Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

It's Fred's bird and I'm sure he has a system worked out to know what bird lays what eggs. Sometimes you know by the shape and color just what bird lays what egg. You find out these things by spending a lot of time around your birds in their every day life.

 

[bruceh]

Here's where breeding for better birds comes back into play. Not to be overly repetitive, but when a hatchery indiscriminately breeds in large pens of cocks and hens, thousands per pen, for generation upon generation, no one, absolutely no one is particularly giving a tinker's darn about the temperament of the birds. Just mass produce them. Careless propagators (not serious breeders) do the same thing. The result is all these nasty roosters, plain and simple.

Over on the Heritage Rhode Island Red thread, a breed widely described as having nasty roosters, the breeders are, right now, discussing how tame, gentle and calm the heritage Nelson birds are. This goes against all the popularly held beliefs of people whose only experience with Reds is with the hatchery production versions.

If you get a good rooster? Use him. Chances are great his offspring will also be good birds. Get a nasty rooster? Why in heaven's name do people breed them? I honestly do not know. I keep preachin' it. People just need better birds. This is precisely why I include temperament in my breeding criteria, especially for my utility birds.

fred this is the main reason i kept my hatchery R.I,R. just a good tempered boy. just as sweet as candy. just all in all a good bird. he could never be used for s.o.p. i would be darned if i would waste that temperament. i am going to use him in my egg laying breeders.

 

[bruceh]

She is lovely and she deserves to have a legacy like that. How do you, Bruce, know that she is the one laying all those eggs?

yep that's freds bird. i wish and dream to have a bird that beautiful. bee is right spend time with the birds and you will know each bird.

 

[Fred's Hens]

She's gorgeous! And, what breed, you may ask??? My very favorite!!!!! I've had more good birds of that breed from hatchery stock than any other breed, bar none.

BEAUTIFUL JUST BEAUTIFUL. i am jealous.

She demonstrates my point well, I guess. Thanks for the kind responses. Yes, she is beautiful and she is a 4th generation result of breeding hatchery mutts. THAT is the point. People are constantly rolling the dice, over and over again, buying unknown birds at feed stores, hatcheries, and swaps, hoping against hope to get a few good birds and then having to ditch their "bad" chickens (or "re-home" as the pop phrase is now) or feed their duds ad infinitum because they are their pets. I predict most of these folks will be done with chickens in just a few years. Too bad really.

One way to get better birds is to be in this for the longer run. Work with what you have. Breed your very, very best, cull heavily and do it again, for a decade. Another way is to simply get better birds from a reputable breeder in the first place. Chicken keeping with good birds beats chicken keeping with crappy birds six ways to Sunday.

 

[Mountain Momma]

It's Fred's bird and I'm sure he has a system worked out to know what bird lays what eggs. Sometimes you know by the shape and color just what bird lays what egg. You find out these things by spending a lot of time around your birds in their every day life.

Oh. I'm having trouble adjusting to my brain fog! Not even joking.
I cannot imagine watching the hens lay their eggs. When I try they just look at me and take forever. Like they are daring me to catch them in the act.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It's Fred's bird and I'm sure he has a system worked out to know what bird lays what eggs. Sometimes you know by the shape and color just what bird lays what egg. You find out these things by spending a lot of time around your birds in their every day life.

She is lovely and she deserves to have a legacy like that. How do you, Bruce, know that she is the one laying all those eggs?

She lays a unique colored egg. I can also "learn" about 10 or 12 eggs to hens and keep them straight. After that, it's too much to keep track of. Once a pullet is in lay, you spend a little time around them. As soon as a pullet gets off the nest, feel for the moist, hot egg. Learn it's color/shape and relate it to that bird. For most of them, I don't even care, just those of which I'm keeping close watch.

 

[Pozees]

I don't know of any in CO or close to you, and I'm not selling at this point. You might look to see if Duane Urch has any this coming year. The Dorking Breeders Club has a breeder directory for members.

Some people recommend McMurrays.

Thanks! Just got a price list from Duane Urch this past week, actually. I'll check with him to ask whether he will have some. I got his price list because he has rose combed leghorns, so had planned to order some chicks from him anyway.

 

[Fred's Hens]

OK, here are 4 eggs, for example. They are all different in size, shape, and details. I know all four hens who lay these eggs. A hen tends to lay a "signature" egg. Similar to injection molding I guess. LOL. If they speckle them, deep brown them, squish them into a torpedo, mold them into a round ball, they'll tend to repeat that day after day. Eventually, you learn your hen's eggs. The White hen, pictured above in this thread, lays the rounder shaped, slightly lighter colored (it is even lighter in real life, but the camera cannot pick it up) on the far left.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote from Fred:
That's about it, in a nutshell. Should be cross stitched, framed out and hung in every coop in America.

This is why I cull for the best...I simply do not like drama. It's a peaceful and enjoyable thing to have good birds. You don't have to worry about health problems or laying deficiencies and day follows day in an orderly and lovely way. You get to know each bird and how they act in each season, so you don't have too many surprises of the negative kind.

If I am trying to do anything at all in these two threads, it is to bring home the fact that keeping chickens can be an easy, successful and stress free endeavor if you just follow a few basic husbandry rules. After that you can dress it up anyway you wish to enhance the experience even further...get different breeds, different types, try different feeds, etc.

Unfortunately, to get good birds you have to have a goal and have the fortitude to stick to it. If you really want a good experience with chickens, this is pretty much the only way to get it.

 

[Mountain Momma]

OK, here are 4 eggs, for example. They are all different in size, shape, and details. I know all four hens who lay these eggs. A hen tends to lay a "signature" egg. Similar to injection molding I guess. LOL. If they speckle them, deep brown them, squish them into a torpedo, mold them into a round ball, they'll tend to repeat that day after day. Eventually, you learn your hen's eggs. The White hen, pictured above in this thread, lays the rounder shaped, slightly lighter colored (it is even lighter in real life, but the camera cannot pick it up) on the far left.

Okay, thats a technique even I might be able to accomplish. Thanks!