Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[el pollo rey]

BYC folks us a lot of terms never used in the exhibition poultry world and for some reason SOP doesn't bother me much. What is an exhibition bird in some peoples mind may not be an exhibition bird in my mind. In the show world folks just assume you are breeding them to the Standard of Perfection. Online anyone can say anything......take all posts online with a grain of salt if the person is not well known in the APA/ABA world ...and even take that with a grain of salt. Show records can be researched, but are not always a measure of a persons abilities, as some exhibitors show birds that they buy.

Walt

My point exactly !

 

[el pollo rey]

But what about diseases where the birds could be carriers but not show any symptoms?  I do not ask this randomly.  I suspect my flock of asymptomatically carrying Mg.  I don't have proof, because the PR tests for being a carrier are $75 each(!!!!!!) and an asymptomatic bird wont test positive on a swab or blood test. 

I can say most back yard poultry breeders and fanciers of ornamental poultry take great pride in their flocks and give the best care possible to their birds as opposed to battery operations that house 20000 birds in one barn , the small home flock owners have the healthiest stock due to the one on one contact with the birds in their care,, and the folks that say you are to blame for spreading the germs to others are the first ones in line at kfc for lunch what's up with that ?

 

[fowlman01]

I'm very happy to hear/read that. When friends and co-workers find out I have chickens, they very often send me links to articles that claim backyard chickens are the reason behind increased diseases and illnesses such as salmonella, etc. It's comforting to get the real scoop from an expert.

Have them back up that information. They kill backyard flocks during disease outbreaks, but the problem doesn't start in the back yard flocks and they kill all the birds in the area when they have these occasional outbreaks. The backyard birds are OK, they just happen to be in the kill zone. They have put down millions of chickens during Exotic Newcastle outbreaks here in CA, but there were no backyard flocks that had it. As a child I was living on a poultry farm when something.....I suspect END hit it. Every bird on the place and there were a lot of them, died in a 24 hour period. 20-30,000 birds.

I forgot to mention this, but you should always quaranteen new birds or birds returning from a show. It is irresponsible to throw show birds back in with the flock when you bring them home from a show. Use common sense and raise disease resistant birds.natural resistance, not injected resistance...when possible. In some parts of the country you have to vaccinate for certain things.

Walt

 

[Robert Blosl]

Nice to see good conversation on the message board. In regards to this web site they are going to use the terminology they want which is fine. The be leave in one kind of poultry which 99 percent of the people on this board owns. Some of us are preservationist and want to preserve the real old breeds since say 1950 are a rare minority .

In regards to the Standard of Perfection only half the people that show own one I bet. They give judges a hard time and many judges ask them do you own a Standard of Perfection and many times these belly archers say no. They don't have a clue what the have all they want to do is win awards and many of them buy their birds. I was told a story just a few days ago I thought a fellow had some very nice large fowl of a certain breed. He was carrying this bird up to champion row at a show I attended a while back and latter I found out this bird was shipped to him by a real top notch breeder who I knew was a Master Breeder a few months befor. You never know when this happens then people see this guy win and want to buy his birds and find out he does not really have a great gene pool after all. Its been going on for years buying a champion out of a box.

Talking about terminology, my wife and I was driving down the road today to ship out some chicks and saw a guy getting his mail. He was limping on his left side had a bad hip or knee or walked on a nail or glass. I told my wife he as a Hitch in his Getty up. Then I said to her that is a saying from the South She said. Yup. Wonder where that came from as I never heard this term in the West Coast as a kid.

Standard Breed Poultry or having a flock of Standard Breed Chickens or Ducks is fine with me I will except that term. I try to live and die by the standard even if I don't show much. You have to admire those who can year in and year out breed good birds then drive 400 to 600 miles to a show and win.

Seen any winning Mallard Ducks lately ? I did best one I ever saw. Some guy out on the west coast showed one.

Told my wife O my God what is this world coming to. She said what happen a runner duck win Champion of the show. Almost?

