Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[bantams galore]

Thanks for the help with the leghorn bantams, but they are dark down not white. Their colour seems good, with the dark band on the wing and everything, it is just the angle. I will have to hatch as many as possible next year, and try to pick the one like you suggest, Bob, with the shortest, high wings.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Shredding. Be careful not confuse mites and a neck molt. I have found with mites comes a fairly quick, tell-tale drop in feather quality.

Don't confuse Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers. Easter Eggers are mongrels that happen to lay blue eggs. They're no more stable than a mongrel that lays white eggs. An Ameraucana is a a breed. I would not compare a white egg laying mongrel to an Ancona or Minorca just because of egg color. The same is true for Ameraucanas.

Any breed, again, any breed can go mean. Temperament is a matter of selection, like most things. Ameraucanas are want to have a respectable amount of energy, like all birds bred first for egg production, but poor temperament is poor breeding.

WAY TO OFTEN on forums such as these are traits that depend on the individual breeding program attributed to entire breeds as if they were such. It is very important to learn about the hereditary nature of traits and then recognize that it is in the breeding that one enhances or eliminate the traits. When one chooses a breed, one is choosing to breed it. The truth of your strain will come in the fact of your selection or absence thereof.

In no way can one get a handful of birds and then make statements about a breed. Indeed, the only traits that are breed based are the standard-based traits. Everything else is arbitrary unto the selection of the particular strain. Breeds might be supposed to be or intended to be such and such, but they only are this or that trait if the immediate selection criteria around the given individual bird are in place.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Shredding. Be careful not confuse mites and a neck molt. I have found with mites comes a fairly quick, tell-tale drop in feather quality.

I have had issues with feather quality for quite a while, even though I see no mites. Mostly, it's the wing feathers that look somewhat shredded instead of neck feathers. Are these mites INSIDE the feather shafts?

What do I do? I don't like using chemicals so if I have to use them, is it guaranteed they won't be back or what should I do? How do I verify that it is feather mites causing this problem?

 

[Robert Blosl]

Shredding. Be careful not confuse mites and a neck molt. I have found with mites comes a fairly quick, tell-tale drop in feather quality.

Don't confuse Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers. Easter Eggers are mongrels that happen to lay blue eggs. They're no more stable than a mongrel that lays white eggs. An Ameraucana is a a breed. I would not compare a white egg laying mongrel to an Ancona or Minorca just because of egg color. The same is true for Ameraucanas.

Any breed, again, any breed can go mean. Temperament is a matter of selection, like most things. Ameraucanas are want to have a respectable amount of energy, like all birds bred first for egg production, but poor temperament is poor breeding.

WAY TO OFTEN on forums such as these are traits that depend on the individual breeding program attributed to entire breeds as if they were such. It is very important to learn about the hereditary nature of traits and then recognize that it is in the breeding that one enhances or eliminate the traits. When one chooses a breed, one is choosing to breed it. The truth of your strain will come in the fact of your selection or absence thereof.

In no way can one get a handful of birds and then make statements about a breed. Indeed, the only traits that are breed based are the standard-based traits. Everything else is arbitrary unto the selection of the particular strain. Breeds might be supposed to be or intended to be such and such, but they only are this or that trait if the immediate selection criteria around the given individual bird are in place.

Great post.

EE and Ameaucanas are like production reds and Rhode Island Reds they think they got the same thing.

What a fad it has turned into it seems but has nothing to do to help preserve rare breeds of endangered in need of help chickens.

That is why it takes one in 500 people on this web site to buckle down and get serous about a breed. We have had great success doing this after we re educate this one person. Today we have a good number who are subscribing to the theory of breeding and sharing their birds with others. So simple if they would just treat them like chickens and not humans. That is why so many older breeders get frustrated with beginners with their off the wall ideas of razing the chickens and breeding them. They think they are like humans and they have special feelings.

In regards to brown leghorns I think they all have Old English in them. How else could you shrink a dark brown leghorn down to a bantam. They did this also with R I Red bantams in the 1930s. That's why we have pointed down bantam wings on the males on some strains. It now seems some how a Plymouth Rock got crossed into our Rhode Island Red bantams about 30 years ago and now we see Red females with backs like a Partridge Rock. I would not be leave this at the time but I am now be leaving the old man who told me this was right. How could they do such a think you may ask. This breeder thought he could make the red bantams darker and beat this old master breeder. Did not work and today we are paying for his sins.

