Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[OSUman]

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We have an australorp hen that laid 302 eggs last year..The genes for record egg laying were in those birds..somone with some deep pockets inported all of the record egg laying australorps way back in the 20s and 30s to america,,wouldnt you think that somone would have taken better care ? they like the rest got lost in time and left behind for the commerical breeds..When people went out to the work force and off the farm , many of these breeds were nearly lost..The worlds record is 364 eggs in 365 days with no artificial lighting, it was an australorp hen...one after another australorp hens set world records that stand unbroken...I have 10 aussie hens at this moment its the end of october and 20 degrees tonight and today I picked up 9 eggs...thats pretty good for this time of year, they let up just like every breed in winter and they didnt make the commercial list because they will go broody and sit eggs unlike the commercial layers that wont..so the commercial farms didnt want to deal with that..they dont always go broody but they make great moms when they do.Im sure that had our hen not gone broody for a short time she would have laid more than 302 eggs..weve been watching them closely , one group is at our other farm and the show australorps are at our house farm... a few are shown thier eggs are shown and bred to both show roosters and roosters known to produce good egg layers..they spend part time at the other farm and part time up here then out to free roam for the rest of summer..

It was the egg laying performance of Australorps which attracted world attention when in 1922-23 a team of six hens set a world record of 1857 eggs at an average of 309.5 eggs per hen for a 365 consecutive day trial. It must be remembered that these figures were achieved without the lighting regimes of the modern intensive shed. Such performances had importation orders flooding in from England, United States of America, South Africa, Canada and Mexico. Well looked after Australorps lay approximately 250 light-brown eggs per year. A new record was set when a hen laid 364 eggs in 365 days.They are also known to be good nest sitters and mothers, making them one of the most exceptional large, heritage utility breeds of chicken.

The australorp is a black feathered white skinned dual purpose bird

A show rooster at the house farm
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/35675_chicken_pics_246.jpg

This is butter cup, she got 1st place at the APA show and is just about to lay her egg at the show. she went to county fair also laid an egg every day there except monday. shes in partial molt so the timing wasnt the best for the show, she neverlet up on the egs even in molt.Ive found that a lot of our australorps do a partial molt and never stop laying eggs..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/35675_chicken_pics_209.jpg

I would like to have the delaware added to the farm also for the meat and egg dual purpose of the breed..

I thought about Australorps but got turned off when my friend told me that he was getting 2 eggs a week from 20 hens. Though i guess if i get the right lines then they would be better layers.

 

[Robert Blosl]

How many eggs per year on a dual purpose bird do you feel is needed? 180 200 220 per year for a pullet?

One thing the production birds have shown some people is blow outs. They birds can not hold up to the egg laying numbers and then die.

I have some friends who are trying to make money off of brown egg layers. They are not going to my old line of Rhode Island Reds. They are going with high laying hathery chickens. If eggs is important to sell than dont go with Standard Chickens. You will not find anyone who is trap nesting thier show birds for egg laying numbers. If you want them for just eating, for yourself you should have plenty of eggs on your favorite breed. Black Minoricas should produce a lot of eggs and have some meat for them.

My old R I Reds put out a lot of eggs when I had them but I am sure they are back to average numbers today. Even Mr. Reese did not push the Mohawk line for egg production like I did.

Tough question today to anser. Those Black looked good Australorps and have done very well at the shows. Give them a try. Bob

 

[OSUman]

I dont know how many I want them to lay because im still very inexperienced and am just starting out but I am wondering how you push you line to get them to lay more eggs? Is it through very selective breeding and trap nesting or what???

 

[Robert Blosl]

You do it by watching your baby chicks in the brooder box. Watch the little ones when they are about ten days to two weeks old and watch their wing and tail feather developement. I found the chicks that feathers fast each year and used for breeders layed faster and produced more eggs per year. Then the next year you select the females that started laying early and then use them in the breeding pen with the fastest maturing male from a different family line. Then the next year do it again. year in and year out you always putting breeding presure on the fast feathiering gene and this is the egg layin gene. You will get bettter feather quality on your birds. Let me tell you this it took me five years to get my Rhode Island Reds to lay 190 egg average per pullet year. My hens from this generation lived to be 8 to 10 years old and produced great show birds.

Dont get caught up as a beginner wanting standard large fowl to produce like hatchery chickens. It wont work and there is no sense in wasiting money doing this. No buddy trap nests these chickens for this person. I did this as a research idea and stumbled onto the lost gene of Mohawk V a R I Red from the 1920s

If you want a chicken that has all these traits you should consider Frank Reeses Barred Rock Large Fowl. Fifty years of breeding pressure just like I did plus the fifty years of Ralph Sturgeon and then the thrity years of work with E B Thompson.

