Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[3riverschick]

Everybody around me is having fits over the lack of eggs. I'm trying to get my girls to STOP. They have laid all through their molt. I just wish they would take vacation. 2 wormings at 10 day intervals have not fazed them. I threw 2 demented cluckers in the broody coop,to find 2 eggs the next day.11 hens and pullets 10-11 eggs a day.

Hee, Hee. My best layer ( May-hatched) is laying right thru her molt. The pullets have started to lay, as has the 1/2 sis to my best layer ( she is a March-hatched hen). We are getting 4 eggs a day and as soon as the other pullets start cranking them out next month, no more buying eggs! Yeah!
Went to Wal-Mart today. They were selling their pumpkins for 1 cent each. I bought 16. Cut a couple in half and spread them thru the several coops...and the girls went wild!! Also switched to 20% Purina Flockraiser and bought BOSS to supplement it. Have to wait on the Calf Manna as they no longer sell it in the small bag here. Only 40-50 lbs. I will look around and see if anyone else has the smaller bags. Threw out the Flock Block.
Best,
Karen

 

[Arielle]

Quote: My SS pullets are laying, found their stash, pretty med pink eggs. So the pullets will start laying theirr first fall, but what about the girls a year older??

My older SS have stopped laying, as of last week. ( SS don't get supplemental lighting here.) THe SS free range all day though, would that equal oat sprouts?

 

[3riverschick]

