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

[fowlman01]

Cornish really show how leg spacing is important. These birds are much larger than they appear in the pics.

Walt

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

Y'all have been so helpful and as someone else said, these posts have been really interesting! I hope everyone continues to post pictures of their birds and keeps pointing out what makes them better. It really helps to have someone walk me through it like that.
Sounds like what I need to do is not breed the ones I have and spend some time finding a source for some that I do want to breed. When I first started, I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't able to put hardly any money into it, so I just had to get my feet wet somehow. I bet I can manage a trio, though.
Fred, I'm glad to hear that there are good breeders nearby! Hopefully I can get connected. I'm planning on going to the Florida Sunshine Classic poultry show in January, so maybe I can pick up some ideas there.
Anyways, maybe we can go through this again once I get new stock!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Hopefully I can get connected. I'm planning on going to the Florida Sunshine Classic poultry show in January, so maybe I can pick up some ideas there.
Anyways, maybe we can go through this again once I get new stock!

That ought to be a great show. Be careful. There's an old saying. An informed buyer cannot be taken advantage of. Not everything is as it seems when buying land, livestock or used cars. LOL

But what a thrill you'll have seeing a whole, gigantic room full of good birds.

 

[al6517]

Your right Walt when we post pic's of these LF Cornish you just can't get a good idea of their true mass, just big Ole cinder block built birds and heavy too.

 

[al6517]

Y'all have been so helpful and as someone else said, these posts have been really interesting! I hope everyone continues to post pictures of their birds and keeps pointing out what makes them better. It really helps to have someone walk me through it like that.
Sounds like what I need to do is not breed the ones I have and spend some time finding a source for some that I do want to breed. When I first started, I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't able to put hardly any money into it, so I just had to get my feet wet somehow. I bet I can manage a trio, though.
Fred, I'm glad to hear that there are good breeders nearby! Hopefully I can get connected. I'm planning on going to the Florida Sunshine Classic poultry show in January, so maybe I can pick up some ideas there.
Anyways, maybe we can go through this again once I get new stock!

It is time well spent to find what you want and get good stock to begin to build with. As most poultry folks do they start out as you did and most of us did, having just regular birds then as we get more involved and better educated we look for better stuff because of a renewed appreication of certain breeds.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We need some kind of scaling device, something to use as a reference. Those bird's of Al's are more than double the height and 4 or 5 times the mass of the little, bitty layers in the quiz.

 

[IAFarmGirl]

Well...I'm pretty frugal, Fred. I'm tight as a hide on some things because I'm chronically poor by birth and by nature. I subsist on little and, to be honest, I've never priced chicks from a good breeder because I just assumed they were too rich for my blood. I free range and that won't change, so if you lose a $1.48 chick it ain't so bad, but if you lose an expensive chick, it's a shock to the pocket. I know that doesn't make any sense but that's probably why I'm a poor hillbilly.

The first I ever talked to a breeder was Al and when he talks about buying 3 chickens for $10K my mind goes blank and I know we live in separate universes where serfs like me cannot enter in...we just view from afar and say, "Gee, those sure are nice birds!" but mine taste the same as yours~like chicken.

I know exactly where you are coming from here Bee. I will get my chicks in the spring and they will be hatchery mutts but in time I am sure I can improve on them. It won't be the first time I have been down this road with animals and probably won't be the last. I have had some success in improving the animals I have had in the past and yes, you just have to bite the bullet and let some go so that the remainders can take you to a better place.

I did it with hogs and horses as a kid. In 4-H I ended up with grand champions of both at the local and state level so I don't think I did too bad for a kid with little money. I worked as many jobs as I needed as a kid so that I could improve my stock. Maybe I appreciated what I had more because of the hard work I don't know. I do know my own children did not appreciate the hard work that I did that made it easier for them but I guess that is just kids for you. I think they appreciate it now more as adults than they ever did as kids.

I love the direction the thread has taken on how to improve a utility flock of birds! I find this kind of thing to be extremely interesting. I also find that it is no different than what I have done before with animals and even what you look for in the birds is closely related to what you are looking for when trying to improve other stock. Thank you so very much OT's!!!

 

[al6517]

Fred : In regards to your size reference this WR Rooster was well over 2 1/2 ft tall, That is my 4X4 truck bumper in the backround, but not a real good comparison.

 

[al6517]

Not a real good pic and he's a little out of condition cause the weather was a little nasty last spring.
Just a pic to show the width and stoutness these Cornish can achieve, you could put a boxing glove through those legs. That is son of Hulk, he's camera shy.

Fred :
That is a 7 gallon waterer next to him, so you can see how wide that is and how tall this Cornish is, Although Cornish are big they aren't as tall as some other breeds, but to be as wide as a 7 gal waterer is pretty cool.

 

[al6517]

More Chunky Monkey's WLR LF Cornish, The good thing about this pic is that when selecting breeders for the finer things like lacing and color you need good combinations. For example the lighter hen's will be used for their good lacing, while the darker hen's have good lacing it's less promanant but the red is a deeper color which is desired. So their off spring will have a good combination of both and a few with just the right amount of both. Body type is great but as Walt will agree they need work on their heads, Am I right Walt ??