Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[MagicChicken]

Question on weighing birds at specific ages for comparison purposes: Do you weigh first thing in the morning before they are fed, while their crops are still empty? Or does it make much difference? Those bulging crops look like they could add quite a bit to the weight of a bird - especially a young one.

Sarah

 

[Arielle]

You are looking for consistency. A time when the birds are likely to have about the same amount of food in the crop. Pick a consistent time, like at 2 pm on a Saturday. Or whatever fits your schedule.

 

[3riverschick]

Hey, I just noticed, I am not chillin' with my peeps anymore. I am overrun with chickens . How about that Hee, hee, that would be less ironic if I had any chickens right now, LOL. Chickenless, Junior and his Junettes (my started Light Sussex) arrive at the end of the month. Been a long 10 month wait. Then I will have lots of pics to share and once more have a flock. Well, a trio at least ,but that qualifies as a small flock
Best,
Karen
( Those birds in my avatar are Salmon Marans. Not here any more.
I will replace them with Junior when he gets here.)

 

[3riverschick]

As of today, I don't have a scale for weighing my birds but I do intend to get one. I was looking online for one this afternoon.

Check ebay. You can get a digital postal scale with metal platform which weighs in ozs and grams with a zero tare...weighs up to 50 lbs. for less than 20.00
Best,
karen

 

[15littlem]

Check out and talk about your favorite HLFB's here , also take and upload lots of pictures and descriptions to there, too.

 

[Chris Herzog]

Just wondering here…I have read that with my RIR’s and I’m assuming this would be true with my NH’s as well as other Heritage breeds that you want to keep track of your birds that feather out the fastest, crow first, lay eggs first and so forth. My question then is with my BR’s. Keeping track of the ones that crow first or lay first is not a problem but should I disregard the ones that feather out the fastest or just not consider the speed in which they feathering out at all with these birds. I ask because my understanding is that you want these birds to feather out slow in order for the barring to be straight and not V-shaped.

I have also read where some of the BR lines are lacking in their tail section. Is this because their feathers grow so slow so that at say 2yrs old a Roo would have his full tail or is it because these lines are just lacking in the tail and they just need to be worked on in this area.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[Lacy Blues]

Check ebay. You can get a digital postal scale with metal platform which weighs in ozs and grams with a zero tare...weighs up to 50 lbs. for less than 20.00
Best,
karen

Thanks Karen, I'll check that.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Just wondering here…I have read that with my RIR’s and I’m assuming this would be true with my NH’s as well as other Heritage breeds that you want to keep track of your birds that feather out the fastest, crow first, lay eggs first and so forth. My question then is with my BR’s. Keeping track of the ones that crow first or lay first is not a problem but should I disregard the ones that feather out the fastest or just not consider the speed in which they feathering out at all with these birds. I ask because my understanding is that you want these birds to feather out slow in order for the barring to be straight and not V-shaped.

I have also read where some of the BR lines are lacking in their tail section. Is this because their feathers grow so slow so that at say 2yrs old a Roo would have his full tail or is it because these lines are just lacking in the tail and they just need to be worked on in this area.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

This will be an interesting discussion... my daughter raises Campines and it would be nice to find out if there is information in breeding/selecting to get better bars. I realize these are a little bit different style of bars but would it be comparable?

 

[Chris09]

Just wondering here…I have read that with my RIR’s and I’m assuming this would be true with my NH’s as well as other Heritage breeds that you want to keep track of your birds that feather out the fastest, crow first, lay eggs first and so forth. My question then is with my BR’s. Keeping track of the ones that crow first or lay first is not a problem but should I disregard the ones that feather out the fastest or just not consider the speed in which they feathering out at all with these birds. I ask because my understanding is that you want these birds to feather out slow in order for the barring to be straight and not V-shaped.

I have also read where some of the BR lines are lacking in their tail section. Is this because their feathers grow so slow so that at say 2yrs old a Roo would have his full tail or is it because these lines are just lacking in the tail and they just need to be worked on in this area.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

The gene that makes good clean barring on most any Barred bird is the slow Feathering Gene (K), the Barring gene is just a on off switch.

Barring Gene: B
Barring is a Sex-link gene that stops and starts pigment production as in feather growth to give the barring pattern as seen on Barred Rocks. The extremely narrow and sharp barring seen on the Barred Plymouth Rocks is achieved by the presence of the gene ('K') for very slow feathering growth, which allows for a lot of on/off sequences in the time it takes for a feather to grow. The same barring gene ('B') when on a rapid feathering breed gives wide, coarse, fuzzy "Cuckoo Barring" as seen on Cuckoo Marans, Cochins and other breeds. The barring gene also interacts with the gene on the E locus, all of the above examples being based on the E plus melantoics. Thus all these barring and cuckoo breeds would be self-black if they did not have the barring gene. This gene has greater pigment-restricting effect on black pigment than it does on red or gold pigment. When the barring gene is applied to the Wild Type pattern, the Crele variety is produced; and the barring on Columbian pattern combination is seen on Delaware and Rhodebars, one of the autosexing breeds.


Chris

 

[Fred's Hens]

The gene that makes good clean barring on most any Barred bird is the slow Feathering Gene (K), the Barring gene is just a on off switch.

Barring Gene: B
Barring is a Sex-link gene that stops and starts pigment production as in feather growth to give the barring pattern as seen on Barred Rocks. The extremely narrow and sharp barring seen on the Barred Plymouth Rocks is achieved by the presence of the gene ('K') for very slow feathering growth, which allows for a lot of on/off sequences in the time it takes for a feather to grow. The same barring gene ('B') when on a rapid feathering breed gives wide, coarse, fuzzy "Cuckoo Barring" as seen on Cuckoo Marans, Cochins and other breeds. The barring gene also interacts with the gene on the E locus, all of the above examples being based on the E plus melantoics. Thus all these barring and cuckoo breeds would be self-black if they did not have the barring gene. This gene has greater pigment-restricting effect on black pigment than it does on red or gold pigment. When the barring gene is applied to the Wild Type pattern, the Crele variety is produced; and the barring on Columbian pattern combination is seen on Delaware and Rhodebars, one of the autosexing breeds.


Chris

Chris, great insight. Question. Is this perhaps one of the reasons that all these hatchery quality Barred Rocks, bred to quickly feather, quickly mature and be quite heavy layers, ie, production BRs, seem to all lack this slow feathering, on/off gene "K"? Without that gene, these birds "resemble" a Barred Rock, but sorely lack the look of the real McCoy.