Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[tls_ranch]

I've been lurking on this thread for awhile and trying to learn as much as I can I raise Barnevelders which I believe are a heritage breed since they are listed by the HPBAA and meet the requirements for being heritage. I've been working on bringing back the dual purpose qualities and improving egg quality for a few years. I do have two project lines that involved outcrossing Barnevelders to wyandottes and Dark cornish. I don't know how the project lines would fit into the Heritage requirements though they are high% Barnevelder blood at this point.

Here's one of my blue pullets from this year.


I've found them to be a very hardy breed in my area though the excessive heat sometimes bothers them when it gets above 100 for days on end. The hens will hatch out eggs and are excellent mothers.


I tend to spoil my chickens with good feed, but I gave 12 pullets to a neighbor in March and she hasn't even gone through 2 bags of feed. She free ranges them and feeds them table scraps. They have been providing her with plenty of eggs despite having to forage for most of their diet.

Trisha

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

wow!!!

I've been lurking on this thread for awhile and trying to learn as much as I can I raise Barnevelders which I believe are a heritage breed since they are listed by the HPBAA and meet the requirements for being heritage. I've been working on bringing back the dual purpose qualities and improving egg quality for a few years. I do have two project lines that involved outcrossing Barnevelders to wyandottes and Dark cornish. I don't know how the project lines would fit into the Heritage requirements though they are high% Barnevelder blood at this point.

Here's one of my blue pullets from this year.


I've found them to be a very hardy breed in my area though the excessive heat sometimes bothers them when it gets above 100 for days on end. The hens will hatch out eggs and are excellent mothers.


I tend to spoil my chickens with good feed, but I gave 12 pullets to a neighbor in March and she hasn't even gone through 2 bags of feed. She free ranges them and feeds them table scraps. They have been providing her with plenty of eggs despite having to forage for most of their diet.

Trisha

 

[Lacy Blues]

OH WOW! I just looked at the pics on your profile! You have some really stunning birds!

 

[tls_ranch]

OH WOW! I just looked at the pics on your profile! You have some really stunning birds!

Thanks

I love my blue project birds because they blend so well with the oak woodland where I live. They also tend to be broodier than my pure Barnevelders and have better meat qualities.

Trisha

 

[aveca]

Didn't realize Bath was that close to Hammondsport & there was all that going on in the area. I come across 17 to get there so go nowhere near the lakes. Are you going to show at Syracuse? Is so you'll be sending me your entry.

hammondsport is 7 miles from the bath fairgrounds..they had big banners up all over town, voted best small town in america..and it was crowded, lots of tourists came up to see it.. Jeepers, I called them pontoon boats, they are sea planes, just goes to show how little we woman know about all things that drive and fly..







If husbands get a little bored of looking at chickens, and listening to ducks...you take him out around, a couple hours go by fast..touring the wine country vinyards everywhere..




husband insisted he had to park right next to this rig..he was facinated that somone would have a porshe pulling a chicken wagon..we all drive rust buckets..he talked about that all day. they had quite the set up in that thing...built in computer system...I was using thier wireless service.....he kept saying...do you know how much horse power that thing has?... do I know a sea plane from a pontoon boat? No..

 

[aveca]

Didn't realize Bath was that close to Hammondsport & there was all that going on in the area. I come across 17 to get there so go nowhere near the lakes. Are you going to show at Syracuse? Is so you'll be sending me your entry.

I really want to go to yankee classic bad, but wore out my welcome at work, took off for bath, took off for coboskill, then they changed the date of coboskill insted of 25th its now 30th..so my job just isnt going to let me switch around..trying like mad to get off for classic..I have the paperwork here..just waiting for the OK hopefully monday..


this is some super bad photography of my birds at the show..Walt taught us use freeze frame and you can capture a better moment for the bird..they move fast...plus Bob Whitneys winning australorp pullet and hen..man those birds are fantastic in person..bobs hen ducked behind her tag just as I took pic ..the delay made it even worse...in my wonderful attempt at photographing these birds..Bad is all I have to say..birds moved and I got nothing..