I think in about three years of breeding these barrred rocks they will do everything you want in a large fowl. I cant wait to start breeding them along my white rocks next year.

How long have you been raising heritage large fowl chickens? What part of the coutnry do you live in? Have you owned producton chickens befor?

You bring up some very good questions that need to be addressed but learn from the advice that you get from this thread. bob

 

[speckledhen]

One thing the production birds have shown some people is blow outs. They birds can not hold up to the egg laying numbers and then die.

Bob, I agree 100% and I do it from sad experience. I have lost 9 hatchery hens to the same ailment, internal laying/egg peritonitis. It's not pretty to see what's happened inside those poor hens when you open them up. Even my only bantam, a hatchery Cochin, has had prolapse and been egg bound on another occasion. I've lost one breeder bird within the last couple weeks to egg binding from a too large egg within an egg being stuck and dropping into her abdomen, but that's one breeder bird and it was due to her egg size being so huge that when one egg was inside another, it made it way too large to ever pass. All others were hatchery hens (so far), all highly productive layers when in their prime, as most hatchery stock is bred for that.

I know you can have a good quality heritage breed that has good egg laying consistency so I won't be bothering with hatchery stock ever again unless there is a specific reason I must buy a couple of hatchery birds. My Delawares are excellent layers. My big, beautiful, dark heritage RIR hens were great layers and could have placed at an APA sanctioned show, IMO.

Bob, again, we all appreciate your willingness to share your extensive knowledge with us.

 

[joletabey]

Just as a note to OSUman, if you are looking for good layers, I agree with Cynthia, the Delawares I have are excellent. I had a hen with an injured leg that I kept isolated for almost two months and she laid 6 out of 7 days a week. Had a tendency to take Sundays off.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Your welcome. Sunday as I was checking out at the show I attended I met a young mother about thrity with three kids and a nice husband who is going to buy ten acres five wooded and five clear with a old house and a few farm buildings to start a hobby farm. Sounds good right? Well she has never held a chicken in her life or a goat or a calf and wants to be a Poutlry Lady. She wants me to help her get started. Boy where do you start she cant use a incubator she has never operated a brooder box with day old chicks and does not have a chicken fence in sight. I can see how so many of you who read this site are sitting there with your mouths open looking for guidance.

Its like taking a stroke patient and trying to reteach them how to eat, talk and walk if possable and get back to normal life it can be done but it takes alot of work and support from others.

Sounds like I will be in Poultry 101 for a long time but maybe I can share with the new people who are just getting into this hobby how it can be done. Lots of mistakes will be made, but you learn from them.

Think I will set her up with Barred Rock Chicks in the Spring about ten of them and go from there. Then next year get her a incubator and teach her how to use that thing. Then in no time she can branch out into something else if she wants to. She did like the Barred Rock Large Fowl that where at the show so at least she will have something she wants to raise.

Also, if your Delawares are that good of layers and will hold up to the pounding of egg laying there is a good strain to get for dual purpose use out there you beginners. Dont worry about breeding them to the standard right now just enjoy the eggs and the meat and the type and color factor can come latter. Look tomorrow I get about 20 Dark Cornish Bantams. I dont know a thing about them and have never held one in my life. But I am willing to learn and maybe I will have one on Champion row in two or three years. I did it with Call ducks and I will do it with Cornish. bob

 

[fowlman01]

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In my opinion..Call ducks and Cornish are the two hardest breeds to improve and to get good offspring....or any offspring for that matter.

Walt

 

[OSUman]

Bob I wish I would have had someone like you to help me when I started out. I started with a dozen chicks from tsc In a cattle tank and I still cant tackle incubating.

 

[fowlman01]

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There is a knack to incubating, not everyone is good at it. I don't consider myself good at it. I have a huge redwood incubator here that anyone could hatch birds in. I would incubate AND hatch chickens and waterfowl at the same time. This box is so old, it has the wiring on the outside. I stopped using it because my wife did not like the electric bills this baby runs up. You can almost see that little wheel in the utility companies box start to smoke when I am running it. IMO: The sturdy way they used to build incubators makes it a lot easier to maintain temps etc. They hold the heat/humidity in and keep the hot/cold outside air out. They are naturally insulated.

I am going to have my friend Bob Jones put modern electrical parts in it and see how it works. I suspect that it will work very well. It has no turner, so I just roll the eggs a couple or three times as day...it doesn't seem to matter with this box. I think it holds 1200 LF eggs. Can't find a name on it, but it looks like one of those Sears/Montgomery Ward boxes.

Sometimes the old stuff works better than the new stuff............

Walt