Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Zanna]

Our barn can be divided into 6 pens of 8x10. We just use deer netting to make the dividers. It is light, easy to use, and we have lots of it as we must have a 1000' of it or more for the gardens.

We've also built these small, outdoor tractor pens. They make excellent pens for breeding, grow out, death row or whatever. These do have a roost placed a foot or two above the ground. Some have built in nests with easy, outside collection of eggs.

Great ideas, Thanks! We use lots of the deer netting as well. Do your roos penned next to eachother ever try to fight and break through the netting?

 

[Chris09]

I'm looking for ideas on easy homemade feeders that the males with huge combs can get their heads into that the birds also cannot beak out the food easily. Thanks.

The easiest feeder I made was out of a vinyl gutter. It comes in 10 foot lengths and is easy to cut.


....................Gutter...............................................................End Cap....................................................Hanger

Chris

 

[cgmccary]

Quote:
Chris:
I'm always looking for better ideas too. I only have one feeder that they can't beak out any. This looks less expensive. Great idea.
Thanks!

Chris

 

[7961]

Here's "Junior and his Junettes" !!

http://tinyurl.com/d76sjwk

Beautiful L. Sussex..good luck with them!

 

[Chris09]

Chris:
I'm always looking for better ideas too. I only have one feeder that they can't beak out any. This looks less expensive. Great idea.
Thanks!

Chris

They work out well and are inexpensive.
A 4-1/2" x 10' Gutter runs $6.47 - 1 pc.
End Caps are $2.97 - 2 pc.
Hangers are $3.04 - 3 pc.

A 4-1/2" x 10' feeder would run about $22.00

Chris

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote: BOY I am happy to here you are going to start with White Chanteclers. You must be doing your home work. Maybe by then there will be a series of articles on how to get started with Heritage Large Fowl. Maybe a series called. How to Start with Heritage Poultry but dont No How. Do you think any one would write a step by step method fool proof where you can be free of Line Breeding charts, Genetic Codes on breeding and just have fun doing it. Maybe just maybe someone will come up with a booklet or series. How about how to start your own Four H Club?

Then your own Poultry Judging Team.

Well got to go out and show Mr. Silkie some pictures of some purple chickens to see if he wants any for mates. He has approved me getting the trio of Mottled Javas. Now that's a idea.

How to get Started with Mottled Java Heritage Large Fowl but don't No How. I sure don't know how. I have never seen a Java be for.

Heck I don't know if there is a gentic code for Mottled Javas if there is would it help me keep this strain from going extinct?

Have a nice day I got to go to work and make money to buy chicken feed. Matt she got my entry for the show she should be sending it to you soon. bob

 

[NYREDS]

Rhode Island Red is :
"eWh/eWh, s+/s+, Mh/Mh, Db/Db, and possible sundry melanisers"
Now Walt what the heck does this mean. Bill you ever saw this in Rhode Island Red Jouranls or Red Chronicles?
The person who came up with this formula has he or she breed Rhode Island Reds befor? I dont know how you can take a formula like this and apply it to breeding Rhode Island Reds.
Sundry Melanisers? I typed this into Google and got this. Boy that's something so what the heck does this mean if Google never heard of it.
http://search.incredibar.com/search...&u=819874877554769551&a=Yz2cZoRkFp&i=39&cid=1
I have a friend who breeds Columbian Plymouth Rocks what is the genetic formula for him. If he gets something like this how can he apply this information for his breeding program next year. He is asking me how to breed his birds in a double mating system as Light Brahma Breeders do. Its so confusing to me I cannot make heads or tails with it.
Here is a question on Rhode Island Reds what does excess black ticking in the female feather have to do with the genetic makeup with Genetics as this is the biggest problem we have in controlling black in the wings and the tail.

How about the quill color what is the genetic code to get black blood red quills rather than rustic red quill color.
I am willing to advance to learn on this Genetic codes but we as breeders have to understand it and use it to produce birds with good color. I dont think genetics will do much to help me breed extended keels, and maintain a brick shape in our Reds. Then what about the Cochin genes in the make up are they allowing for this or in bantams with the Old English blood along with the Cochin blood.? Just thoughts I have as these voo doo crosses made in the 1930s to make the bantam Red. I dont know if they figure this in when coming up with these codes or what ever that means eWh/eWh, s+/s+, Mh/Mh, Db/Db,
I know I have scared off a few rookies with my writings but to tell you the truth if we have to go with this kind of stuff to raise chickens to preserve them we will run off a whole bunch more and they will go back to the feed store chickens where they don't have to worry about anything except a mean production rooster beating up their grand children. Interesting stuff help me understand it. bob

At the risk of offending some of the people who find those coded formulas interesting it doesn't seem to me to correlate with quality results. IMO breeding is much more art than science.
Using my circle of friends & associates as a sample I count among the several very well known breeders but none who who communicate in "genetic speak". I think that if there were no more to breeding than knowing those coded symbols then none of the people I know would be successful & the people here who spew genetic code would all be master breeders.
To answer your question Bob, no, none of the 400-500 old articles on Reds I've read included any of this information. Never came up in conversations with Ken Bowles or Ralph Knickerbocker either.
Personally I think I'll keep sitting in the run with a pail of cracked corn watching the birds & checking my breeding log to make my breeding decisions. Someone else can write down symbolic formulas, it doesn't interest me.

