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

[Robert Blosl]

I got a personnel message asking me about her Rhode Isalnd Reds from this thread today. She asked me what determines a breed a catalog picture from a hatchery or some book. I told her that many of the pictures that you see in hatchery catalogs are done by a artist a good one named Dianne Jacky. These where pictures that she was paid to paint for a book called the American Standard of Perfection by the American Poultry Association. I can not help it if her Rhode Island Reds dont look like the picture she is looking at nor can I help it if her males are hitting her in the knees when she at goes into their pen. All I can tell her that if you type in Guernsey Dairy Cows, Short horn cattle Pooled Hereford cattle , Persian Cats, German Shepard dogs you will see sites that have pictures of what they should look like.
These are pictures that in Cattle I saw when I was in FFA in high School and in books that I studied when in class. They where pure breed animals and true to thier breed. You did not go to a sale barn and get a heard of Guernsey or Holstein Cows back then. However, in chickens today you go to feed stores, Tractor Supply and or order from Catalogs out of the back of Mother Earth News Magazine. You gets chicks from these stores and take them home or have them shipped to your post post office from the catalogs and you are in the chicken business.

I think based on the personnel messages that I get from this web site 99.5% of you have these kind of chickens. That is good if your happy with them that what counts. There are maybe 1/2 percent on this web site that have Standard Breed Poultry or Water Fowl. There is a difference in their looks, shape, color, laying habits and personalty of these chickens or waterfowl. These 1/2 of a percent got their birds from breeders like me or some of my friends who breed rare breed Standard Fowl. Most of us dont sell eggs or chicks. They sell adult birds at their homes, or ship to your homes when you order a pair or a trio from them. Some times people will go on a road trip up to 500 miles and pick them up at a show or fair.

In the past 18 months I think I have seen or helped 50 people out 5,000 of you get what you wanted. Next year I hope to help 50 more. I will still send you to the top breeders that I net work with.

I was a National Sectary of the Plymouth Rock Fanciers Club for four years and still get phone calls and emails asking me where to get different colors of the Plymouth Rock birds in large fowl and bantams. I was National President of the Rhode Island Red Club for four years and I am still being asked where to get started chicks or eggs or live birds from people who want to get back into chickens. Many of these people have been out of chickens since they where in 4 H and want to get back to good birds are in their mid forty's. If they want common production birds I will most of the time send them to Mr. Fox at Ideal Hatchery. I think he does a great service and has a few good strains available. One is Buff Brahma Bantams. If not I try to put the beginner in the hands of some one that lives 400 miles from them as you dont want to get chickens from New York and raise them in Arizona or Texas nor do you want birds from South Florida and send them to Wisconsin or Canada. I hope this lady understands what I was trying to tell her and why she has issues that i do not or never seen in my breeding that she has. She just does not have the same breed or strains that I have. I hope I made myself clear. This tread is a good one and I hope you beginners can learn from all who share their thoughts. bob

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I am also getting an education on the subtle differences in chicken breeding...can't say I understand it all though, but I wonder when i read someone refer to their chicks as rir from tractor supply, and I know well they call them red pullets, not Rhode island reds, which something totally different...but I suppose it sounds so much better to say you have this breed or that. Which is why I am now referring to my chickens as oagf. They are old Appalachian game fowl which combine all of the traits of the oegf, but are somewhat more independent and selfsuficient than those birds originating in England. The roos are decidedly showy and although indeed game birds, will coexist with a related roo of equal showy plumage. Oagf rooster will never bite or spur his master, he is smart enough to know this will get him eaten, he has seen it firsthand happen to his flockmates, and has passed this genetic trait to his offspring. Oagf hens are also similar in appearance to the heritage breed, but possess a gentle although flighty nature, good egg layers and equally good broodies, they linger not over their brood, but wean then as soon as they can perch on their own. They pay particular attention to their masters and attempt to please them with pleasant personality traits, and avoid being eaten by staying physically fit and decidedly too lean to bother being plucked. I'm certain this breed has been developed over many hundred years, and has remained a secret until just now.
Ed

 

[chickletteSarge]

Bob, loved reading your input on breeding and the strains of fowl that are available! I would like to venture into the breeding side of raising chickens as I progress into my life with chickens. I would also like to read that book that you read to get the bad traits out and keep the good traits in. Where could I find it, is it even still in print?
Once again thank you for stumbling in and sharing your knowledge!

