Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

Thank you sir, as much as i love them though im not sure i can spend 20 years working with the breed, the way i know i could with my hona. I think if they weren't so gorgeous id have moved on already. I need a meaty breed.

Hes a sweet thing too yall, i regularly have him free ranging in the yard while my three toddlers play. He hasnt challenged a single one of us the first time i should have one of his sons here just in case, but last year i didnt work on the breeding of the dots, just the hona and quail.

Still hatched an absolutely insane amount of chicks for a collection of tabletop incubators. Anyone care to venture a guess how many? Before i crunched the numbers my guess was '...at least 200, maybe 3.'

Now that im done bragging on that fella, Would anyone like to see anymore pics of my flock? Im pretty proud of the birds im breeding and i hope to be able to work on improving them enough to call them my lines, one day.

I would like to see more pictures of your flock. Bear in mind I know very little about the more common breeds in the US and nothing about quail.

 

[Kris5902]

This is an old pic but i still love it, theres a bit of a perspective effect on it --that cage behind him is 24 inches off of the ground, but he does actually stand a solid 18 inches tall. All feathers and fluff, not a lick a meat on the wyandottes bones.
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This is a recent pic. Please ignore the funny edges and the chatbot i had to screenshoot them from the cloud. His tail really sits too low by The Standard for the wyandottes as a whole.
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Here is a close up of his hackle feathers
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love that and making it into my buisness card front

He’s gorgeous! I don’t put too much stock into “breed standards”, just look at what has happened to some of those pure breed dogs. I’m more concerned about health, longevity, and attitude. And egg color a bit (it’s my marketing gimmick here... I have the only large flocks of colored layers)

 

[Shadrach]

I'm not a breed standards fan either. One probably needs some kind of standard for classification reasons but imo it has gone way beyond that and will in the end damage the species.

 

[mixedUPturk]

I would like to see more pictures of your flock. Bear in mind I know very little about the more common breeds in the US and nothing about quail.

Lol well i could educate you if u ever wanted to fool with em! The quail imparticular are something of a passion of mine. Im sure you haven't faced this problem but i grew up on the mass production cornish cross birds. I never knew that chickens who get to be Real chickens have an entirely different taste and texture. The quail are the first time i noticed a major difference and ive been in love ever since.

He’s gorgeous! I don’t put too much stock into “breed standards”, just look at what has happened to some of those pure breed dogs. I’m more concerned about health, longevity, and attitude. And egg color a bit (it’s my marketing gimmick here... I have the only large flocks of colored layers)

Your right and i could totally understand how you feel that way but... these came from show winning stock. The lady mine originated from hasnt been picky about everything enough to be show winners from the jump But she had maintained enough that with only a few generations i am pretty sure we could bring home a blue ribbon. All of your requirements are still required here, with a huge emphasis on attitude because of the young children.

Boy id love to get onto enough land to have a gigantic laying flock and sell a boat load of eggs! Then id surely get a colored egg breed and a dark brown egg breed. Right now i can have roosters but not too many, not too many hens either, so im limited to my two breed focuses. Another reason for the quail

 

[Shadrach]

Lol well i could educate you if u ever wanted to fool with em! The quail imparticular are something of a passion of mine. Im sure you haven't faced this problem but i grew up on the mass production cornish cross birds. I never knew that chickens who get to be Real chickens have an entirely different taste and texture. The quail are the first time i noticed a major difference and ive been in love ever since.



Your right and i could totally understand how you feel that way but... these came from show winning stock. The lady mine originated from hasnt been picky about everything enough to be show winners from the jump But she had maintained enough that with only a few generations i am pretty sure we could bring home a blue ribbon. All of your requirements are still required here, with a huge emphasis on attitude because of the young children.

Boy id love to get onto enough land to have a gigantic laying flock and sell a boat load of eggs! Then id surely get a colored egg breed and a dark brown egg breed. Right now i can have roosters but not too many, not too many hens either, so im limited to my two breed focuses. Another reason for the quail

Get some pictures up then.
There were battery hens on the farm I spent my childhood on; about 5000 if my memory serves me. I killed my first chicken helping to cull the reduced layers.
On the bright side though they had free range tribes in the field behind the battery sheds and this is where I came to understand some of the differences between the high egg production birds, (they didn't have meat birds as such) and free range chickens.