 

[3riverschick]

If shows spread disease they would not be allowed. All shows are canceled in times of AI or END outbreaks. I have shown many birds over the years and never picked up anything at a show. Here is CA we don't even need health papers to show. Anything can happen if you take your birds off your property and expose them to other birds, but the only major outbreaks of disease in chickens that I know of do not come from back yard flocks. It is always commercial operations where these outbreaks occur. I am a California poultry health inspector and I have never run into anything that I would have to report to the state at a poultry show.

Walt

I remember a number of years ago (circa 2006) , some illegal Mexican laborer brought a fighting chicken across the border in Calif. He worked at a chicken farm near Norco. It infected the farm and they had to slaughter 100,000 birds. How sad.
Best,
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Talking about terminology, my wife and I was driving down the road today to ship out some chicks and saw a guy getting his mail. He was limping on his left side had a bad hip or knee or walked on a nail or glass. I told my wife he as a Hitch in his Getty up. Then I said to her that is a saying from the South She said. Yup. Wonder where that came from as I never heard this term in the West Coast as a kid.
=======================================================
Hi Bob,
My 94 yr. old Mom was born and raised in northern Indiana. She has used the term all her life and taught us to use it. Very useful phase,Smile. I always thought it meant a lame horse.
Best,
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Well the 4-H breeding trio was placed today. She chose a cockerel from Junior ex March and 3 pullets from Junior ex May. I am so impressed with the young lady who got them. She has a sensitive, gentle way with animals. Butterflies just land on her hands. She had never met Junior and had him sitting in her lap in no time. Her parents are real gung-ho about the poultry project. The cockerel can be shown in the County Fair and all three at Columbus and the PA Farm Show.
Best,
Karen
( ok, so technically it wasn't a trio, but she will do well by them, smile.)

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Evening all....back from Canada and "back to work"...BTW, Canada is still DANG COLD this time of year (we had snow there Saturday night)...too cold for a Suthern bouy like me

Spent this evening separating my Columbian Rock cockerels and pullets from my 2013 hatches. I have 3 absolutely HUGE cockerels growing out...these 3 are at least a 1/3 larger than any of the other males that hatched at the same time. One of the 3 is showing exceptional color in his wing primaries which have been "smutty" at best in my cockerels to this point. This one has crisp black with a fine edging of white on the lower edge of the feather....hoping he grows into a real "keeper"

Seems my luck is very similar in my pullets with 2 standing out from the rest...much larger, VERY long backs, improved color (although undercolor has lightened up a bit)....too early to tell about the tails although the main tail feathers do have nice lacing.

Hope everyone is seeing success from your 2013 breedings....I will try to get a few pictures over the weekend if the weather will allow

 

[thedragonlady]

Evening all....back from Canada and "back to work"...BTW, Canada is still DANG COLD this time of year (we had snow there Saturday night)...too cold for a Suthern bouy like me

Spent this evening separating my Columbian Rock cockerels and pullets from my 2013 hatches. I have 3 absolutely HUGE cockerels growing out...these 3 are at least a 1/3 larger than any of the other males that hatched at the same time. One of the 3 is showing exceptional color in his wing primaries which have been "smutty" at best in my cockerels to this point. This one has crisp black with a fine edging of white on the lower edge of the feather....hoping he grows into a real "keeper"

Seems my luck is very similar in my pullets with 2 standing out from the rest...much larger, VERY long backs, improved color (although undercolor has lightened up a bit)....too early to tell about the tails although the main tail feathers do have nice lacing.

Hope everyone is seeing success from your 2013 breedings....I will try to get a few pictures over the weekend if the weather will allow

Do we need to blame you for bringing this cold weather back with you ?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Do we need to blame you for bringing this cold weather back with you ?

Its 40 degrees warmer here than we had in Canada.....I'm not complaining.

I do like the warm days and cool nights we are having right now...perfect "sleeping" weather