Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Robert Blosl]

KISS is a good thing to think about except the last word. I don't know what else to say or it may offend some who are very soft at heart. I am a teacher and breeder. Its all I know.

In regards to feed. Some of the folks on here are wanting to go super organic and have ideas that are not logical to me on feed. I have seen some 100 adults growing birds the other night who just get plan old fresh game bird 20% game bird feed the finish on these birds can not get any better with out any extra labor which I don't think will do any good in the first place. Yes give them meal worms or grass hoppers or earth worms will help.. But these breeders have to work and then they spend three hours labor giving them feed and water till dark. So I like what they are doing and looks like they will have to get another trophy cabinet this year based on what I saw with the breeds they are raising. Makes me feel good that maybe I helped in some way to get them going over the last three years. bob

 

[fowlman01]

Scott, thanks for that info.

I don't leave any food or water in the coops overnight except for what MIGHT get spilled.  But in this particular pen, they are fed and watered outside so I am 100% positive that there are no food tidbits inside.  I go through the aggravation every single evening of collecting uneaten food and I also empty the waterers. 

Its a pain in the backside to have to deal with this in all weather situations but I simply refuse to knowingly feed vermin!   Guess I'll be doing something more drastic!

The mouse wars are on!

were these birds on the ground or on a roost

 

[fowlman01]

KISS is a good thing to think about except the last word. I don't know what else to say or it may offend some who are very soft at heart. I am a teacher and breeder. Its all I know.

In regards to feed. Some of the  folks on here are wanting to go super organic and have ideas that are not logical to me on feed. I have seen some 100 adults growing birds the other night who just get plan old fresh game bird 20% game bird feed the finish on these birds can not get any better with out any extra labor which I don't think will do any good in the first place. Yes give them meal worms or grass hoppers or earth worms will help.. But these breeders have to work and then they spend three hours labor giving them feed and water till dark. So I like what they are doing and looks like they will have to get another trophy cabinet this year based on what I saw with the breeds they are raising. Makes me feel good that maybe I helped in some way to get them going over the last three years. bob

I use 20% pellets during the warm weather and free choice hen scratch and the pellets during the cold weather for my chickens, ducks and geese. It works for me.

 

[Lacy Blues]

were these birds on the ground or on a roost

Walt, they are all on perches. I kind of peeked in there today to see if I could figure out how the mice would get up on the perch... unless they can scale a perfectly vertical and smooth wall... I don't know.

 

[fowlman01]

Walt, they are all on perches. I kind of peeked in there today to see if I could figure out how the mice would get up on the perch... unless they can scale a perfectly vertical and smooth wall... I don't know.

Here they don't generally chew feathers and they only do it in two places on the property. I keep the rodents down pretty well, but these two places seem to attract them when the fields are tilled...and they only do it when the birds sleep on the ground and then they usually go after the tails. they don't bother them on the roost. The only other time I have seen something like that is some birds will shred their own wing feathers, but that seems to be unusual.

w.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Their tails were in equally poor shape... looking more like the secondaries than the primaries. Last year, when I first noticed this on some birds in the same pen, they all started looking like that. I thought I had some feather pickers happening but I would watch them and never saw evidence of anyone doing that. Those birds were all culled. They were in this same pen. This year, I put more andalusian bantam pullets in there and now all of a sudden they look like this again. Last year, they got so bad, that they all just had their undercolor portion of their feathers left all over their bodies and felt like little porcupines when I picked them up! I only kept one of those pullets and she's getting ready to molt. I culled these because I couldn't stand to look at that and see them get even worse for another whole year before they molted.

 

[fowlman01]

Their tails were in equally poor shape... looking more like the secondaries than the primaries. Last year, when I first noticed this on some birds in the same pen, they all started looking like that. I thought I had some feather pickers happening but I would watch them and never saw evidence of anyone doing that. Those birds were all culled. They were in this same pen. This year, I put more andalusian bantam pullets in there and now all of a sudden they look like this again. Last year, they got so bad, that they all just had their undercolor portion of their feathers left all over their bodies and felt like little porcupines when I picked them up! I only kept one of those pullets and she's getting ready to molt. I culled these because I couldn't stand to look at that and see them get even worse for another whole year before they molted.

If it is one pen it sure sounds like mice.

w.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Bob, I love the fact that you are distilling such a "complicated science" down to it's essence.KISS.It ain't hard if you obey a few rules. New people are put off by all the mumbo- jumbo of lockdowns, etc. that they read.Chuck good eggs in a decent incubator, and you will get chicks. Then the "garbage in , garbage out" principal applies.

You know I was just thinking of this same topic just yesterday about sorta like its destiny. Generally if its gonna hatch it'll hatch unless the process is completely botched(lots of variables here) but for example. High vigor is probly the most important in the eggs hatched event. Now to me nothing has this greater high vigor than a rogue type gamey active free ranger. Here's why, I had a little mixed up breed hen with the genetics of probly at least ten crossbreeds and she laid and sat on 13 eggs for 20-21 days in the back of an old truck and I guess finally a wanderer(possum,coon ect) came along at mid-night to 3 AM and got her and 8 eggs were missing. Well the dogs alerted me of a travesty going on so I went out ans searched around and found this mess had happened. I gathered up 1 hatched(cold wet biddie) and 4 eggs that had cooled down to not warm to the touch and brought them in fired up a cheapo incubator put in the biddie and the four eggs and hatched out 3 and the biddie survived. I just turned off the unit this morning after giving the lone egg another days chance. If these would have been eggs from the mail box or from some of these fat lazy showbird types I have here I wait on hand and foot and feed high-@$$ed priced feed to, all this would have been for naught, I figure. It's "laws of the land" or ol Mother nature taking care of its own huh? only the strong survive and carry forward through natural selection ='s vigor 1st and foremost.

g'day


Jeff

 

[catdaddyfro]

Here they don't generally chew feathers and they only do it in two places on the property. I keep the rodents down pretty well, but these two places seem to attract them when the fields are tilled...and they only do it when the birds sleep on the ground and then they usually go after the tails. they don't bother them on the roost. The only other time I have seen something like that is some birds will shred their own wing feathers, but that seems to be unusual.

w.

Yes I agree. Here I have Barred Rocks that don't roost and of course they just happen to be the ones that are the hardest I have here to get tails on in the first place and naturally the mice do eat their tails off here too. Its aggravation to the point I invite the snakes now here, blacksnakes and all esp. king snakes and just gather the eggs more frequently and if one happens to get and egg from time to time I say well that's a good snack for you and go on and do your job, good. I caught and brought in at least 4 snakes this spring/summer to the barn. I also put up the golf balls so that they wouldn't die from eating them too. Also I no longer throw grain in the evening time either, the vermin have to dig far and wide to get a morsel or two now.

Jeff

 

[cbnovick]

Yes I agree. Here I have Barred Rocks that don't roost and of course they just happen to be the ones that are the hardest I have here to get tails on in the first place and naturally the mice do eat their tails off here too. Its aggravation to the point I invite the snakes now here, blacksnakes and all esp. king snakes and just gather the eggs more frequently and if one happens to get and egg from time to time I say well that's a good snack for you and go on and do your job, good. I caught and brought in at least 4 snakes this spring/summer to the barn. I also put up the golf balls so that they wouldn't die from eating them too. Also I no longer throw grain in the evening time either, the vermin have to dig far and wide to get a morsel or two now.

Jeff

Several 'barn cats' have done very well me in keeping the rodent population down along with good 'housekeeping'