Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[capayvalleychick]

Any hatchery chicks I've bought, I've had vaccinated for Marek's. Any chicks I hatched here or bought from breeders, are not vaccinated. I have lost 2 Albritton Sussex to Marek's in the last two weeks, and tonight noticed a pullet looking poorly. Obviously it is too late to vaccinate these birds, so there is no conflict there, as they will or will not survive. Get from the surviving birds will presumably be more immune than those which may have descended from the victims, had they been vaccinated. ...
I generally think our birds need to have natural vigor, inborn resistance to disease, else why perpetuate the line? At the same time, I have an investment I want to protect, birds I strongly prefer not to lose to preventable disease. Where is the line?

I've had chickens here for 13 years and never have had a bird show symptoms of Marek's. I haven't vaccinated for anything. I don't know whether my flock is resistant or whether they have never been exposed.
Wednesday evening, I noticed a young cockerel showing lameness in one leg. By Thursday morning, both legs were paralyzed. I immediately took him to the CAHFS lab at UCDavis for a necropsy. Still waiting on results. I'm terrified that I may lose my flock if it's Marek's. I don't know what else it could be. All other birds are very healthy. All this year's youngsters were in that same coop with him, ages range from 5 weeks to 4 months old.

 

[Lacy Blues]

If you know someone with turkeys, that would be the quickest way to hopefully cut this off at the knees! Hurry!

 

[cluck-cluck]

I'm hoping to use the services of a butcher / processor like you, NotAFarm. Not because I don't have the stomach for it but because I have a neighbor that would freak out if she caught me. Plus, my arthritis is getting pretty bad, so I don't want to do so much labor. I probably couldn't process more than one bird in a day, LOL.

Anyway, the trick will be finding someone who will do it. Should I be checking out those companies who process wild game from hunters? Do / would they do the actual slaughtering?

 

[Texasmja]

I went to have my Freedom Rangers (yes, I know, not Heritage birds) butchered and wanted to show the difference in what the livers of my flock looked liked compared to those of another person's flock that also had their birds butchered the same day. I wanted to try Marcy's recipe so when another customer asked if I wanted their liver, gizzards and hearts, I said yes. She put them in the cooler in my truck while I headed inside to pay for mine. When I was loading, I noticed that hers did not look as "healthy" as mine so I thought I'd post a picture of them. I know that someone else mentioned that they only use livers from animals on their farm and never from others......here is evidence why I will never accept any from someone else......even from another "home flock". I won't feed them so they will be going on the brush pile that will be lit this afternoon.

I would use them for fishing bait instead of burning them...just me I love to fish.

 

[thedragonlady]

Yes, that may very well work.

One concern is that the Wyandotte may be working towards killing the Rock's chicks. Survival of the fittest and all.

This happened to a person in California last month. Quite sad for them.

Another answer might be to put up a temporary wire fence between the two Mother Hens. That would not take up more space but would require one more place to provide food and water. I am getting swamped with this now. Thankfully my incubators are off now so hopefully I will be able to get the numbers down soon.

Temporary fences are a must in raising birds. I buy up every dog exercise pen I can find. I'm lucky that my big Orps don't go over much of anything over 3 feet, but I use 4' panels to separate cock birds.The outer run fences are chain link. These panels let me sub divide the interiors.

 

[thedragonlady]

I would use them for fishing bait instead of burning them...just me I love to fish.

The livers on the left look like those from stuffed geese in France. They make great Pate though !

 

[catdaddyfro]

Wow, what do you think they were feeding their flock to cause their livers to look like that?. They look old or something?!

That's usually a sign of a very high fat diet. Boy with a liver that looked like that in the short lifetime of those butchered imagine what a drunks liver looks like after a long long time of drinking alcohol. Its basically the same thing as cirrosis of the liver is a fat(clogged up) liver from all that alcohol turning into sugar in the blood stream and having to be filtered out after a bunch of years drinking esp. the hard stuff.

Jeff

 

[Jwhip]

Jeremy, how are the White Dorkings coming?

They are still around but it has been a battle has you know..... so many culls. At least they taste good. I have a few 2013 hatched birds that look promising. I sure could use a male from you. Will have a good one to sell this Fall?

 

[Jwhip]

Jeremy,

F1 cross offspring are interesting and the most challenging in terms of where to go next IMHO.

In my previous post, I stated that the 1st male has the best tail in terms of color and angle...it seems to join better without breaking the topline (based on the SOP) which by my observations seems to be one of the most common faults in the NH.

He has a decent comb... although I can't tell if it follows the line of the head nicely due to the photo.

#1 male's color is good in this photo, despite shadowing from photo...

Overall, I feel #1 is the best of the 3 based on photos. I like the overall symmetry of his profile at first glance compared to the other 2 males.

His chest could be deeper, but he's young and this could certainly get better with time...he appears perhaps taller than the other 2? He may be slower to fill out than the other 2.

Any feather stubs on shanks with these males?

As you know, I hatched 22 of these...overall, got a better impression of the females with this cross...However there is one male that looks promising overall at 5 months.

It might be interesting to use #1 male with your best crossed females...AND use the original GNH male with his best crossed daughters too ???

that's my amateur 2 cents

Cindy

No stubs here. The females I have that need some help in the tail area will go with the GNH male and the females that have a good tail will good with the best F1. I have more but a raccoon pulled out there tails. The tails are coming back. They are like my Barred Rocks when you pick one up you you know you have a bird in your hand.

 

[Jwhip]

How old are the cockerels? 28 wks?

Jeremy, I prefer male #2. It is my opinion that he has better balance, stands well on his legs, best color, etc. I do not like his tail etc., but overall I prefer him.

I think they could all use their wings picked up, I do not like leghorn combs on NHs, etc. It would be easy to nit pick the finer points, but I am impressed with the initial cross.

What I do like about the third male is that he is very broad, and he looks like he would handle like a rock. I bet he is heavy in the hands. What you cannot pick up from the photos is the fleshing. These birds flesh out well. They have something to them, and they are certainly not all feather. They are heavier than they look.

I am looking forward to where you go with the next generation.

It was starting to get hot and the wings were out and dropped