Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Dittoes on the Javas. Eggs are large. Legs on the young cockerels are great. Breast meat on my cockerels started coming in around seven months old. I have trouble splitting the breasts because their keels are so big. Might be a technique issue. I am not a good butcher. Haven't eaten a Java hen yet. They are still laying too well to eat.

I don't see how one can get the full benefit of a dual purpose breed without caponizing unless you have tons of space to grow out the extra cockerels. Caponizing is one of those things that people don't like to talk about, but it goes hand in hand with raising old-style dual purpose chickens. I would like to learn how to do it. If anyone within a couple hundred miles of the Tucson area could mentor someone in caponizing techniques, I would be glad to make the drive.

Sarah

 

[Arielle]

We are having a discussion about MG on another thread-- mostly noobs so our info is spotty. Can anyone fill me in on how this is handled inflocks. DO you freak out, vaccinate, or cull or just don't worry??? My state vet was very laid back about it when I asked about testing.

 

[3riverschick]

We are having a discussion about MG on another thread-- mostly noobs so our info is spotty. Can anyone fill me in on how this is handled inflocks. DO you freak out, vaccinate, or cull or just don't worry??? My state vet was very laid back about it when I asked about testing.

What is MG?
Karen

 

[sgribble]

Fred, are you going to Columbus on the 9th? I would love to have some of those culls (ora decent trio if you could spare one

) of those Barred Rocks. My dad, who is 91, mentioned that "Dominickers" are his favorite and he wishes (runs in the family) I had some. He won't know the difference, and I will get some nice birds. There's not much that I can do for him at this stage of his life. If not, can you point me toward someone who has good ones that I might could get to meet me there?

There is a guy in Pensacola with barred rocks that would be really close for you.....

 

[peachdawg78]

There is a guy in Pensacola with barred rocks that would be really close for you.....

I am in Pensacola and I have Shaffer's line of Barreds. I'm not sure if I'm who you were talking about but I do have maybe 2 trios I would consider selling. These are from a group of 50 that I raised and me and Bob culled down to twice for obvious faults. I think they have very good color and pretty good type.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I am in Pensacola and I have Shaffer's line of Barreds. I'm not sure if I'm who you were talking about but I do have maybe 2 trios I would consider selling. These are from a group of 50 that I raised and me and Bob culled down to twice for obvious faults. I think they have very good color and pretty good type.

I love Kraig's birds.

 

[AletaG]

A lot of breeders show younger birds because ideally you're getting better birds each year and space means the old ones don't stay around. Cockerels and pullets in a lot of these "heritage" breeds, standard bred birds aren't ready to be shown seriously until 10-11 months old or so, so that's probably what you're thinking of. Heck in my first go round with my Langshans I can probably count the number of times I showed a cockerel as anything but filler at the county fair on one hand. Real chickens take time to grow and fill out to be competitive.

Thank you...
...and love the bias showing through there... Ha!

I see no reason why one can't have chickens for eggs and meat but do it with the real deal breeds. No reason why I can't promote the raising and breeding of heritage and eat a few eggs. Imperfect ones become Utility birds for eggs to eat while breeding the more perfect ones to promote the breed!

Now I understand I will be the small scale person but IMO every little bit helps. Who knows maybe a person could promote in this area enough to educate folks at the very least and expand enough to not need the food stamps.
So am excited for this endeavor to take the chicken keeping to more of a pure breed and way of doing things. Fresh air, good food, healthy chickens and health of myself.

Welcome to the "small scale" heritage preserving club! I just got my 2 pairs this weekend! I need to upload pics from my phone. I hate my phone. Love the HRIR!!

We are having a discussion about MG on another thread-- mostly noobs so our info is spotty. Can anyone fill me in on how this is handled inflocks. DO you freak out, vaccinate, or cull or just don't worry??? My state vet was very laid back about it when I asked about testing.

Had Mycoplasma g. run through my flock this summer. Once I finally talked to the Seattle chicken vet specialist and the state vet, they are also pretty laid back. Apparently in large (i.e. 10000's ) set ups in cages, they kill everything, because it will roll through because they can't wait for them all to go through it, and not bring in new stock until everyone is 'done'. I plan on testing pre-hatching season, just because an active infection can adversely affect hatch rates. So if for some reason I have breeders still +, won't be selling hatching eggs for sure. I did have some young chicken deaths, but turned out to be because of a 'perfect storm' due to the age they got it, and also getting a chicken cold virus at the same time (either of which is endemic to my area, and neither of which bothered my vets much). Anyway, PM me if you'd like to know more Probably TMI as it stands. Sorry all.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Mycoplasma gallisepticum

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Thank you .

Goes to show small back yard flocks might be handlied differently. So I would love to hear from everyone.

 

[BGMatt]

We are having a discussion about MG on another thread-- mostly noobs so our info is spotty. Can anyone fill me in on how this is handled inflocks. DO you freak out, vaccinate, or cull or just don't worry??? My state vet was very laid back about it when I asked about testing.

The two best choices are to cull or not worry in my opinion. I personally would not worry about it unless there were outstanding circumstances. A recent example is someone who found their flock had it, but they also had a parrot that was a pet to them and since it could be infected they chose to cull flock, and that was the right move there. I guess my final answer is unless you've got exotic avian pets that can contract it, don't worry about it unless your state requires it as part of NPIP.