Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Can you not find poultry researchers on otherside that can facilitate? I have had to resort to such for my efforts. Funding might even be available if preservation / conservation is provided as motive.

 

[saladin]

Back to Breeding:

There are a number of good resources on breeding techniques including the one posted by the ALBC. The best written summary of some of the major techniques was written years ago by Craig Russell and appeared in one of the old SPPA Breeders Directories. His article on Grading is still considered one of the best on that particular subject.

Though Breeding is not rocket-science it does take time to accomplish: particularly the artistic part of breeding. Indeed, if it were easy then everyone would do it and the same folks wouldn't be the only ones winning in the showroom year after year after year; but they are.

I am convinced that to maintain and improve a breed of fowl the 'secret' it in: selection, enormous hatches, and culling.

1. There is great artistry in the selection of brood stock.

2. Improvement can only be maintained in hatching lots and lots of chicks. People will argue all day about how many to hatch, but ask any real breeder and the answer is going to be in the hundreds!

3. The harder you cull the more improvement you'll see. I try to keep 10% of the chicks hatched. It doesn't always work that way. In 2010 I hatched around 300 Cubalaya chicks. I kept about 15. That's because those 15 were the only ones that I felt showed improvement over the parent stock.

If your chicks are the same as the parent stock then you are going backward.

 

[saladin]

Thanks for the pictures Chris.

 

[centrarchid]

I would add, make certain that not all 15 chicks are from same mating. Ideally multiple sires and dams will be repressented by those selected as broodstock for following generation. This requires marking and keeping records. Failure to do so will result in rapid loss of alleles (through inbreeding) that can otherwise be used later.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Anytime..

Chris

 

[OSUman]

I forgot who was looking for them but I found a breeder online that has Partridge Plymouth Rocks. I saw an add for their Barred Plymouth Rocks on Featherauction and the saw them on their website.

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
I found it great find!
thanks
punky

 

[OSUman]

Oh yea whoops here it is.
http://goldcoastfarm.weebly.com/large-fowl.html

 

[punky rooster]

that BR is AWESOME!

 

[OSUman]

Quote:
http://www.featherauction.com/detail.asp?id=512&n=Large-Fowl--Barred-Plymouth-Rock
heres the auction they have right now.