That may have been John Roberts he got some from. However, he lives in Lakeland, FL and not Georgia and still has some nice Reds. His birds have a lot of Reese blood in them. Brian Simmons' birds are basically Reese as well. He got some from Mr. Reese and then some from me years ago. I also...
If I feel I need to darken the color of my blues I will use a black out of blues to help with that. Otherwise the females go to the layer pen and the males are given a one way invitation to dinner.
Desertmarcy,
Genetically you are right...black is black. However, typically blacks produced from blue mating's don't have the nice beetle green sheen on them. It seems blacks from blue mating's loose some of the modifiers that bring that desirable sheen out.
Just what I've observed over...
Well Scott I must say it was a genuine pleasure to get a chance to see such nice birds. I raised Columbian Rocks at one time....Ahem, we won't talk about how long ago that was, but yours are by far the nicest I have ever laid eyes on. You are doing very well by them with you breeding choices...
I would just sprinkle some of the top of their feed. It doesn't take much and you're right it will STAIN. I would start off fairly light with it and if you don't get the results you're looking for add a little more until you do. Too much of that stuff and you could wind up with orange legs.
Scott,
You were mentioning Marigold extract for helping with leg color and it reminded me of something I used to use when I was raising Reds years ago. It's a spice called Tumeric, you can find large containers of it at the big club stores like Sams. I just top dressed the birds feed with it...
ADM also makes a meat base poultry feed that I use. It's called Pen Pals Meat Maker and is 22% protein.
http://www.admani.com/Poultry/Poultry%20index.htm
Once you get the color in the females you can go back to using properly colored males. However, the Old English breeders do double mate that color pattern and others as well to get properly colored show birds.
Ripster
I would use a male that has too much copper showing on his breast to add more copper to your females. This is what breeders of Brown Red Old English Game Bantam breeders do to correct that problem.
Ripster
Thanks Matt. I enjoyed judging the show very much. However, the last class I did was the English and those big old Australorps and Orpingtons just about did me in. Y'all grow 'em big that's for sure. Whew...slept like a baby after that one. LOL
Clayton,
It is a small world indeed. Please wish your daughter a happy birthday for me. I doubt your father would remember me I was only a teenager then and my birds were not up to competing with the "big dogs" and that's for sure.
Rip
Hi Laingcroft,
When I'm judging I just don't have time to stop and take pictures, I wish that I did. I wound up judging all the large fowl except the Asiatic class, all the waterfowl and all the large fowl Jr. birds in the show. Probably 400 plus birds and that's a lot to do in one day. By...
Clayton, I do remember him and his Buff Orpingtons. They were very nice birds as I recall too. Thanks for sharing, it brings back a lot of good memories.
Ripster
Just wanted to say congratulations to Matt Ulrich on a very nice win yesterday at the Central Florida Poultry Breeders Show in Inverness, FL. He had Best RI Red, Champion American, and Reserve Champion Large Fowl on a very nice cock bird. It was a pleasure to handle and judge such a nice...