Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[junglebird]

Quote:
That's interesting, because others here have been saying 200+ eggs/year production is in "production" birds, not heritage birds.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote:
That's interesting, because others here have been saying 200+ eggs/year production is in "production" birds, not heritage birds.

My first interview with Ralph when he hit me with the famous quote at the end of the hour interview go slow go small and go down the middle of the road statement was because he had a ad in the poultry press for trap nests for sale. Many of you don't know what the heck these things are. I never really have touched one only seen pictures of them. But Ralph use to have a door in front of his nest for his big Orpingtons and when she went into the nest her back would rub the door a latch would release and when she sat down to lay her egg she was trapped until he came along latter in say two hours to let her out. He then would record her leg band number in a log book and record her egg for that day. He would average 200 eggs per pullet per year and then breed from such females.

One thing that this did was they had extrema feather quality and the females under fluff would be tight to her over all profile. She would not have what Schilling would call drooping their skirts. Many Orpington and Rocks that are fluffy feathered have this loose fluff like the English Orps have. When I saw the pictures of those birds on that thread it turned me so off I never went back to read it.

Of all the breeders I interviewed he is the only person I have ever heard who had egg laying that high. No buddy does this anymore and I was most likely the last one to push high egg production with my Mohawk Rhode Island Red large fowl and White Rock large fowl. I did it for feather quality not because I wanted a lot of eggs to eat. I am a breeder first and I hatch my eggs to raise chicks. In my climate its so hot if you leave eggs out in the chicken house for a few days they aren't worth eating. I just dispose of the eggs in the summer time.

Most large fowl that we talk about in this thread that are Heritage do not lay more than maybe 180 eggs per pullet year and many don't even hit that level because they have been breed down in overall quality for type and color. That is why I say you are going to have to breed them up. People contact me all the time wanting Partridge Plymouth Rocks. There are only about two breeders who have them. They need lots of work and this is the same for the bantams. They are a difficult color pattern to breed to the standard and that is why most people don't breed them.

One of the reasons I posted these breeds and names is to show you that after all the work they did and all the birds they shared there is none left anymore. In just ten to twenty years they strains Have gone down the toilet.

Yet people ask me where can they find such and such strain of birds.

I have seen strains of birds die in three years.

Dan talked about Oscar Winters and C.M. Lewis as great breeders. I knew these men from Oregon and saw there birds as a boy. When they died there birds dry-ed up in a heart beat.

There are however, a few of the lines still going. The hatcheries never got any of these birds if they did I could not see anything like what they had in the birds they share with us. Laying lots of eggs to hatch and forgetting about shape and color will not keep a classic line of fowl going

There is one fellow who has a old line of R I Reds from Calif Gary Ramey of So.Carolina who has kept his large fowl reds to look like the old classic line of Reds that I use to see as a kid. How he did it I will never know. Its something I want to look into. Look at all the New Hampshire's out there that are left. They hardly look like the ones we had twenty and thirty years ago.

Thanks for the new names. Vance Hammod wrote me one time Dan as a boy he was the King of Rose Comb Leghorns. Another great breeder who shared many of his birds with others but no one has his birds anymore. bob

 

[Chickielady]

Is there any pics available of this Gary Ramey's birds ?
I would love to see them !

I know if Bob says they are nice birds, they must be something special.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=407294&p=27

look down this tread page and you will see the pictures he took a few years ago. In this picture they look a little light in color this could be because they are older birds and or bleached out from the sun that he has in his climate.

The feather quality and the type is what I liked. Great station level backs, legs plum the look like something that Roy Brown might have had in Calif 40 years ago.

He said they came from stock that came from a estate sale that a freind gave him 40 years ago.

No for those who do not think they need a book to help them breed stanard breed fowl he use the book and it helped him maintain the type on this strain. For someone who did not show his birds over this time period he gets my award for keeping this line going and maintaining the type and color as he started with. This is very hard to do. Bob

 

[Chickielady]

Concerning the above link to Bob's post of Ramey's birds:

but very nice birds indeed!
But I have a question: Is it just the pose or do these birds all look like their wings are held loosely, almost drooping?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

It could be the S. Carolina heat causing them to loosen their wing carriage.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Heat will do this if its hot like we have down here. The females have their wings up right. Normaly the wings that are pointed down on reds are your bantams becasue of the introdution of old english games to make the bantam. On these I would not think the young birds hathed from his birds will have bad wing carrage. He stands very level in one picture that is on here. bob

 

[Chickielady]

Ok...

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Well, 100+ temps with 75% humidity would make anything droopy!

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote:
I have had birds from the north and one cornish rock cross chick i bought for a white rock chick at the feed store and they droped dead in July and August becasue of the heat. My first year with my Gray Calls my first years ducks went through a molt and the heat was so bad 104 degrees and I lost three ducks while they where going through their molt.

I learned to let water drip into pans or put togeather a timer that comes on and flushes out the water to thier tubs for say ten minutes every two hours. That solved that problem as they can cool off in the fresh water.

I can start work out side early in the A.M. but got to get inside by 11 A.M. as I can dehydrate so bad if I stay out to say 1 P.M. in the afternoon. The older I get the harder it is for me to take the heat.

I got some pictures of some nice SC Rhode Island Reds a pair from Jimmy Swenson strain. The male had very natural type. I hope the fellow that sent them will post on this web site.

Was refreshing to see some nice Heritage Rhode Island Red pictures. Found some nice Jersey Giants in Washington State for a friend. Mission Success. bob