of this , "this is Suzies" chick, stuff." This way the genotype ( What's hidden) starts to resemble the Phenontype ( What you see.) The minute you keep a bird that does not resemble what you envision, you are dead in the water..as they are inbred too, and will muddy up your line.

Fingers not working again......darned low pressure!

 

[NikkiMiChickie]

If she is a good layer and you want her progeny, go ahead and let 'er rip.  Congrats on being silkie free! Pesky thing to be afflicted with..... 

Thanks, Bee

The terms are applied in a "grey" way, in that different countries apply slightly different terms at different points.  In the UK, they don't use the word "rooster", as I understand it, rather "cock" or "cockbird".

I'd rather use the terms the way the American Poultry Association does.  Perhaps I, or someone else, could get a link to that.

In my own little world, I use pullet until her one year date, then she is a hen.  I use cockerel until he is a year old, then rooster, then when he is fully mature, around 18 months, I prefer to use cockbird.   But again, words only have meaning when the speaker and the hearer are agreed as to their meaning.  

In a perfect world, we'd all, me included, would use the dictionary approved meaning/useage of words or APA designations for the fowl, but alas....... tis not the way it is. 

A potato-potahtoe, tomato-tomahtoe kind of thing then, I guess. Thanks, Fred. I technically have zero hens and zero roosters then, but one cockerel, and eight laying pullets, as well as three unsexed chicks. I won't be flock breeding in the future, btw, but rather following the suggestions I've been reading here for the last few days. Your response with Bob Blosi's blog was extremely helpful as well. I had been wondering about breeding back to the parents, and you answered my questions. I certainly don't have excellent stock at this point, but I'm hoping that by selectively breeding my top hatchery birds, I can have a nice flock that meets my needs. I've learned SO much in the last ten pages or so of this thread. I intend to use my broody again in the spring, assuming she goes broody! Any tried and true methods for marking eggs under a broody? I read someone's suggestion to use a sharpie... Is that safe?

after 1 year. 

Thanks, Bruce!

 

[Nancygardens]

Back from dumpster diving for pumpkins! LOL! I got some for the chickens after I spotted
'em on my walk; it was past dark so I came back for the stroller as it was a big one that
I spotted & I did not want to lug it home. Grabbed a bag and snagged two of 'em so the chickens will be happy with that and the rest of grand daughters left over ppj sand.

I've been trying to figure out what is a roo and what is a hen of my Mornas X they all fight like roos, with hackels up one had a comb and is definately a roo and one other tail feathers look like a roo only need one hoping the other two are hens.

What breed dual purpose for meat & eggs [not banty] goes broody the most do you think?

[Please forgive my typos.]

 

[Beekissed]

Good score!!! I love dumpster diving!!!!

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
Put a little dirt in their cage ...they will love it

 

[galefrances]

Here's a question for the breeders and folks who incubate quite a bit....what would be the effects of having eggs with a larger than normal yolks have on the chick, good or bad? In my head I'm thinking that this is more nutrition and would make for a stronger chick but would the extra yolk crowd the chick in a smaller egg shell?

Here's an example of one flock's egg size on regular feed(on the left) and the egg on the right was after 2 wks on fermented feeds:

I know I don't know squat about chickens, and I certainly don't breed, but what I have noticed is that chicken biology strongly follows human biology. So it would stand to reason in my mind, that large yolks would be the same as large for gestational babies, don't you think? And so I would think there would be problems not only delivering, or hatching in this case, but that the nutritional status would be compromised as well in some way. Think about LGA babies and problems with hyperglycemia. Sorry for poking my two cents in. I'm probably overthinking this anyway.