Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[tigercreek]

That is my bird. Doug gave her to me.

Man that is a beauty Kathy!! Makes me want to forget about trying to breed the Dels I have. They don't look like the same breed. .....stan

 

[plantcityhomestead]

That is my bird. Doug gave her to me.

Gosh, she must be your pride and joy. That is the first Delaware I've seen that looks like a Delaware should. Guess I need to order some eggs.

 

[MKandtheforce]

Yikes! Forgot to check in on the site for a couple of days, and the thread grew! My, my. I'll have to remember to check every day.

I have been raising Delawares for a couple of years and really like them, but I do agree, what is available now is far from the standard of perfection. Mine have been smarter than the average chicken with great personalities. The cocks were not aggressive. They are slow to mature compared to some of my other chickens.

I'm glad that Delawares are so likeable. That's really what attracts me to them, especially with not-so-aggressive cocks. Gotta have chickens with personality, though!

I don't know what the official definition of chicken math is, but it happens when you end up with more chickens than you originally planned on.

LOL I can see myself getting into trouble with "chicken math".

if you can get the 3 pullets and the cockerel, then i would start there with what you have. add some other strains like birds from whitmore farms, beth holmes, sandhill preservation and paul harter. hatch, breed and cull ruthlessly. i would wait until kathy in mo had a finished product before getting them and maybe only a rooster then.

I'll look into those places, though I don't plan on immediately becoming a hardcore chicken breeder. I recently moved back with my parents, so I need to keep my chicken numbers pretty low. It's good to start learning on what it takes to breed these chickens, though. I didn't know it was so intense!! It could be a very interesting hobby, though.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Catching upon this thread about the old lit. Maybe this has already been shared. If so, I'm the 11:00 o'clock news, smile.
The Plymouth Rock standard and breed book: a complete description
American Poultry Association,
Arthur Carlton Smith - 1921 - 438 pages
Free Google eBook
http://tinyurl.com/77ylheb

Best Regards,
Karen

 

[catdaddyfro]

I'm not up on all the crosses but I thought that a red roo like a RIR or NH over a BR produced a black Sex-Link (Black Star), Where does the white come from? I'm assuming that this bird is a Delaware....Is this correct? Beautiful bird!

Chris the cross is just exactly opposite of the way you quoted it. A barred male over a red female is the begining of the cross to produce such color pattern. The history of that girl pictured there is somewhat indifferent and I'll let Mr.s Kathy explain it if she so desires. That delaware girl is a topic in the Delaware thread a good ways back if you wanted to go digging for it probly somewhere about a year and half back, should be around the fall of '010 if memory serves correctly.

Jeff

 

[Chris Herzog]

Chris the cross is just exactly opposite of the way you quoted it. A barred male over a red female is the begining of the cross to produce such color pattern. The history of that girl pictured there is somewhat indifferent and I'll let Mr.s Kathy explain it if she so desires. That delaware girl is a topic in the Delaware thread a good ways back if you wanted to go digging for it probly somewhere about a year and half back, should be around the fall of '010 if memory serves correctly.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff!!!!!

 

[cubalaya]

that is a nice looking hen. so basically i am wasting my time keeping the old line delawares? is that what you are saying?

 

[tigercreek]

that is a nice looking hen. so basically i am wasting my time keeping the old line delawares? is that what you are saying?

I don't think anyone has said that you should scrap the old lines. I think that is a decision every breeder has to make for themselves, and one I am reconsidering now. I am not too sure that those of us with the old lines will ever get a bird that looks like that hen. Maybe with out crosses to her line? I believe that is the same decision Kathy made, and that is one of the main causes that drove her to decide to start a new line with the original cross. I remember her having a lot of discussion about the inability to find quality birds to use in a breeding program. I am still thinking that the old lines still have a place. I would hate to see them lost, but I do believe we must recognize that there is a long, if not impossible road ahead of us if we hope to breed consistently good Dels. It may be that they are just too far gone. .......stan

 

[Robert Blosl]

that is a nice looking hen. so basically i am wasting my time keeping the old line delawares? is that what you are saying?

You remember a few days ago I told some new person to be patient? Well you have two choices. Get some of the birds like Glen Downs has and try to improve them. How long will it take to get them graded up by one point. Ten years, Five teen? If you go the route that Kathy is going I think in five years to eight years you may see a Delaware on Champion Row. When I saw the picture of the cross Dough did and saw the Delaware female I said to myself that is the best Delaware I ever saw for color.

However, folks what happens when you cross her and get chicks? Most likely nothing special. She is however, something to look at and hope for. Many of these old breeds where so hard to breed in the old days you almost needed a PhD in Poultry Science to have any success. That is why today when you ask for Partridge, Silver Penciled or even Colombian Rocks I have a hard time getting anything that will score over 92 points. They just are not out there and the breeders just cant afford to breed for so so birds and go with a solid colored bird as a White Rock, or Buff Rocks instead.

I think if you can get a old breed to come back to a level of 92 points and have respectable type and color you have done a great service to our hobby. Some chickens will take thirty years of hard breeding to get them any higher or a life time. I have a Friend who has a strain of Light Brahma Large fowl out in the west coast and has done a fantastic job with them. He is up in years. Who is going to take over for him. You can buy all his birds but in five years go backwards and nothing but mu ts if you dont have the breeding secrets for color. He tells me he does have a young man in his forty's he is coaching. You got to have a mentor if you want to learn the secrets of the breed.

I can see some strains of Rhode Island Reds and White Plymouth Rocks that if you use some smart line breeding and inbreeding to increase them by one or one and half points and get them to the level they where ten years ago as the blood lines are still there for the picking. When you want a old breed Start Where You are with what you Have said Mr. Sturgeon. It wont hurt to have some so so birds to practice with then one day get two pair from a good breeder like Kathy and her plan for breeding them and start your program of your dreams.

Nice pictures need more so we can see what is out there. bob

 

[plantcityhomestead]

I don't think anyone has said that you should scrap the old lines. I think that is a decision every breeder has to make for themselves, and one I am reconsidering now. I am not too sure that those of us with the old lines will ever get a bird that looks like that hen. Maybe with out crosses to her line? I believe that is the same decision Kathy made, and that is one of the main causes that drove her to decide to start a new line with the original cross. I remember her having a lot of discussion about the inability to find quality birds to use in a breeding program. I am still thinking that the old lines still have a place. I would hate to see them lost, but I do believe we must recognize that there is a long, if not impossible road ahead of us if we hope to breed consistently good Dels. It may be that they are just too far gone. .......stan

This takes me back something else I read about whether we should introduce another line into the birds that we have, and possibly introduce a new problem, or just keep the lines separate. I do want to get some of Kathy's birds next spring, if she is still selling eggs, but there are probably some good attributes in your birds too, Stan. There is a very small gene pool in Kathy's Delawares, and they are fairly new, so I think it is a good idea to keep the old birds. I plan on keeping two separate breeding flocks and working to get the best bird I can from each flock. Don't loose hope Stan, just consider it a challenge.