Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[ashandvine]

Thank you for the responses regarding houses.

I went to a poultry exhibit this weekend where I met a Crevoceur for the first time, as well as Blue Andalusians, a S Sussex and several La Fleche. Two of the La Fleche took ribbons. There were more heritage breeds there than I anticipated but overall their quality was shockingly poor. I don't understand showing a bird for judging while it is missing feathers or rough, or not large if they are supposed to be-- my Black non SOP Orp was bigger than the Buff being shown and the dark RIR were just scraggly and smaller than I expected. The Blue Andalusian hen was bigger than the RIR cock. Maybe I need to get out more but it was a surprise. Examples: there was a Polish there whose crest was still 90% in the sheaths and Ameraucanas being shown that not only were not SOP colors but they had large combs!! It was nice to meet the unusual breeds though.

 

[Robert Blosl]

http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Air-Poultry-Houses-Open-Front-Healthier/dp/097217706X''

http://books.google.com/books?id=wCNJAAAAYAAJ&dq=Certiquality&ie=ISO-8859-1&source=gbs_gdata
go to page 1335 see one of his small houses.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Open_air_Poultry_Houses_for_All_Climates.html?id=o08PAAAAYAAJ

Hit the above links and you will have plenty to look at. I have plans for a miniature house for bantams as I saw one time in a old poultry book. four feet wide six feet main room and four feet front room with a opening in the front of about eight inches to a foot.

Love these buildings he was the king of fresh air buildings in his day a great writer and was a Hall of Fame contributor to chickens in the early days. When you look at the pictures you will see what the breeds looked like in the early days. Somewhere like our common commercial breeds we get at the feed stores. That shows you how many of our breeds have reverted back to their origin.
If you don't breed to a Standard they all will revert back to what they looked like when they came over her on a boat in the 1850s. bob
GREAT PICUTRES FRED.

 

[3riverschick]

I wonder what ever happened to the lady who wanted the Barred Rock large Fowl hens in message number one? Think she is still in poultry 633 pages later?
Just curious,
Karen

 

[Arielle]

Thank you for the responses regarding houses.

I went to a poultry exhibit this weekend where I met a Crevoceur for the first time, as well as Blue Andalusians, a S Sussex and several La Fleche. Two of the La Fleche took ribbons. There were more heritage breeds there than I anticipated but overall their quality was shockingly poor. I don't understand showing a bird for judging while it is missing feathers or rough, or not large if they are supposed to be-- my Black non SOP Orp was bigger than the Buff being shown and the dark RIR were just scraggly and smaller than I expected. The Blue Andalusian hen was bigger than the RIR cock. Maybe I need to get out more but it was a surprise. Examples: there was a Polish there whose crest was still 90% in the sheaths and Ameraucanas being shown that not only were not SOP colors but they had large combs!! It was nice to meet the unusual breeds though.

I went to the Boston Poultry Show and saw a buff orpington nearly the size of a pony! I didn't know at the time they were supposed to be this large. LOL

In horses, we have a standard, each horse is judged against this standard with points assigned. THen the horse with the most points takes the class. However, the point levels remain the same. For example, if none of the horses scored enough points to be a first premium, then the horse does not get first premium. It is still only second premium even if that is the best horse that day. In this system the points are posted publicly with verbal commentary from the head judge. Very educational.

Maybe Fowlman can address this , or BOB. Are the points the judge assigns posted somewhere? On the cards? Or only first, second, third?

 

[aveca]

I went to the Boston Poultry Show and saw a buff orpington nearly the size of a pony! I didn't know at the time they were supposed to be this large. LOL

In horses, we have a standard, each horse is judged against this standard with points assigned. THen the horse with the most points takes the class. However, the point levels remain the same. For example, if none of the horses scored enough points to be a first premium, then the horse does not get first premium. It is still only second premium even if that is the best horse that day. In this system the points are posted publicly with verbal commentary from the head judge. Very educational.

