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

[fowlman01]

Thanks for the heads up on the show! I used to go to the herding dog trials at Bolado Park.

I see that I left the a off Bolado. I will be showing 30-40 birds there. The big show for us in Calif is at Stockton two weeks later. It is an ABA national, so there will be about 3500 birds at that one. Hollister will be a tune up for the big show.

What kind of herding dogs? We have Corgi's.

Walt

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

I do hope one breed you discuss is the Delawares.  That was the breed I chose and bought some hatching eggs local enough I didn't have to ship them.  Fate happened, and because of a house fire I decided to sell the chicks when they were about 4 weels old, promising myself I would get more when there was not so much distraction going on.  I never have replaced them.

LOVE the Delawares. Mine is just a hatchery gal but she lays every morning at 7 am, right along with my GSL. Has not missed a day since she started (at 17 wks) in August. I want to get more this year, hope I have the same good luck. The plumage is quite striking as well...and her personality is just as mellow and low key as they come, never bothers anybody at all.

 

[IAFarmGirl]

It's never just one feature. It's actually only an exercise such as this which forces me to actually articulate this stuff. I don't even think about the details otherwise. It's the whole deal for me. I don't normally break this all down, believe me. Haven't done a bit by bit thing, except for some of my young folks, in a long, long time.

Well I for one really appreciate that you took the time to do this for all of us on this thread. I think everyone either gleaned new knowledge or had some old knowledge reawakened. So THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! You are the BEST!!

 

[champer]

I see that I left the a off Bolado. I will be showing 30-40 birds there. The big show for us in Calif is at Stockton two weeks later. It is an ABA national, so there will be about 3500 birds at that one. Hollister will be a tune up for the big show.

What kind of herding dogs? We have Corgi's.

Walt

I had a border collie and enjoyed watching them work. Corgi's are great!
I might not get to Stockton, but will look you up if I get to Bolado.

 

[fowlman01]

I had a border collie and enjoyed watching them work. Corgi's are great!
I might not get to Stockton, but will look you up if I get to Bolado.

Corgi's are kind of messy when they herd. lol

I will be easy to find at that show.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

Those RIR are so rich that I can almost taste them and feel that color! This is what we needed and pics speak a thousand words. Some of the gals from the Road thread were talking about the quiz and how inadequate they felt about not being able to answer and I just want to stress that knowing your inadequacies is the first step to wisdom.

I also reminded them that my group over there had a clue before the quiz and hadn't remembered that lesson they had learned. Showed them these pics and the light came on that these birds were remarkably alike in some ways and I had already shown them the underdeveloped ovary in my bird when we had discussed it. I think your use of pics really helped more than trying to explain and I love this hatchery/breeder pic comparison as well....worth a thousand words.


Quote from The Road:

 

[Pozees]

That would be my hope. On some breeds, I could see collaboration with two OTer's, one maybe not such an OTer perhaps, but someone know to have insights into the breed that few others have.

There would few people more informed to speak about the Rhode Island Red than NYREDS, for example. Who would not want KathyinMO to talk about Delaware and New Hampshire? Geeeesh, I would pay tuition to have these folks share. Walt Leonard on just about any breed or husbandry of those breeds he'd want to talk about. Ditto for thedragonlady on Orpintons, or Al on Cornish and all the other breeds he's raised, bred and shown, Wynette on Rocks, etc.

Folks, maybe I'm biased, but this level of contributor would be a grand slam. However, there'd have to be some kind of ground rules. Such folks are strongly opinionated and don't put up with lot of ..... well....... distractions, shall we say. To maximize the benefit, we'd have to keep the chatter down, until the end of the presentations?
Again, just thinking out loud. Still drafting a proposal.

I am completely on board with this idea - and hope to see some discussion of how certain traits can be improved when they require it. OMG this is fantastic! Chicken College!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

It takes years, breeding great stock, to produce a "level" flock. Since few folks are at that point, rather are likely "working with what we have", then culling is just going to be part of the deal. But even great flocks don't stay level or near the SOP all by themselves. Take a flock of top flight birds and just flock breed them a few generations? You guessed it, they'll slip backward. It is a law of the universe. Things do not move toward order, they move toward disorder.

The chicken is a domestic fowl, created by mankind and maintained by mankind. They are not wild animals. Similarly, loose a small herd of Guernsey dairy cows onto the wild grasslands and see how long they'd survive. We've got to manage these critters. It's our job.

 

[Sally8]

I am so hoping that this works out. I appreciate all the knowledge that you all are willing to share.

Thank you.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yes, Fred! I'm definitely interested in all Chicken University over here. I haven't made a lot of comments on this thread for awhile so you may not recognize me but I do read through it. I would definitely participate when I'm in the right place at the right time to do so - and would read it if I weren't able to comment.

I VOTE YES!