Oh, something else I forgot to mention about Sussex. They are a close-feathered breed. The old breeders caution against bringing the chicks up in an really warm environment. They discuss how folk wanting the get their chicks on the ground very early in the year would hatch in early Jan., then raise the chicks in really warm environments. They decried this because they said it caused the feathers to develop in such a way the birds became overly "fluffy". Something about the feathers being hollow? Dragonlady can you speak
to that?
Best,
Karen
----------------
Familiar Science & Fancier's Journal - Volumes 3-4 - Page 185
books.google.com/books?id=VuRIAAAAYAAJ 1876 - ‎Read
POULTRY BREEDING FOR PROFIT.
Every breeder of poultry ought to ask himself in which one, out of many directions, he is to look for his profit, and then answer the question plainly and clearly, and thence proceed to work to arrive at the goal marked. Some persons prefer Bantams and take their profit out of their prettiness. Others select handsomely plumaged birds as ornamental additions to their grounds, others pay absorbing attention to the delicacy of the flesh, while many sink everything, and look alone to a large quantity of eggs; and betwixt them there are enough of conjunctions to suit all tastes. But as I find from observation that the practice of keeping a few fowls for their eggs, is largely on the increase, and would receive a tremendous impetus if the popular notion—viz., " that every egg costs a sixpence "—was shown to be the result of utterly injudicious movements, and as, further, I find that as education and knowledge increases, so people become more and more averse to "killing and eating," especially those reared by themselves. I will, with your permission, make some observations on beautiful birds for egg-laying purposes, in the belief that it will be found of interest to the majority of households.
It is a fact which stands out in marked prominence, that in the British climate the black breeds are the best producers of eggs. This arises from the fact that as the amount of sunshine in England is rather scarce, the wearers of black coats profit more therefrom than those with white ones. Inversely, in climates where the heat is oppressive and produces suffering; as, for instance, in Queensland, the white breeds—as for instance, the Leghorns—are foremost. The black breed of cattle in Scotland, the dark chestnut horses in England, and the black pigs of North Europe, are all instances of the fact, viz., the survival and preeminence of the fittest for the climate, for those who in cold climates profit most by the sun, turn up, for a variety of reasons, each contributing its quota, the most profitable to keep. Black poultry, on the other hand, are not in favor with poulterers, who prefer white legs, white feathers, and bodies whose juiciness has not all departed with the eggs laid. Now, as a man cannot serve two oppositely-minded men, he has to make up his mind primarily whether he will go in for eggs or the flesh. Of the black breeds the Spanish lay the largest eggs, but not so many as the black Minorcas. The black Hamburghs lay a rather lesser number of smaller eggs, while the black Cochins lay also a large egg, but not many, owing to not having as yet lived long enough to hare completely shaken off this breed's propensity to properly hatch ail batches of eggs laid.
TIGHT OR LOOSE FEATHERING.
Some time ago I purchased some colored Dorkings, whose grandparents emanated from a luxurious home in an aristocratic quarter, and about the same time I purchased some silver-grey Dorkings, whose grandparent was one of Baily's hens, and hence had lived in open quarters. As to age and size they were about equal, but I do not think if I had tried my utmost, and of set purpose, that I could by any possibility have had two sets of pullets more diametrically opposed to each other, for, while the colored Dorkings were soft and loose, or open-feathered birds, the silver-greys were hard and close-feathered—so beautifully closefeathered that at a little distance it was difficult to distinguish
where one joined another, and as tightly fitting and as close to the body as a lady's glove on her hand. On arrival, and in my ignorance, I admired the colored Dorkings the most; but when the weather began to get cold a marked difference was immediately observable, and which increased. In short, the colored Dorkings in cold weather resembled an East Indian black in the streets of London on a frosty day—blue, shivering, and chattering, and always aiming at warmer quarters, while the silver-greys walked about in utter defiance of slush, sleet, and snow, and as comfortable as English lads frolicking on the ice. The colored Dorkings eat fully one-third more food, and do not lay more than one-fourth of the eggs. Since December, when the silver-grey Dorkings commenced to lay, up to the present time, they have laid every other day generally; besides this they have frequently laid numbers in daily succession, and occasionally I have had more eggs than birds, i. e., two in one day. I do not believe that even the black Minorcas could have beaten the silver-grey Dorkings during the last six months, whatever happens in the other half of the year. These are in truth splendid layers, and their food is plain and substantial, viz., barley, Indian corn, buckwheat, vegetables, and household scraps.
In every respect they fare alike, but notwithstanding that the point of color is in favor of the colored Dorkings, they are the most unprofitable birds that ever belonged to me, while the others, on the contrary, are most profitable, and all the difference lies in the closeness of the feathers. This closeness of feather should not be confounded with abundance of feather, for I have some Cochin hens, and the close-feathered birds lay more than the loose, open, and very abundantly-feathered ones. I now attach more value to close and tightly-fitting feathered birds than to color, and firmly believe by strict attention to that main point (not forgetting the others) to be able to defend the Dorkings against all comers. Modern breeders, in their desire to improve the size and color of the Dorkings, have done it in such a way as to deal a severe blow to the reputation of this splendid breed of fowls. For the purpose of being able to produce large cockerels and pullets at the autumn and winter shows, they have resorted to an artificially created warm temperature, so as to hatch a brood of chickens as near to the 1st of January as possible. This being done for some generations, loose-feathered birds is the result, and a very moderate supply of eggs the consequence. A remarkably large Dorking pullet which I purchased for my best trump card, laid the fewest eggs of any hen I ever had, and ultimately died from congestion or inflammation, produced by moderately cold weather. No bird commencing the summer with a decent constitution could have been more unprofitable, and in the way of food she was a glutton. When this bird arrived, our family circle broke out in raptures, and particularly in this direction: "What beautiful soft feathers 1 like touching some lady's muff!" Being densely ignorant on the matter, I of course was equally delighted, but did not mourn for her when she went the way of all flesh. When I hear (or see in print) some breeders saying that much depends on the character of the soil—dry, gravelly, and chalky, in contradistinction to any other combination of geological materials—whether Dorkings flourish or not, I think of my damp and altogether unlikely place, and my closely-feathered Dorkings, and marvel at the great number of the most diverse opinions which can be held on any given thing, when the real and all-important point is altogether ignored. Of course the best place for birds which are bred up in hot-houses is a tropical country, but if English breeders want the large population of the British Islands for customers, they must breed to suit their requirements, and not for very exceptional customers in the neighborhood of Timbuctoo, which perhaps would have suited the large pullet spoken of. Notwithstanding that the black breeds arc generally the best egg-layers, yet in this climate it is better to have a close feathered white bird than a loose-feathered black one,

