Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[HallFamilyFarm]

We do enjoy recycling items for our small farm. Last year I drove by our high school and they were stripping the 5'x12" painted aluminum off the top sides. I called maintenance and was given permission to salvage what we wanted. We hauled home a pickup load of roofing!

Roofing and siding! As you said, dual purpose!

 

[Arielle]

WOW

You scored!!!!

My next mission is larger waterers-- the ones at the feed store are about $40. Plastic five gal pail from laundry detergent + water bubbler bottle + pcv pipe for 5" collar = waterer. About $10 if I buy all the parts,

Talking with a friends dad who served as an engineer for entirecareer on ships loved having "farm boys" as he called them, because they could figure out how to make something from nothing!!

Need to make a better feeder for the speckled sussex ( Yes some are hatchery, sorry bob)

 

[Robert Blosl]

WOW

You scored!!!!

My next mission is larger waterers-- the ones at the feed store are about $40. Plastic five gal pail from laundry detergent + water bubbler bottle + pcv pipe for 5" collar = waterer. About $10 if I buy all the parts,

Talking with a friends dad who served as an engineer for entirecareer on ships loved having "farm boys" as he called them, because they could figure out how to make something from nothing!!

Need to make a better feeder for the speckled sussex ( Yes some are hatchery, sorry bob)

Let me tell you what I told Mr. Weaver last night who called me up from Tenn he is building some new pens for his Heirloom strain of pretty as a button White Rock Large Fowl. Boy do these birds look nice. Anyway I told him I built a 8x8 foot pen out of 4x4 inch post buried them in the ground about two feet. I made my back section 6 feet tall and the front 8 feet tall then put two x four boards down the sides and the roof to put on my tin roof. My roof is hanging over about one foot so I used ten foot tin on the top. I used plywood on the back section which is facing the north.
The sides have plywood coming up the sides then I cut the boards so I had a three foot open area for air circulation. Then in front its open with two by four wire to enclose the pen.. I made a door frame for a two foot by six foot door with nice hinges and a latch to close the door. So I had open air on the sides and the front then in the winter I put plastic about four mil over the side opening. The front was still open to the south.
Then in the spring I remove the plastic and back to open air. I had a dirt floor but found some old four foot two x sixes and made a floor to keep the varmints from trying to crawl under the pen. Then I had two put one inch poultry wire on all the sides and the front to keep the young possums out in the spring. They could crawl through a two inch wire and kill my adult birds.

That is my large fowl pens and I cold have one male and three females with no problem. I took a eight foot two x four and rounded off the ends put it across the pen for a roost. Then I made some five teen inch by five teen inch nest out of boards and put it about a foot off the ground and put straw in it for their nest. The eggs where always clean and perfect free of spots of poop or manure for the incubator which increased my hatches.

A hook was placed in the middle of the ceiling on a two by four rafter and a wire coming down to a feeder which holds about twenty pounds of feed and it was hung about eight inches off the floor for them to eat. Here is a great method to water your birds I use a half inch plastic pipe and have it about five inches from the out side of my pens. Then I have a faucet from the hard are store a new one dripping water at a slow rate into a one qt plastic cup and the chickens put their head though the two inch wire to drink the fresh clean water. I then make a cage that goes over the faucet which is about eight inches wide six inches deep and twenty inches long and Mount it to the wire in front of the pen and then cover it with old one inch wire. This lets the bird stick their heads through the wire and drink out of the plastic cup and yet the varmints can not get through that hole. That's all I do for my breeders during the breeding season. I put enough feed to last about three days and they water is always fresh when dripping into the cup and the excess water lands outside the pen not in the pen.

Hope that helps you who asked about it and to Mr Weaver who I tried to paint a picture to last night on the phone.


Support your hatcheries as they need our business and you can always enjoy the eggs and the meat of the birds. You dont have to show them or worry about making them perfect like us breeders do. You can always reorder if they die or get killed by varmints.

Remember only a hand full of you are going to go through all this work to preserve rare breeds and only a small fraction of you are going to show your birds. I understand this could care less if you do or not. This information is just for the folks who want to try to make a go of it and you learn by your mistakes. I still do after nearly 30 and I will once I go to chicken heaven I will never give up learning. That is what it is all about.

Well I got to go out and hung a duck and a chicken. You all have a nice night. bob

 

[meimalley]

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

Bob using the word "Heritage" is what got me interested in Standard Breed Fowl. As Walt stated, the APA has no statement or position at this time on what defines a "heritage" fowl. But if a catchy word or phrase can draw new members to the fancy? I'm all for it.

Bob has said himself he uses the word to trick people into looking at the old time, bred to the SOP type of poultry. And I am proof it works. I am one of those people who has always had chickens. Most all the fowl I ever owned were ordered from those pretty hatchery catalogs. And I never once had a bird grow out to look like those nice shiny pictures. Sorta close, almost, but not like the pictures. Until BYC I had never heard of the APA. ABA, the Standard of Perfection, a chicken show.... none of it. I've had thousands upon thousands of chickens in my life and was never exposed to any of this. BYC is full of a lot of goofy threads and misinformation, but if it wasn't for BYC I personally would never have known the difference in a hatchery chicken and a pure bred chicken.

Like Arielle, I still see a need and place for both hatchery and "Heritage" fowl. It's a fact that 99% of the poultry owners couldn't care less about breeding any type bird to the SOP. They want a pretty bird that will grow fast, lay lots of eggs and that can be replaced cheap in a couple of years when it burns out. This thread is one of those threads that is geared to the other 1% that either have and raise "heritage" fowl or would like to.

