Sumatra Thread!

[Peep-Chicken]

Here is my Sumatra, Raven

Pepper is glaring her down in the background

 

[BGMatt]

I am going to the Safford show in three days! Today I was busily giving My sumatra's a bath perparing them for the show. This photo is one of my blue pullets I bred out this year and she was just given a bath as well. She just turned six mouths old today! Once she fills out she will be a really nice hen. I was planning on breeding her to one of my dark blue males just to bring out the lacing in her chicks. Do you guys think that will help? Thanks for your input.

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It may help if the darker male is properly laced. Just because a bird is darker does not mean it has good lacing. In my experience Blue is also similar to Buff in that breeding birds that are drastically different shades often leads to un-even, splotchy colored offspring.

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: You are so right, when I bred the hens I got from tom Kernan and bred them to one of my light roosters most of their chicks turned out splotchy. They aren't bad birds, It was just an experiment but at least now I will have some birds to sell at the show. She was the only one that was not badly splotchy. I will get a pic of the dark blue rooster (His Name is RobRoy). His Daughter did really well she placed Reserve Champion AOSB in the open show in Tucson.
Quote: She is cute! Are you planning on showing her?

 

[Peep-Chicken]

 She is cute! Are you planning on showing her?

I'm not sure, maybe. I will get some better pics of her tommrow, and maybe you all can see if she seems good show quality

 

[Penny Hen]

I have a question but I am not trying to ruffle feathers. In general I understand that Sumatras are not the best layers. Has anyone worked on improving this capacity? I also noticed that Sandhill Preservation has Black Leghorns. Is it possible to use them as an egg booster but be able to breed out the other Leghorn characteristics that would make the offspring not look Sumatra in a reasonable time span?

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: No I would not use a leghorn at all. It would take years and probably most of your life to breed the leghorn out. Leghorns are a hard breed to breed out in my experience. It really depends on the breeder, some breeders only breed for the quality more than then egg production. And some breeders breed for both. The lines I have are very different from one another. Tom's lines lay super well, and Jame's lines hardly ever lay at all. If I were you I would explore your options and find a line that lays super well. Mixing breeds is not an easy task.

 

[BGMatt]

I have a question but I am not trying to ruffle feathers. In general I understand that Sumatras are not the best layers. Has anyone worked on improving this capacity? I also noticed that Sandhill Preservation has Black Leghorns. Is it possible to use them as an egg booster but be able to breed out the other Leghorn characteristics that would make the offspring not look Sumatra in a reasonable time span?

You can also select for better layers over the length of your breeding project. It's not difficult to do, nothing about the breed's shape or characteristics lend themselves to poor laying, if they don't lay it's either because people haven't focused on it or they're too inbred, either one is a simple fix. If really desperate you could order some Sumatras from a hatchery, hope for a male that wasn't completely horrible, and use him for a season. I know a couple that have done this. If you hatch enough and cull hard it doesn't really set you back much.

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: That is what I was saying.

 

[ST3PH3N]

I have a question but I am not trying to ruffle feathers. In general I understand that Sumatras are not the best layers. Has anyone worked on improving this capacity? I also noticed that Sandhill Preservation has Black Leghorns. Is it possible to use them as an egg booster but be able to breed out the other Leghorn characteristics that would make the offspring not look Sumatra in a reasonable time span?

Hi Penny Hen!

I think you have a great question and I'd like to pass on a few thoughts and experiences with this breed.

I raise pheasants, junglefowl, sumatras and cornish none of which are particularly famed for their egg production, and all except for cornish are wild or somewhat wild. My junglefowl lay as many as 9 eggs in spring, and there is the potential for 9 more eggs in fall. My pheasants lay up to 30 eggs in spring. These are wild species, they have the ability to lay a second clutch of eggs if the first clutch is destroyed but if the second fails the season is over for them. The sumatra is not too far removed from these wild relatives. Sumatras have many traits that characterize their wild nature: seasonal laying, exemplary brooding and parenting, foraging and living feral, flying etc. Behaviour not found in most domestic poultry defines this breed, and we as caretakers need to be conscientious of breeding to preserve these instincts as well as the stunning good looks.

From my background in the conservation of wild breeds I have a different perspective on breeding. The single greatest threat to any wild junglefowl species is crossbreeding, both in the wild and in captivity. We are losing these birds, just look up "Bekisar"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekisar

Basically the government made a crossbreed rooster the national bird and a law that all major businesses had to have one as a mascot and now people are trapping all the wild green junglefowl roosters to captive breed this cross. When there are no pure green junglefowl left the species will be extinct.


Back to your question, I feel that seasonal laying is a wild trait that Sumatras retain, and an estimated average of 100 eggs per year is pretty good compared to the wild Junglefowl these birds descended from. If we would like to see more eggs, I would suggest recording the number of eggs each of your hens lay and the following year only hatching from the most prolific layers.

Leghorns are a wonderful bird, created by breeding out the wild traits that would hamper egg production. I'm sure it is possible to use black leghorns to boost egg production, and we might get offspring that by appearances are sumatra after a few years, but will we retain the complex behaviours of a real sumatra? I suggest to you that we would be ruining two perfectly good breeds to the detriment of both.

-Stephen

 

[jb2miller]

Is

So, I've got 3 roos that I can't keep.  I'd love to keep one, they're so beautiful!

I'm just wondering, how do sumatras taste? like chicken?

Trying to wait until 16 weeks or so, ones ben crowing just a little, and I think another is copying him, but not much noise yet.

is the Sumatra a small rooster?