Bob won asiatic champion and english champion grand and reserve..hes the nicest guy in the world..he wins that good sportsmanship award every year almost and he deserves it..




the next 2 really bad photos are of my birds..







Im going to get a better camera and do film and freeze frame next year, thou this next photo is blurry, it was freeze frame on cheap camera, it really does show what the same cockeral actually looks like.

 

[aveca]

Thanks

I love my blue project birds because they blend so well with the oak woodland where I live. They also tend to be broodier than my pure Barnevelders and have better meat qualities.

Trisha

Really beautiful birds!

 

[3riverschick]

American poultry journal: Volume 52 - Page 315 & 316
books.google.com
1921 - Free Google eBook http://tinyurl.com/blhfafc
Harold Tompkins Discusses Rhode Island Reds.
Harold Tompkins is a pretty good man to talk with about Rhode Island Reds. His grandfather, living in the Little Compton district of Rhode Island. had some of the early red stock. Some of the original red Game males. brought by whalers from the East Indies, were secured and bred by his grandfather as early as the Sixties.
His father, Lester Tompkins, helped to establish Rhode Island Red type. The grandfather died when Harold was eight years old. The modern type of the breed was established about 1900. in Harold's school days, and the whole progress of the Red, as a Standard fowl, is well within his memory.
During the Garden show, we had a long talk with Mr. Harold Tompkins. He spoke of the first prize cock in the Single Comb Red class, in the Garden. as representing his ideal type, except that he would prefer a little more drum stick. This cock was the outstanding first cockerel of last year, and he had filled down in breast and body, making him a trifle short in station. Continuing Mr. Tompkins said:
There is only one way to tell the right length of the thigh on a Red. I want two fingers of space above the hock joint, before you touch the fluff. Of course, if such a bird is too long in shank, from hock down to toes, that will make him too high.
I want the back horizontal. The underline of wing should be horizontal, parallel with the back line. The underline of the keel should also be parallel with the back. This makes three distinct horizontal lines.
You will find that if a male carries a keel as long as the span of your hand from out stretched thumb to end of outstretched finger, you will have good length.
Red breeders do not pay as much attention to the arch of neck as do the Wyandotte men, but it a Red male has a long slim neck it will also have a long, snaky head. If the neck is nicely arched down to the butts of the hackle, you get a good head.
If you get them right in thigh, you usually get them right in neck. A long legged bird usually carries his head away up, to balance himself. This makes a long neck.
The tail, according to the Standard, should be carried at an angle of 45 degrees. If that were reduced, and the tails pulled down to 30 degrees, and everybody would breed for the lower tails, the result would be a more symmetrical chicken. As it is, many breeders will mate a high tailed bird, provided he is otherwise a good one.
I do not want a bushy tail, and I do not want a loose, wobbly tail. I want a tail that is well set. If you breed a loose tail, the first thing you know some of the cockerels are carrying tails to one side.
Width of tail depends on width of back. A Red male with a wide back will carry a wide tail nine times out of ten.
I want breadth and substance. I do not like a narrow, razor back. If you put your two thumbs over the hips of the back, thumb to thumb, and the tips of your index fingers will not meet together behind the thighs, as you span the body of the bird with your hands, you have a good bodied bird. I like that type of body which I cannot span by two inches.
If the legs are too long, you lose depth and you lose width. In other words you
---------------------
(Karen: discussion of duck illustration which would not copy here.) A duck's legs are so far behind that the duck throws its head up and its back down. To get a level back in a R I. Red, Harold Tompkins points out the necessity of having the legs come out of the middle of the chicken so it will balance evenly on its legs.
------------------------
have a 'two years' bird,' that is, a bird that must go through the molt before filling out in body in proportion to its height.
Too many breeders are careless about the formation of the wings. They are chasing color so strong that they do not think about anything else. If these breeders would pick birds with wide flight feathers, they would quicckly eliminate slipped wings from their breeding. I do not mean to say that they would not get a single slipped wing, but that they would not get a number of them. I want the wing long, the flight feathers long and wide, and the web of the feather heavy.
In the matter of balance, it is important to consider where the legs come out of the body. I do not want the legs set at the back of the body. Such a bird runs his head up into the air and his back down, like an Indian Runner duck whose legs come out of the very rear of its body. Such a bird cannot hold his back level; he has too much weight forward of his legs, and in order to balance himself he throws his breast up and his head.
I want the body well balanced on the legs. I never saw a male whose legs came out of the middle of his 'body that did not carry his back balanced right. Remember to look and see where the legs come out of the body.
This is an easy matter to handle. There are two ends to a Red. If you will pick hens that have two ends, breast and stern, you will breed level backs.
(Continued on page 316.)
Now as to color. The fancy is too dark to suit me. Take any Single Comb cock or cockerel that is under the ribbons in the Garden today and put him 100 feet away from you, against a sheet of American flag red, and he will look black. If you put him against a sheet of black cloth, at that same distance, he will blend in with the black.
The right color in a Red stands out at 200 feet distance.
Color is a hard thing to describe. You cannot say that it is cherry, or bay or chestnut. The Standard calls for rich, brilliant red. It is hard to figure out exactly what that means, yet I presume it is as good a description as can be reduced to words.
There is a difference of opinion on rich red, but all want the brilliance. Even the admirers of a dark red agree on brilliance or sheen.