 

[IamSamSam]

Bob - Love your posts ..... ..... I'm a backyard mini farmer. While I would love a mix of chickens I have 3 red production hens and 2 cross austrolorps. They fill a function and while the reds are friendly and love pats and don't look 'show quality' my kids love them and they provide. The Lorps ain't anything like the reds but look nice big chooks that don't produce near as well.(possibly meat strain - noobie error in not checking things first)

I find it hard in Australia to find what I want But am very happy with the 5 girls I have. Personally I find their temperaments to be more important than looks/breed.

Its all about the PURPOSE of the peepers running around in your yard !

 

[IamSamSam]

Have I missed something ? I hope "Fred Sucks" is deleted. Personal attacks in not on. Who cares what avatar he used.

Advise is read and weighted accordingly to your own purposes. Dont like it then, Dont use it.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I have just finished reading the first 50 pages of this post. Only 280 more pages to go!!??

By the time I finish reading to look for an answer to my question, it will be too late! (Sorry if this is a repeat.) Is there a way to tell when a pullet is about to start laying? I'm asking because some of "the girls" wanted to sleep in the nest boxes instead of roosting, so I blocked the boxes off, but want to have them available when egg time comes. Also, should I keep the chickens locked up longer so they don't start laying elsewhere? (They are usually let out of the closed run to free range and run amok in the "chicken yard.")

This is a small backyard flock of 9 pullets, each a different dual purpose breed, except for one changeling leghorn. There is one cockerel that I will probably not keep (unless he stays freakishly quiet!). They are all 12-13 weeks old. I got them as chicks for the eggs and because I enjoy having them around. They have a coop for roosting with a few nest boxes and no litter on the floor because in our mild climate, they spend every day outside in the enclosed run, or preferably, free ranging.

I have to thank all the OTs for sharing their experiences. Until I found this thread, I was getting worried that I was a neglectful owner because I pretty much let the chickens do their own chicken-y thing. (Seems like a bit of overindulgence goes on with some of us chicken enthusiasts!

) Most of my decisions have been based on how my folks cared for our barnyard flock for over 20 years, and what I remember is that the chickens mostly took care of themselves!

Thank you!

 

[Arielle]

I got a personnel message asking me about her Rhode Isalnd Reds from this thread today. She asked me what determines a breed a catalog picture from a hatchery or some book. I told her that many of the pictures that you see in hatchery catalogs are done by a artist a good one named Dianne Jacky. These where pictures that she was paid to paint for a book called the American Standard of Perfection by the American Poultry Association. I can not help it if her Rhode Island Reds dont look like the picture she is looking at nor can I help it if her males are hitting her in the knees when she at goes into their pen. All I can tell her that if you type in Guernsey Dairy Cows, Short horn cattle Pooled Hereford cattle , Persian Cats, German Shepard dogs you will see sites that have pictures of what they should look like.
These are pictures that in Cattle I saw when I was in FFA in high School and in books that I studied when in class. They where pure breed animals and true to thier breed. You did not go to a sale barn and get a heard of Guernsey or Holstein Cows back then. However, in chickens today you go to feed stores, Tractor Supply and or order from Catalogs out of the back of Mother Earth News Magazine. You gets chicks from these stores and take them home or have them shipped to your post post office from the catalogs and you are in the chicken business.

I think based on the personnel messages that I get from this web site 99.5% of you have these kind of chickens. That is good if your happy with them that what counts. There are maybe 1/2 percent on this web site that have Standard Breed Poultry or Water Fowl. There is a difference in their looks, shape, color, laying habits and personalty of these chickens or waterfowl. These 1/2 of a percent got their birds from breeders like me or some of my friends who breed rare breed Standard Fowl. Most of us dont sell eggs or chicks. They sell adult birds at their homes, or ship to your homes when you order a pair or a trio from them. Some times people will go on a road trip up to 500 miles and pick them up at a show or fair.

