Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Arielle]

Arielle i am very good friends with matt kemetetz he has beautiful heritage breeds in bethlehem ct also my Barnevelder breeding partner Eddie Good has midget whites hes in princeton mass they will both be attending ne congress stop by the barnies and ill introduce you to them. I have a midget white but she was raised w barnies shes awesome

I have a few breeds of turkeys-- just need more help with understanding what I am looking at. Even more difficult with the auburns which have not SOP, so I used my best judgement culling first the less thrifty, then for uniform color over the saddle area, and then for the largest birds with the largest breast size. One of the largest birds had a lighter breast size so I kept a smaller tom with a more filled in breast area as the third tom.

I have a good number of BOurbon reds-- and I will cull down the hens this year.

I had an old with 2 daughters, but the old tom passed away, so the girls are in a pen where thier brothers are on duty. I have only 2 "sons" that i could use but they are not as good as the brothers.

If any one has some advise-- I could use some input.

 

[desertmarcy]

I have a few breeds of turkeys-- just need more help with understanding what I am looking at. Even more difficult with the auburns which have not SOP, so I used my best judgement culling first the less thrifty, then for uniform color over the saddle area, and then for the largest birds with the largest breast size. One of the largest birds had a lighter breast size so I kept a smaller tom with a more filled in breast area as the third tom.

I have a good number of BOurbon reds-- and I will cull down the hens this year.

I had an old with 2 daughters, but the old tom passed away, so the girls are in a pen where thier brothers are on duty. I have only 2 "sons" that i could use but they are not as good as the brothers.

If any one has some advise-- I could use some input.

Sent you a PM. Be happy to help where I can. I've raised heritage turkeys for 5 years now and just love them.

 

[3riverschick]

Picked up 3 eggs instead of 1 in the big coop tonight. That means 2 more of the
egg flock are laying. They must be the ones hatched April 28th.
That makes POL at 29 weeks. Is that good for Heritage Large Fowl in general?
Thanks,
Karen

 

[brahmabreeder]

It's not anything great but not bad either. That's a bit better than when my Brahmas start laying.

 

[3riverschick]

It's not anything great but not bad either. That's a bit better than when my Brahmas start laying.

Would you feel you were "holding the line" on laying virtues in dual purpose
heritage large fowl if your pullets were laying at 29 weeks?

 

[ronott1]

Picked up 3 eggs instead of 1 in the big coop tonight. That means 2 more of the
egg flock are laying. They must be the ones hatched April 28th.
That makes POL at 29 weeks. Is that good for Heritage Large Fowl in general?
Thanks,
Karen

The average for all breeds is 22 weeks. All breeds will begin laying later in the Winter with less than 12 hours of daylight.

POL is breed specific. Heritage Penedesenca and Leghorns will lay much earlier than Say Wellsummers.

 

[3riverschick]

The average for all breeds is 22 weeks. All breeds will begin laying later in the Winter with less than 12 hours of daylight.

POL is breed specific. Heritage Penedesenca and Leghorns will lay much earlier than Say Wellsummers.

Is there a list of point of lay dates for Heritage Large Fowl?
Thanks,
Karen

 

[BGMatt]

The average for all breeds is 22 weeks. All breeds will begin laying later in the Winter with less than 12 hours of daylight.

POL is breed specific. Heritage Penedesenca and Leghorns will lay much earlier than Say Wellsummers.

Depends on feeding and management too.

Regardless of breed my goal has always been 6 months for point of lay. On some of the bigger asiatics this is a very difficult goal, and I'll admit to playing favorites with my beloved Langshans and the Brahmas when I had them.

 

[gjensen]

Karen, if there was a list I would not pay it any attention. Too many variables. Genetics, management, etc. It is a matter of getting to know your birds.

I will say that my later hatched birds tend to take a tad longer to reach POL.

I agree that 24 wks would be a reasonable goal for your birds.

 

[3riverschick]

Depends on feeding and management too.

Regardless of breed my goal has always been 6 months for point of lay. On some of the bigger asiatics this is a very difficult goal, and I'll admit to playing favorites with my beloved Langshans and the Brahmas when I had them.

Well, I have a bit of work to do then, Light Sussex it seems to be 25 thru 30 weeks. So it seems I am at the upper end of acceptable. However, I would rather have them be winter layers at 29 weeks than summer layers at 27 weeks and not get good winter production.

In case anyone is interested in proper Sussex hen breed type, here is a snippet from:
The Sussex fowl (1920)
By Sharpe, S. C
(creator of the Light Sussex)
Proper breed type has not changed since this was published.
The large fowl hen at the bottom of the page shows that stunning, long
body. Considered by experts "almost too long to cram".
http://tinyurl.com/q8wcgd9

Fast forward 93 years. and look here , bantams this time:
http://tinyurl.com/nsq4gb8
"Cookie" the products of many years breeding by Master Breeder Gary Overton in OH.
And "Confetti", the product of the Master Breeders at Skytop Bantams in PA.
In Sussex, the more things change, the more they should stay the same.Pu

Pull them up in Windows to view side-by-side.