Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[3riverschick]

Yes, two years is the magic mark. It is unusual to be a life long Californian......most people here are from other states....thus the strangeness here. I am a native son as well. I wish I could go to Newman, but we have our own show here in Cali.............Fresno this weekend, Bakersfield in a couple more weeks.

Walt

Been in and around Cali all my life. Right now, 18 yrs, in western PA and I miss the sun and mountains. 1958-67 NorCal. 1967-1970, SoCal. 1980 to 1992 SoCal. Met my Hubby there and both sons are native sons. It is the most beautiful place on earth.
Don't miss the surf. The water is too cold and it's too sandy for me down at the beach.
Best,
Karen

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Walt, this is what you're missing in Newnan .....

 

[cluck-cluck]

This is nice, then anythig that comes is just a bit of whipped cream on the sundae.

Ugh, now I'm craving ice cream!

Walt, this is what you're missing in Newnan .....

Nice to see I'm not the only one subjecting her chickens to hugs

They're so darn huggable!! I mean really!

Been in and around Cali all my life. Right now, 18 yrs, in western PA and I miss the sun and mountains. 1958-67 NorCal. 1967-1970, SoCal. 1980 to 1992 SoCal. Met my Hubby there and both sons are native sons. It is the most beautiful place on earth.
Don't miss the surf. The water is too cold and it's too sandy for me down at the beach.
Best,
Karen

I actually like the beach, LOL. My mother agrees with you, that it's the most beautiful place on earth, but I find it too dry. On the other hand, I need to be near the ocean, so choices are limited ;P I do think Northern California along the coast is amazing, and the Sierras are amazing. I just gripe 'cause I want to be out of the city

 

[cgmccary]

Great show going on in Newnan, GA, other than the bitter cold wind -- (2,800+ birds with a large contingent of LF as only about 300 OEG Bantams). The show is only about an hour and half from my home so easy for me to get to and from. I took a Buckeye cock and 6 cockerels -- however, anytime Matt Ulrich shows, I am up against a brick wall. He has great birds in several breeds -- any one of them capable of winning at a show (CONGRATULATIONS MATT!). At least yesterday when I wore out and retired for the day, Matt had won American Class with a RIR Cockerel and Reserve American with a SLW hen. As if that were not enough, his white Plymouth Rocks were right in the mix (great pullet with excellent type and head). There are some nice NH there as well. One of these days, I am going to get my Buckeyes to a level to compete against Matt's fine fowl.

Met up with a lot of you or saw you in passing.

Chris

 

[catdaddyfro]

Great show going on in Newnan, GA, other than the bitter cold wind -- (2,800+ birds with a large contingent of LF as only about 300 OEG Bantams). The show is only about an hour and half from my home so easy for me to get to and from. I took a Buckeye cock and 6 cockerels -- however, anytime Matt Ulrich shows, I am up against a brick wall. He has great birds in several breeds -- any one of them capable of winning at a show (CONGRATULATIONS MATT!). At least yesterday when I wore out and retired for the day, Matt had won American Class with a RIR Cockerel and Reserve American with a SLW hen. As if that were not enough, his white Plymouth Rocks were right in the mix (great pullet with excellent type and head). There are some nice NH there as well. One of these days, I am going to get my Buckeyes to a level to compete against Matt's fine fowl.

Met up with a lot of you or saw you in passing.

Chris

cool way to go Matt

Thanks for the update Chris and I'm sure you'll get there one of these days. I'm glad you posted as Matt I think is too modest some times unless someone else post his results I think he won't brag too much. I think he came away pretty good too at the Lake City, Fl. show but have not seen any results from that other than a few dropped hints here an' there, so if anyone would like to say how things went down there too feel freely to do so as we wont mind at all, any good motivation towards these Large fowl taking the show is a good instigator for me, others too I'm sure.

Jeff

 

[Pozees]

Karen, we are getting ready to build a cupola for our gable-roofed shed (the shed project from h***, but that's another story) and DH wants to use an old wooden louvered door we have had hanging around for 12 years waiting for us to think of a use for it. As I recall you put a cupola on your peaked roof, and I wondered if you had any advice you would like to share. Anyone else with cupola experience/advice should feel free to chime in.

 

[pysankigirl]

Karen, we are getting ready to build a cupola for our gable-roofed shed (the shed project from h***, but that's another story) and DH wants to use an old wooden louvered door we have had hanging around for 12 years waiting for us to think of a use for it. As I recall you put a cupola on your peaked roof, and I wondered if you had any advice you would like to share. Anyone else with cupola experience/advice should feel free to chime in.

I have built one but have no really great advice. except that gorilla glue can go a bit crazy on you if you don't know how it works, try it out on something else first...LOLOLOL

 

[cluck-cluck]

Great show going on in Newnan, GA, other than the bitter cold wind -- (2,800+ birds with a large contingent of LF as only about 300 OEG Bantams). The show is only about an hour and half from my home so easy for me to get to and from. I took a Buckeye cock and 6 cockerels -- however, anytime Matt Ulrich shows, I am up against a brick wall. He has great birds in several breeds -- any one of them capable of winning at a show (CONGRATULATIONS MATT!). At least yesterday when I wore out and retired for the day, Matt had won American Class with a RIR Cockerel and Reserve American with a SLW hen. As if that were not enough, his white Plymouth Rocks were right in the mix (great pullet with excellent type and head). There are some nice NH there as well. One of these days, I am going to get my Buckeyes to a level to compete against Matt's fine fowl.

Met up with a lot of you or saw you in passing.

