Got Flogged by A rooster tonight

[Beekissed]

If you just want a bunch of birds to look purity in the yard that is one thing, but if you are breeding birds for show

Hold the phone!

You raise birds for show....I assume they are purty birds or you would not be showing for long, and you assume others are just raising chickens so they will "look purty in the yard"???

Do you know the meaning of hypocrisy?

I raise birds for eggs and meat...if a side perk of that is that my very plain jane DP birds are also very pretty as they free range my yard, well..that's just icing on the cake.

I wouldn't lower myself to raise ANY animal strictly for the purpose of showing. Show birds have no other purpose than to look "purty" and produce other show animals that also meet some association's idea of what that bird should look like. They are bred solely for some standard that isn't geared towards their functionality, but for how they look.

Count me out on the worthless~ but very "purty"~ show animals of the world.

 

[flocksalot]

Well I guess there is something to be said for my pretty yard flock. We have 80 birds in one house. 4 of them are roos and three more are young guns. No fighting just a bit of scwabbling over girls here and there, but nothing to cause an injury. Another house has 43 hens and 4 roos. Still no serious fighting. Rudy is in his own little world with his girls, but we are planning to move him and his 8 remaining girls into the house with the 43 girls. These are our old hens and Rudy is big Daddy. The other roos all defer to him. He runs around with most of the younger girls in that house anyway. Typical old man running after some young thang. All our chickens are free range. In other words I open the door and off they go. We have other houses that have broodies or young birds too young to assimilate. My point is my roosters are not agressive towards each. If a roo tries to grab a girl belonging to another roo she will squack and he will come. Pounch and off he goes. Might be a bit of snarking back and forth here and there. For the most part they are so busy with their girls that they don't have time to fight. And since they aren't aggressive they do get to have girls. Otherwise........dinner. We don't show. That's a whole different ball of wax. We also don't show our horses and find some of the things show people do pretty silly. Don't understand it, but they don't understand why we WASTE our beautiful well breed horses. And they get pretty vocal about it. I say I own my horses I can do what I want. Same goes for my chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and parrots.......

 

[Beekissed]

Think about how many animal genetic strains that were damaged by breeding/selecting for show instead of vigor and health, not to mention functionality.

 

[oshun55555]

Amen and Hallelujah, I like my animals to look pretty, but pretty to me, not some fella who is judging by what is wrote down in a book. To me meat and eggs is primary, heavy and good egg layers, then comes putting the pretty boys with the pretty girls. I like the way they look so to hell with the book, I understand the need to keep a breed looking like its supposed to and thus the reason for standards and thank the breeders for thier efforts, but all too often utility and vigor take a back seat in the name of pretty.

 

[BWKatz]

Al and Beekissed... my hats off to u. When I first read that u had kicked a cornish rooster, I had in mind one of those cornish hens u see in the grocers. Imagine my shock when I saw his picture. I would never attempt to raise such a humongous creature. I bought all my chickens to be non aggressive breeds and strains within those breeds, primarily for egglaying. That said I use a combination of trining for my unexpected 4 roos. I have held them and handfed treats from day one. Yes they do all have names and come to them. As they have gottn older I have encouraged independence and held them less.They were kept in an 8x10 stand up tractor with 9 other hens and siblings. When theytravel from coop to tractor or tractor to coop they are not allowed to gang up on one hen. An attempt earns them a day on the range with no protection from eagles and hawks in the area. They then forage freely and come back to sit outside the tractor close to their hens. Next day they are much more polite to the hens. Same goes if they try to jump a hen in my presence.. I just knock them off using my whole arm. I spend time with my chicks at least daily to check them over,I run the roosters around the pen to catch them and then hold them more to reassure them that I am not going to hurt them but need to check for bugs and injuries. So far my 13lb Ameraucana has been the perfect gentleman to me,he stands to the back of the pen watches his ladies being taken care of and waits his turn for treats. The other roos follow his lead. Still, if I can't find homes for them soon, they will be going to freezer camp. Afterall, they ARE chickens.The only exception is my pair of silkies, they are strickly for fun. All others either provide eggs or dinner. BTW someone mentioned that chickens don't love. Then why do mine take sunbaths and snuggle up together in the summer? It's definitely not for heat (103F here)

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Ditto..