 

[ronott1]

Before people begin fantasizing about heritage birds and breeding them, let's take a moment for a reality check. It seems the beginners who live in the city, who are limited, by ordinance, to 6 hens, allowed no roosters, who have only had chickens in their bathroom or backyard tiny coopette for just a few weeks, ought to really master the whole keeping of birds first. I'm trying to say here what needs to be said, not necessarily what folks want to hear.

Use some hatchery grade hens to practice on. Get used to raising out chicks, integrating birds, living with them for a few years and experience the entire cycle for a couple of years. Feeding, coop cleaning, life, death, euthanizing, disease, the whole deal. If you succeed with those hatchery birds and still want to do this in two years, great. Until then?

Sell your city house and buy yourself a place in the country where you really can breed quality birds, keep crowing roosters, learn all about rooster behaviors up close and personal, build multiple coops, pens and barns. Meanwhile, sit in on some local breed club meetings. Go to regional APA sanctioned poultry shows, look at the fancy birds, submit to a mentor, meet some people, and spend a whole lot of time as a student and spend a lot more time just listening.

Otherwise, this is all just an internet fantasy.

This is so funny to me!

You do not have to sell your house and move to the country to help preserve Heritage Breeds.

As an example, I live in the city and am only supposed to have 6 hens. I have already hatched SG Dorkings for a local breeder. Next Year, I will be partnering with the Breeder to hatch a lot of chicks for her. I will also be keeping Roosters at her place in the Country to breed with my own projects. I am working on Penedesencas and EO Basque. I may work with Heritage RIRs too. I will at least hatch a couple of dozen Heritage SC RIRs to share with local breeders in my area.

Keep on learning and encouraging!

 

[Wynette]

At the risk of offending some of the people who find those coded formulas interesting it doesn't seem to me to correlate with quality results. IMO breeding is much more art than science.
Using my circle of friends & associates as a sample I count among the several very well known breeders but none who who communicate in "genetic speak". I think that if there were no more to breeding than knowing those coded symbols then none of the people I know would be successful & the people here who spew genetic code would all be master breeders.
To answer your question Bob, no, none of the 400-500 old articles on Reds I've read included any of this information. Never came up in conversations with Ken Bowles or Ralph Knickerbocker either.
Personally I think I'll keep sitting in the run with a pail of cracked corn watching the birds & checking my breeding log to make my breeding decisions. Someone else can write down symbolic formulas, it doesn't interest me.

I'm a relative newbie, having only been breeding a few years. The genetics formulas to me are confusing and very difficult to understand, but I'm sure they have their place, and I hope to one day understand a bit more what they mean and why. However, most definitely a good working knowledge of breeding cannot be replaced with symbols! What I have learned in the years I've been breeding is priceless - and most of the stuff that sticks with me is from the folks who've done this breeding for many, many years. And, I have to say, the advice I've gotten from these long-time breeders has never been wrong!

 

[FeyRaine]

Karen,

You are right, it is on the list, just didn't want to jinx "Dew" into an early exit by typing it!

Dew is _the best_ farm dog
ppl always ask what he is so we joke he is a "pure-breed-all-American-red-porch-dog"

Being the Farm Dog / Livestock Guardian at our place is no simple thing!

Dew literally lets the free-range chickens walk all over him, yet has himself killed at least one of the many many dropped off starving strays that threatened,
& others he has cooperatively hunt w/ the Mtn Lion who periodically ranges across our place & who for 7 yrs has respected our livestock & domestic dogs
to the point of sleeping on the pig pen roof sometimes & dragging deer parts to the driveway for our dogs. Also Dew is friendly w/ Max ("our bear" who to DH's am surprise spent a few of the worse winter nights in the barn w/ goats & barncats same arrangement as MtnLion) yet Dew has faced off w/ other random bears who might have caused problems, and Dew runs off whole coyote packs when nec.

Its finding his replacement that will be the issue all too soon,
& so far the replacement in training doesn't look like she will fill that role

<sigh>
FeyRaine