Maybe Fowlman can address this , or BOB. Are the points the judge assigns posted somewhere? On the cards? Or only first, second, third?

maybe next time you could take a few pics for us Arielle..love tô tour the shows. the guys can explain the cards..long long time ago they had cards with the breakdown of points..i dont know why they dont do that anymore...i kind of wondered that myself..saw a very old card from madison sq garden with head throu tail point breakdown...

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yes, owners of the horses get the point by point break down; at the time of the eval uation, the horses are put in rind order and the head judge points out the very good things and the very poor things, and we write like mad in our catalogs. lol I think this method has contributed to this breed registry becoming one of the best performance horses in the world. I can't help but think it could have the same effect for poultry. ( SO many of us, including me, has a lot to learn.)

 

[3riverschick]

yeah, but poultry are flock creatures who only usually live about 5years, maybe less. That's kinda hard to pedigree.
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

ashandvine wrote:
I went to the Boston Poultry Show ...
-----------
Click,

I wanna go too! Never been to a huge poultry show!
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Bob Blosi and/or Walt Leonard

Found this while surfing for Light Brahma info. Interesting stuff.
The Light Brahma esp. is all about 'breeding to feather'. Same as we
do for Light Sussex. What I don't know is the esteem with which
the author is held in the poultry world. Please, can you speak to that?
Thanks!
Karen
-----------------------------
http://tinyurl.com/8gwtvd4
These are booklets from the latter 1880's.

The Breeding Papers of H.H.Stoddard:

1. The White Leghorn - from Shell to the Exhibition Room
2. The Light Brahma - From Shell to the Exhibition Room
3. The Brown Leghorns - How to Mate, Rear, and Judge Them
4. The Plymouth Rocks - How to Mate, Rear, and Judge Them
5. The Wyandottes, For the Fancier abd for General Use
6. How to Preserve Eggs (for culinary purposes)
7. How To Win Poultry Prizes (includes indivdual breeds)
8. The Book of the Dorking, A Brief Monograph - Upon the
Origin, Varieties, Breeding and Management
of the Dorking Fowl
9. The Book of the Bantams, A Brief Treatise Upon the Several Varieties
10. The Book of the Games , A Brief Treatise Upon the Mating, Rearing and
Management of the Different Varieties of Games
11. The Book of the Hamburgs, A Brief Treatise Upon the Mating, Rearing and
Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs
12. Poultry Diseases ; Methods of Preventign and Curing them
( Obsolete info, for historical research only, we have much better cures now)

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote: Today judges judge by the comparison system fellows like Walt only have 8 hours to judge 350 chickens or maybe more. They are expected to handle each bird , look at their wings ect. Some judges like Walt may put xx on a card or some method of cuts per section in large classes. They do not put down points on the card. Walt is going to be a table judge for Seromas. He will look over a bird flip it up in the air and look at it on the table where he is sitting and tell the clerk. 94 points or 92 points. This is the closes you are going to see a judge score a bird. In the old days. A judge would cut each section and tell a clerk and he then would add up the points subtract from 100 and then the score would be put on the show coop card.

I have been a fan of this method and when I look at a bird I kind of give them a score. I do this in my head and my gut. When I had my Rhode Island Red large fowl I had them scoring very high for type and color. I had many that would score 95 points one male maybe a half or one point higher.

Some times these birds are just big fluff balls poor feathering. When weighed they are with in the range of the standard. Many think my White Rock large fowl are small but when I weigh them they are almost two pounds over weight. The reason they are tight feathered.

Good observation. Walt is not on line right now so he can comment latter. He is on the Judges committee and won of the top judges in the country. Also, New York Reds is a great judge and has seen so many chickens over the years he might comment.

My advice is always own a scale and weigh your birds. I would rather see you become a good breeder and breed your birds to the Standard than be a point chaser or Throphy hunter and win regards what the fads of the judges are.

Hope this helps. I am glad you got to go to the show. bob