My first prize Single Comb Red cockerel at the last Boston Show suits me. The red color on him sticks out in beads and scintilates right out of the under color.
I do not want a color that looks black when you see a bird half way across the field. I want the color to match all over. Of . course, you cannot get the same sheen and luster on male's breast and fluff that you can on back, neck and wing bow, but I want the same shade of red.
I do not mind ticking in the hackle as long as it is ticking and not lacing. Ticking is not distinct; you have to handle the bird and examine the neck feathers to find it. The best birds have some licking.
Weakness in the undercolor of the male's hackle feathers is one of the worst things that can be bred. I would rather have a bird sound in undercolor of neck than one whose neck exactly matched his back.
There are two ends to a bird as regards color just as they are to shape. I do not want weakness in the fluff at the butt of tail, where the back and tail join.
There is often criticism on weakness of color over the hips. That is, in reality, over the kidneys. Many a bird that catches a little cold in the fall, as a result of too close housing, lack of green food, or for some other simple reason, is held back in his feather growth, and the result is a little white over his kidneys. Many a good bird shows it; and if a male is good at base of hackle and at butt of tail, a little weakness in the undercolor over the hips may be laid to some cause other than color weakness.
I want the saddle feathers wide. The ends of the long saddle feathers should match the ends of the hackle feathers. The wider you can get those saddle and hackle feathers, the more redness, the more weight of color, the more levelness of color will you secure.
Some fellows are color blind. They look at a bird and think that the ends of the saddle feathers are of the same shade of color as the top of the back, when they are not. The second Single Comb Red cock here at New York is the same bird that won third at Boston three weeks ago, and he is absolutely of one shade of color over back and saddle. And, he has one kind of feather, not a wide feather on his back and a narrow feather in his saddle.
It is easy to get sheen and high color on the wing bows; but if a bird carries the same quality of feathers in his wing bows that he carries in his back, you will usually find that he runs pretty even across his wing bows.
The wing coverts, which form the wing bar, should be just as red as the rest of the bird. Frequently some ticking shows here. A well-informed judge expects to see a little of it. If it is bad, however, it should not be pulled, for to pull it would leave a hole in the wing-bar that does not cover.
The red in the flights should be as near the color of the fluff of the bird as possible. When you open the wing and lay the flights across the fluff, they should match. There is no sheen in the red of the flights and they cannot be compared with the back.
The breast should be free from a light colored quill running through the center of each feather. As the breast comes down toward the fluff, it wants to hold the same rich tone of color.
The fluff should have as much color down to the skin as possible, including a red quill.
What is a bird worth such as you have described?
They are not on the market. In other words, the bird I have described is what every breeder should be trying to produce. If a man could raise birds of this kind each year, he could sell them as fast as he could ship them at $300 each. They arc coming, a few more each year; but the fellows who are dolling them up are not trying for them.
How do you go about it to produce such chickens?
You can produce them if you get the right female, I am fussy about picking out females. Some fellows pick out females by their toe marks, to get all sisters in a pen. I want sisters provided they are right.
I want a hen that was good as a pullet. She wants to be as dark or darker in hackle than her darkest hack feathers. Black in her hackle does not mean dark, for black is not red. Cherry red in hackle is not dark. I am talking now about a dark neck on the female and want to emphasize it. I also want a nice broad feather in the hackle.
This hen may be a little mottled in back, and the breast may be uneven in color, but the deepest colored feathers are of a good pullet color; and all feathers, including the mottled ones, must carry a rich, deep red undercolor to the skin. This hen may look had because of mottled feathers on surface of breast and back. But she has hackle and undercolor, and they count. If she has a little slate, it does not hurt, as long as the red undercolor is red and not silvery.
Do not pay so much attention to the tail of the female. Some hens show black and red in tail, or are what you would call streaked. Of course, if the hen is slatey, she will have a black tail. You have to balance the tail on the male side.
The web of the feathers in the wings should be red, unless the male is weak in black markings.
Do not breed a male with smut. The little smut I use is always on the female side. I get along pretty well without the use of smut, because I pick breeding males largely by their second set of chick feathers. They grow three sets of feathers, and when the cockerels are four months old, I go over them, and those that show smoke, which later clears up and goes into the show without a lot of plucking—are the males I breed.
That slate in their blood is a color feeder. This feeding of iron for color puts a bar on the bird. But, take these males as described and breed to red females, free from smut, and you have strong color breeders.
Select a male whose breast feathers are of the same color and quality and match the reddest feathers in the hen's back. If she carries a broad feather, he wants to have the same kind. Nine times out of ten she will carry a broad feather if she is one of the right kind of birds. Little, narrow feathers have no quality.
In the above interview, Harold Tompkins gives what we believe to be the best outline for breeding Rhode Island Reds that has been published to date.
Mr. Tompkins answered every question put to him freely, frankly and fully. He was not afraid of telling "too much."
We suggest that every breeder of Reds cut out this editorial and read it again next year, and the year after that, for the more he sees and understands about Reds, the more he will learn by reading and re-reading what Mr. Tompkins has here said about Reds. --

