Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[X2Farm]

Quote:
Same thing I'm wondering about, as well. even in Northeast Georgia, its been a very HAWT summer, lots of panting, frozen coke bottles of water, etc, to keep my older flock from over heating. The eggs showed stress points, and production slacked off a good bit, only an egg or two, every few days, out of 5 hens....

Since we're wanting to get into Heritage poultry (other livestock too, but thats a whole nother thread) we want something that can take our weather, without overly stressing the birds.

 

[math ace]

I had LESS troubles with the SLW handling the HEAT than the leghorns. My leghorns were panting and scaring me . . . .

My disappointment was with the SLW egg size - - - MEDium - - - What is up with that ? ? ? They are twice the size of the leghorns and lay an egg half the size. I can do the math and this ain't right !

I was hoping the heritage SLW would lay a LARGE Egg.

DELAWAREs you say

LARGE EGGS and NO PROBLEMS with HEAT ? ? ? What is the negative with the breed ? ?

 

[greathorse]

Yeah I was a bit disappointed as well. I think given the dual purpose the size was designed for meat and they may have sacrificed egg size. I am not sure all strains lay the smaller eggs. I also have a few from Foley and when they start to lay I will be interested to see if they lay a smaller egg as well. I am too lazy to go to the breed site to see if the descripiton calls for a smaller egg.

I had very nice hardy chicks coming out of those eggs I will say that. The breed seems very strong. I havfe a lot more trouble with the reds in terms of losing them.

 

[tnchickenut]

Quote:
Well, you see, the problem with that question is that I'm biased. LOL

Seriously, your first hurdle (as with most of these breeds we are discussing) would be finding really good stock. Lot's of imposters and often, as is my experience, the breeders are doing the best they can with what they got and mean well... but still, I have yet to find/hatch a really great bodied bird. (This should all change this spring... starting on some new contacts)

The breed lays large brown eggs very well. Birds are mostly white and single combed... heat and cold tollerant. Dual purpose and with the right stock the FEATHER fast, but don't grow as fast as I have read others imply. For example, I have two in a brooder with leghorns and some project birds right now. Four weeks old and they aren't any bigger than the others.

Again, you have to be REALLY wise in choosing a breeder (I suggest using Walt and Bob to help you find one). Especially if you are looking to breed them. Some of the better breeders for Dels are not online... at least not where google can find them (or me!). The show ring is where I would look. I wish I did when I started! I'm much more educated now and would have done a TON of things differently.

For utility, I love them. Like I said, I'm biased.

EDIT TO ADD:
Did I mention they are quiet and friendly?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Well now you did it. I had to go look and see what size egg they lay, LOL. Most didn't say much other than "200" eggs a year however Katy who has some BLRW said hers did not lay large eggs the first year.

So hopefully they will be bigger the second year. Have hope!

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I started my quest a year ago . . . Finding a good breeder is an issue. In the last year, I only know of one show that has happened near us and we went to it. It was 2 hours one way from us. A lot of birds that I was interested weren't present - - - marans, delawares, welsummers and partridge rocks.

I ended up ordering from a hatchery just to get a taste for the birds. In the meantime, I have been reading many of the Breed threads here on BYC carefully. Personality, egg size and egg production are huge factors in my decision making process. Needless to say,, , "Quiet and FRIENDLY" are important factors. . . .

I LOVE my marans because they are so friendly. The are not quiet by any measure, but friendly. From birth to HEN age, the marans have never exhibited any bulling tendenacies and they have no problems being handled. Whereas, my leghorns are a real pain to try to handle.

Thanks for the "unbiased"

information. . . . Ask me about marans and I will return the favor

 

[X2Farm]

There is SO much wonderful information in this thread... yall have bout put my brain into overload!!!

I'm really enjoying this discussion!

One question... Why did yall get into Heritage breeds? Why not just run of the mill hatchery/pet stock birds?

I'll even give my answer

I guess its this insatiable need to "get back to how it used to be" the way things were done back when. DH started the idea, with livestock we're looking into, for spring time. I hadn't even thought about it, with our chickens, as we've already got a bunch of hatchery stock, with just a few breeder birds. But, I saw this thread, talked to DH (thankfully, he's very willing) and it just seems "natural" for us to bring the Heritage menagerie over into the chickens!

 

[tnchickenut]

Quote:
I started my quest a year ago . . . Finding a good breeder is an issue. In the last year, I only know of one show that has happened near us and we went to it. It was 2 hours one way from us. A lot of birds that I was interested weren't present - - - marans, delawares, welsummers and partridge rocks.

I ended up ordering from a hatchery just to get a taste for the birds. In the meantime, I have been reading many of the Breed threads here on BYC carefully. Personality, egg size and egg production are huge factors in my decision making process. Needless to say,, , "Quiet and FRIENDLY" are important factors. . . .

I LOVE my marans because they are so friendly. The are not quiet by any measure, but friendly. From birth to HEN age, the marans have never exhibited any bulling tendenacies and they have no problems being handled. Whereas, my leghorns are a real pain to try to handle.

Thanks for the "unbiased"

information. . . . Ask me about marans and I will return the favor

Lol... ok. Wheaten Marans are on my favorites list too... you can tell me all about them if you have to get it all out! lol! I have two hens and they are sweet... not the best quality, but I got them for the eggs, not breeding. I got to focus on a few breeds so I'm trying NOT to go down the Maran road... but I sure do like those Wheatens. I have one Wheaten Penedesenca too. She is much better looking, but a bit flighty like a leghorn. Eggs aren't as dark either... but I still like her. White earlobes, dark brown egg... exception to the rule. (BTW that is why I bought the .com 'exceptionalchickens'... I strayed, but originally intended to breeding birds that were exceptions to the rules of genetics... thinking of changine the .com now... seems (hindsight) like I'm being cocky... It would have been more obvious if I stuck to my original list of breeding stock breeds)

And NOW I KNOW it's getting too late for me to post... I'm starting to ramble. Sorry folks.

 

[math ace]

SnowHunter - - - I have only had one experience with Heritage birds and that was with Delawares.
I had a BYC member tell me that she had purchased hatchery stock on the Delawares and hated them . . . .She totally swore off of them.
Then a friend gave her some Heritage Delawares and the BYC member fell in love with the breed.

The heritage Delawares were Bigger, Healthier, and Friendly than the hatchery stock. In other words, Breeding for quanity instead of quality had led to the loss of some desirable traits in the breeds.

The hatchery breeds have lost the ability to forage and go broody in some cases. These traits are undesirable in the production environment. However, in the Backyard Chicken Farmer these traits are pluses - - not negatives.

This is why I am willing to invest energies into locating some heritage breeders.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Quote:
For heat nothing beat my hatchery Partridge Rocks or my Dels I now have better Delawares I bought from a utility breeder they are just now starting to lay beautiful milk chocolate eggs and jumbo for baby pullets the rocks just have average sized eggs and they are lighter. I don't have much humidity but 110 for days it was awful and I figured I might lose some birds they did just fine the Dels liked to go wading and spent many hours in the shallow water pans I put out. My breeder ones laid a week or 2 later than hatchery ones but the eggs were bigger to start and the color is better I like deep brown. Mine are not show quality too much smut but the "barn" is there I can work on the paint job.....