Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Chickielady]

And on the roasting up a buff goose note...has anyone here eaten Guineas ?
I had a guy tell me at the last poultry show that he had alot and preped and barbecued alot of guineas and they were de-lish..all dark meat and still has a gamey taste.
My Dh loves the pheasants we had on the farm, and the chukar, but that part of the biz is no more...unless you want an Emu

We still have I think 8 pair in Northern California...Dad is trying to get out of it as to retire.
They are laying now too...
But, anyone raise Guinea Fowl for eaten ?
I have seen Urch has won a few awards with his Guineas...in the Poultry Press.
They are funny birds...

 

[Chickielady]

Need to get a message to Tacey Perkins::: PM me your in box is full~~

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
I know that, just posting my perspective. That is one of the things I like abut this hobby. There is a lot of ways to achieve the same goals and the disclaimer I usually add on some of my posts is: "It works for me here with my management and environment, but it may not work for you".

I defend showing because I think it is a way to force out high quality birds. I know it is not for everyone, but it helps create some awesome heritage birds. Not just pretty birds, but birds that can produce beyond the original intent. What I find is that many people only see the outside (pretty) package. As an example: look at your Dorkings and if you can't put your fist between their legs (hand held like holding a hammer) without moving the legs they will never perform well. It is an indication of unthriftyness. (I'm not picking on you btw).....

This is just something a lot of people don't notice. All the things I have learned have been because of showing, so in my opinion it is a good thing overall for the hobby.

Walt

THank you for that! I grab any piece of old Dorking knowledge I can get a hold of. Luckily, I'm pretty sure my birds would pass the test. I'm attentive to their stance, but I had never heard it phrased that way! I'll have to try that specifically next time I'm handling them. Thank you kindly!


On another note, to share with the thread, because several were discussing the pleasures of Buff geese. Well, we roasted one up on Sunday for some friends. We had stuffed it with homemade sauerkraut and ground cherry jam. Today we put the carcass in the crock pot. Tonight, returning from yoga, we each settle down to a nice big mug of golden goos broth with salt and pepper---simple, clean, and delicious. I f you haven't eaten one of your American Buffs yet, I highly recommend it!

wow this is a big page, anywho>>> RareFeathersFarm is raising Dorkings here in Washington State, PM her, she is a wonderful person~

 

[TACEYPERKINS]

Chickielady- It Is Cleared!

 

[CharlieVoda]

Yard full o' rocks :

Quote:
Anyone please help chime in here, but Wynette, if a LT Brahma would help the Col Rock, I cant help but believe a Dark Brahma would do the same for the SPRs. I think I would go thru the American Brahma club and find the best you can possibly get!

Just my opinion as I am certainly still learning myself

Yard full o' rocks before you start crossing or messing with those rocks talk to Gary Underwood or Shanon Higgins about the genetic ramifications. There is another guy henk69 on BYC from New Zealand that knows genetics.

I would call Tim Bowles he will remember the bird and conversation as you are well aware they aren't common.

It could ruin your line or set you back about 10 years. I would bet money that it is the under color that was in question it should be a fairly dark slate grayish color if you do not watch it has a tendancy to lighten. Is white dominant in a rock? Columbian [attern is one of the least understood. Be patient you can get the dark under color through selection. Hatch a lot of birds and cull.

My buddy was told the same thing about using a LT Brahma.

My buddy has Columbian Wyandottes here is a question posed to Shanon in November 2010.

Question... If you wanted to ad size to columbian wyandottes using light brahmas would you put a wyandotte cock on light hens, a light cock on wyandotte hens or both? What would you do the next generation? I have a friend with the wyadottes, guess who has the lights. Any guesstimates in a time frame on comb and feather foot differances to disappear with severe culling at work?
Later Charlie

Here is the reply from Shanon on crossing a LT Brahma on a Columbian Wyandotte

This is a much more tricky thing to do than changing color. Neither comb or foot feather traits in these birds are sex linked, and since you are not changing color it wont matter how you cross them. But, both the feathering and the pea comb are incomplete dominates meaning that it will be hard to determine genotype on a lot of the birds based on phenotype. This will muddy up your culling when the gene frequencies get low for both traits, and could result in persistent problems with leg stubs and random pea combs popping up in later breedings. The pea comb hides very easily behind apparent single combs making it much easier to cull single combs than pea combs. You may be bitting off more than you can chew with this one, and may never get a completely clean wyandotte flock again. It may be time better spent to keep selecting for larger birds in your wyandotte flock, or crossing to a clean legged, single comb breed that is larger like rocks or sussex. Even if they are not the same color as your wyandottes it will be much easier to get them breeding true again. Sorry for the not so great news on that question. Keep me posted on how things are going.

Shannon

Good luck with the birds
Charlie​

 

[CharlieVoda]

Quote:
I'm certainly not going to object there. The birds I hatched from your eggs are the closest to perfect of my big mix here.

Walt - That's the hen I was talking about! I'm hoping some of its bloodlines went to someone who still breeds them today. Does Urch by any chance?

Urch has some idk what line they are tho.

Duane most likely has Barb Piper blood in his Mottled Houdan line as he has had them since the early 1960's. Call him and ask. He will be very forthcoming with info on the bloodlines.

I know for a fact his 50 year old Dark Brahma line has Piper blood. Danny Williamson used Urch birds as his foundation stock 20 years ago. When I called him about Dark Brahma and he found out I was in MN he asked how far I was from Duane and told me to get birds from him. Danny has some of the best in the country. The rest of the story is too long for this post.

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

 

[Robert Blosl]

When you want to cross a differnet bred onto say Wyandottes or Plymouth Rocks watch out. You are sturing up the gene pool and you got years and years of shiming the bad genes out to reach your goal.

