Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[capayvalleychick]

I learned something from one of these BYC ladies. She marks the chicks with felt pens on the shank. Right side or left side or a combination and then with colors, she has all kinds of info. Right where the feathers meet the shank and she colors the feathers too. Then she toe punches them when they are a little older so that the hole does not close. Maybe everyone does it that way.....lol.....but it was new to me.

Walt

That's an interesting tip. With chicks that are light colored, I use food coloring to mark on their stomachs, two stripes per bird, get lots of combinations that way. Then you can toe punch later as well. I wrote an article about how I used to do it when I was breeding Dutch that I put on my website here: http://pathfindersfarm.com/PedigreeBreeding.html

Thank you both for these ideas. Very helpful!

 

[gjensen]

YH and Walt, Bridgette and Jay out that way have nice Catalanas. They are ahead of me. Jay started them with chicks from Ideal. Goes to show, that with diligence, someone can "get there" with a rare breed that is in poor shape. Just think. From Ideal to class champion. Jay also made some bantams.
YH, I do not have to make a mess with these Catalanas. They already are. I have done more killing than raising. I hatched in the qty 80 range, and then two went broody. Yes, broody. They are rearing another dozen now. It looks like I will keep a dozen pullets, and a few cockerels to grow out. To go wth the two cocks and two hens that I already have. One hen has been demoted to a layer. One cockerel, in particular has given me some hope. I was getting discouraged, but looking at what I have now gives me some hope. I do have a flock, anyways. Somewhere to start.
All together I know of four people working with Catalanas, and a few more that have them. Everyone that has them really likes them, and they all remark on how well they lay.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

We have had a Class Champion with a Catalana out here in a show.......a big show, by Bridget Riddle who raises a number of heritage birds. They are very nice birds. I posted some pics a while back.

Walt

Ahh, that's right. I remember now! If memory serves me right, you also had a WFB Spanish take lead, too, recently (?)

 

[Yellow House Farm]

YH and Walt, Bridgette and Jay out that way have nice Catalanas. They are ahead of me. Jay started them with chicks from Ideal. Goes to show, that with diligence, someone can "get there" with a rare breed that is in poor shape. Just think. From Ideal to class champion. Jay also made some bantams.
YH, I do not have to make a mess with these Catalanas. They already are. I have done more killing than raising. I hatched in the qty 80 range, and then two went broody. Yes, broody. They are rearing another dozen now. It looks like I will keep a dozen pullets, and a few cockerels to grow out. To go wth the two cocks and two hens that I already have. One hen has been demoted to a layer. One cockerel, in particular has given me some hope. I was getting discouraged, but looking at what I have now gives me some hope. I do have a flock, anyways. Somewhere to start.
All together I know of four people working with Catalanas, and a few more that have them. Everyone that has them really likes them, and they all remark on how well they lay.

That's great! It's very gratifying to sit down to 100 birds and pick the best. That's one of my favorite parts about breeding in number, one has the sense when going over birds that you can hold out for the better bird.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ahh, that's right. I remember now! If memory serves me right, you also had a WFB Spanish take lead, too, recently (?)

I believe that was also Bridgett's bird.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Way o champion the Spanish fowl!

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://pathfindersfarm.com/PedigreeBreeding.html

Great article.

When I first got started over 20 years ago I got a box of day old chicks from H V Ken Cooke from Oregon of a mixed bag of bantam chicks.

He had colors of different magic markers on his chicks to ID them.

Then when I got into breeding my Large Fowl Reds I had five different colored pens and a pack of 5x7 index cards. I would take the chick out of the hatcher pedigree cage and mark them with a red mark over the right eye and a green over the left eye or a black or something and then mark that on my card. I put leg bands small on their legs but went to wing bands latter. One of my best males I forgot to change his little band and it grew into his leg and he lost his leg to this stupid mistake. Beginners mistake. Today with cell phones sending you messages you could tell the phone to send you a message to remind you to remove the bands this week on the chicks. I would order 25 of the bantam bands red and 25 of the large fowl red and they would have the same numbers like 1 to 25 then just change the bantam band to the large fowl band.

Latter I would just look at the wing band and put the new number on the 5x7 card and be done with it. Then when I was looking at the chicks running around free range I would make notes on a pad and transfer them to the card. When it was time to make my selections for type and vigor I could go back to my notes on the cards.

Kind of still use it today a simple system but takes discipline and goal setting. However, that is what it takes to improve the breed you are working on.

One example I always use on how to improve a breed any breed like Black Javas is compare this with the history over the last ten years with the Buckeye breeders.

If they can do it with their discipline and hard work any breed of chickens can do it.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I wrote an article about how I used to do it when I was breeding Dutch that I put on my website here: http://pathfindersfarm.com/PedigreeBreeding.html

I have 2 hens in one breeding pen. Like the article describes, I put blue food coloring in one hen's vent. This morning, there were 2 pristine white eggs in the nest box. Not a trace of blue on either egg.
Either one hen laid 2 eggs (which isn't likely) or it didn't work.

 

[Lacy Blues]

It works, you just have to take those eggs and hold them under a bright light to examine them.

They poop out most of the dye and if they don't lay their egg very soon after that, it can be very hard to tell. Good thing the eggs are white!

 

[capayvalleychick]

It works, you just have to take those eggs and hold them under a bright light to examine them.

They poop out most of the dye and if they don't lay their egg very soon after that, it can be very hard to tell. Good thing the eggs are white!

I compared the two eggs in bright sunlight and again with a flashlight. I don't see any difference. You would think blue dye on a white egg would be visible.