Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[cbnovick]

A few XW Poultry Ranch NH male

Jeremy,
Is this one of the GNH x GSNH cross males? How old?
Nice tail/topline. There's shadowing in the photo but color looks nice too. He looks like he may be a nice width across back.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Texasmja]

I like this cockerel best

 

[Jwhip]

Niece looking roosters Jeremy!! What is the breeding behind them? Just wondering since I am not real sure on what direction I should go with the chicks I got from you.

Scott

Just a crossed up mess of Germans from Kathy and Good Shepherd blood.

Hatched in middle of February

 

[sgribble]

Jeremy are these crosses or pure Good Shepard?

 

[cbnovick]

just 'bookmarking' thread

 

[Jwhip]

Jeremy are these crosses or pure Good Shepard?

They are the cross between GS NH and G NH

 

[sgribble]

Do you have any pics of the pullets?
Thanks

 

[cluck-cluck]

Hi, I have another question (of course) . Anyway, I understand that one needs to hatch as many chicks as possible in order to have the greatest chance of finding a great bird, but hatching 100-200 birds and feeding all of them to adulthood would be seriously cost prohibitive, not to mention space prohibitive for myself. So I'm assuming culling must start early. If this is so, could you experienced breeders please share what you look for starting with your newly hatched chicks? Can one reliably see things such as leg spread, wing carriage, etc? Or does one only cull for obvious defects such as cross beaked, spraddle legs and other deformities?

At what age would the second evaluation be done, and what can be seen at that point?. The third? And so on?

If you keep your H-breeds to about 20 weeks for slaughtering, how much room do they require?

I'm sure it's been written somewhere, but I haven't found the answers I'm looking for yet and you all are always so helpful! I'm hoping you will share some of you secrets with me

Thanks!

 

[Matt1616]

Cluck-cluck, I think the first thing that you should know is that the theory of hatching 100-200 chicks of a breed to get a few good ones only applies to certain situations. I could name many very successful show people that hatch only 20-25 chicks per breed each year. If you start out with a line that is very good you don't have to hatch those numbers. If you dive off into a project like Kathy did with the Delwares or like several of us have done with the New Hampshire and you cross strains within a breed or even more so cross breeds then you will be in a situation where you would have to hatch more chicks so that you would increase your chances of getting something to work with. There are also certain breeds that don't breed as true as others and even strains within the same breed that you would have to hatch more.
So in conclusion...there is not a hard fast answer to your question. It depends on what you are going to do with them, what breed, what line within a breed, etc.
That is probably as clear as mud but I hope this helps.

 

[Jwhip]

Do you have any pics of the pullets?
Thanks

Not yet but I will get some soon.