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Hold the phone!

You raise birds for show....I assume they are purty birds or you would not be showing for long, and you assume others are just raising chickens so they will "look purty in the yard"???

Do you know the meaning of hypocrisy?

I raise birds for eggs and meat...if a side perk of that is that my very plain jane DP birds are also very pretty as they free range my yard, well..that's just icing on the cake.

I wouldn't lower myself to raise ANY animal strictly for the purpose of showing. Show birds have no other purpose than to look "purty" and produce other show animals that also meet some association's idea of what that bird should look like. They are bred solely for some standard that isn't geared towards their functionality, but for how they look.

Count me out on the worthless~ but very "purty"~ show animals of the world.

Hold the phone!

You raise birds for show....I assume they are purty birds or you would not be showing for long

There is a lot more to a exhibition fowl than just looking purity.

Show birds have no other purpose than to look "purty" and produce other show animals that also meet some association's idea of what that bird should look like

Depends on the breed that you are raising. My Red's put plenty of meat and eggs on the table, They may not grow as fast as a Cornish cross but the meat tastes a whole lot better and I don't have to buy new chicks every year. Red's may not lay as many eggs a week as a ISA Brown but they will lay for a longer amount of time and in the long run will lay just as many in a life time.

Chris.​

 

[centrarchid]

Chris is very much in the right. Many breeders, especially of the heritage production breeds are concerned about more than looks.


Many people breeding poultry practice some degree of control over mating, especially if selection is also employed. Breeding and selection for desired production attributes is not always realized with birds in a production setting. The breeding system itself can select for undesireable traits, especially males that must compete continously with an unusually large number of males or cover a larger than typical number of females for an extended period of time. The aggressive rooster issue that some promote managing by actually combating the rooster may very likely be a function of selecting males more for high capacity of covering hens (high testosterone). Also as with females, you need more males to produce offspring from and to select from the best males that can produce offspring. That means in all likelihood you are going to have more males than is typical for an average flock used purely for personal meat and eggs production. You can not have all those males running with hens at same time, otherwise there will be conflicts that are potentially damaging and you will have no control over mating arrangements.

Edit: Bold stressing point on topic,

 

[al6517]

Well I am not sure how we got on the topic of show bird breeders vs whatever so I will weigh in breifly and then we can get back on topic.

This so called book that Ya'll refer to is the SOP ( Standard of prefection ) it is the definitive word on what a particular breed should not only look like but how it performs. A majority of the breeds minus just a few in the SOP were written in the early late 1800's & 1900's and have not been changed, the last revision or reprinting of the SOP was in 2005 and almost all the breeds descriptions remain intact. Back when the SOP was concieved it's mission was to standerdize each breed. It's intention was not soley geared towards the birds looking pretty, this is far from what it's purpose was, but when a breed is raised and bred to the standard it is a striking example of that breed in every way.

Back in the day's before the hatchery business decided to inpune their own much lesser breed standards upon the American public, All birds minus the Foo-Foo's of course did have true dual purpose, they were large birds fit for the table and layed nice colored nice sized egg's on a very regular basis regardless of weather conditions or where you resided. This was during a time in America when a flock owner could go into the coop in the morning before turning the chickens out for the day to range, and collect the day's eggs. Then as suppertime approached they could go out into the yard and select a young plump pullet for Sunday dinner, these birds were good flocks, healthy, fat and sassy and good protectors brooding all the replacement chicks under a broody hen naturaly and well nourished on natural grass with little supplemental feed available as it wasn't widely used back then. versaility, natural immunity, and the ability to thrive with little or no intervention or coddling from their human care givers, all the while being so very easy on the eyes and purdy as you say.

All of these features being non exsistant in the quick convenient mail order mass chicken hatchery business of today. I really don't want to get into the business models the hatcheries use to acheive this great debackle as it has been hashed to death over and over again and it serves no purpose to revisit that going nowhere argument.

In a nutshell show breeders are there to preserve the integrity and majesty and heritage of what is truely a fine example of the breed, without them there will be anarchy in the chicken world.

AL

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Very well said.
If it wasn't for the show breeders preserving these breeds a good number of the breeds would be lost.


Chris