Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Robert Blosl]

Bob, love your avatar!!

Can you imagine going to a show with three flat back SC Rhode Island Red bantams and in a class of 7 I got one two three. Then When I saw what got best of breed latter it was a hen which was a RED ROCK with that nice 25 degree Wyandotte lift. O well judges like those kind they got better color I think. Blond Rocks are great and I am glad you got some. bob

 

[cluck-cluck]

Strawberry Blond rocks? LOL

 

[Wisher1000]

I was thinking "Blond Rock Chick".... or "Rocking the Blond".... or even "Blond Rocks Rock the Blond"!

 

[Arielle]

Culling Barred Rock Large Fowl



Yesterday afternoon I did something that many of you have asked me to do for you How to go through 60 chicks and help you pick five good males and ten good females and you will get rid of the culls. Feed bill is over the top got to many young chicks to compare to the older ones What and how do you do it?
I sat down on a lawn chair and my friend Anthony P. or Peach Tree on this board when he posts and I started to look. I said Anthony lets go with the oldest birds and the three that look so nice. We caught each one and put a tie their right leg and then I saw a chick that looked like half bantam caught him off to the cull pen then saw one with a horrible comb off he went. Did this for a hour. When we got done we had 12 male in the pen with leg ties on them and we can come back in a month and cull again for extended keels and if they are worthy of making the final five in October.

Females: This was harder must of been 35 of them. Found the oldest and started on them. What we did on these is put them in the pen with the 12 males as we banded them. Then saw one that had a wedge no chest body she went to the cull pen then saw two that had Cornish box shape they left. On and on we went ad we ended up with about 20 females left to cull next time. Harder to see combs on these girls as they are so small at this age. The whole bunch where hatched each week for say thre months to get the numbers. Makes it hard to cull so next year Anthony plans to have four to six nice female in a pen with a male or three in one pen and with a good male and three females in another pen with a good male hatch say only in three to four weeks get 40 or 50 chicks and its over. He will have extra chicks to share with others of course but this will make culling next year a easy process and down here in this hot climate the older early hatched chicks will mature and grow out so much faster for barred rocks.

These barred rocks came from eggs he got from Kraig Shaffer of Ohio last year so this is the second batch to look and study and how they mature in our climate. These are birds that Kraig has been breeding hard for about18 years with his keen eye for type and color . They came from Ralph Sturgeons Nephew befor he died. The strain must be about 80 years old as Ralph got them from E B Thompson in the 1920s. The nice thing about this strain is the males tails look good and mature out like a Barred Rock should not all blown to pieces like most barred rock male look at ten months of age.

So that is how we did it. Maybe this will help you on your efforts down the road. Head points are paramount so we would not keep a poor combed male yesterday. Had to have their legs dead center and not knocked kneed and they had to have length of body. The lifts in the top line will have to be looked at in month on the middle aged birds but should be there. Color is not a issue for at least three years. Got to have good heads if you are breeding a low number as if you get a good bird with a poor comb you got to siz zag in mating with a good female for three years to get the dream bird. If you fix this trait first you will save hundreds of dollars in feed over a five year period not wasting your time on inferior looking birds. Anthony you did a great job on these Barred Rocks and glad to have them in the Pensacola Florida area.

However the site to see on his farm was 20 young Rouen Ducks from a strain from Indiana. My God what a site and we got to get rid of 15 of them next. Want world class H heavy ducks he has them. bob

THanks Bob, I have been eyeing my 30+ speckled sussex trying to get an idea of their faults to cull for. In this case, all have something to cull for. BUt your essay helped me devise a plan of attack. Many thanks.

 

[BGMatt]

Bob, thanks so much for your input... I was very unsure being a 'newbie' in SOP breeding...so, I felt I had better hit up this thread's wisdom

...I will keep the 'three stooges' for awhile and 'farm' them out locally and check back on development. They may be late bloomers...but living in AZ I must consider those that bloom despite heat...perhaps if hatched in winter as I normally would do, maybe I would not have had three lesser than ideal chicks...or they really could be outliers too. time will tell...so, I am giving them time and a chance especially due to the rarity of this variety.

