Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[AletaG]

If you mix up a spray bottle of the items above and add tea tree oil and/or geranium oil it will kill them on contact. (DILUTED with water/white vinegar) The insects have convulsions and then die. I've been spraying my coop walls & perches with tea tree and lavender oil mixed to control mites and other insects for yeas. (ACV will clog the spray bottle and is sticky which is why I use distilled white vinegar) I don't use any soap just essential oil mix.

I find that citronella and lemon grass oils attract bees.

Fabulous, will try this. I found clove oil works great on indoor white mites (mixed in a similar base) but am looking for something I can kill fruit flies with. I hate those things.

 

[finnfur]

I have been trying to find "Wing Carriage" in the SOP. One of my BAs carries his wings lower. Can anyone give me the page number (2010 edition)?

I dont have 2010 but 1980 - Never found carriage per se but usually has how wing is carried and shaped under each breed in "WINGS" description.
Not sure that will help.

 

[ocap]

I dont have 2010 but 1980 - Never found carriage per se but usually has how wing is carried and shaped under each breed in "WINGS" description.
Not sure that will help.

that helped, I found it there

 

[ocap]

Now I have to decide if his slight "relaxed" droop is enough to send him to "swim with the dumplings"

 

[Samuel Shirley]

W

Sam and Mr. Weaver this is a white Plymouth Rock Ckl from a two male three female delivery to a fellow in Canada three years ago thanks to Anthony when he went to the Indiana big monster poultry show. The fellow brought them back to Canada and they have adapted well from 25 years living in the deep south and being up there in that frigid cold climate for only three years . Notice his top line lift Anthony looks like the cold weather got it up where it should be. Should fill out in the breast next year as a cock bird and be right on he money. For you newbies this is the easiest H old time standard breed fowl you can raise except maybe White Wyandotte's. They where forced to lay heavy by me to get the feather quality right so they lay like crazy compared to most strains of white rocks out there. They are a very pretty easy to raise dual purpose fowl to start with good meat property's . No color issues to worry about. If your kids want to show them in 4H better buy a big thropy case. Good leg color also. See I told you don't have to have a army of chickens and he only hatches about 30 chicks per year from two females and one good male. Look at the results a killer male in his third year.

wow I hope I can get some nice angles on my birds like this one has.

 

[Pathfinders]

To get the birds old enough to show at the fall show, which is in Sept, I have to start hatching by Feb..... So I have to get my birds laying, AND keep the eggs from freezing while I am at work. Winter is quite strong here until the end of march, but our last frost date is usually the end of May early June. I might be able to us Chicken tractors as grow out pen though......... if I can keep the raccoons, bob cats coyotes and bears from tearing them apart. Welcome to Canada

Where in Cda are you? (My husband is Canadian, and we spent the first six years of our marriage in Saskatoon.)

 

[Pathfinders]

Hi,
I need to fumigate a 3x4x4 ft. coop. A real nasty spider has been using it for a home for the last years.
I need to make it ready for new birds. What can I use that won't hurt the birds later? I was thinking
a pail of ammonia set inside?
Thanks,
Karen

Dairy Spray, which is pyrethrin, should kill spiders, I know it works for mites. But it's safe for the birds. Close up your coop, spray the spray according to directions (hold your breath!) and leave it shut up for about 15 minutes. Once done it should pretty well kill anything that crawls, but is safe for the birds afterwards. I use it about once every couple months or so (more if the flies are very bad.)

 

[bnjrob]

Dairy Spray, which is pyrethrin, should kill spiders, I know it works for mites. But it's safe for the birds. Close up your coop, spray the spray according to directions (hold your breath!) and leave it shut up for about 15 minutes. Once done it should pretty well kill anything that crawls, but is safe for the birds afterwards. I use it about once every couple months or so (more if the flies are very bad.)

Pyrethrins are deadly neurotoxins for cats. People should be careful permethrin/pyrethrin if they have kitties that could get anywhere near the stuff. If cats get any on paws/fur and groom themselves, it could kill them.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well, Here is Canada, we have this annoying little thing called "winter". In January when I start the breeding pens I will have to heat them a little so they will have to be quite tight, I think.

I am thinking that Leghorns are quite flighty, if my pens open to the outside, the birds might fly out, if I built the little buildings that Mr Blosl's website describes. I can see this little Village of breeding pens in a little group and I think it would be cute, but if the birds get out it might not be practical? I really don't know, but I don't know how to afford a building either.


I guess the truth be know I just need to build some 4x4 pens 3 feet high or so that the roof opens on for tending the birds through the roof... kind of like a hope chest.... but it doesn't solve the flying out problem.

I don't have leghorns but I do have another "flighty" breed. I have found that the amount of time I spend in the coops and around the birds has a very big impact on how flighty they are or aren't. If you can arrange pens where you open the front, they will most likely stay toward the back but if you open a cage from the top, they will definitely fly out.

When you talk about us newbies needing the courage to start, and trios in pens that are 4x8, it makes me want to throw up my hands and give up in our climate. How are these pen sizes determined? For instance most of what I read says a standard chicken needs 4 square feet, but a 4x8 pen gives them ten and a half! I don' t know how I would keep them warm in that situation. I guess that is what the roosting box is for.

I always turned the lights on my layers in the early morning and let them go to bed with the sun, but the problem I have is four those 5-6 hours before I get up they are up and have no water except one big ice sculpture!

I went to visit a local Master breeder to see what he does in our climate. He was very helpful, but He breeds Wyandotte's and white rocks, not leghorns. Of course he and I are both raising bantams. He told me the difference for me would be the tails on the leghorns are much bigger than his birds so they would need more room but he was never raised leghorns.

He has an insulated room, that has pens stacked 3 high. He keeps a trio or quad of birds in pens that are 32" deep and 48" long, and 20" tall. Then he has some 24" x24" that he uses for conditioning or to put a pair of birds in for breeding. He has a lot of cages for single males that are 16" deep and 24 inches long, and the male reaches out through a hole in the front for water and feed. His birds are beautiful, the guy wins, a lot, and has won awards from the APA, but I don't know how to apply what he does to leghorns.


He told me that with these pens filled in winter the water hardly ever freezes because the birds can keep themselves warm. He has shown poultry for 55 Years, he was tell me.

Here is a watering system that may help you for the winter time. I've been dwelling on this for quite a while and hopefully some day soon, I'll get it figured out how to make it work for my exact situation.

 

[Pozees]

I have a few pics to post. RIR pullets from Greathorse that are almost 6 months old, and a couple of SLW also from Greathorse that are just shy of 3 months old. My Fogelly RIRs and Albritton Speckled Sussex decided they didn't want to pose the day I had the camera out there, so will try again this weekend. The Reds are hanging out with Silkies in these pics, and the SLW are with others closer to their age, a Silkie and a few Cream Legbars.













This last one cracked me up, I included it mainly because I like the way it shows not only the width of her back, but her real talent for balancing! Please excuse the scrap hardware cloth mess next to the run.