Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Lacy Blues]

I have recently acquired some birds and their condition left much to be desired. I am dealing with many issues at once, but I wanted some advice on some overgrown toe nails. I am tempted to go ahead and cut them back in the quick, stop the bleeding with stepic powder, and be done with it. If you have any experience or advice about this, please PM me so as not to get the thread off topic (although these are a heritage breed.

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This picture came from Feathersite and was submitted by Ilana Nilsen.

My birds are not featherlegged, but this is very similar to the condition their feet and nails are in. I don't know how they were kept before I got them, but they are now being treated for scaley leg mites and I would love to get those nails back in shape, too.

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In the copy of the picture, if you enlarge it and have it next to yours which is enlarged too, notice the pink line on the one toenail... this is the quick. On the same toenail there is a blue line at the end of the quick. You would be safe to cut the toenails just beyond the blue line. To help you see your birds' quicks, clean the feet really well, including the toenails. Then get a bright light, a good flashlight will do, you will be able to see the quick in the toenail, particularly if it has white toenails. Other colors are harder to see through but it can be done. Good luck, I hope you don't make him bleed too badly. Looks like the feet have enough stress.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
I see we have a Guest checking out the thread. Do please come join us. This is a friendly thread
with many experienced poultry folk willing to help you with your questions and to get started with
quality SOP Heritage large Fowl.
Hope to see you here,
Karen in western PA

 

[Pozees]

I picked up my pair of Barnevelders yesterday, and will try to get pics later, but I have a couple of questions.

First, they came from someone in MD who got their stock from someone in VA. The woman said she would try to get the name of the person in MD from her daughter, but anyone have a guess as to who in VA or MD is breeding them?

Second, they are just about 4 months old, the cockerel is quite a bit larger than the pullet - I'd say at least half again her size. Is this common in Barnevelders, and will she ultimately catch up, or should they be pretty different in size?

They are getting along well with the layer flock, he has been crowing in competition with the Fayoumi cock bird in the next enclosure, he is new to crowing so is probably enjoying the practice They are very pretty, but I have a lot of studying to do before I have any clue as to their proximity to the Standard.

 

[Fentress]

For those who may not know the following is available from Google Books as a free download

Call of the Hen - Walter Hogan
Principles and Practices of Poultry Culture - John Henry Robinson
Mating and Breeding Poultry - Slocum & Lamon

All three of which have been recommened on the heritage threads.I have read Slocum and Lamon and thought it was a good introduction. Moving on to the Robinson book when time allows. Does anyone else have any recommendations? I am particulary interested in how farmers would have approached breeding their stock, since I keep my flock similar to what some of the free rangers would have done in the early part of the century.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

For those who may not know the following is available from Google Books as a free download

Call of the Hen - Walter Hogan
Principles and Practices of Poultry Culture - John Henry Robinson
Mating and Breeding Poultry - Slocum & Lamon

All three of which have been recommened on the heritage threads.I have read Slocum and Lamon and thought it was a good introduction. Moving on to the Robinson book when time allows. Does anyone else have any recommendations? I am particulary interested in how farmers would have approached breeding their stock, since I keep my flock similar to what some of the free rangers would have done in the early part of the century.

The Plymouth Rock Breed Book is also available....large file, but will download in pdf format

 

[fowlman01]

The Plymouth Rock Breed Book is also available....large file, but will download in pdf format

This is a very good book.

Walt

 

[armorfirelady]

For those who may not know the following is available from Google Books as a free download

Call of the Hen - Walter Hogan
Principles and Practices of Poultry Culture - John Henry Robinson
Mating and Breeding Poultry - Slocum & Lamon

All three of which have been recommened on the heritage threads.I have read Slocum and Lamon and thought it was a good introduction. Moving on to the Robinson book when time allows. Does anyone else have any recommendations? I am particulary interested in how farmers would have approached breeding their stock, since I keep my flock similar to what some of the free rangers would have done in the early part of the century.

Thank you for posting this

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

This is a very good book.

