Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[fowlman01]

Walt, I think you know that I started out in a Gamefowl family . The Gamefowl people that I knew would mark every chick that was hatched. If a certain Male -female mating nicked as they say, then those two breeders would be bred together until they died. My father was well known over the South and Midwest.

Most of the time it works that way for me too, but every once in a while it looks like some other rooster jumped the fence and I don't do flock mating, I know exactly who the father and mother is of every bird here.
I have also had males where it pretty much didn't matter what female you put him on, the babies would still be above average. I liked getting those males, but that didn't happen often either.

Walt

 

[snowbird]

Most of the time it works that way for me too, but every once in a while it looks like some other rooster jumped the fence and I don't do flock mating, I know exactly who the father and mother is of every bird here.
I have also had males where it pretty much didn't matter what female you put him on, the babies would still be above average. I liked getting those males, but that didn't happen often either.

Walt

Walt, I agree with you, We also would never breed a female that didn't have spurs.

 

[fowlman01]

Walt, I agree with you, We also would never breed a female that didn't have spurs.

Interesting....why? Is it a performance thing?

Walt

 

[snowbird]

Interesting....why? Is it a performance thing?

Walt

The oldtimers always said the hens had to have spurs for the males to be any good in competition. The oldtime poultry people have took a wealth of info. with them to their grave. I still have some of the note pads my dad used to always carry with him when in the chicken yard. I use a lot of the breeding practices in my show fowl breeding.

 

[fowlman01]

The oldtimers always said the hens had to have spurs for the males to be any good in competition. The oldtime poultry people have took a wealth of info. with them to their grave. I still have some of the note pads my dad used to always carry with him when in the chicken yard. I use a lot of the breeding practices in my show fowl breeding.

Yes, I know that a lot of good poultry info went to the grave. The other thing people don't usually know is that there were a ton of hucksters....just like today...that write things strictly for profit and don't really have the knowledge or they want people to think they are famous..ahahaha....it's an ego thing....back then and today with some of these folks, so I guess what I'm saying is........just cuz it was written in the late 1800's or early 1900...well that just doesn't make it true. They had "experts" back then too. Truth of the matter is as you say...a lot of good accurate info went with them to the grave. I was convince Ralph Sturgeon, when he was in his mid 90's, to write some things down and he wrote his little Ply rock book.

I don't think there are many people doing exhibition poultry now that could compare with what they could do with chickens. It's a knack, some of us never get it. Those guys wrote letters...some of them tons of letters and that is where some of it ended up. ...and who knows where some of that stuff is? They didn't name their chickens and they didn't use genetic formulas. There is no one around these days with the skills those folks had.

Walt

 

[Lacy Blues]

Wish I had some of that skill. Definitely a learning process, these birds are. I name most of my birds... for my benefit in remembering which is which, not because I think they will come to know their names. The numbers on those garbage plastic leg bands fade away, so I'm checking into permanent bands. I know the lineage of each and every bird I have all the way back to when I started (maybe not directly, but I have it on file).

 

[LC Fancy]

Yes PICTURES

 

[fowlman01]

Wish I had some of that skill. Definitely a learning process, these birds are. I name most of my birds... for my benefit in remembering which is which, not because I think they will come to know their names. The numbers on those garbage plastic leg bands fade away, so I'm checking into permanent bands. I know the lineage of each and every bird I have all the way back to when I started (maybe not directly, but I have it on file).

if you are serious, you need mark them in some way from day one. Are you going to the Reno show 12/17?

Walt

 

[Lacy Blues]

I do mark them Walt, I still use the leg bands even though after a couple years I can't read the numbers anymore. Regarding showing my breeders, I generally don't for the reasons you mentioned. But I can't imagine not using a show bird to breed from... but then I haven't been doing this for very long. I, too, try to balance out some issues I'm trying to work through by breeding opposites that hopefully share some strengths.

Reno show Nov 17? Yes, I am. I'm not sure if I'll be bringing any Andalusians though as they take a long time for their plumage to mature. I think it averages 7 months for the pullets and 8 for the cockerels. We'll have to see how these new batches feather out.


LC Fancy, what pictures are you talking about? I went back in the comments and couldn't find anything you might be referencing.

 

[fowlman01]

I do mark them Walt, I still use the leg bands even though after a couple years I can't read the numbers anymore. Regarding showing my breeders, I generally don't for the reasons you mentioned. But I can't imagine not using a show bird to breed from... but then I haven't been doing this for very long. I, too, try to balance out some issues I'm trying to work through by breeding opposites that hopefully share some strengths.

Reno show Nov 17? Yes, I am. I'm not sure if I'll be bringing any Andalusians though as they take a long time for their plumage to mature. I think it averages 7 months for the pullets and 8 for the cockerels. We'll have to see how these new batches feather out.


LC Fancy, what pictures are you talking about? I went back in the comments and couldn't find anything you might be referencing.

Peter Ovalle will probably show some Andalusians there. He is still working on them, but is making good progress. I haven't seen this years young yet. Maybe he will show them in Sept at the Heirloom Expo here in Santa Rosa.

Walt