Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Beekissed]

Quote:
There may be confusion in the area of "peak season"...to me, that is the months of Feb-June/July. That's when all the birds who are layers are laying at full capacity. After that one gets broodies near the end of July, some can start molting in August, etc. I'm not saying those WRs laid 6-7 eggs per week for most of the year, because they didn't. They would, however, still lay up to 4 a wk in the winter months while in their prime and after molt. I guess it's all relative to what a person considers peak. To me, acceptable slow downs for broody patterns, molting and weather changes apply as they would for any bird that wasn't considered a production breed.

Now, I'm just spitballing here and don't know anything for a fact, but I'm thinking that I've read a lot down through the years that nearly all farmers have tried to improve their particular livestock by borrowing traits from another breed with similar looks. If not, they are just playing the same game with the same genes and never improving on them except in mere increments. Maybe some will talk about that and some will not, thinking they will get criticized by the purists in the breed.

I know the commercial side and the purist, breeder side are two sides of the coin, but I don't think the original goals of improving a breed by borrowing some genetics from another breed is an overall bad thing. It's not black and white and never the twain shall meet. My hatchery WRs were not too far off the mark of the true breed, from where I am sitting, as I have breeder quality WR on the land right now and standing next to the "commercialized" version. There are subtle differences but not many, and, actually, I'd like to see the feathering on the store bought girl slide on over to the homespun one.

The laying prowess of these hatchery WRs were what caused me to fall in love with the breed in the first place. Without that, they are much like any other so-called dual purpose bird out there...heavy on the meat but not so much on the laying. If they were just heavy breed birds with mediocre laying abilities, I'd not keep them around long. What would be the purpose of even having a dual purpose bird...one could just have some leghorns and some broilers and be done with it.

I think we will get what we settle for in the end. I don't intend to give up on raising laying numbers in a WR that looks like a WR should. Nor will I sacrifice the other traits I like about this breed...these too must be part of the picture. If not, then I would be raising a breed that I'm not particularly impressed with and I can't see myself working hard on anything like that.

If that means I tilt at windmills, well, then, bring 'em on! Life just isn't worth living if one is living it without faith and a dream.

 

[DesertChic]

It is ok to do that. The posts become part of the internet and is searchable via google so the public will read these posts. We are not the only audience.

Precisely! As a newbie, reading this thread has been utterly enlightening and changed my perspective on what raising chickens can and should be.

 

[3riverschick]

The best method I have found for the amateur to track laying potential ( fecundity ) in their birds was created by the brilliant Oscar Smart. I ran across his method
when I was surfing the old lit. His book is online at Hathi Trust Digital Library. It does require trap nesting but only thru the winter months.
Nov. to Feb. as I remember. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003164450;view=1up;seq=3

Best,
Karen

 

[RedRidge]

The best method I have found for the amateur to track laying potential ( fecundity ) in their birds was created by the brilliant Oscar Smart. I ran across his method
when I was surfing the old lit. His book is online at Hathi Trust Digital Library. It does require trap nesting but only thru the winter months.
Nov. to Feb. as I remember.   http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003164450;view=1up;seq=3

Best,
 Karen

Been there done that.
Trap nesting is a pain in the rear.
Breeding only pairs limits you as well. I have found that breeding trios and tracking each pen is a great way to strike a nice happy medium between useful tracking and realistic.

 

[gjensen]

Been there done that.
Trap nesting is a pain in the rear.
Breeding only pairs limits you as well. I have found that breeding trios and tracking each pen is a great way to strike a nice happy medium between useful tracking and realistic.

You have to have a lot of spare time for trap nests. Especially in the summer.

I track by the pen (family). I record (or whoever collects) it on a calendar. When we split them up, we still record them by their pen. It provides me an average.
I do get familiar with some individuals and their eggs. I try to identify who hurts the average. Often, removing a couple birds is the best thing I can do to improve the average.
When I mention what they are doing, I try to provide a range based on last year. The range is the pens which would include the poor performers that are removed. Often the birds used are a little better.
My main problem is that we make mistakes. I am never absolutely certain, but I always have a range that is pretty close to average.

I started doing this because reality is more humbling than perception. I tend to think they are better than they are. If I use last years numbers, I am more accurate. Usually, I am speaking of the pullet year. The year stops when I mark them as molting, which is not precise. I mark the start when I decide they are coming into lay, and not when the first random pullet egg shows up.
I should be more precise, but every year is different.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I try to make note of when each pullet starts laying. I breed pairs and that's when I keep exact records of how many eggs are produced by each breeding hen. Any hens who lay less than an egg every other day are culled. I only keep the hens who lay every day, or every other day at the least, during breeding season. The rest of the year, I make note whenever I happen to see which pullet/hen laid an egg. I make note of the size/color/shape. That way I can sometimes tell who is laying and who is not. If I suspect that a hen is not laying much, I'll put her in a pen by herself and keep note. If she's not laying well, she is culled.
That said, I don't expect them to lay like machines. I don't expect eggs during extremes of temperature or during molt. Most of the hens completely stop laying from molt to winter solstice. The pullets start laying about the time that the hens start to molt, so this keeps me supplied with eggs during that time and I'm never without. This works for me.

 

[capayvalleychick]

One of my Dels. What do you all think?

 

[Amina]

Instead of trap nesting, has anyone thought of using rfid chips on the hens and having a scanner in the nest box to report who goes in the box?

 

[finnfur]

One of my Dels. What do you all think?

 

[finnfur]

Instead of trap nesting, has anyone thought of using rfid chips on the hens and having a scanner in the nest box to report who goes in the box?

Might work but I've got two pullets that would beat the system.
They have a tendency to roost on the nest box lip [ sometimes head first in it] so they might be getting credit for
another chickens eggs.
RFID on leg band ? good idea ! I might need to put my techie son on that project,