Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Chickielady]

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Yes I know and want to come on and apologize for being rude...I have gotten the flu or something, big excuse I know. Normally nohing gets to my goat but after 4 days of relatives and the whiney ones darg me down and then I have gotten a flu yesterday and feel awful..like a pnuemonia type...so I will be offline for a while.
Have fun.

 

[Rock N' Faverolles]

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I dont know who these people called "they" are that look at breed descriptions and ignore the rest. The SOP is not a coloring book. Yes, shape and color are important, and probably the most important part to defining a breed. Take a flock of chickens of many different breeds, kill and dress them out and put them in plastic bags, and you wont be able to tell one breed from the other. Its the shape and outline and color that defines what you are looking at. Of course feather quality and size and condition are extremely important. That goes without saying. Who wants a beautifully marked and shaped barred rock if you pick it up and theres nothing but a skinny scrawny bird underneath. Economic qualities go without saying, otherwise you dont have a good chicken. The front of the book which you are talking about is extremely important; thats why its in the front of the book. Its also a very interesting read.

People I know that have the SOP read the entire book, and we discuss the entire book and the interpretation of it. Maybe you should have a talk with "they" and let them know what "they" are missing.

'They' refer to the majority of people who raise large fowl birds, including the majority that show their birds. If you butcher birds of different breeds and they all look alike then you DO have a problem. Under the feathers the birds look different as well. Compare a Game bird to a Rock to a Spanish. Butcher them and I bet you I could tell you which one was which, that is, if they were bred to the standard. Each breed has certain characteristics that they are supposed to have. The meat on the bird is more prevalent in say the front of the breast on one breed than another. Other breeds would have a lot of meat on the sides of the body because they are wider than others. These are just examples to try to explain myself. A lot of people overlook feather quality as well. These feathers help protect the bird, not to mention you need good feather quality to get the correct pattern on most multi colored birds.

 

[CharlieVoda]

Nice birds lildinkem. Who's line are they? I used to have Cecil Moore Whites and wish I never would have sold the line.

There is a guy in Henderson, MN with some great whites. He had Buffs and had trouble with white feathering showing up and started to keep the white feathered birds until he got pure whites. They are great birds. I can get his name and number if you want. Just PM me.

Whites need more breeders they are the rarest Orpington I believe. Keep up the good work.

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

 

[Robert Blosl]

Got a nice phone call from a lady today wanting White Face Black Spanish. Sent her to a nice man in Tenn who has been rasing them for years. Very hard to get a start these days as no one wants to share what they have or just dont have a lot of birds to start with.

Also, got a nice message from a family who wants New Hampshires. Told him what good work has been done from the German line and is wanting to get some eggs this spring.

Another email from some one wanting Silver Penciled Rocks and Columbian Rocks.

So many people want rare breeds to own this spring which is a good thing.

We saw a black Angus Bull sitting in a big field by him self today and my wife said he sure looks loanley. I told her that he will be put to use as he is there on that farm for only on thing make more caves.

Did you know that about 80% of all beef sold today has Angus blood in it. Most of the Poutlry have Leghron Blood in it that we eat eggs with. In turkeys about 80% or more are the white commerical breed.

If it was not for hobbiest like us these rare breeds would not be around. I am making a list of breeds that people are asking for and I am going to just put the state that the birds are in.

In a week or so I will finish putting this list togeather. You be suprise the number of good breeders who are out there who are willing to share thier birds with back yarders.

I have even got emails asking for Turkeys that are very rare.

Hope you all have a nice day. Its warming up Its about 43 on the computer but it was 54 in my car driving down the road to the hardware store.

Bob

 

[lildinkem]

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Charlie

Please do send me a PM with his info. I am wanting another reliable line to work. And am into those guys up in MN.
The man who sold me these 2 bought his from a stringman two years ago.
Yes, you sold off some great bloodlines. I wish I knew who has them now.
I hope that the few who have the Whites guards them from neglect and continue to work them. Once I get my numbers up to share I will to enthisiasts like you Charlie.

thanks for the interest
Bill

 

[OSUman]

I am wondering how everyone breeds their "Heritage" birds. Do you raise them in pairs? trios? flocks? one rooster? multiple? I just have a few birds and just one rooster of each so I mainly just have trios and plan to hatch some in the spring what are your guys experience on the best way to breed?

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

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i use a lot of different methods... for my buckeye's and Delawares i flock breed 2 roo's to 4 to 6 hens... i have my Orps in Pairs because im just getting started in them and don't have many... my Egyptian Fayoumi is 1 roo to 4 hens...

it depends on how many i have and how much work they need...

i bought 25 Delawares and culled them down to 6 birds and i have hatched out over 100 from them this year... i expect to see a big improvement in my breeding flock for next year...

i started with 18 buckeye's and culled down to 8... i hatched my first chicks from them 3 weeks ago... every egg they lay will go into the incubator tell i have about 100 for me to raise... then i will start to sell them when i can...

the most important thing is to hatch and raise as many as you can and then cull hard...

i have about 400 birds on the ground right now... i cull and process extra roo's every other week... sell the cull hens as layers...
i start to cull from day one and cull tell they are adults...

 

[CharlieVoda]

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What breeds and how many birds of each breed do you have that you are curious about?

Bob has some great breeding info here in his article
Becoming a breeder
http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id27.html

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

 

[lildinkem]

I can't say thank you enough to those who know and are willing to share here with us on this forum.
Several of you have been more then generous with informayion you have collected over the years. Dan Honour was kind enough to forward me some of his books. There is literally hundreds of pages of articles written by some of the greatest names in the Poultry business. Many are from when before most here were born. like from the 1920's or abouts. Dan too is an expert with the Buff color and anyone who favors this variety within the breed you raise I highly urge you to look into Dan's literature. Again I am very thankful to have a forum like this to share these articles and info learned from Poultry legends.

 

[punky rooster]

OK "pure bred" I like it better actually it fits better! I am still confused what saliden means could you help me out?
good luck
punky