A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

Has anyone had a slow-down in egg production over the last few days? Ours have dropped about 30-40% and I've talked to several other flock owners and they've seen production drop from30% up to 90% or nearly completely gone.

The only thing I can figure is the rise in temperature as we head into summer is affecting them.

colburg

This happens every year about this time around here, too, usually I have found it's a want of calcium. I look down and the oyster shell dispensers are empty. When I fill them up everything rights itself pretty quickly. It draws a lot on the birds to maintain heavy production.


Does anyone breed Show Quality Standard Dark Cornish? I tried unsuccessfully several years ago to find some with the aid of Bob and we never could locate any. BTW, I have a nice group of LF Rhode Island Reds hatched out of the Quad Bob brought me last fall. I never have been a huge RIR fan but I must say these have been a pleasure to raise. Hopefully the few that have Bob's line wil keep them going I know that would make him smile.

A good idea is to get a subscription to the Poultry Press. Also, an APA membership brings the annual yearbook with all of the breeder ads.
 
So all Golden Laced Wyandotte are complete sh*t these days?  What kind of monsters are we who would kill this breed..  But then again your right.. RIP Laced Wyandotte.


Thankfully there are still some nice Silver Laced Wyandottes out there still, and if you can find even a decent Golden Laced you could make progress quickly using the Silver.
 
I'm not quite sure this is the correct thread for this but I feel it's the best fit for my questions so here goes ...

Some may have read in my past posts that hubby and I are looking to start a small scale breeding operation. We were looking at Brahma's to start with but the more we looked into it the more we decided they weren't that *perfect* fit. Too slow to mature, feed ratio's, etc. We LOVE the look of these birds and we feel that is important since we will be looking at them daily. However we think perhaps they aren't what we need in respect to having a dual purpose bird. I'm pretty sure we've settled on the Delaware (gorgeous bird) and have found a place to get good quality stock to start. This leads me to the questions.

I have shown both horses and dogs in my life and have always bred to the breed standards for the breed or purchased from a breeder. I left the show world for my own reasons. Mostly the petty drama that always seemed to surround the show ring, lack of sportsmanship and frankly down right nasty human behavior LOL. Not only that, I found the judging tending to lean toward the more "fad" type of look as in the poor, low slung hind end in the German Shepherd world or the excessive dish face in the Arabian horse world. What "wins" is what is bred for not necessarily what is written in their standards. In the poultry world, I don't want to assume the same exists but I'm a bit inclined to think it does as competition often breeds this behavior. So my question is, does it? If so is it only a few or can I be pretty assured I'm going to have to tune out 80% of nonsense? Does the poultry world live up to their breed standards in terms of judging?

Second question, is it valid to breed to the SOP if not showing. In other parts of the animal breeding world most will tell you if you don't show it doesn't matter what you put on the ground if you don't have the awards to back it up. Personally, I don't subscribe to that line of thinking but I know many who do and they do have valid reasons for that line of thouight. My concern here is that the production end of the standard is not being held up to but only the "look" of the bird.

Appreciate the feedback!
 

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