Ah. I didn't know hatcheries sold them. I may call and ask the person, though. You never know!
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Ah. I didn't know hatcheries sold them. I may call and ask the person, though. You never know!
Don't know about this year, but last year when Duane sent me his price list day old chicks of standard breeds were $6 each with a minimum order of 25. I'm guessing they might be even higher than that this year.
That comes to a good sized bill for a bunch of day olds. Duane does have good Javas though.
You will here that Duane has had a 'closed' flock for 40 plus years. This is not true.
He got birds of Monte just a few years back.
Excellent information.
Just a few years ago there were still several different Java lines out there. They still exist if you know where to go and who to talk with. Monte took Duane some birds because the size on Duane's can't match Montes'.
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, but Duane's birds aren't a bad place to start. Glenn's birds may even be a bit smaller than Duane's but they would represent a different line: the McGraw birds. The Mottled birds Glenn has are better than the McGraw birds; so, I know there is more in them than that.
I never liked the McGraw Mottled birds. Their Mottling was never as uniform as it should have been. Of course, I would hope that some with that line have made improvement in them over the last 15 years or so, but back when the doctor had them I just didn't care for them.
I weighed most of my Urch birds yesterday. They are nine months old. Four of the six remaining cockerels weigh 5.5-6.5 pounds. Two are just over 7 pounds. Cockerels should weigh 8 pounds. At least the two 7 pounders are within range and may be closer to standard weight by show time in November.
My pullets are very small. Most are 3.5-4.5 pounds at nine months old. Standard pullet weight is 6.5 pounds. Part of the weight problem with my pullets may be the feed - I lost my layer feed source a couple of months ago and the pullets have only gained half a pound in the two months they have been on the new feed. I am not happy with that growth rate and am looking for readily available feed alternatives.
Only one pullet is within a pound of standard weight at nine months. She weighs 5.5 pounds. Of course, she happens to be the bird with the narrowest tail. I will probably breed her anyway just because of her size - if I pair her with my largest, widest-backed cockerel I might get some larger pullets with broader backs and tails. If not I will have more egg layers and stew meat.
I did accidentally cull what was arguably my best cockerel when he was fourteen weeks old. I was overrun with cockerels and had to reduce the numbers because the fighting was getting out of control. It looked like this big guy had a problem with his beak so I culled him. As I was dressing him out I realized that he had just broken the tip and it would probably have grown back just fine, but by then it was too late. He was one of my largest birds and one of the few birds with yellow soles. On the other hand he did break his beak and many others did not, so I don't really regret the cull.
Just for kicks I went to the Feathersite.com website and checked out the Java photos there. Hadn't looked at them in a long time. My birds look similar to most of the Black Javas pictured on that site. They're not perfect but they're pretty darned wonderful.
Sarah