In the past 18 months I think I have seen or helped 50 people out 5,000 of you get what you wanted. Next year I hope to help 50 more. I will still send you to the top breeders that I net work with.

I was a National Sectary of the Plymouth Rock Fanciers Club for four years and still get phone calls and emails asking me where to get different colors of the Plymouth Rock birds in large fowl and bantams. I was National President of the Rhode Island Red Club for four years and I am still being asked where to get started chicks or eggs or live birds from people who want to get back into chickens. Many of these people have been out of chickens since they where in 4 H and want to get back to good birds are in their mid forty's. If they want common production birds I will most of the time send them to Mr. Fox at Ideal Hatchery. I think he does a great service and has a few good strains available. One is Buff Brahma Bantams. If not I try to put the beginner in the hands of some one that lives 400 miles from them as you dont want to get chickens from New York and raise them in Arizona or Texas nor do you want birds from South Florida and send them to Wisconsin or Canada. I hope this lady understands what I was trying to tell her and why she has issues that i do not or never seen in my breeding that she has. She just does not have the same breed or strains that I have. I hope I made myself clear. This tread is a good one and I hope you beginners can learn from all who share their thoughts. bob

Last year I had a master breeder tell to start with what I have. I know he meant that raising good birds is a journey. ANd LOTS to learn along the way. I spend a bit of time watching my birds, looking at behavior, trying to determine which will work the best for me. White birds get grabbed by the hawks, silly birds that don't go to the coop for lock up get grabbed by the coyote. My goal is a bird that will forage as much as possible off the grasses and in the woods and come home to a bowl of pellets and fill up if need be. But I also struggle with where the hens drop their eggs--often somewhere I can't find. How do have a better set up? Maximizie the natural food sources but also collecting the eggs? Or do I need to let only meat birds free range and keep the egg layers penned?

 

[al6517]

Beekissed is a Flock Master, not a Flock Mistress. So is RidgeRunner.

I thought BeeKissed was male too at one time. Smart experienced witty... had to be male.

Is Fred's Hens and Al men too?

Yes I is all Man............... LOL, girls don't tend to curse as often as I do LOL.

 

[Robert Blosl]

I have friends in Australia that have birds that we imported to them many years ago. There are breed clubs that help beginners get started and locate the breeders of the color or breed you want. Like us in the USA they are very few. In our breeds some are so low in numbers we dont even have enough to make 100 breeders in January. Some breeds are so rare we have maybe 50 birds. When people ask me to help them find breeds sometimes it goes back to one fellow in Minnesota who has a 100 breeds. His name is URCH if it wasn't for him we would not have much to work with. What breeds would you like. Maybe I can help you locate some of the Sectary's I know over there.

In regards to chickens living under the free range method I had good luck with Large fowl Rhode Island Reds. My only problems was in the dark with coons and possums and sometimes Fox's at dusk. There is a law in breeding and I have used it for 27 years. The law is called the Fit of the Fittest Principle. The strong survive and the weak or dumb dies. If you end up with three good females and two males that survive free range life they w ill produce the same. The other Law is Like will beget Like. My original male I called war eagle could spot a bird a half a mile up in the sky and give out a alarm cry and the birds would head for cover. I never saw anything like it. I breed them to be smart and vigor'ous and under free range it worked fine. I wish you the best on your search for a breed that will work good for you. bob

 

[stonykill]

Yes I is all Man............... LOL, girls don't tend to curse as often as I do LOL.

lol. There are a few men on this site. It is mostly women. I'll say this then hide under the chair. I thought Beekissed was male mainly because she doesn't want to hold, coddle, pet, kiss and love on her chickens like 95% of women on the site. But then, now that I think about it they wouldn't read this thread anyway