Chris

Chris, if you could take pictures of the Crevecoeurs, I'd sure appreciate it!!! Especially if Mr. Ulrich is showing any

They are my favorite bird, so obviously I can never find enough pictures, especially with quality birds Thanks so much

Ppppppplease?

 

[Marengoite]

lurker here...
I'm having trouble accepting that if your poultry business is otherwise losing money, by folding it into a larger farming/ homesteading operation it can become profitabe. One may be able to hide the losses by considering them with the overall income of the farm. But in actuality, you would only be decreasing your profit marins of the larger operation. This is the point at which fortune 500s sell off the unprofitabe branch of their company to realize greater overal profitability... Now, I can accept that a farm selling dairy, vegetables, fruit, etc., may bring more business to their operation by adding variety (eggs and meat) to their total offering of goods. But I'm not sure how one would quantify the increase in customer base. I can also see that free-ranging your flock in your orchard or garden, and feeding them with vegetable spoils can reduce the feed bill for a few months (we do this). But what you gain in $, you may sacrifice in productivity because of the lack of nutritional balance (we've experienced this). Don't get me wrong, I keep records of sales and expenses from my small flock, and am constantly brainstorming about how to become profitable. Just haven't yet figured it out! - Love the thread. Love the discussions.
-Kevin

Very good question, Kevin, and I would agree that from a manufacturing standpoint, it doesn't add up.

What I meant by an integrated operation is in terms of a "zero waste" operation. Coming from manufacturing, I was taught to define waste as "anything that leaves the facility that someone doesn't pay you for." Joel Salatin runs his operation in a rotational manner so that waste from one species forms part of the feedstock for another species. That's one way to do it. However, it is also labor-intensive instead of infastructure intensive like CAFOs.

Permie types do things a little differently, but the idea is the same, i.e. that the system is managed as a whole rather than individual pieces and parts. Chickens become part of the insect control strategy and that saves money on the amount of spray one has to buy, for instance. Their waste goes into the fertilizer stream and saves on having to import nitrogen, phosphorous and calcium for the produce operations. So part of the solution isn't that you spend less on chickens as much as maximizing the value you get out of them. That's one side of the coin.

The other side IS reducing expenses. When one buys feed, especially for folks who blend their own, you can save money on a per pound basis buying for a farm full of livestock than buying for just a small chicken flock alone. As you mentioned, you can reduce your feed bill by supplementing from waste. If I need to dispose of excess or bad dairy products, that goes to the hogs and chickens who are able to make use of protein sources.

And then there is infrastructure too. If I have to build everything from bare dirt, it's expensive to put up fencing, buildings, etc. So, if I put up a fence, it's a better deal to raise cows than chickens and turkeys because I get more for the beef than I do the poultry at the market. However, if I'm already building for cows, sheep and pigs, it's hardly any additional expense to add chickens and turkeys to the mix.

That's what I mean by an integrated operation. If it's part of a larger strategy and fits withing an already existing agricultural income stream, it is possible to realize a profit from small-scale poultry. Especially if you have people paying organic prices for it.

rick

 

[Robert Blosl]

Back from Newnan Georgia Show it was big and spread out all over the place. I left as they where raffling off the big incubator and saying thanks for coming and Matt 1616 the care taker of the Mohawk Large Fowl Reds in the south won BIG. How big I don't know but I think BIG.

I took pictures of him and other chickens so will post latter when I get done feeding the birds and take a nap. Got some pictures of Wyandottes for you. I dont think there where any Jersey Giants there. Nice Light Brahmas from Florida one was maybe number two large fowl. Meet so many of you from this message board and others who I have seen or communicated with over the last 20 years. Here is my report I posted on the H Rhode Island Red Site. Have no idea what else won as its to big to really enjoy and figure out what is what. I like our Pensacola Panhandle Show lay out. You can see everything single cooped and good lighting. I did not realize what a show we put on last December. Now we got to get ready for the sponge show in March. Cant wait. More latter.

Rhode Island Red Large Fowl Ckl. Who was Grand Champion of the Large Fowl show at Lake City Fla got out of the breeding pen Friday and headed to Newnan Georgia. He got cleaned up nice, won best Rhode Island Red with some great birds from all over and then Champion American. The last time I saw him he was on Champion Row waiting to see if he was Champion Large Fowl of the show. He was next to a nice Light Brahma hen rumors where told me that he won the big bird class. Matt 1616 told me when I left hat he did not know what won yet. Heck they had the raffles and thanking every buddy for coming go figure. Five people told me he won. Its not official but I think he did to. I took pictures of him but more than anything I took pictures of him from above. He had the nicest width of back I have seen on a large fowl Red in years. I figured it is not seven inches of width but about eight inches and about seven inches in total length from his neck to his rise in his tail.




judges where raving about the class of Reds we had there. More pictures after I take a nap. bob

I edited this message with the pictures. Notice the width of back on Matts Reds. This
is the correct width and you do not want a tapered back. This male was relaxed in the large fowl tent
then they pulled him out and put him in the main show on champion row by a door with a hundred people like sardines waiting to
see what was to win. They all where scared and nervous. I was looking at the poultry press Feb issue and this bird beat two big winning birds
from two previous shows. A white rock from Indiana won Champion large fowl and Res Champion of a big show up north and a super nice Rhode Island Red
male from North Carolina won big at Lucas ville last fall. Its not fair however to judge them latter as they can go out of condition but Royalty of great birds was at this
show. He is eating FRM game bird pellets right now and watching his Royal family of females lay eggs in Eleberta Alabama at Matts Farm. You who have orders for
Mohawk chicks he is one of the sires. Lucky you.