Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[kathyinmo]

Well, that is good to know! Just like Beth, I was wondering if there might be some reasoning behind the different choices.

So, Beth ..... go buy some show birds in Ohio!

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Well, you know the saying .....
Variety is the spice of life! ............................ And I LIKE spice!

 

[Robert Blosl]

I will take a breeding trio over a show trio any day if its from a master breeder. However when I breed I take my best typed and colored male and mate him to the best flat back females i have and hope I get more like him. I have for the last three years mated the best daughters back to one male above in my picture and have fixed this type on some of my femlaes. In Delawares I wonder if the female gives you the best type and the male gives you the best color. In Columbian Plymouth Rocks the good breeders take a great colored male with the best type of course and mate them to a female who has the best rock type. She may be a little weak in color but they feel the male is the one who stamps the color on the bird and the female puts the type on the off spring.

In R I Reds I feel its a 50 50 deal. I just mate the best to the the best and if I have a killer male with a faulty comb I mate him to a female that does not have that fault. She must have a great comb. If I cant find only one female to mate to him then the mating is finished. If I dont have a female to mate to him this year I keep him over till one shows up. I have done this with Red females had to wait till I got a female that was weak in wing color to mate to a male who had killer type but was overloaded in black in the wing. Then when you put them toeather you may get one or two that are almost perfect in type and color.

In Delawares you are just limited in birds with good color and type. The gene pool is thin and rare. I think once the barred rock male is crossed onto two or three New Hampshire females you will see killer color and then try to fix this color onto your strain then when you get it fixed work on improving the type. Its a 5 to 10 year project if there ever was one. I saw a fine Delaware female that Doug Ackers had from his cross. I have faith Kathy will get more like this female next year. You got your stock and it will be shared and in a year or two you Delaware folks will be smoking. bob

 

[TACEYPERKINS]

Thank you Beth for asking this breeding question. All this weekend I had been talking to Delaware breeders. Being told, you don't want my stock, because I don't breed for show. It had raised this exact question in my mind, why not breed for meat and eggs? Since this is the exact purpose why the Delaware breed was developed. Striving for the whole package. The way I was thinking, was they were one in the same right? Was the SOP written to protect this birds main charactoristics? If so then breeding a bird to SOP would also make him a good utiliy bird, then therefore a good bird you would want to breed. Is it not that cut and dry? Like Beth, I am just trying to understand. Thank you for helping ~ Tacey

 

[TACEYPERKINS]

Oh Kathy- nice birds!

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
It is one in the same.

Walt

 

[TACEYPERKINS]

Thanks Walt, I may have some questions for you soon. After I finish talking to a couple of people about their Delaware.
Thanks again~ Tacey

 

[joletabey]

Thank you for all the answers - - In the Delawares, it seems to me that there would be breeding tricks due to having two different looks to go for, for instance, there is the possibility of using too dark a roo to get the color on the hens, but if I am going for the barn first, then the show stock should have the SOP outline, and be what I need to keep building the genes for good bodies. Well, let's see what is there!!

Kathy- I will take pictures of every Del I see! Tacey- isn't Paul just the nicest guy? So generous with information.

 

[Robert Blosl]

We have a trio of Columbian Rock Large Fowl coming to Columbus Show this weekend. This is the hopes I have for this trio in two or three years to look like this male and the two females in the back ground.

The Columbian Color Pattern is a very rare pattern in Large fowl period. These are bantams which were crossed onto white rock bantams and they got the excellent type and the color is on this nice framed bird.
So far we have found some outstanding Barred Rock Large fowl out of Kansas. Then we are picking up names of folks that have Rose Comb and Single Comb R I Red Large fowl. We got some pretty New Hampshire’s in the hands of a lady who wants to improve the popular Delaware Breed and share the New Hampshires sith others.

We found a new lady in Illinois who is hot to trot with her White Plymouth Rock , Rhode Island Red and Minorca large fowl. Also found a lost strain of Calif Single Comb Rhode Island Reds in South Carolina.

Also, I found a dream Boat strain of Light Brahmas and we will introduce these beauties to this thread.
The sky is the limit. We are going to sit down and type down the breeds we have located and the owners of these birds so when the newbie asks for the breed we will be able to send them the list of the birds.

Heck I think in a few months we will develop a web site for Heritage Standard of Perfection Old time Poultry. Pictures and history of the birds and a list of who owns them ect.
There will be a day that when you want to jump up from hatchery production chickens to Standard Heritage Poultry you will not have to go through hoops and wait to get results. This will help the popularity of Poultry for the back yarder and even those who wish to start showing their Heritage Breeds at local and state Poultry Shows. It’s a exciting time to be in the hobby of raising chickens. Thanks to all of you who have made this thread so popular and helping those who wish to improve their stock for whatever reason they wish to have.

For you who wish to support the hatcheries and learn to raise your large fowl we salute you as well. If you enjoy your chickens that is what is all important to us who want to help the beginners. My goal is to only help 1% of the members on this web site. Last night when I was on reading my personal messages their where nearly 600 people on this site. That’s a lot of people interested in Poultry.

 

[iajewel]

Not going by the American Livestock conservatory numbers as we all know those numbers are not correct, what do YOU feel is the rarest breed of Large heritage fowl in the US today?

personally I would have to say the Rhode island whites, or rose comb RIRs.. anyone else?