BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[JRNash]

Chickens don't sweat. They cool off by panting. If you hold their head under water while they do it they will drown. I disagree about humidity not being a factor.

 

[bnjrob]

They are a medium willow,but the tops of the toes show some yellow

Two of the cockrels have darker legs and their toes do NOT show yellow on top.only the bottoms of feet are yellow

Oh heck, that is not a big deal at all! I was thinking that you were seeing pink feet or all yellow legs. To be able to have some with ANY willow at all in the white bird is terrific.

White Javas lost their place in the SOP because it was just too hard to get them with willow legs, the majority of White Javas had yellow legs. The Black Javas are supposed to have black legs with yellow feet while the Mottled are supposed to have *leaden blue* and yellow legs and yellow feet. Us Java breeders still have our struggles with foot color in even the Blacks and Mottleds that have been around for 150 years.

If you have some willow legged White Giants, then you will be ok. You just need to work with them and as you select for your other criteria, don't forget the leg color too. When breeding these birds, it's a balancing act, breeding a bird with a flaw, or who isn't quite as good in one area, to a bird that doesn't have that problem. But you have the makings already so I wouldn't be worried about trying to do any crosses with your Giants just for that. You need to give yourself a good 3-5 years of breeding them before you start worrying about crossing something into them to fix a problem like the leg color.

If you do find you need to do a cross in a few years because you aren't getting anywhere with your own birds, I would first look for someone that had a good White Giant to put into your flock. If you can't find that, then I would look for a good Black Giant to put into it for the leg color. After that, I would look at finding a Java that had the characteristic you need to fix in your Giants. That way you are at least using one of the foundation birds that made Giants.

There was a lot of controversy with admitting the Giants to the SOP because people felt they were essentially just larger Javas. There are some slight differences between the modern Giant and Java SOP now, but that's mostly because the APA would force breeders to change an SOP in order to get a bird admitted but have enough differences from other birds that look similar. Don't get hung up on just the leg color. You have to look at the whole picture of the bird. And you're just starting. You really need to get a few years of serious breeding under your belt before thinking about even crossing in another color of Giant. It's not as bad as you think. Even people that have been breeding to the SOP for many years have plenty of birds that come out with faults. It's part of breeding. If it were easy to get each and every bird that is hatched to conform to the SOP, everybody would be doing it.

 

[JRNash]

But it's all just opinions,

 

[JRNash]

@bnjrob That's encouraging. I really have too much time on my hands right now. I got off my medications and my OCD is running rampant.lol

 

[ronott1]

But it's all just opinions,

The humidity?

It is a small factor but not like it is for us--we are Animals.

It is not opinion but a difference in biology between animals and birds. Whatever breed you get, research the temperatures they can handle. Some can take heat but not cold. Others can take cold but not heat.

There are some chickens that die if the temps go over 80!

 

[JRNash]

The humidity?

It is a small factor but not like it is for us--we are Animals.

It is not opinion but a difference in biology between animals and birds. Whatever breed you get, research the temperatures they can handle. Some can take heat but not cold. Others can take  cold but not heat.

There are some chickens that die if the temps go over 80!

you should google humidity and temperature effects on poultry. Scholarly publications would indicate you are very misguided in your beliefs.

 

[JRNash]

Anything that has respiration is effected by humidity.

 

[JRNash]

I do appreciate your views though.

 

[bnjrob]

The humidity?

It is a small factor but not like it is for us--we are Animals.

It is not opinion but a difference in biology between animals and birds. Whatever breed you get, research the temperatures they can handle. Some can take heat but not cold. Others can take cold but not heat.

There are some chickens that die if the temps go over 80!

True, but husbandry also plays a big part in how well a bird can handle their weather environment. I've seen this with Javas. There are Javas roasting in Texas heat & humidity, while they also do well in the drier heat of Arizona, and they also do well in the cold winters of Maine and Minnesota. Acclimating a bird to a drastically new environment may take a bit of extra work the first year if they are particularly sensitive to weather, but it can be done.

 

[JRNash]

Agreed