 

[diriel]

Wow, nice post! I am living in the city these days, so I can only own 4 chickens. I am really thinking hard about locating starter chicks in Heritage RIR. The city rules state 4 birds per 10'000 sq.ft. of lot space. They do not state I can not have a rooster, however before I go out and buy 1 roo and 3 pullets I will certainly call animal control and ask directly. I live in So.Cal, but I can drive a ways if needs be. I would very much love to have some really nice Heritage RIR's. My daughter is 7y.o. now and she has expressed some interest in raising chickens, so I figure this might be a good father / daughter thing. I have raised chickens before, back when I was on 1.25 acres. About 30 of which were production RIR's from McMurrays. So only having 4 will be genuinely fun by comparison

Have a good one,
Gary

 

[NYREDS]

I really want to go to yankee classic bad, but wore out my welcome at work, took off for bath, took off for coboskill, then they changed the date of coboskill insted of 25th its now 30th..so my job just isnt going to let me switch around..trying like mad to get off for classic..I have the paperwork here..just waiting for the OK hopefully monday..


this is some super bad photography of my birds at the show..Walt taught us use freeze frame and you can capture a better moment for the bird..they move fast...plus Bob Whitneys winning australorp pullet and hen..man those birds are fantastic in person..bobs hen ducked behind her tag just as I took pic ..the delay made it even worse...in my wonderful attempt at photographing these birds..Bad is all I have to say..birds moved and I got nothing..




Bob won asiatic champion and english champion grand and reserve..hes the nicest guy in the world..he wins that good sportsmanship award every year almost and he deserves it..




the next 2 really bad photos are of my birds..







Im going to get a better camera and do film and freeze frame next year, thou this next photo is blurry, it was freeze frame on cheap camera, it really does show what the same cockeral actually looks like.

The 25th was last years date for the Cobleskill show-apparently somebody didn't change the date when they printed the showbook. The 25th this year is a Tuesday-not many poultry shows held on a Tuesday. The Cobleskill show is always the last Sunday in September. It was the first show I ever showed in-the year was 1962.