Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[centrarchid]

Walt,

Is there a design you prefer? I am not familiar bird trapnest technology, therefore do not know pro's and con's of each type. My prefence is for a trap that can be mounted into coop wall as apart of battery and be serviced from outside coop.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Please forgive my argumentive nature.

1. You can't have a flock for that long WITHOUT INBREEDING them. No way: IMPOSSIBLE.

Nothing wrong with inbreeding. You just can't do it for that long without the addition of new blood periodically.

2. What kind of papers? Birds are not pedigreed like with other livestock. Are you talking letters of some sort from the original breeder? Just curious.

If breeding flock repressented by a relatively large number of breeders and effort made to control mating arrangements such that who mates with who is random, loss of genetic variation can be greatly slowed or stopped. If done properly, then new blood not needed.

Question is what is relatively large and is it realized? Most folks do not realize that sometimes animals that are not in top 10% in respect to quality need to be bred forward owing to key alleles they contain which buffers against genetic loss. Breeding only within top 10% is what makes inbreeding a problem if those in that tier are all closely related.

 

[saladin]

Quote:
Please forgive my argumentive nature.

1. You can't have a flock for that long WITHOUT INBREEDING them. No way: IMPOSSIBLE.

Nothing wrong with inbreeding. You just can't do it for that long without the addition of new blood periodically.

2. What kind of papers? Birds are not pedigreed like with other livestock. Are you talking letters of some sort from the original breeder? Just curious.

If breeding flock repressented by a relatively large number of breeders and effort made to control mating arrangements such that who mates with who is random, loss of genetic variation can be greatly slowed or stopped. If done properly, then new blood not needed.

Question is what is relatively large and is it realized? Most folks do not realize that sometimes animals that are not in top 10% in respect to quality need to be bred forward owing to key alleles they contain which buffers against genetic loss. Breeding only within top 10% is what makes inbreeding a problem if those in that tier are all closely related.

I agree centra. But I've never met a farmer yet that single mated to be able to keep up with whose who. Granted, rolling mating with an initial large flock is possible for a long extended time; but if all the birds came from one breeder then they were most likely related to begin with.

 

[Chris09]

Taylor,
Are you able to post some pictures of these Reds?
I would like to see some pictures of them. ( a side view and one of the wing fan out would be real nice )

Chris

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
How do you check width and flexibility of pubic bones?
Thanks, Ginny

 

[josh44]

Does Anybody here have (Adrian Rademacher) Contact Info.

Looking to get some More Rhode Islands,

Please PM the info If any.

Thank You,

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
To me the easiest and least expensive method would be to buy some pigeon "entries"/doors....not sure what they call them. They are a bunch of rods that only move inward. Just make a box for them to lay in and put this door on the front. They can go in and they can't go out. You let them out and make any notes you need to make. I think this set up will work well with what you want to do. Some of the trap nests I have seen are like an engineers nightmare. The pigeon door can be mounted on anything.

Walt

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
How do you check width and flexibility of pubic bones?
Thanks, Ginny

With your hand.

It is almost something that needs to be shown, but try checking a male and then check a female you know is laying and you should notice a huge difference.... that will then give you some hands on experience.......so to speak and an idea what to look for in all females.

Walt

 

[Arielle]

Walt, thanks for the info on checking public bones. I didn't think of feeling the boys to compare with the girls. I've been waiting for my oldest girls to start laying, born Feb 4, RIR, blk sexlink, SLW, etc. Putin nesting boxes and the girls are in checking . . . . for seed heads on the straw I think. No eggs yet. Combs are very red in some of the black sexlinks and a few of the others. Not everyone is the same color: pale pink to red. I'm thinking I can feel if they are getting close to lay ????? Or is there a better way?

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
They should be getting close to laying, but every breed/strain is a bit different. When I am juding 4H they measure the pubic bone and indicate with their fingers how wide and what the laying condition is. The problem is that they all have different widths of fingers. Some of the older kids show me 4 fingers and they are holding a 20oz OEG bantam...that is when I ask."show me that again". After this season, you will know if they are about to lay or not. It just takes some practice.