Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[fowlman01]

Walt,
Could you PM me that info? I am wanting to set up egg shows for the Sussex fancy here in the US. I also need a Standard for Sussex eggs , if you have one.
Thanks,
Karen

It is hard copy and I will have to find where I put it. When I find it I will scan it and send to you.

w.

 

[3riverschick]

It is hard copy and I will have to find where I put it. When I find it I will scan it and send to you.

w.

Oh thank you so much , Walt!

My email addy is [email protected]
Happy Holidays,
Karen

 

[Cedarknob]

Personally speaking, after working in industry and showing birds, I find this cross simply amazing. The selective breeding that these birds went through is just astronomical. I believe I will be getting some meat birds next year just for meat for the freezer. Why? They are cheaper to raise and you can get twice the amount of meat that you would with a normal, heritage bird. Raising a heritage breed is one thing and there is nothing wrong with eating your culls, but when you need meat for your freezer and a fairly abundant supply of it (rather than raising hundreds of birds a year), a few Cornish X's are a sure fire way to do it!

And let the stone throwing commence!

No stone throwing from me. IMO those commercial strains came from truly great breeders, and the old names like Cobb and Vantress bred heritage breeds at one time also. I hope that I'm done with commercial meat birds though. I get the same shaped body of a commercial bird with my Cornish, just takes a little longer to get them from hatch to the freezer. LOL

 

[Chris Herzog]

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Chris

I love your set up.....makes me very envious!! Ever time I see your pens, I add something to my "project list"

Nice work

 

[Chris Herzog]

Thanks Scott!
It's a work in progress like everyone else. Just about the time I get finished with something I think about how I can change something and make it a little better or easier to work with. My wife wants to kill me!!!!

Chris

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

She wants to kill you and I want to steal your brain!

I can't even run a power tool...I have the ideas and the engineer/husband builds it for me!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Chris, are the males kept in those pens to the left of that bottom most photo?

 

[Chris Herzog]

Chris, are the males kept in those pens to the left of that bottom most photo?

That is some of my breeding pens but yes when I'm not hatching eggs I put the males in there.




The front of the hen house but it's been changed a few times since I took this pic.




I use these pens for conditioning pens and also to keep my males in and separated.




Chris

 

[thedragonlady]

It's tough to get both size and egg production. There is a documented negative correlation between growth rate (rate of growth, final body weight, frame size) and reproduction. This includes egg production as well as fertility and hatchability. Not saying you can't work towards both, but it takes effort because size and reproduction work against each other. If you concentrate too much on size and less on reproduction then reproductive characteristics will diminish. We often see this less in fertilty and hatch because we cherish any egg laid and if the offspring meets the SOP we keep it as a breeder and often ignore its mothers rate of production.
Can you get both? Sure, but exhibition poultry enthusiasts want birds that meet the SOP much more than they want a bird that lays lots of eggs. So there goes the egg numbers with each successive generation.

I think genetics are a part of it , but I think too that how these big birds are raised has a lot to do with it . I had a lot of breeders question me when I said that my English Pullet was laying at 6 mos, as were my SOP birds. Well, I have chicks growing out to prove it. The girls are consistently laying an egg a day. I'm not about to ask for more !

You cannot raise these big birds properly in little pens , or my hated "Chicken Tractors ". From at most 4 weeks , depending on weather , my chicks are out running around a good half acre of mixed grasses . They FLY as babies , and turn into little hoodlums , who bother the biggies . All the while they are developing frame , and muscle to hold that frame together . Mine eat me out of house and home , until they start to lay , when they settle down . Eye of Newt is expensive !

Hatching rate has been very good , once my cockerel figured things out , at 6 months old . I started plucking , but stopped that , as I figured new owners would not want to have to pluck , and I might want to show a few . After a couple of weeks , fertility returned to normal .

My feeling is that I am raising CHICKENS , not KOBE beef . Big chickens , whom I let be chickens .