Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[NC Giants]

Wow.... Havent been on since christmas. Took 2 hrs to catchup! Great thread Robert. We raise/hatch/breed/cull/show and occasionally sell Black Jersey Giants. I have allways liked the Barred rocks. This site has me thinking....... but we are sticking to 1 breed for now. I have had chickens for 30 years but have only been breeding to the standard for 4. So i am newbie with expirence?

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

Quote:
i would add some silkies or bantam Cochins to you broody hen flock... and you almost have to separate each hen when she starts to set... use fake or not to valuable eggs for the first 3 days then if she is still setting add you real eggs... i use rabbit cages and had about 10 broody's raise chicks this year...

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Well, NC Giants, sticking to one breed isn't such a bad thing. Besides, Giants are a great heritage breed. I'd love to see some good Giant capons.

Greetings everybody! I thought I'd mention Google books. It's search engine of books on line. Some only show a "snippet" but many, if not most, show a "full view" which means you can read the book on your computer. Notice I said Google Books and not Google eBooks. Robert has several titles he had recommended prior, which are available on line, and I have found countless publications there. Just search for your breed name and observe all of the titles of books, magazines, and journals. It will keep you busy, indeed, and you can bring your discoveries here.

Cheers!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I'm hoping the Dorkings will be broody enough, if I were to have to bring in a broody hen, I'd like to find something a bit more self-reliant that a silkie or b cochin. maybe come Cubalayas. we'll see, it's too late for bringing in stock for this season, we'll see. perhaps this will give me a reason to work with b partiridge cochins.

Cheers!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

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Welcome! Giants are a great breed! Before I got my Langshans, I had white Giants. Never laid an egg for me in 2 years. Kind of hard to breed them when there's nothing to incubate!

Do you have any photos of your birds? A good Jersey Giant is a work of art!

 

[Robert Blosl]

Someone mentioned pulling the vent feathers out to get fertility. I did not do it on my first run with White Rock Large Fowl 22 years ago even though I was told to do it. I put 100 eggs in the incubator and got 18 chicks. The next year I looked for fast feathering and early develpment on my chicks and kept about four. Breed them the same way and out of 100 eggs got about 30 chicks. Did the same thing the next year and the next year. With in about four to five years I had 80 percent hatches. What was the problem. Fluffy feathers poor feather quality. Many breeders do not have a firm tight webing over the back area. You will see after three to four months in the breeding pen the back on your females torn to sherds. After you get good feather quility the backs and the feathers stay on. I had Rhode Island Red females after five years that I could show after four months in the breeding pen but on year one they had poor feather quality.

Its not the breeds fault its the person who carrys the feed buckets fault.

Talked to Charle Vota today on the phone as I was going to work. Tip of the week if you want good Wyandotte large fowl check out Urchs Poutlry Farm he has some nice ones. I still think if he has the breed you would like to have you could order chicks from him and mix up another breed or two to get your twenty five chick min order and you would be very happy with his stock.

Bob

 

[saladin]

I've been working alot and haven't been able to get on here like I wanted too.

I'd like us to talk some more about breeding.

Over the years I've learned some valueable lessons; as it sounds like we all have. Here's one of the most important ones at my place.


A good strong Inbred Cock that is up to Standard is worth more than money can buy!

 

[cowboygourmet]

Quote:
What breeds and how many birds of each breed do you have that you are curious about?

Bob has some great breeding info here in his article
Becoming a breeder
http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id27.html

Good luck with the birds
Charlie

Thanks Charlie for bringing up Gary Underwoods article he wrote for the Rhode Island Red Chronicle when I was President.Gary is my mentor on Rhode Island Reds. He would have matings of three to two females per matting and then take the best males and mate back to the two or three hens. He could fix traits faster than any one I ever saw.
I like to use the Old English Game Bantam method Pairs and trios. In Call Ducks you use pairs and you pick the best type birds and mate them the way you want for improvement.

