Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Well then .... make us all a copy!

It is a great booklet and the copyright is off now.

Walt

 

[Robert Blosl]

Bob, how can you say you have no club members with any blues? I raise both large and bantam blues and I know at least two others, maybe three working on blue bantams.

I also have a copy of Ralph's book and so does a friend of mine. I think its a must for any serious breeder.

David sorry I over looked you on your Blue Large Fowl. Last night when I was on my wifes lap top I had a hard time seeing this screen and proof reading the message. Our key board is acting up and will have to post on the big box computer. Also it uses up bites on our phone account with the wireless contract.

I know our club presidnet Greg English has blue bantams. I have never seen one live. I am working on trying to get the other colors back up such as Silver Pencilled, Columbian and Partridge and buffs in large fowl. Whites are still the top color because they are so easy to breed than the others. Barred has made major strides in the past two to three years. The bantam colors are all doing pretty good except partridge very few of them these days. To me these old colors need work but they are hard to breed and many people are not going to work with them for many reasons. So I hope many will consider these rare colors of many breeds what ever you wish to have makes no difference to me. The next thing alot of people have to learn is how to breed for type and increase over all breed performance. As Jamie Duckworth has said many times he was taught to build the barn first and then you paint it.
I was always taught Vigor first, next breed type, egg production and then color on my Reds. Vern Sorenson always taught me as a kid to look for the brick in the Reds. Well back to building the pens. You got to build the pens first befor you can build the type. bob

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
Bob,
I have been following this thread even though I am a total chicken newbie. I am probably not the only newbie that would be interested in working with heritage breeds but have no clue how to start on something that looks daunting to a complete amature. So with that in mind, how would you suggest someone like me starting? I would think that you don't start with buying chickens, but with finding someone with full knowledge of a breed you are interested in working with. How do you go about it? If you were going to only work with one breed, what kind of set up would you need, like space for how many chickens in a typical year you are working on the breed? I am sure that my questions are totally obvious to a lot of the people on this thread since they have been working with breeding for years but I figured it never hurts to ask the obvious/silly questions because that is how you learn.

 

[joletabey]

Dsquard- getting a mentor is the most important thing you can do as far as I am concerned. I am so grateful for the guidance I have received - I am thinking that if you choose a breed and research it, and join the breed club, you may end up with some help. I hope this thread will help all of us that are interested in Heritage or critical list breeds, so stick around.

IF the copyright is out on Ralph's book, I will pay someone to make me a copy!!!!

 

[Robert Blosl]

Wow what a question. That would be like me asking how to start with pure breed dogs or cats. How do you get started. We could write a book on this subject for sure. Maybe we can get some of you who just got started to write how you did it. I have been builiding pens for many years. I have three acres and I have 22 years of mistakes I have learned from. I can only tell you to start small, dont get a bunch of breeds as many do this and cant do anything with them for lack of space. Some times I think you should start with a good bantam and after you learned how to raise them move up to large fowl. I started out with white calls for four years first just to learn how to hatch and raise them. Then when I felt I had mastered this I got my gray calls. Right now I am breeding for type only and not worring about color. Each year I make improvement to the type I want. Lets see what other have to say. Many on this board want a old rare breeds and can share how they got started . Setting up your place for such a breed maybe a new thread. For Example; Beginning with Heartage Poulty a Beginners Guide. Sounds like a title for a new book dont it. Lets let this idea take its course. We dont want to mess up the tread or distractit from its original title . bob

 

[gootziecat]

I would be willing to type it and offer it as a Word document. I don't have the book, however. Also I may need some help how to make this available to all of you.

 

[snowbird]

Just wondering if anyone on here with Black Sumatra ever heard of Bill Mayer ? Been close friend of mine and neighbor for 45 year. He no longer has Sumatra but I believe he is the only person in the Sumatra Hall of Fame. He had a huge point total

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:
Hi Don!
Sumatra have just began to tickle my fancy, so I've never heard of Bill Mayer...yet. I'm beginning my research on the breed so I'm sure I'll dig up lots of info about him. They sure are a gorgeous bird, that's for sure.

So sad though...I'm downsizing my breeds so Sumatra just aren't in the cards for me yet. Maybe next year.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Hi Don!
Sumatra have just began to tickle my fancy, so I've never heard of Bill Mayer...yet. I'm beginning my research on the breed so I'm sure I'll dig up lots of info about him. They sure are a gorgeous bird, that's for sure.

So sad though...I'm downsizing my breeds so Sumatra just aren't in the cards for me yet. Maybe next year.

Shelley, In my mind I believe Bill Mayer had the best female line of Black Sumatra ever. He supplied Sumatra to a lot of people.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Maybe my research will yield of source for someone with his line. That would be so great! This research is gonna be so exciting!!!!! I've had my eye on the Sumatra for a couple of years, but I've just had too much of everything else going on. Maybe I'll downsize more than I originally planned to make room for them sooner.