Also, if ou can make a fly pen for your leghorn males say a pen 4 x6 and his roost about four feet off the ground this gives him stimulation of his wings to fly. I put my water up buy his roost so he has to fly up there. Then I put his feed in his litter or in a cup on the ground. then after a few months I look at the wings and choose the males that have higher leveler wing carriage. Just need two good one or two family's to correct this. Where did you get your brown leghorn bantams from?

 

[Pathfinders]

So, a question for you all.

What do you do with your cull females. Do you sell them as generic laying hens? Do you eat them? Wondering...

 

[Fred's Hens]

Somewhat rarer to sell females, as the layer flock usually needs new enrollees.

But, yes, a limited number do indeed get sold as layers.

 

[Wisher1000]

I know this sounds crazy, but I sell them or GIVE them away. There are always people who want laying hens. If a stranger contacts me about getting hens, I will sell a few that I don't care about keeping - two year olds, mutts at POL, or culls. I am always honest about age and quality. If I have a friend, aquaintence, or relative that wants some, I give them hens that I feel should be culled but whom I want to track with the intention of keeping an eye on how they grow out. I have done this with some F1 Olive Eggers and intend to do it with some of my cull Silver Campine hens (if I ever have any to cull!) I could get them back, or get eggs from them, if they turn out to be something special. I also don't have too many people in my area that will breed to sell or show, so I don't have to worry about my name being attached to inferior quality. If I were approached to buy quality birds or to set up a beginner breeder, I would share the best I could part with.

As to the discussion on egg color, I think it is a woman thing. I think I can speak for many women here in that we just appreciate the beauty in a basket of beautiful multi-colored eggs sitting on the kitchen counter or in a carton. It has nothing to do with the quality of the eggs' contents (although that is important too, love the rich orange yolks!) but just in the variety of colors represented. I have a black wire basket and when it is filled with dark brown, blue, green, light brown, and white eggs, it is a joy to behold.

A while back, I got a ladies number who was looking for hens. I called her and she seemed a little interested but mostly put off by the distance she would have to drive to get them. I was about to hang up with a "you have my number if you decide to get some" when I thought to ask if her phone accepts pictures. After we hung up, I texted her a pic of my egg basket on the kitchen counter and she called back to say she would be here later this afternoon. She bought 6 hens.

 

[Pathfinders]

Somewhat rarer to sell females, as the layer flock usually needs new enrollees.

But, yes, a limited number do indeed get sold as layers.

When you do sell them as layers, do you specify what breed(s) they are?

Any culls I sell, I sell as "generic laying hens", but someone has taken me to task about that, saying I should just slaughter my culls. Certainly, none of us who do this are in it for the money. I know I am not, I have yet to actually make a profit with the poultry, I do it for the love of it. If I can defray the cost of the feed a bit, I call it good.

 

[RedRidge]

So, a question for you all.

What do you do with your cull females. Do you sell them as generic laying hens? Do you eat them? Wondering...

I have a layer flock... extra females go in with them unless I have something someone is specifically looking for.
I normally keep 1 or 2 roos out of my best production layers and use that roo on my production birds to maintain a production layer flock. I not only sell a lot of eggs (which pays for my HRIR and Rhodebars), but I grow out "production pullets" for quite a few folks who live in the city and can't have roos. So I hatch a few production batches each year and grow them out. Once I know for sure what sexes I have I slaughter the cockerels, sell the pullets to folks in the city with layers, and keep the rest for production flock replacements for myself.

This was not a "planned" part of my poultry business, but evolved accidentally. As hens became legal in several cities I began growing out some chicks for friends to assure they didn't have cockerels (since roos are not allowed).
It's turned into a perpetuating business because most of these folks get a few new hens from me about every other year and I take their older hens off their hands since most don't want to fool with butchering them.

This is how my interest in the Rhodebars began. Being able to sex them at birth would open up a lot of options for me and reduce the production birds I am growing out. So, I am really hoping to expand my Rhodebar genetics this coming year. Just a nitch that is working for me for now... and hopefully the Rhodebars will fit that bill. Although I'd say it'll be quite a while before I have decent egg laying along with improved structure... the Rhodebars in this country need a lot of improvement in type... I have no idea what their egg laying will be, but plan to document that as well.

 

[ocap]

So, a question for you all.

What do you do with your cull females. Do you sell them as generic laying hens? Do you eat them? Wondering...

my plumber has some hatchery hens that have stopped producing eggs. do you think I should trade my pullets for his hens and put his in my freezer?