Farmin them out sounds like a good plan, always good to have another close by source. We all know large fowl develop slowly, however I want to also chime in with "what you tolerate is what you'll have." So make sure you mark slow developing chicks, because if you breed from them time and time again every year you'll get more slow developers and more slow developers.

 

[7961]

I posted his photo previously on this thread but in case you missed it, for comparison to your pure German males, here's a 5 1/2 month old male I hatched...he's half good shepherd NH and half german (sire side)...he's got a ways to go with filling in yet...but a definite prospective breeding male.

On the females...I believe the difficulty insofar as color is achieving the SOP black ticking on hackles...

From this pic I do see the difference in the American/cross from the German male color. Thank you cbnovick. Nice looking male. He should be real nice once all done filling out. A keeper I think. Bob I think I know which picture that you are referring to and yes a stunner of a bird. When I first saw it I was like that looks like one special bird. I saved that pic so that I could use it as reference. If the same bird, it is in this month's Poultry Press.

One thing that these German and German-American NHs seem to have going is their tails: great length, fullness, and spread. That must be one of the characteristics that came with them from Germany.

Black ticking in the female hackles was brought up by cbnovick..does the black ticking come on more with age? My 2 pullets are very young but can see some ticking. Should this ticking get more pronounced and richer?

Thank you everyone for your insight and feedback..this is what makes this thread really special and great.

 

[weavers rocks]

15 weeks old

 

[cbnovick]

Strawberry Blond rocks? LOL

True...they are indeed more of a 'strawberry blonde' coloration to be more precise

 

[lesslea317]

Does anyone have a LF white faverolle rooster to go with my hen? Our maybe you have a white sport salmon faverolle rooster? Or maybe there's another breeding combination I can do for her to get white, 5 toed, feathered leg chickens? Lol

 

[gjensen]

There is eight feather colors on the NH, and an under color.

redish bay
golden bay
deep chestnut red
brilliant deep chestnut red
medium chestnut red
black
red
medium red
light salmon

Four other than feather colors.

red
reddish horn
reddish bay
yellow

The main color of the NH, obviously, is chestnut red in varying shades. Chestnut red is described as a dark-red brown plumage color in the Standard glossary. Notice the word(s) dark, and red-brown.
The Standard seams full of old agricultural color descriptions. A lot of people today have not seen a chestnut. Chestnut trees used to be common. If you googled chestnuts, you will find there is a natural variation from nut to nut and from tree to tree. Overall the average color is pretty clear, and it is not a particularly light color.
It is my opinion that the color in the Standard picture is too light. The explanation has been that the NH is a meat bird and should be a lighter color. I disagree on this point, because the Standard differentiates between the especially light meat strain NHs and the Standard dual purpose NH. I am also of the opinion that how a bird dresses out is as much about the under color as the outer color. The under color being a light salmon, they dress out relatively clean.
The conclusion that I have come to is that one side has swung one way, and the other swung the other way. I hope to "brighten" up my NHs a bit, but have no intentions of trying to go as far as the Standard picture. If that will not be in keeping with what many judges have come to understand as correct, then so be it. My efforts will be as I see it.
The debate on the NH color is not new. I have seen literature discussing/debating this before. This is not the first German import either. Seams some were floating around sometime in the 80s. I think that is also noteworthy that this debate has been had in Europe as well. There is more than one side on this issue in Germany.
To me it is easier to follow my interpretation of the Standard description, instead of the picture or accepted opinions. From there I have come to my own conclusions. I do like the Schilling print however.

What I have found with these birds from Germany is that they have been well bred. They are quite remarkable birds. To be as finely bred as they are, the hatch ability and livability is solid. The lay rate is pretty good etc. Easy to manage, and gorgeous to see on range. My opinion is that they are the best we have. I thought it was interesting to see them dismissed by the NH people here. Even if someone does not like the color, there is more to them than color. That is the last thing I look at, when I look at a bird. Maybe it is a guy thing, but thankfully there is more to a bird than color. Especially when you start debating shades of color.