 

[mixedUPturk]

I'm not a breed standards fan either. One probably needs some kind of standard for classification reasons but imo it has gone way beyond that and will in the end damage the species.

Yes of course there are definitely people who take it way overboard. Like the poor dogs, some of the breeds are even prone to certain health problems.

 

[Ribh]

Thank you sir, as much as i love them though im not sure i can spend 20 years working with the breed, the way i know i could with my hona. I think if they weren't so gorgeous id have moved on already. I need a meaty breed.

Hes a sweet thing too yall, i regularly have him free ranging in the yard while my three toddlers play. He hasnt challenged a single one of us the first time i should have one of his sons here just in case, but last year i didnt work on the breeding of the dots, just the hona and quail.

Still hatched an absolutely insane amount of chicks for a collection of tabletop incubators. Anyone care to venture a guess how many? Before i crunched the numbers my guess was '...at least 200, maybe 3.'

Now that im done bragging on that fella, Would anyone like to see anymore pics of my flock? Im pretty proud of the birds im breeding and i hope to be able to work on improving them enough to call them my lines, one day.

Definitely!

 

[ValerieJ]

Thank you sir, as much as i love them though im not sure i can spend 20 years working with the breed, the way i know i could with my hona. I think if they weren't so gorgeous id have moved on already. I need a meaty breed.

Hes a sweet thing too yall, i regularly have him free ranging in the yard while my three toddlers play. He hasnt challenged a single one of us the first time i should have one of his sons here just in case, but last year i didnt work on the breeding of the dots, just the hona and quail.

Still hatched an absolutely insane amount of chicks for a collection of tabletop incubators. Anyone care to venture a guess how many? Before i crunched the numbers my guess was '...at least 200, maybe 3.'

Now that im done bragging on that fella, Would anyone like to see anymore pics of my flock? Im pretty proud of the birds im breeding and i hope to be able to work on improving them enough to call them my lines, one day.

Absolutely! We want pictures!!!

 

[Shadrach]

Part of the problem for me is many of the higher production birds were bred before being added to, I thinks it's called SOP in the USA.
The majority of the high production breeds will die significantly earlier than those that lay many fewer eggs. But, these high production breeds have become popular for more than just their ability to produce eggs. For many people on this site for example they may not have intentionally bought chickens to have as pets but a lot of people become extremely fond of their chickens. Nobody wants to confront the simple fact that human breeding has wiped up to three quarters of a chickens 'natural' live span off.
People on BYC for example do not want to hear, don't buy that breed because in two to three years it's likely to have reproductive issues and die. This simple truth is not good for the site and not something humankind wants to face up to.
Of course, the popular mid to high production dual purpose (what a way to describe a living creature!) are then bred more and promoted more. There is no way to put the brakes on.

 

[Ribh]

Part of the problem for me is many of the higher production birds were bred before being added to, I thinks it's called SOP in the USA.
The majority of the high production breeds will die significantly earlier than those that lay many fewer eggs. But, these high production breeds have become popular for more than just their ability to produce eggs. For many people on this site for example they may not have intentionally bought chickens to have as pets but a lot of people become extremely fond of their chickens. Nobody wants to confront the simple fact that human breeding has wiped up to three quarters of a chickens 'natural' live span off.
People on BYC for example do not want to hear, don't buy that breed because in two to three years it's likely to have reproductive issues and die. This simple truth is not good for the site and not something humankind wants to face up to.
Of course, the popular mid to high production dual purpose (what a way to describe a living creature!) are then bred more and promoted more. There is no way to put the brakes on.

This is why I won't have the high production breeds & my poor man got a lecture when he started thinking about meat birds because I refuse to have CornishX on any property I own. What a thing to do to a bird! My poor man is still trying to recover from how calm & easily handled my girls are & goes round muttering that the usual methods of keeping chickens makes them psychotic. My birds are lots of things but psychotic they are not!