Because of Bob getting me interested (or "tricked" if you will) and LOTS of other folks helping me with answers to questions or links to better info like Walt, Bill, Chris, Kathy, Al and several others... I now own some of these old line birds. I also owe a lot to people like Fred, Junior, George, and others who like me are just starting out. I learn from those of you who know and those of us who sometimes make mistakes.

I will say the best advise Bob has given me is to go slow and see what you like before you commit. Just my opinion, but I think if you are going to stick with it and be in that 1% who stay with it for years and really learn to be a breeder and not just a propagator you have to LOVE the breed you are working with.

I'll admit, the experts still talk over my head sometimes about genetics and such, but I listen, I try to do what I feel is the best advise. Occasionally I still think an expert is full of... manure? But I accept they know more than I do, so I'm willing to give it a try. I'm learning. Baby steps, but I'm learning.

So to each and every one of you who have helped me... I'll say what I think each and every day when I sit out in the yard and see those beautiful birds....

THANK YOU!

Looking at those hatchery catalogs, I have always wondered why they didn't show pictures of the birds. What's with the drawings? Surely photos would be more appealing and informative. (I always turned to an internet search to find pictures, and when I found Storey's Illustrated Guide, I was entranced.) Now I understand that the breeds in these catalogs are often recreations of heritage breeds or mediocre strains. So this is why they have the drawings, huh?

 

[Lacy Blues]

I think they mostly use pictures from the SOP and yes they use them to show what the bird SHOULD look like but most often does not.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Well, it's going to take a bit of work to rebuild it to suit me, but I finally found a breeder coop I liked. Got it off craigslist cheap.
All welded pipe, covered with hardware cloth on all sides and the bottom, sheet metal roof and most of the back.
I plan on raising it up on legs and building new doors, finishing the back with metal all the way down and turn it vertical instead of horizontal, building nest boxes and roosts for each section... Ok, going to totally redo it.

But something to start out with anyway. There are five sections - each about four feet wide, a bit over four feet deep and about six feet high. Should hold a pair of breeders, maybe a trio, nicely during the season if I place the open front towards the south out under the big oaks.





Now if I just had some strong backs to move the heavy thing where I need it. Just put some of our cull ducks in it temporarily until they are picked up.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Looking at those hatchery catalogs, I have always wondered why they didn't show pictures of the birds. What's with the drawings? Surely photos would be more appealing and informative. (I always turned to an internet search to find pictures, and when I found Storey's Illustrated Guide, I was entranced.) Now I understand that the breeds in these catalogs are often recreations of heritage breeds or mediocre strains. So this is why they have the drawings, huh?

Meyer hatchery uses photos of their own birds. http://www.meyerhatchery.com/ Here are two examples.

Buff Orpington

Rhode Island Red

 

[Arielle]

Jim, you know orpingtons, how do these pictures stand compared to show quality birds?

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Jim, you know orpingtons, how do these pictures stand compared to show quality birds?

You tell me!

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Let me tell you what I told Mr. Weaver last night who called me up from Tenn he is building some new pens for his Heirloom strain of pretty as a button White Rock Large Fowl. Boy do these birds look nice. Anyway I told him I built a 8x8 foot pen out of 4x4 inch post buried them in the ground about two feet. I made my back section 6 feet tall and the front 8 feet tall then put two x four boards down the sides and the roof to put on my tin roof. My roof is hanging over about one foot so I used ten foot tin on the top. I used plywood on the back section which is facing the north.
The sides have plywood coming up the sides then I cut the boards so I had a three foot open area for air circulation. Then in front its open with two by four wire to enclose the pen.. I made a door frame for a two foot by six foot door with nice hinges and a latch to close the door. So I had open air on the sides and the front then in the winter I put plastic about four mil over the side opening. The front was still open to the south.
Then in the spring I remove the plastic and back to open air. I had a dirt floor but found some old four foot two x sixes and made a floor to keep the varmints from trying to crawl under the pen. Then I had two put one inch poultry wire on all the sides and the front to keep the young possums out in the spring. They could crawl through a two inch wire and kill my adult birds.

That is my large fowl pens and I cold have one male and three females with no problem. I took a eight foot two x four and rounded off the ends put it across the pen for a roost. Then I made some five teen inch by five teen inch nest out of boards and put it about a foot off the ground and put straw in it for their nest. The eggs where always clean and perfect free of spots of poop or manure for the incubator which increased my hatches.

A hook was placed in the middle of the ceiling on a two by four rafter and a wire coming down to a feeder which holds about twenty pounds of feed and it was hung about eight inches off the floor for them to eat. Here is a great method to water your birds I use a half inch plastic pipe and have it about five inches from the out side of my pens. Then I have a faucet from the hard are store a new one dripping water at a slow rate into a one qt plastic cup and the chickens put their head though the two inch wire to drink the fresh clean water. I then make a cage that goes over the faucet which is about eight inches wide six inches deep and twenty inches long and Mount it to the wire in front of the pen and then cover it with old one inch wire. This lets the bird stick their heads through the wire and drink out of the plastic cup and yet the varmints can not get through that hole. That's all I do for my breeders during the breeding season. I put enough feed to last about three days and they water is always fresh when dripping into the cup and the excess water lands outside the pen not in the pen.

Hope that helps you who asked about it and to Mr Weaver who I tried to paint a picture to last night on the phone.

Thanks for the detailed construction info, Bob. Sounds like I'm on the right track. I like the dripping-faucet waterer! If I did that here, though, I'd have a $200 water bill in no time. (The down side to it being a dry heat. Water is expensive.)

Sarah