Why not just take your time and breed the large fowl up and make them bigger. If I can take a large fowl Rhode Island Red and make it into a bantam in 20 years. You should be able to make your large fowl strain bigger in five years. There is a process to do it but I am not going into that right now. Two years ago I sent a nice Large Fowl White Rock male and a White Rock bantam to a friend and he crossed them onto large fowl and bantam Columbian Plymouth Rocks on paper you would think you would get super type Columbian Rock large fowl and bantams. Every chick turned out barred rocks. My friend scraped the project.

I crossed a nice typey white rock pullet onto a super nice barred rock cock bird from Paul Hardy. I got barred rock large fowl with type like I never saw befor. What tails on my males fully furnished like I never saw on a barred rock male. Only one problem.

I had color like a Dominick. I scraped the project as I figured it would take me 8 years to breed the color to the barring I wanted.

Now we have the Frank Reese strain of Barred Rocks. This is the barring I wished for. All that is needed is breeding the great type like we have on our white rock large fowl. All we have to do is breed them up and select the best birds each year for type. It will happen.

Now on the present Columbian Rocks from Canada. All we need to do is hatch and hatch and hatch. Breed for better type of course. Try to develope a line of females with good color and then Net Work these birds to other breeders. BREEDERS I say and in five to ten years we will have a great pure strain of Columbian Rocks much like our bantams we have today.

Another thing Yard Full of Rocks can do is cross this male onto two or three of his Ohio line of Columbian Rock Large Fowl. Then pick say two or three good females that will have better color then mate these back to the old male from Canada next year or his best son next year and just improve these birds for color and type. They are not to bad. But they are about five years away from the Canada birds.

Remember that the Columbian Rock large fowl we have today are just a few points above Hatchery level. They would be lucky to score 91 to 92 points out of a hundred if you judged them under the old fashion scoring method. You got to have width of body, skull, lenth of body with the gravy bowl look so much to breed for in type in this color pattern. The Partridge Rock large fowl are not much better. The Silver Pencilled need improvement in the female type. It wil take maybe five years to improve them. The buffs are maybe better in the top two strains today but thier numbers are few and far between.

Hope this clears up the crossing stuff. Yes you can cross a barred rock male to three New Hampshire females to make a new strain of Delawares. You may get one chick out of ten that will breed true color. But you just start next year and breed the best to the best and do it again. I think in five years you will have some nice true to type and color birds.

Lavender color Walt is that like a French Rhode Island Red?

Got to go to bed get up and ship out some Dark Cornish and Gray Call ducks. For some reason the post office was closed today.
bob

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

MLK day was today..maybe that's why it was closed? I can never remember MLK day...I'm always at work!

On a side note...going to find out in a few days if one of the white hens is dominant or recessive white. Like a box of chocolates..never know what you're gonna get!

 

[CharlieVoda]

Quote:
No it is a French Mottled Java having a bad hair day.

Here are the 2 best in the country Grey Call breeders per Don
Art Lundgren in NY and Dennis Fuller in you guessed it Iowa that is in the Midwest.
I am working on breeding info for you.

I hope you are sitting down when you read the rest of this post and are no longer on Nyquil.
I called a fellow yesterday about a lead I got on good White Orpingtons. I am really looking forward to meeting this fellow after talking to him.

Are you ready? I was ready with my 99 questions but after question three I nearly fell of the chair.
1) I know you have nice White Orps and I heard you made them from Buffs.
answer... Oh yes I have spent the last 28 years making and raising them.
2) I used to have Cecil Moore Whites about 15 years ago did you ever have any of his birds.
answer... Well I got birds from him about the same time but the tornado came through that summer and killed them all.
3) So where did you get your blood lines from in the Buffs?
answer... Oh I got my Buffs from Bob Coulter
4) We just plain old talked birds

I had to get a beer. Yup he took Bob Coulter as in Clevenger birds and kept pulling the light colored birds till he had true breeding whites.
I still can't believe it. He may have birds this fall to sell. Will be emailing you the info bill and elias no chicks or eggs.

They are still out there when you are really looking for them. Go find em girls and boys.
Just ask people you meet if they know any old people Like Bob and Charlie (how old are you Walt and Saladin) that have chickens.

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

Quote:
No it is a French Mottled Java having a bad hair day.

Here are the 2 best in the country Grey Call breeders per Don
Art Lundgren in NY and Dennis Fuller in you guessed it Iowa that is in the Midwest.
I am working on breeding info for you.

I hope you are sitting down when you read the rest of this post and are no longer on Nyquil.
I called a fellow yesterday about a lead I got on good White Orpingtons. I am really looking forward to meeting this fellow after talking to him.

Are you ready? I was ready with my 99 questions but after question three I nearly fell of the chair.
1) I know you have nice White Orps and I heard you made them from Buffs.
answer... Oh yes I have spent the last 28 years making and raising them.
2) I used to have Cecil Moore Whites about 15 years ago did you ever have any of his birds.
answer... Well I got birds from him about the same time but the tornado came through that summer and killed them all.
3) So where did you get your blood lines from in the Buffs?
answer... Oh I got my Buffs from Bob Coulter
4) We just plain old talked birds

I had to get a beer. Yup he took Bob Coulter as in Clevenger birds and kept pulling the light colored birds till he had true breeding whites.
I still can't believe it. He may have birds this fall to sell. Will be emailing you the info bill and elias no chicks or eggs.

They are still out there when you are really looking for them. Go find em girls and boys.
Just ask people you meet if they know any old people Like Bob and Charlie (how old are you Walt and Saladin) that have chickens.

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

WOW