and which is the reason why, here and there in this country, we hear of white Dorkings, Cochins, Leghorns, and Minorcas, laying better than darker-colored birds. I am very sorry, indeed, to see breeders virtually sacrificing closeness of feather for the sake of having early broods in some cases, and large birds in others, by resorting to an artificially-produced warmer climate, for closeness of feather once gone, or more properly a shunt having been given towards looseness of feather, cannot be again, in my opinion, attained by the same stock. To obtain closeness of feather, such breeders would have to commence dc novo with stock birds already possessing that indispensable qualification towards abundance of eggs. If we take two boys, one black and one white, and expose them to the influences of very cold, frosty weather, when stark naked, and for a number of days in succession, they will both die with, perhaps, a day's difference between their ends; and this quite irrespective of whether the one stood on a dry, chalky soil, and the other on damp ground. And what I am astonished at is, that the infinitesimal should be made so much of, and the momentous should be ignored as something of very little value. .—J. F. D., in Live Stock Journal.

 

[Wisher1000]

I may not be going to the Ohio Nationals, after all. My Dad is in the ICU and I don't think he will improve quickly. If he pulls though, it will be a long, slow improvement. He is 91 and has pneumonia. All prayers are welcomed.

 

[Arielle]

Oh, something else I forgot to mention about Sussex. They are a close-feathered breed.
The old breeders caution against bringing the chicks up in an really warm environment.
They discuss how folk wanting the get their chicks on the ground very early in the year
would hatch in early Jan., then raise the chicks in really warm environments. They decried
this because they said it caused the feathers to develop in such a way the birds became
overly "fluffy". Something about the feathers being hollow? Dragonlady can you speak
to that?
Best,
Karen

THinking out loud here Karen. Maybe it wasn't important in the birds going to market-- since that is the likely destination of the January hatches. How else can hatches be raised that is not warm? I can only think of a broody, but what broody is on the job in January?

 

[Arielle]

I may not be going to the Ohio Nationals, after all. My Dad is in the ICU and I don't think he will improve quickly. If he pulls though, it will be a long, slow improvement. He is 91 and has pneumonia. All prayers are welcomed.

You've got my prayers.

 

[normanack]

THinking out loud here Karen. Maybe it wasn't important in the birds going to market-- since that is the likely destination of the January hatches.  How else can hatches be raised that is not warm? I can only think of a broody, but what broody is on the job in January?  

A Silkie:

Chick born Nov. 25. Temps that winter in the 20s and 30s (Michigan).

 

[3riverschick]

I may not be going to the Ohio Nationals, after all. My Dad is in the ICU and I don't think he will improve quickly.
If he pulls though, it will be a long, slow improvement. He is 91 and has pneumonia. All prayers are welcomed.

Oh God Bless his heart. I hope he gets better soon. We went thru this with my Mom last year or so. She is 95.
Just tell him not to worry. Your plans are not put out. Best thing you can do for him is let him know he is not
inconveniencing you, smile. If you were planning on getting some birds, perhaps someone from your area can
bring some back to you?
Best,
Karen

 

[wekiva bird]

I may not be going to the Ohio Nationals, after all. My Dad is in the ICU and I don't think he will improve quickly. If he pulls though, it will be a long, slow improvement. He is 91 and has pneumonia. All prayers are welcomed.

Prayers are sent.

 

[NanaKat]

I may not be going to the Ohio Nationals, after all.  My Dad is in the ICU and I don't think he will improve quickly.  If he pulls though, it will be a long, slow improvement.  He is 91 and has pneumonia.  All prayers are welcomed.

Prayers are lifted for your Dad and for you as you provide encouragement and support.