Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Bluetick340]

Get those birds to 4-h and FFA kids. Get them to the fairs. Mentor them. I was amazed t the lack of knowledge by exhibitors at our district ir last year. Being an ag teacher I love working with the good youth and educating them about our food. If you get them and their parents hooked into something real the results are amazing. I am no expert on birds, but I see he huge need for mentor and leaders in our ag "hobbies" if we want them to succeed.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Interesting what I heard on a video today!

This is a great video for beginners and old timers alike! Jahdan (11) has watched this daily for weeks!​

"Find the oldest people you can find who is not senile and talk to them" –
Walt Leonard aka fowlman01 on http://chickenvideo.com

Also available at http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/APA_ShoppingMall3.htm



[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]90-Minute DVD[/FONT]


​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Disc chapters include[/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]• Brooder preparation
• Unpacking mail order chicks
• Choosing chicks for show
• Choosing chicks for a backyard flock
• Treating chick health problems
• How to move young birds to a yard
• Hen house options
• Flock and parasite management
• How to spot diseases
• Grooming chickens for show
• Training birds for showmanship
• Basic butchering​

​

[/FONT]​

 

[Lacy Blues]

They go into recipes. Best eggnog I've had was some I made this year with fresh eggs. However, I'm the only one in the family that likes eggnog, soooooo.......

The Hamburg eggs are easy to spot in the store containers because they're so much smaller than the store eggs. I was thinking that Andalusian eggs would be more likely to fool her. And yes, I'm not above a little deception either. Like you, I'm not interested in commercial level production, but at the same time, I would like to get something for my feed bill besides eye candy in the yard. Although the eye candy is nice....

Oh, I guess I missed your point. Yes, Andalusians lay a nice large pure white egg. The problem with putting them in the carton though, is when she cracks one open, it's not going to be a pale, sickly yellow yolk. Then she'll be onto you.

When I mentioned cooking for her, I meant a plate of scrambled eggs or something where she would be eating the eggs directly, not mixed into a cake or whatever.

I guess I do not understand why breeders guard their stock so strongly. Even the best horse breeders in the world with 2 olympic horses don't have buyers knocking at their door. I would think, good breeders would want to share their stock to buyers . . .

I can only speak for myself but I imagine I'm in the same boat with a lot of other breeders.

I had a kid pestering me for a "show quality Andalusian" this past summer. Number one... anything approaching show quality is extremely hard to come by. Am I supposed to sell off the first one I get to some kid who can't keep roosters? In a situation like that, I know without a doubt that the genetics in that particular bird will go down the drain. No sale. That's fine.

Number two... a lot of people don't want to spend the money you ask, even if its a low price, for birds that you have spent a lot of years developing. My own experience: I can't sell an Andalusian. People read how flighty they are and though they admire them, they just don't want to have to deal with them. No, they are not Orpingtons that you can go out in your yard and pick up. You have to corner and catch them. Perhaps some people who raise Mediterranean breeds never spend any time in their pens and so when they do go out there, their birds are hitting their heads on the barn roof! I spend quite a bit of time with my birds and they are fairly calm... still not a pen full of Orpingtons though. I have put birds on breeder's raffles and the bags have been FULL (well, maybe half full) of tickets from people wanting to take them home. Well, the last time I did that, the winners were all excited about their new birds and were more than happy to take my phone number so they could call with any questions... no phone calls. The following year, I am perusing the sales room and who do I see laying in a sales cage, somewhat ratty and depressed? The rooster that went to these people a year before. I know my birds when I see them and I KNOW this was my bird. I don't believe he sold and once a bird leaves my farm, it stays gone because I don't know what it has been exposed to... I cannot afford to bring him back.