I was looking today at a Gray Call hen and she has the body that I want but does not have the head that I want. Then next door in a pen I have a female that I call Daphne for Daphne Mays who had some of the best gray females I ever saw. How do I get the neck from Daphne on this other hen. This is the magic of breeding. I did this with Rhode Island Reds about 15 years ago. I had a male with the most perfect head I ever saw but had a short body or back. Then in a pen next door I saw a male with a killer brick shape Red body with a poor looking head and said to myself how can I get the head from the pen one male on to the pen three male. Then sitting in front of me was a female that was scratching in the dirt who had a great brick shape body good head and good color. So I mated her to the pen one male for 35 days and the pen three male for 35 days and got a male from one pen that I really liked then I mated him to the hen the next year and then I hit the jackpot. I got a male named #68 the best male I ever raised with great brick shape and a perfect head. Maybe I can use the same methods on my female call ducks as I did on my Reds years agobut in reverse.

These are methods learned from Gary Underwood that he learned from his father George Underwood and shared to me over twnety years ago.

Charlie how are you going to breed those killer light brahmas this year?

Standards written in the Rhode Island Red Chroncle years ago ment standard fowl vs bantams. The author Maurice Wallace always used this in his writtings.

Standard Breed in my book means breed to the book. Anyone who breeds to his likeing is not going to have a strain uniform to true type. When your birds are in front of a good judge like Walt you will pay the price. When you build a house or a barn you got to follow the blue print. If you do not follow the blue print your finished product will be off and you will have to ajust yourself to get the finished product correct. This works ok in tree houses as kids but in the contruction world it does not work. Same thing in Breeding live stock. If you want to maintain a strain to a certain trait or look got to try to follow the blue print.

However, you have the choice not to follow it and thats all right to. Just enjoy your birds as you see fit. I just like trying to improve the birds better than I found them.
I am sure glad I got this old book.

Hope you all have a great night. I am going to sit back and watch my New Orleans Saints play those dirty birds from Alanta, Georgia. bob

!
Bob, In my humble opinion, Breeding for positive changes in our birds is about 60% Genetics Science and 40% luck!! Takes a lot of time and hard work and a really good eye for cullng. It is not uncommon for the best looking birds in a crop to not be the best for breeding!!

 

[cowboygourmet]

Quote:
You are correct! The older birds get smart and picky. The young males will just take anything! Wow! what a concept. However, following is an idea that might appeal to serious breeders.
It has been my experience that if you will take a cock bird or Cockeral and switch him from breeding pen ( small number of hens, as in 3 to 5) to another pen of about the same number. Do this every 3 days and you will experience much greater fertiliity. The male loves a change in scenery, so to speak. Of course I realize that not everyone has enough birds or maybe does not have the facilities to accomplish this. I have 40 breeding pens and at least 12 birds of each variety in Orpingtons and at least 40 pullets or hens in the RIR's plus many male birds. But you can use the system with smaller numbers.

Roy

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Quote:
You are correct! The older birds get smart and picky. The young males will just take anything! Wow! what a concept. However, following is an idea that might appeal to serious breeders.
It has been my experience that if you will take a cock bird or Cockeral and switch him from breeding pen ( small number of hens, as in 3 to 5) to another pen of about the same number. Do this every 3 days and you will experience much greater fertiliity. The male loves a change in scenery, so to speak. Of course I realize that not everyone has enough birds or maybe does not have the facilities to accomplish this. I have 40 breeding pens and at least 12 birds of each variety in Orpingtons and at least 40 pullets or hens in the RIR's plus many male birds. But you can use the system with smaller numbers.

Roy

I, too, have noticed the efficacy of this approach. I think that it's because of the dominance factor. By shaking it up, it requires the male to assert his dominance over the harem. Insofar as chicken has a weak long-term memory, when you're moving them back and forth they do not simply resume business as usual; rather, they recommence the process of establishing harem dynamics, which includes a hightened level of coupling.