Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[fowlman01]

I will have to finish reading that later.  Right now, my brain is befuddled.. at first impression though, it seems you would have to be standing around like a vulture if you had more than one hen with her egg in the proper position to signal laying very soon.  I have used this method when I wished to know if my hen was acting this way or that because of an egg.  The only other thing I've done is accidentally scared a hen off the nest while checking for eggs and if there is a very warm egg left behind and no other hen lurking around the nest box, I pretty much assumed this egg was from the one that just took off.

Good to see it wasn't just me. The interesting thing about the article is that you can skip to the very end without losing much information.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

Karen, I've never used that method but I do use a similar one. I go up at night and palpate through the intestinal wall for the next day's egg by inserting a gloved fingertip in the vent. It can be done quickly and gently and I've not seen any ill effects from using this method. Easier to catch the hen this way as well.

 

[3riverschick]

Thank you all for your opinions.
Best,
Karen

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Good to see it wasn't just me. The interesting thing about the article is that you can skip to the very end without losing much information.

Walt

thanks for the heads up lol

 

[Lacy Blues]

The standard calls for certain weights for cockerels as well as cocks. I am wondering... in the cockerels, at what age should they be reaching this weight? Would it be at maturity? In my birds, the males "LOOK" mature at about 7.5 to 8 months. This is when they finish growing their adult plumage. Is this when my birds should reach that standard weight?

And the pullets, should they be at their weight when they start laying?

 

[Pozees]

My individual breeding pens are producing some interesting results.

This is my first breeding season with Black Javas, and my birds were all part of a straight run of day-old chicks that arrived last January. Four pullets are in the breeding pens - two I really want to breed and two for backup. The two I really want to breed are larger pullets with long straight backs but they are too narrow in the tail. The two backup pullets have better heads and nice, wide tails but their small size and incorrect back line are big negatives.

I paired the two long-backed narrow-tailed pullets with a large, wide cockerel hoping to get some large, wide-tailed, long-backed chicks. This particular trio was going to be the focus of my breeding program this season.

Best-laid plans often go awry. Guess who is laying? Yep. The wide-tailed, smaller birds are cranking out 5-6 eggs/week. The larger, long-backed, narrow-tailed birds are laying maybe 2 eggs/week.

The first set of eggs got moved into the hatcher a couple of days ago. Half of the narrow-tailed birds' eggs were clear. So I'm actually getting about 1 fertile egg from them/week. Those chicks better be spectacular LOL! But the odds are the chicks will be just as narrow-tailed as their mothers. It's going to take a lot more chicks to find that large, long, wide combination.

Results so far:

1. The "wide tailed birds are better layers" concept is proving to be true in my pens this year.

2. I wouldn't have known the laying rates if I hadn't set up individual breeding pens.

3. Healthy birds and production qualities - eggs and meat - are more important to me than SOP looks. I will keep plugging to get these birds closer to SOP in appearance, but they must maintain production while we get there.

4. I will have to extend my breeding season longer than planned to make up for the slow winter lay rate of the two larger pullets. I still want chicks from them so I don't lose the overall Java shape from the flock.

Sarah

What male is covering the smaller, wider-tailed birds? Is there any reason to consider putting the larger male over them to possibly improve their size and then perhaps take a male from that cross back to the larger hens with narrow tails? Just curious - you are so well organized my assumption is that you've thought all this through at least a thousand times. Trying to learn.

 

[3riverschick]

The standard calls for certain weights for cockerels as well as cocks. I am wondering... in the cockerels, at what age should they be reaching this weight? Would it be at maturity? In my birds, the males "LOOK" mature at about 7.5 to 8 months. This is when they finish growing their adult plumage. Is this when my birds should reach that standard weight?

And the pullets, should they be at their weight when they start laying?

Who knows? I am frustrated too.

People keep counseling to weigh birds and measure them at such and such an age.
But I can't find anywhere what those weights or measurements should be? What good is counsel without content?
I am not mad, just frustrated.

Best,
Karen

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
If you weigh your birds on a regular schedule you have a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of different management techniques. Then you can answer questions like, "Did that new, expensive feed really make them grow faster/larger/whatever? Enough to be worth the extra money?" Other peoples' numbers and "should be" weights aren't necessarily relevant to your own birds and poultry-raising goals. Just saying.

Sarah

 

[3riverschick]

Remember when I posted the URL to the 1st pamphlet about the Light Sussex and said the 2nd was about the RIR?
I have been looking for it and finally stumbled across it this evening. ~~William Powell-Owen was a internationally
respected poultryman/author.
The Poultry Club's Brochures on Breeds. Number 2.
THE RHODE ISLAND RED,
BY W. POWELL-OWEN, F.B.S.A.
Published by THE POULTRY CLUB, Mr. WILLIAM RICE, Hon. Secretary,
3 Ludgate Broadway, London, E.C. 4, England., 1921.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003135237;view=1up;seq=5

============================
The Poultry Club's Brochures on Breeds. Number 3.
The White Leghorn.
by Corrie, Harold.
Published 1922
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003164963;view=1up;seq=5
====================================
The Poultry Club's Brochures on Breeds. Number 4.
The White Wyandotte.
by Williams, Leslie.
Published 1922
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003140062;view=1up;seq=5
================================
The Poultry Club's Brochures on Breeds. Number 1.
The Light Sussex.
by Broomhead, William White, 1875-
Published 1921
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924003137332;view=1up;seq=5
=============================

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
That is part of the plan. It will probably take several generations of complementary pairings to get them where I want them to be.

The pairings aren't quite as simple as it sounds because I also have to maintain the genes for yellow soles in the flock while I'm working on the body type. Absence of yellow in the sole is a DQ in this breed. Only a couple of my birds have visible yellow - one relatively small cockerel with generally good proportions, and one narrow-tailed pullet. From what I understand the yellow is recessive. I hope the white-soled birds in my flock are carrying a copy of the yellow gene even if I can't see the evidence. I have to be careful when I am pairing birds that don't have obvious yellow soles, because it would be easy to accidentally breed that recessive trait out of my small flock while I'm focused on other stuff. It's always something.