I'm even guilty of getting some really nice bantam Rhode Island Reds from Lacy Greer in Arizona. I had them for maybe a couple years and couldn't get the gyst of breeding them for the correct results. I had a lot of trouble with a neighbor and had to pare down on my numbers of birds/roosters and the reds were some that went. I really really like the reds and the bantams are really nice little birds. I still have a few around here but I'm not breeding them at all. My son has most of them and if they decide to go broody then I will let him hatch out a few and that's about the extent of it. He's not interested enough in chickens to allow him to hatch dozens of eggs. He likes them as pets, that is mainly all he is interested in and so that is the level of rhode island red bantam that we have. I would never sell any of them and tell the people where I got them... I know it would be an injustice to Mr. Greer and I won't do that to him.

 

[Lacy Blues]

There years and three generations. If taking birds from St Louis and having them shipped down here during different months means anything with the heat and humidity I dont know. Most people have birds chicks or eggs ship ed to them in the spring as that's the time breeders have their pens put together. In the case of the Golden Sebrite bantams sent down here from St Louis Mo. they never feat herd or matured with a darn but once they got back to their home land and yards of St Louis in 90 days one female reversed her horrible appearance then turned into the champion she was suppose to be. Her parents and grandparents where great breeding show birds so should she and her brother and sisters as the blood was there.

My question is does the change of altitude, heat and humidity, feed, water, weather mutate the gens, or the genetic rate and give the person who got the bird from someone 600 miles away a different bird.? If you pick the best six birds out of 25 you get put them in the breeding pen then raise 50 chicks from them then select the top six birds again over three to four years your birds that you have should adjust to your climate, feed water ect and you are off to the races. So many throw their hands up in the air and give up. They dont give the birds a chance. I guess most people feel that if they did good in Georgia for 20 years they should do fantastic in Minn right off the Bat. My white Rocks in Minn went through three years of split wings be for they leveled off.

The owner kept choosing birds that had good wings and in three years it was over. One guy in Texas got birds from Wisconsin and Delaware area. His cross of the birds gave him split tails. He gave up the cross and the birds from out of the area. I often wondered if he got a strain of line breed Barred Rocks from a friend of mine in Ohio and breed them in Texas for three years if he would have a nice strain adjusted to his climate. Many think I am all wet on this climate issue and getting birds from a different region. However, I seen the results after two to three years. So many where not happy with their results. WHY???

In my case with swapping Rhode Island Reds with Dennis Meyers 20 years ago we both thought each others birds look like scrubs but we knew that we had good strains as we say videos of our birds each year for three years. He had the top line in the mid west and I had the top line in the South and they came from the same owner in Georgia Mr. Reese. Its not a matter what month to ship the bird that they will look like there brothers and sisters say in St Louis but they never look like those birds even if the owner send you 25 chicks each month all year long. However, if you just roll up your sleeves and make selections of the top birds given to you and invest three or four years into the program you will sort of turn the gene pool around and your birds will look much like the master breeders who you got your birds from who lives many miles away.

Here is another wild thing happening in climate change. A master breeder has a great strain of large fowl. He send you 25 chicks and you raise them in your yard. You then send him pictures of your chicks you raised from his chicks and the males are better than the females. You go to a show and your male wins champion large fowl. Yet at his home say in Indiana he wins with females and never produced a male that looks like your males raised 800 miles away in the South. In my case. My White Leghorn bantams turned from a female line to a male line. My males are so superior to the fellow I got my start from. He would have given $500 for a male like mine. I produce them year in and year out. Yet after breeding this line where he lived he always won with females and not males. WHY?

The video that you watched back in the 1940s showed the poultry plant buildings and these are also the buildings that they had the ROP egg laying contests in. Ten females shipped by the breeder and for one year they counted the eggs lay ed. However, these contest went down the toilet as the breeds got more high in production and less towards being true to breed. Those chickens in the movie shown where not good quality New Hampshire's com paired to what Ken Bowl-es had in New York. Great thing to look at however.

Kick the can down the road some more this thread is going into the third year. Thanks to all who promote and talk about old breeds of poultry form 1950 back. bob

In regards to Reds handling Rain. They can handle any weather. They can roost up in trees when its snowing the heat in the south that is the make up of the breed that made them so good. They may have to ajust from the south to the north over time but in a few years they will do just fine.

That was very interesting Bob. Thank you for posting it. I'll be keeping a copy just to remind myself.

