Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[galanie]

I have used colored velcro cable ties on juveniles. Works pretty well but only for a few months. After that they get so dirty they all look the same color. But they don't get too tight and for those few months, they're great. Anyhow just throwing that out there as an idea. But because of the cost, would only be feasible if you had a really small batch like 10 or less.

 

[bantams galore]

Should the wings on a leghorn, be pretty well horizontal to the body? The ones I am raising the wings are more sloped downward, and the wing tips come together just below the vent, more like a game bird or rose comb. Is that wrong? A big deal?

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

Poor orchid . . .

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

x2

 

[Arielle]

Banding chicks... I use different colored strips of vet wrap. It doesn't get tight accidentally and is easy to change.
Adult bands. I use spirals for my production birds and bandettes with numbers for my heritage and rare breeds.
For production birds I want to know their age at a glance so the color of their band corresponds to the international standard for making Queen bees. Easy to remember that way since we raise bees. Those who have a band more than 4 years old get processed each fall.
Heritage and rare work differently since some of those are here and laying and breeding for years and years. But the color system is still the same - never wonder about age that way.

I have been using vet wrap too. The many colors at a reasonable price is a plus. ANd easy to apply. NEver gets too tight.

 

[Arielle]

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I like egg colors too.

My Am's are the tough boys on the block. I have noticed as I have more and more of them, both EE/AM and halfbreds that they become the ruling kings of their flocks. I have one that rules in the grow out pen and he is there to guard the babies and does a great job of it. Never gives me a problem. Three half-breds came from the sweetest , most picked on hen, and they rule the main flock, pushing out a black sex link attacking moster and never think of attacking us. THey don't make much of a meal though. FRom all I have read here on this thread, few lines of any chicken breeds have been kept up for meat production.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Pretty eggs are embarrassingly important to me. But my experience with Easter Egger cockerels has been unpleasant. The ones I've known have been jerky and scrawny. So there isn't even any joy in cooking the meanies. It makes me weary of Ameracaunas. But I do want something that lays blue eggs, and there aren't a lot of choices.

Delawares were suggested to me as a breed worth restoring, and there is someone in the area keen for new enthusiasm.

I would be happy with one breed, which would be my Dorkings, but my husband HAS to have brown eggs. I think that's silly but need to keep him happy. I tried the Delawares and fell in love with them. Awesome egg layers, great meat and very pretty birds.

Being serious about breeding, I got rid of all my mixed breed chickens to focus on these two breeds.
We sell eating eggs to help with the cost of feed. My husband mentioned that his egg customers have requested blue eggs. I said no. Then a friend got a new breed that is supposed to lay blue eggs in quantity and quality of a Leghorn. With chagrin, I admit that I now have one UofA Blue hen in my flock. The hen is vigorous, seems to have a decent temperament and integrated fine into the flock of chickens out on pasture. She lays pretty blue eggs every day or two, a bit small but she's only a few months old. My husband is thrilled to have blue eggs to eat.

I'm mentioning this to let you know that there is another breed that lays blue eggs. You can find their thread here on BYC.
My apologies to Bob and all, for bringing this up on a Heritage large Fowl thread! I hope you all don't consider me a chicken collector now.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Should the wings on a leghorn, be pretty well horizontal to the body? The ones I am raising the wings are more sloped downward, and the wing tips come together just below the vent, more like a game bird or rose comb. Is that wrong? A big deal?

Do you have leghorn bantams or large fowl? If they're bantams, they probably have some Old English Game bantams in them and it shows up in their wings. If you want to breed them to the SOP, you'll need to cull those birds. Hopefully, you have a few to work with whose wings don't do that.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I would be happy with one breed, which would be my Dorkings, but my husband HAS to have brown eggs. I think that's silly but need to keep him happy. I tried the Delawares and fell in love with them. Awesome egg layers, great meat and very pretty birds.

Being serious about breeding, I got rid of all my mixed breed chickens to focus on these two breeds.
We sell eating eggs to help with the cost of feed. My husband mentioned that his egg customers have requested blue eggs. I said no. Then a friend got a new breed that is supposed to lay blue eggs in quantity and quality of a Leghorn. With chagrin, I admit that I now have one UofA Blue hen in my flock. The hen is vigorous, seems to have a decent temperament and integrated fine into the flock of chickens out on pasture. She lays pretty blue eggs every day or two, a bit small but she's only a few months old. My husband is thrilled to have blue eggs to eat.

I'm mentioning this to let you know that there is another breed that lays blue eggs. You can find their thread here on BYC.
My apologies to Bob and all, for bringing this up on a Heritage large Fowl thread! I hope you all don't consider me a chicken collector now.

Your husband and I could get along very well on this topic.

I kind of have to have white eggs -- they really show up in a mixed dozen and make all the other eggs look more interesting. Brown eggs seem more wholesome. I need blue eggs because they are blue (what other reason is required?). I want chocolate eggs because somehow they look even eggier and more vital than paler brown eggs. And don't even get me started on olive eggs.

I'm in hot pursuit of Cayuga ducks so I can have black/gray eggs. And speckles ... I can spend a big chunk of time arranging the eggs in the egg cartons for the prettiest dozens.

But I'm also very into doing things right, upgrading, and efficiency. Hence my migration to this thread. I'll try not to contaminate it too much with my eggy dreams.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Do the different egg color effect the taste of the eggs or is it just the issue the buyer wants a brown green blue or what ever egg?

I see many people chose a breed by the egg color vs the rarity of the poor breed that needs a mom or dad to adopt them.

In regards to the leghorn bantams with pointed down wings I have a old strain of white leghorn bantams from the west cost and I fight that problem all the time but don't kill all of them because they have this fault. try to keep the length of wings as short a you can and breed from birds that keep them tucked up the best they can.

Its the Old English gene in the white Leghorn bantam that does it. When they where made Art Schilling used his super nice White Leghorn large fowl and crossed them onto white Old English to get the bantam gene to shrink them down.

Walt can give more impute on this as he has a fine old line him self.

Someone talked about aggressiveness in R I Red large fowl the standard type. The are most of the time docile its the feed store kind that can be mean. Our dark bird get a bad rap on this and they are innocent of this trait.

Hope you enjoyed your labor day. We had good steak on the grill.