Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Vamvakas]

Is it partly a feather quality issue with those particular birds? Can you work on strengthening the feathers? Might take a few years of experimenting with conditioning feed and selecting for females with stronger feathers, but it could help in the long run.

Sarah

No, the rooster feet is that rips the feathers off the hens back. I feed them good, from layer pellets to corn.. Chickens eat more better then me.

 

[hellbender]

What do you mean? You do not select for nice, well behaved roos? LOL.

Are you trying to get me into trouble? LOL

In the act of Coitus, many mammals aren't worried about being invited for cocktails at the home of Amy Vanderbilt and will perform their acts with pronounced alacrity, casting good manners to the wind and performing these acts, say among spurred cocks, with sufficient fervor, a few feathers just might get ruffled.

The good news is, after a satisfactory job has been done by the cock, there's really no reason to keep him and the hen in close contact, ergo, they can be separated and kept in different areas, leaving the hen to lay her fertile eggs in peace and cock to cool his spurs elsewhere.

 

[brahmabreeder]

If someone wants broody hens..get some NNs. I have 20+ pullets trying to go broody now, in the coldest winter in recent memory. If allowed to do it, they are dogged.


We are planning to close the production segment of our operation over the next five years. At that time, using brood hens for our SOP birds just might be feasible. I hate messing with bators.

I'm glad you don't breed that out of your flock! I was all excited to get my Brahmas because they 'go broody' but not one of those bums have yet! Letting go of the stress that comes with incubators is a nice trade off for not getting any eggs while the hens are setting on eggs. When we had turkeys I let them set on my chickens eggs and both turkeys had little peeps following them around. Eventually I just took them because the one attacked the other for her chick. Then one turkey decided she was fed up with me and took off. Guess that was just one less mouth to feed

!

 

[hellbender]

I'm glad you don't breed that out of your flock! I was all excited to get my Brahmas because they 'go broody' but not one of those bums have yet! Letting go of the stress that comes with incubators is a nice trade off for not getting any eggs while the hens are setting on eggs. When we had turkeys I let them set on my chickens eggs and both turkeys had little peeps following them around. Eventually I just took them because the one attacked the other for her chick. Then one turkey decided she was fed up with me and took off. Guess that was just one less mouth to feed

!

That's funny! I never bothered breeding much out.

 

[Arielle]

I know what he hellbender means... The rooster is nice, and he doesn't mean to rip feathers, but he can't help it, and it just happens. It is what it is.. Sadly lol..

Edit: Just a suggestion, but I think we should make a TeamSpeak channel to discuss more better from audio for the Heritage Large Fowl Thread, real voices are better then internet talk.

Lordy-- you are dragging me into the high tech age-- I live on dial up and cant get good audio feed or video feed . . .lol What the heck is TeamSpeak? (PS I persoanlly do better with typing and can edit my words, lol)

Quote: Eating lots of Pizza are you???Seriously, I had that realization too, and altered my families food intake a bit; hens shouldn't be the only healthy one. lol

Quote: The rooster mating behavior is great opportunity to teach my tween boys the birds and the bees. . . and any more words than that will get me in trouble.

 

[hellbender]

Edited for over abundance of caution...

 

[hellbender]

On another note, I asked a seasoned exhibitor/breeder what they thought of my chances of working with my NNs and after a day, they responded with the picture below and said if I were to seek the Rosette for uggliest bird in show, why not go all out.

Not very comforting.

 

[thedragonlady]

On another note, I asked a seasoned exhibitor/breeder what they thought of my chances of working with my NNs and after a day, they responded with the picture below and said if I were to seek the Rosette for uggliest bird in show, why not go all out.

Not very comforting.

This poor critter is a walking anatomy lesson though.That's what a cut away breast looks like , sans feathers.

 

[hellbender]

This poor critter is a walking anatomy lesson though.That's what a cut away breast looks like , sans feathers.

Excellent visual example!

 

[Fentress]

I always wanted to try broody hens, but somehow, never ended up with persistent hens. Well I lucked out last year, and enjoyed the experience. Goodness that is a management challenge though. They do it when and how they want to. And it takes some coordinating to manage it on any scale.

I am not beyond it and like the idea of it. Just lose some control, and it would require of me several more individual pens. It certainly has it's pros and cons.

I like to see a mother with her chicks though.

They are on grass from day one and part of the flock from day one and enjoying their protection. Last year (my first) I isolated the broody's, but then returned the brood back to the flock in 1 to 2 days after hatch. No real issues, some people don't agree with this. I do have lots of room, so the subordinate hens that were broody had room to run and hide. Aggression from other hens was limited, directed more to the broody hen than the chicks and subsided within a few days. The dominate hens that had a brood ruled the yard. The chicks raised by broody hens on pasture turned out to be large and beautiful. I think all of the exercise they get, plus the natural foods makes a difference. Not only is a hen with chicks enjoyable, but seeing 8 week olds who are no longer with mom, running with the adults and being part of the flock is enjoyable as well. How I incorporate this into a breeding program will be a challenge. Farmers in the early 20th century hatched out with broody's on a large scale, but I would assume that they maintained(kept separate) a small breeder flock over a long period of time and were not as focused on breed quality as we are. I need a broody sub flock that will go broody more or less as a group and at the same time each year so I can be prepared for it.