Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[rodriguezpoultry]

This is normal for people who are this web site if you polled 1,000 people about wing banding they would say heavens no. You would have to inject them first with Lidocain ilk the dentist does in your mouth before having your teeth worked on and half of them would say no to toe punching.

I once read in a old poultry book from the 1940s when it came to caponizing a male bird their brains are built in such a way they did not feel the pain. I ignored this as I have no need to caponize but maybe there is something to that in the make up of the fowl pain or brain mechanize. Biggest problems for folks converting over to Standard Breed Chickens and they way we do things is they do not know that this is the methods that has been done for over 100 years by the very people that developed these old breeds.

These folks are farmers. They don't give their steers or pigs sedatives or pain killers before they castrated them or dehorned them. To many people treat farm animials like humans. You should hear people talk about me on my inbreeding sons back to mothers and daughters back to fathers. They think I am that bad guy from Germany in the 1940s.

Yes the Cochins are a lovey bird. I never owned any but I know a guy who has about 20 of the females for sitting hens for his Peacock flock in the mid west. He puts the eggs under the sitting hens for ten days then puts his fertile eggs in his Lehy wooden incubators. All this work but he gets a 20% improved hatch.

Walt Mr. Art Manly was the king of Cochins in the old days on the West Coast. NUFF SAID

No idea why anyone would use pain killers on these. We used to caponize, the only thing is that you don't feed or water for 12 hours before and you're good to go. Dad refused to listen to me on a bird and tried to caponize a pullet. Let's just say it didn't go well. He learned to listen to me when sexing birds. Then there are the "slips" that don't grow as large as they could have and definitely don't remain as docile as their fully caponized counterparts. Waste of space and feed on those.

My dad used to describe castrating pigs...don't think I could have done that...but then, I don't like pigs in the first place.

 

[AletaG]

how often have you seen a judge sniff a chicken.?

But then, in real estate, a good agent will include smell in staging, like cinnamon simmering in a pot on the stove. I swear it worked selling our last house. Maybe, just maybe, in tight competition, a sweet-smellin' bird might just nudge in an extra 'psychological' beauty point?
So, Walt, what's your favorite scent? Not that I'm taking notes, or have any sort of intentions of 'spiking' a bird...

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Changing topics just a bit....as we get on toward next breeding season.

I have always incubated in my Sportsman and hatched in a hovabator (or the Sportsman if I had no other choice)....BUT my gosh, I have 2 girls that all they want to do is brood and NO they're not silkies

I have 2 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte females (one blue, one splash) that my wife wanted to "add some color to the yard" (she's bored of looking at my black/white chickens....but that's another story). These girls started brooding back in March and just wont quit! I have a clutch due tomorrow and the splash female decided last night that she was going to try again. At any rate, if you need good broodies, that aren't silkies, this line seems to have it.

I was only able to get one hatch of the BLRWs out this year due to them always raising chicks (I have another blue and a black laced growing out)

Hoping next season to have more broody raised birds and fewer raised via incubator

I notice my broody raised birds are more vigorous early on and "seem" to be quite healthy. Does anyone notice an advantage in size when reared this way? I've not done any measurements myself and was curious

Happy Friday all....

 

[catdaddyfro]

Changing topics just a bit....as we get on toward next breeding season.

I have always incubated in my Sportsman and hatched in a hovabator (or the Sportsman if I had no other choice)....BUT my gosh, I have 2 girls that all they want to do is brood and NO they're not silkies

I have 2 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte females (one blue, one splash) that my wife wanted to "add some color to the yard" (she's bored of looking at my black/white chickens....but that's another story). These girls started brooding back in March and just wont quit! I have a clutch due tomorrow and the splash female decided last night that she was going to try again. At any rate, if you need good broodies, that aren't silkies, this line seems to have it.

