Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Lacy Blues]

I keep an eye on type too, but like you, there are so many other issues at stake that need improvement, that if a bird shows up that has what I need, I use it unless the type is really bad. Generally speaking though, type is accomplished.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Hi Snowbird,
Did you ever have Light Sussex? I am trying to figure out how to move their lovely
black hackle further up the necks on mine. Am not sure eb based Columbian advice
will help my eWh based LS. Any advice is greatly appreciated as I have not been able
to find any online or in books, other than "just put pressure n it". Which is good advice,
I just wondered if your experience had shown you a specific strategy.
Thank

Have you checked out Dr. Carefoot's work Creative Poultry Breeding ? He does a petit article on eWH Columbian, but I don't remember whether or not it addreses the specific concerns you're reading. Snowbird's reply implies that it is quantitative, which would make sense.

Thoughts on the old "Build the barn 1st" idea. :

I think it's a great way to begin to keep beginners from fixating on the minutiae of color. Having said that, there are color faults that, if ignored for the sake of the barn, can become permanent in not so many generations. Shafting can make itself a formidable presence, difficult to remove, e.g. Silver Grey Dorkings I just saw "SQ" Speckled Sussex with shafting, and that's a pretty big tragedy. Color can be lost in hackle and saddle. Mottling can be either too randomized, or even worse--and commoner, overly concentrated such that the birds become more patchwork black and white than truly mottled. Barring can lose it's distinctness. On the other hand, so many lines of Barred Rock are abysmally thin feathered now with weak tails...sorry tails. The list could go on and on. Regardless, one will eventually, in my opinion, arrive at the conclusion, that much comes down to numbers. If you want to select for this and this and this and this, there is, after all of the precautions one can take, a certain level of dumb luck that arises. Only so many out of so many are going to statistically be able to carry such and such a combo. Thus when one proclaims that they're going to work with six breeds of large fowl most of us just smile and walk on. The trick is to avoid--as much as is possible, because it's not always possible--the need to make hugely desperate calls in the favor of one trait against another simply because one doesn't have a wide enough hatch from which to choose.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Does anyone have a diagram for artificial lighting?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Does anyone have a diagram for artificial lighting?

Not sure exactly what you are asking.....are you talking about the amount of TIME needed in artificial light?

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Does anyone have a diagram for artificial lighting?

Find out how long the summer solstice is for your latitude, i.e. how many hours for the longest day of the year. Ours here is 14.5 hours. So I would go to the computer and find official sunset schedule calendar. Then count backwards from official sunset 12 hours and that's what time it should turn on. DO that for two weeks, and then bump it up to 14.5 hours. Again, start at official sunset time and count back 14.5 hours and that's what time the lights should come on after two weeks of 12 hours day light. Put the lights on a timer, and have them go out at 8:30am because by then natural daylight will carry them through. This way they go to bed with natural sunset and don't have trouble roosting. On your calendar, mark every on every Sunday the official sunset time. Every Sunday adjust your timer to go back the 14.5 hours from that specific Sunday's sunset time. After the solstice, pull the lights so that the birds will eventually molt on schedule in a natural fashion. After Thanksgiving throw the lights on again.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'm working on getting some lights to put in the barn, plus a timer. I don't want to hatch in December again, but January or February would be a good start. FREEZING but good timing.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote: Thanks.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Does anyone have a diagram for artificial lighting?

I tend to extend the light past sunset but I have neighbors close by. During the early sunset months no one wants to hear a rooster at 3 am. And it is so much easier for me not to have to change the timer every two weeks. My lighting plan is to turn the lights on in the morning for a few hours and in the afternoon to evening for the longer time period. But now that my chickens are staying in their coop all day I had to extend the morning lights to make sure they had plenty of light.

I use rope lighting in my new coop in case you were asking more about the placement of lights.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote: *nods* Thank you.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

With all due respect to everyone involved....can we please keep in mind that Bob Blosl (God rest his soul), originator of this thread, focused a lot of attention to the "newbies" that frequent this thread. He taught several things that a lot of new folks still need to hear (in my opinion)

KISS (keep it simple)
Build the barn first (not meaning that feather or pattern is completely ignored, but that TYPE does come first with MOST breeds)
Go slow, and go down the middle of the road

I think these basic precepts helped a lot of people, including myself

There are certainly more detailed aspects of breeding once one is established in the hobby and several "breed/breeder specific" threads have spun off of this one.

But out of respect for Bob, who did so much for so many, I think we owe him the respect of continuing his philosophy, at least on this thread