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Robert Blosl
Rest in Peace 1947-2013
The other weekend I was explaining to a new friend about the importance of breeding from hens and COCK birds and looked at a class of three white rock bantam hens and said to him look at this little girl. See how she still has her pullet shape and look. That's the kind of female you want in your breeding pen.
Is this why some hens don't do well at the shows? This is good information to know. I guess I'm going to have to start keeping a photo journal so I can see the difference. Can you explain further on how this type of hen is better than a hen who hasn't kept her pullet type? I have wondered why you have made statements like "To breed from birds which are two years old, you watch a pullet to see if she loses her type after her first big molt" and have been intending to ask about that but now you've said this and I'm thinking its the same statement? I've tried to breed from 2 year old birds but didn't realize that THIS is what I'm looking for?
This was a trick that Harold Tompkins used in breeding R I Reds in the 1950s. I think he felt a hen two or three years old would produce a better chick than a pullet. One thing as a old breeder from 1912 to 1957 he learned one thing. If you have one hundred pullets and they all are keepers good show birds will they still look like a pullet when they go through a molt.
What he would do is have flock mattings of say 25 top pullets and put three killer males in the matting. He might have four or eight mattings like this to supply his chick and egg sales in the late 40s and 50s. I mean he sold chicks like you can not be leave per year. Then when they would go through a molt he would look them all over and say out of 100 keep the ten best that molts back not only with good type like a pullet but good even dark color. Then he may keep forty hens like this show them sell a few maybe and then have five good females in a pen with a cock bird who also came back even in color with that nice cockerel type. I had a white rock hen that was once five years old that had this classic look.
I called this the fountain of youth look. I would then line breed her to her sons and I produced three females that looked like here over ten years.
Just about three weeks ago I was at a guys house who has some of my white rocks he got from a friend who sold a friend some birds. There was a hen two years old that came out of the hen house and BAM there she was. I call it the Raquel Welch look. She is one person who kept her youthful look at a older age. Its just a genetic thing you should try for.
Many can not do this and breed from pullets and cockerels each year. But the test of a strain is look at the old birds. When you see a three to four year old bird that looks fantastic and true to type and color for the breed this is what I am talking about. Remember only maybe one in 500 does this so you don't have to do this. But you get a nicer bird in the long run and that is what I am doing.
Is this why some hens don't do well at the shows? This is good information to know. I guess I'm going to have to start keeping a photo journal so I can see the difference. Can you explain further on how this type of hen is better than a hen who hasn't kept her pullet type? I have wondered why you have made statements like "To breed from birds which are two years old, you watch a pullet to see if she loses her type after her first big molt" and have been intending to ask about that but now you've said this and I'm thinking its the same statement? I've tried to breed from 2 year old birds but didn't realize that THIS is what I'm looking for?
This was a trick that Harold Tompkins used in breeding R I Reds in the 1950s. I think he felt a hen two or three years old would produce a better chick than a pullet. One thing as a old breeder from 1912 to 1957 he learned one thing. If you have one hundred pullets and they all are keepers good show birds will they still look like a pullet when they go through a molt.
What he would do is have flock mattings of say 25 top pullets and put three killer males in the matting. He might have four or eight mattings like this to supply his chick and egg sales in the late 40s and 50s. I mean he sold chicks like you can not be leave per year. Then when they would go through a molt he would look them all over and say out of 100 keep the ten best that molts back not only with good type like a pullet but good even dark color. Then he may keep forty hens like this show them sell a few maybe and then have five good females in a pen with a cock bird who also came back even in color with that nice cockerel type. I had a white rock hen that was once five years old that had this classic look.
I called this the fountain of youth look. I would then line breed her to her sons and I produced three females that looked like here over ten years.
Just about three weeks ago I was at a guys house who has some of my white rocks he got from a friend who sold a friend some birds. There was a hen two years old that came out of the hen house and BAM there she was. I call it the Raquel Welch look. She is one person who kept her youthful look at a older age. Its just a genetic thing you should try for.
Many can not do this and breed from pullets and cockerels each year. But the test of a strain is look at the old birds. When you see a three to four year old bird that looks fantastic and true to type and color for the breed this is what I am talking about. Remember only maybe one in 500 does this so you don't have to do this. But you get a nicer bird in the long run and that is what I am doing.
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