Walt

I have learned an awful lot from reading the Plymouth rock breed book.....a lot about mating, origins, mistakes to avoid, etc

 

[3riverschick]

I continue to be fascinated by the possibility, originally laid out by Oscar Smart, that trap nesting may still be a possibility for the backyarder, even in this busy modern day. To that end I dug around on the Net and found this interesting little tome from 1901. The author has a lot of interesting things to say about both trap nesting and observation methods for discerning superior layers ...and creating a superior laying strain. Yet, his sharp focus is on the trap nest itself, which makes this book more interesting than diverting. I just wish there were detailed illustrations to complement the instructions for construction, as I am a very visual learner. However I will run them by my woodworker Hubby Bob and see what he can make from them. Below is one interesting excerpt. I found it both factually and historically plausible.
Best,
Karen
The trap nest text book, . Wellcome, Frank Orville,
1862- [from old catalog] 129 pages .
http://tinyurl.com/qdrnb97
THE ORIGIN OF THE BROWN EGG FAD.
(Written for the Eastern Poultryman.)
While the white shelled egg is still preferred in some sections the brown
shelled egg is ultra-fashionable in New England and throughout the
greater part of the country.
Perfectly fresh eggs, laid by healthy hens that are fed the same kinds
of food will taste precisely the same be their shells white or brown.
The brown shelled eggs are' laid by hens that secrete coloring matter or
pigment in that portion of the oviduct where the shell is completed.
Hens whose animal economy does not furnish this colored pigment lay
white shelled eggs.
Let us examine a chocolate colored shell laid by a Plymouth Rock of a
"brown egg strain." We find that the color does not permeate the entire
shell. The inner membrane that first encloses the egg before the shell
is formed is white; the structure of the shell itself is white; the outer
surface of the shell only is brown. It is merely a surface tint from the
brush of the artist Nature serving to distinguish one family from another.
Who can say that birds in their wild state are not guided and aided in
the protection of their species by the color of their eggs
It is said that the color of the flower serves to point out to the bees the
place where honey is to be found and the bee in turn carries the life-
giving pollen to other flowers.
The brown color of the egg shell being confined to the outer surface
cannot effect the flavor of the egg; but there can be no doubt that many
people have had, and do have the idea that brown shelled eggs are better
than white shelled eggs. There is a reason for everything and there must
be a reason for this. Brown shelled eggs formerly denoted that the hens
that produced them were Asiatics or had Asiatic blood. The Asiatic
breads lay large eggs. Is it not true that years ago when the "brown egg
fad" began to be noticed that the brown shelled eggs in our city markets
were generally larger than those having white shells? If so, the people
would naturally prefer them.
But there was another condition twenty-five or thirty years ago that it
seems reasonable to suppose might have had a tendency to bring the
white egg into discredit and thus boom the brown egg. That was the
practice of pickling and lining eggs to preserve them; a practice that is
still followed but not so extensively since the advent of cold storage. A
pickled or a limed egg is not a very delectable article of diet as every good
housewife knows. The brown shelled blood (Asiatic) was not so common
on our farms then as now. The greater part of the eggs picked up by the
country collectors for preserving were white shelled, hence the ill-tasting
preserved egg was more commonly white than brown.
The writer remembers an egg merchant who did a considerable business
"preserving" eggs for the Boston market, and it was said that he experimented
not a little to find a way to color the pickled eggs a brown that
would have a natural appearance, but without success.
Is it not reasonable then to infer that the "brown egg fad" had a logical
basis?
Brown eggs were generally good eggs, white eggs were frequently of
inferior flavor as preserved eggs always have been and probably always
will be.
Public opinion is not easily changed. A market that once demanded a
brown egg for good reasons would continue to demand it after those
reasons had disappeared unless some condition should arise to warrant a
change.
So while we know 7 that there is no difference in the eating qualities of
white and brown shelled eggs, and that as far as beauty goes the color or
absence of color on the shell is a matter of individual opinion, we must
give the market what it most desires, be it brown shelled or white shelled
eggs.
================================

 

[Wynette]

I have learned an awful lot from reading the Plymouth rock breed book.....a lot about mating, origins, mistakes to avoid, etc

I have, as well - many thanks, Scott, for the referral to the book. (I have also learned that it's not a good idea to print it off in color....)