 

[fowlman01]

Lots of people do their part to help the youth, but there can always be more. I taught showmanship to a 4H group a couple days age and I hate showmanship. I can't think of any west coast breeders that don't help the youth. Sometime there is no breeder close by, so the parents need to try to find a mentor. I have found that in real life.....not on the computer........breeders are very helpful. They are not going to hang out in this site however. You need to find the breeders, they ain't coming to your house. These are backyard hobbyists, we are not in this to make money.......very few people ever make money selling chickens as a back yard enterprise.

A couple of us have told people how to connect with breeders......they are not going to advertise online..........they are not coming looking for you. They are happy to help, but it is up to you to find them and convince them to sell you some birds. Again...they are generally helpful, but if you approach them like you are in a WalMart, they aren't going to sell you anything.
They are not going to sell eggs or chicks. We need to look at all our birds before we let them go. I'm breeding my birds for me, not for other people. If someone is selling hatching eggs or chicks it means they have a junk pen for the average customer...they are not going to sell a potential one in a million bird as a chick.

Walt

 

[Lacy Blues]

Lots of people do their part to help the youth, but there can always be more. I taught showmanship to a 4H group a couple days age and I hate showmanship. I can't think of any west coast breeders that don't help the youth. Sometime there is no breeder close by, so the parents need to try to find a mentor. I have found that in real life.....not on the computer........breeders are very helpful. They are not going to hang out in this site however. You need to find the breeders, they ain't coming to your house. These are backyard hobbyists, we are not in this to make money.......very few people ever make money selling chickens as a back yard enterprise.

A couple of us have told people how to connect with breeders......they are not going to advertise online..........they are not coming looking for you. They are happy to help, but it is up to you to find them and convince them to sell you some birds. Again...they are generally helpful, but if you approach them like you are in a WalMart, they aren't going to sell you anything.
They are not going to sell eggs or chicks. We need to look at all our birds before we let them go. I'm breeding my birds for me, not for other people. If someone is selling hatching eggs or chicks it means they have a junk pen for the average customer...they are not going to sell a potential one in a million bird as a chick.

Walt

 

[3riverschick]

Karen Thankyou for posting the pictures of super hackle. I'm assuming this translated to any Columbian breed including Wyandotte. Does this disqualify a bird or cause a point reduction? I honestly do't know ifit is a point deduction. I do know it's not typey. As far back as Outram in 1920's, there is a movement against it by the veteran Sussex breeders.

(snipped for brevity)

Again this year I will raise chicks to juvenile stage before selecting the keepers because the Wyandotte is a slow maturing breed. That is another reason why chicks may not be available from small breeders. Same here. My Light Sussex chicks will be going out to the 4-Her's at 12 weeks. That gives me time to cull at 8 and 12 weeks.

 

[mschlumb]

I can understand why se breeders are a little unwilling to sell good stock to certain people. I have heard many stories of a good breeder selling good birds to people (usually 4-H kids) and they just go to waste. Breeders put way too much time and money into their birds to see them wasted.

I have sold the last of our gray Runners to an FFA kid who wanted to sell eggs. We sold him two drakes and 4 females and two of them died somehow. And he selling all but a pair of them to attempt to breed. Needless to say I am not happy about the fate of those ducks, it was a huge waste of good birds. We sold the same kid some white leghorn bantams and then he put them in some really small cages with no ventilation in the coop and no light.
He's a nice kid, but just a collector and chicken jockey.

It's a rare thing to find someone who is dedicated an knows what they are doing when selling your birds.

 

[3riverschick]

Guys book is called a new guide to breeding old fashioned working dogs.

Thank you Blue Tick!!

 

[3riverschick]

I didn't know anything about this thread or that there were people willing to help locate birds until AFTER we finally found a breeder. There are people out there that don't know where to start and would never think to find the "Heritage Large Fowl Thread" on BYC as a way to obtain poultry.

Well then why don't we put up a free webs.com page touting this list which will come up on a web search. Just a business card, as it were, for this URL