Voted Other. Since there was no "none" or "Heritage breeders only" option. SO many breeds, and they're so unique, but hatcheries simply do not select for each breeds unique characteristics or good examples of the breed.
I'm assuming you already own an APA or ABA Standard, if not that's step one. Buy a copy of "Old English Game Bantams As Bred & Shown in the US by Fred Jeffrey & William Richardson".
Also attend your local show, find the Old English guys and ask a lot of questions. Most breeders love to share...
I wouldn't get one just for that purpose. If it were me I'd just keep them out of line of sight from the hens and they will calm down. Hatchery Brahmas might be a bit more aggressive than pure Brahmas but they won't kill each other generally. Sounds like you have plenty of space for them, except...
Put an older cock bird in with them. He will keep them in line. I usually keep at least one past breeding prime cock specifically for this purpose. Brahmas generally don’t fight too much, too big too much effort.
Edit: they’re also delicious.
get a breed you like from an established breeder. Do not get hatchery stock. The environment they are bred in rewards aggression and will pass down to the cockerels. It is genetic (not to say it can’t be learned behavior but it is definitely genetic). Actually I once knew a line of Old English...
This is actually fascinating, I wonder if with careful genetic testing and breeding you could create a self-blue/lavender flock that didn't suffer from the shredding and narrowing of feathers that the variety is so prone to.
If you really want to learn color genetics, check out Brian Reeder's book on it, it goes more in depth than these forums could hope to. Nobody can help you if you don't share what you're working with and what your goal is, nobody cares what weird mix you're doing, look around.
One thing that...
Definitely worth your time and effort. She has some of the finest rosecombs in the country.
Shipping is always a rough call, but I think for bantams to obtain the best of the best it is usually more than worth it. Large Fowl is another story perhaps…just anecdotally last time I looked a box +...
Most successful way I've done it that I liked the best was all my breeding males year round have their own chain-link dog kennel with a small shelter (medium to large dog crate works great), when it's breeding season I simply add one or two hens depending on what mating I want to do.
Dream Flock(s) for me is kind of what I'm working on building now for my second 30+years (hopefully) in poultry. Small but sustainable SOP flocks of one breed from each APA recognized class (my goal since I was a kid was a sweep of champion row) and those breeds will be popular ones in good...
Organic vs Not is less important than the actual nutrient content of the food. Many of your smaller "Organic" brands and recipes online were started and formulated by people who frankly do not have the nutrition degrees and experience needed to formulate a proper diet for poultry. There are...
I'd be very curious to see your whites as they mature. Normally hatchery stock is very subpar, but...Murray McMurray does have 5 APA certified flocks with the White Langshans being one of them. (Others are Buff, Partridge and Silver Pencilled Plymouth Rocks and White Polish if I recall correctly.)
They really do make an impact. I’m down to my last 3 ( a Splash Male and two Black Hens) After some predator losses I shipped the remaining breeders I had to a friend until I can afford to make a large enough covered run (go figure after 28 years ranging during the day and no predator losses...
This is correct. Egg color for Langshans has always been brown. The "Croad = purple/plum egg" garbage is just people getting confused with bloom (and misinterpretation of an old quote) and as this thread shows, can change day to day, egg to egg. Focusing on egg color in this breed only leads to...
So I took a bit different approach to attacking your scenario. You say the reason for wanting to create a sex-link is so you can sell people good laying birds and be able to tell which are female at a day old, but egg color for that doesn't matter. Well why not look at an Auto-sexing breed or...
So there’s actually two varieties of “red” leghorn in the US. Both are very rare. But they are also different shades of red.
There’s the Red Leghorn, which is a rust colored, lighter red that’s all red.
Then there is the Black Tailed Red Leghorn which is that darker red color and as the name...
honestly all the mediterranean breeds are pretty flighty. Have you given thought to something like a Dorking? They're a little bigger but good layers of white eggs and typically pretty docile.