Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Jared77]

Thanks Bob.

 

[joletabey]

Bob, you have SECRETS from us? Secrets on excess color breeding? Hmmmm. . . . .

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

can someone tell me about the ALBC line in buckeyes would like to get a good geritage bird for laying another for meat

 

[punky rooster]

all buckeye lines should have good laying and meat abilities.
they really are a great breed.

 

[lildinkem]

Before the Internet one would have to count on the stringmen for a steady supply of great breeders stock

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Try here.
http://www.shadylanepoultry.com/exhbreeds.html

He has some nice birds..

Chris

 

[7961]

Quote:
http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/index.html

They can help you out with some nice Buckeyes

 

[Robert Blosl]

I can got secrets in my head in my coat pocket on my web site. Every where. You got to breed birds that have excess black culls to each other to darken them up. Smut or slate in the undercolor. Takes about three to five years to darken them up.

I found two pullets and two cockerels with a family in Colorado that came from Paul that came from Greg Chamness that came from me ten years ago. I was impressed with the the type and color.

They are going to take some better pictures but I plan to get some of my old birds from Flordia then swap chicks with this family in a year or two and cross them onto each line.

Very excitting to see them they look just like my old birds from ten years ago.

Got some Dark Corninsh Bantams last night put them into their new pen this moarning. They are going to be fun to breed.

They come from a very good strain of Cornish from a judge in Ohio.

Cant wait to hatch some of these guys next year.

I have one male that looks like the large fowl dark cornish I had 18 years ago. I wish I had some of those guys but the foxes wanted them first than me. bob

 

[jenjscott]

Quote:
Bob, can you explain this a little more. We were trying this in buckeyes, and what we got was whole hatches where everybody had the black/green hackle feathers.

 

[Robert Blosl]

I don’t know the color pattern in Buck Eyes but in Rhode Island Reds you have green ticking in the neck feathers. Then you have green beetle green color in the tails and in the wings the primary and secondary feathers have a dull black color on one side of them. You can take a bird or both breeders which have excess black such as over shot wing color where there is too much of it and use it for excess breeding. Then there is a defect called smut or slate in the back of the bird’s oil gland area and neck which is a gray ash color.
This is a defect, but will help in darkening up the bird. What you are using is color culls to darken up the line over a three to five year period.
Here is one area that will kill you in doing this and it’s the neck feather area. If you have a common fault in Rhode Island Reds today excess color in the neck area striping instead of ticking you will have a hard time controlling the black and where it is suppose to go. Many old time Red Breeders wrote this in the Rhode Island Red Chronicles but most people ignore this rule or secret.
In fact it is the number one secret in breeding R I Reds for color and keeping the color even on your females is using ticking or no ticking at all in the hackle feathers of the female. The male should have none at all but many have stripes of beetle green in their neck feathers which is a defect and will hinder your goal in an excess color breeding program.

In Buck Eyes maybe that is the same problem you are having. Excess color in the female neck if that is what is called for and making your birds have a mixture of color.
One of the miracles I have had for the past twenty years shrinking down my large fowl to bantams is I have not worried about color and just tried to keep the ticking in the female neck under control.

I have only breed for small size each year and the color stayed with the small birds. I had a strong colored strain with the E W Reese large fowl to start with. Mr. Reese was a stickered on ticking and believed in this law of breeding color all his life.
I hope this may help you but to me a Buck Eye is not as dark as a Red and what I have seen pictures to me look great. Bob