I was only able to get one hatch of the BLRWs out this year due to them always raising chicks (I have another blue and a black laced growing out)

Hoping next season to have more broody raised birds and fewer raised via incubator

I notice my broody raised birds are more vigorous early on and "seem" to be quite healthy. Does anyone notice an advantage in size when reared this way? I've not done any measurements myself and was curious

Happy Friday all....

Yep I do and I know they are just different too I don't have proof in numbers and stuffs other than the one fact is eye witnessing the differences, Scott. My problem is always timing I'm not ready when they are or vice versa. LOL

Jeff

 

[fowlman01]

I think any chick raised by a broody will have a health advantage over a brooded chick and will tend to be superior in other ways too.

w

 

[Laingcroft]

We free range when pens aren't set up and often have a broody or two that hides out in the barn until her clutch has hatched. I have noticed that the "wild" chicks grow slower, but more solid. They have better feathering and are more solid/hefty in the hand (when you can catch 'em!)

Since these are usually mixed breed chicks, it is hard to tell if they are bigger than non-broody chicks. Purebreds are hatched from pens in an incubator or under a Silkiebator, but they are removed for more controlled brooding.

 

[thedragonlady]

how often have you seen a judge sniff a chicken.?

A couple of judges said they could find my birds because they smelled nice. LOL !

 

[Wisher1000]

As discussed a month or so back, I had three chicks hatched under a broody hen. I took one inside to the brooder to be a turkey tutor. Three weeks later, I happened to notice that the two chicks were half the size of the one in the brooder with the poults. I attributed it to the fact that the one in the brooder was getting wild gamebird starter as it's sole source of food and the other two were eating whatever mom was showing them to eat (seeds, grass, bugs, layer pellets, grain, and some chick starter.) I decided that I needed a way to get the gamebird starter to the chicks being raised by a broody without having to buy enough to feed the whole flock. I made a short platform out of 2x2's and attached 2x4 dog wire to three of the outside "walls", and a piece of scrap plywood on top. I put a shallow pan of gamebird starter underneath it and slid it against the wall to close the open side. The wire is wide enough for the chicks to walk through but not the adult birds. It is strong enough to put the feeder of flock raiser or layer pellets on top so that mom and the other big birds will have a reason to hang out there and the chicks can hang out in the pan of gamebird starter.

 

[RedRidge]

We free range when pens aren't set up and often have a broody or two that hides out in the barn until her clutch has hatched. I have noticed that the "wild" chicks grow slower, but more solid. They have better feathering and are more solid/hefty in the hand (when you can catch 'em!)

Since these are usually mixed breed chicks, it is hard to tell if they are bigger than non-broody chicks. Purebreds are hatched from pens in an incubator or under a Silkiebator, but they are removed for more controlled brooding.

I think this is a very accurate statement.
I use d'Ucclebators for my mixed breed production layers... hardy little buggers... ya can't kill em if they survive the first week. After that they are very hardy.
The purebreds get hatched in a bator and raised in a brooder. I had excellent hatching rates and survival last year, but not every year is like that.
But since I don't like to occupy bator space with the production birds, let the d'Uccles raise em is easier.

 

[Robert Blosl]

I would use broody if I can. I have about 8 females ready for this spring. I can not and wont hatch bantams in the south in the early months the chicks are to large compared to the chicks hatched in March and April. Its a heat and humidity issue. No one would understand it. In large fowl You want to hatch In Jan and Feb to get them out so they will be bigger. If hatched latter they feather differently for me and my methods of feeding.

I think you could have a three by six foot pen two foot tall with a shell of a lean two room with a 75watt bulb and do the same. They come in and out of the room when they get cold and go back ot to run around and have a good time. I think just being out in the sun on grass eating bugs semi free range is the secret.

I plan to have a bunch of meal worms and crickets in my barn next year as a supplement to my bugs and give these chicks a few during the week. I don't know if they need it daily or bi daily or weekly. I guess it does not make to much difference as long as they get a few extra bugs with their game bird ration I feed them.

Scott put the girls to work and one old timer down her took chicks form the incubator and doubled her up with chicks. His females had about twenty five chicks per pen.