advice needed on starting a preservation center

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Not sure what your point is. Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. Still, *in some situations* it may actually BE worth taking what measures you can to reduce risk.

(FWIW I think the whole biosecurity thing is waaaaay oversold for typical backyard flocks, I think it is basically an anti-backyard-flock campaign by the big chicken farmers... but that does not mean that there is not SOME sense to it in SOME situations)

Pat

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Not sure what your point is. Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. Still, *in some situations* it may actually BE worth taking what measures you can to reduce risk.

(FWIW I think the whole biosecurity thing is waaaaay oversold for typical backyard flocks, I think it is basically an anti-backyard-flock campaign by the big chicken farmers... but that does not mean that there is not SOME sense to it in SOME situations)

Pat

I don't worry about the wild birds altho I know in they could be a threat.....I can't do anything about them. I can however keep other people from going into my pens. One friend in particular has a SO that drags chickens home willy nilly from every place imaginable. I really don't want her walking into my pens because I don't know her chickens history before he brought them home.

 

[Katy]

Since we're getting OT here, I'll say that I agree with Pat.......chose one breed and do that one justice and see how it goes before you jump in too deep.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

As Patanchickens observes you'll have to decide what precisely it is you are trying to preserve.

The APA standards are not the be-all of poultry preservation. In fact they pretty much completely ignore what I consider to be the most important qualities for a good many breeds of birds. If getting just the right shade or patterning of feather and points in a comb are important to you then focus on those standards. But if you want to preserve what I consider to be the working breeds then rate of gain, earliness of sexual maturity, rate of lay, size of egg, quality of egg, feed conversion and other related qualities should be what you focus on first and all of the cosmetic qualities second. Those are the qualities that make birds such as Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds famous.

Folks have been trying to combine those two philosophies for decades but it mostly has not worked out.

Choose the qualities that you are most interested in and go with those.

.....Alan.

 

[ninny]

Thanks for the points everyone.