Jersey Giants thread for pictures and discussion

[Wynette]

i see alot of beautiful jersey giants on here . want to thank all of you that raise and sell quality birds !!! see my sister for 5 years raised a mixed flock of hatchery birds and with alot of preaching i finnaly got her to decide on show birds and she picked jerseys well i raised brahmas and cochins for year and was excited to help her raise and show jerseys . well i researched some about them what was the standard for show quality stock was and learned about what ??? to ask . well i reached a person and she sold us 20 jersey giant chicks turns out not one is any good for showing well 6.00 each for chicks and hundreds in food and no show birds now my sister wont buy any more birds wont buy eggs cause she dont trust post office !!! and wont be showing birds 5 years of preaching and because i trusted 1 woman to do the right thing and and sell us what she said she would 5 years is now waised time so buyer be ware and thank you to the 1 woman !!! and to the rest of you honest people that are raising and selling thes beautiful bird i just want to say thaks and merry chrstmas
thank you john

I'm sorry that your sister had such a bad experience. And I hate to be a wet blanket, but there's simply no way to know whether a chick will grow up to be of exhibition quality or not. As a matter of fact, I only keep 10 - 20% of my hatches for the breed pen. I hear this sort of thing all the time, not just with Giants, but with many other breeds as well. The very best way to know without a doubt whether your stock is exhibition quality is to buy adult stock. Then you can know with certainty that they have the type you are looking for.

We were just discussing this over on the Marans thread - even if you have a winning male and female, that does not ensure that all of their progeny will excellent quality. It takes many years of breeding the best that you have to move a flock forward; you can't just expect to buy 20 chicks and think you're going to hit the show pen and win. Try taking your sister to some local shows, and check out what is being shown. If you see one that strikes your fancy, find the owner, or check on the exhibitor's list and contact that person. Most breeders are willing to sell you decent stock, but it really is best to go take a look at them firsthand so you know what you're getting.

 

[4-hmother]

WYNETTE,

VERY WELL SAID. As poultry folks we should expect a lot of twist and turns in our road for the perfect winning bird. When dealing with genetics there is a big gene pool to pull from even if you start with winning show birds. I agree shows are a good place to start when picking out good quality birds.

Nothing in life is a given even if you start with good breeding stock ANYTHING can happen. We have had a lot of curves in our travels but I just love these birds so we keep going. We have lost chickens due to the excessive heat wave this summer, coons, neighbors dogs, bator tipped over, our own cat, and the big one HUMAN error.

So want brahmas 2 your sister should still keep trying to improve on the flock she has. Try not to get to discouraged stuff happens to even the best of the breeders.

As a TRUE GIANT LOVER one day my son or me WILL MAKE IT TO CHAMPION ROW WITH OUR OWN LINE!!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

i see alot of beautiful jersey giants on here . want to thank all of you that raise and sell quality birds !!! see my sister for 5 years raised a mixed flock of hatchery birds and with alot of preaching i finnaly got her to decide on show birds and she picked jerseys well i raised brahmas and cochins for year and was excited to help her raise and show jerseys . well i researched some about them what was the standard for show quality stock was and learned about what ??? to ask . well i reached a person and she sold us 20 jersey giant chicks turns out not one is any good for showing well 6.00 each for chicks and hundreds in food and no show birds now my sister wont buy any more birds wont buy eggs cause she dont trust post office !!! and wont be showing birds 5 years of preaching and because i trusted 1 woman to do the right thing and and sell us what she said she would 5 years is now waised time so buyer be ware and thank you to the 1 woman !!! and to the rest of you honest people that are raising and selling thes beautiful bird i just want to say thaks and merry chrstmas
thank you john

That sucks. But even though I don't show, I've heard that only a like 1-2% of chicks hatched from show winning flocks are actually true show quality. Think most end up being breeder's and culls. I'd not be discouraged if you want to get into show birds. $6 a live chick doesn't sound that expensive with respect to good lines. A hatchery leghorn will run $2-3 in small numbers . I've seen "fancy" hatchery chicks at the feed store go for like 4-5 each! $6 for a "show/breeder line" chick doesn't sound too bad... or as you may have found in your case, glorified hatchery chicks. People pay 6-10 each egg with no certainly of hatch percentage.

 

[woody743]

I am looking for some whites and would pay that much for shipped eggs just to get the chance to hatch some?
Good luck though.

 

[mrsmartin12]

I m looking for a couple jersey giant hens if anyone in oregon would be willing to part with two or three feel to email me at [email protected]

 

[want brahmas 2]

i understand what you all are saying im not new to this i raised show birds for 15 years and byc birds most my life im 47 years old . the thing is when someone ships you chicks with no yellow on feet and they know its a DQ . then they intended to decieve you and thats why she wont buy any more birds !!!! and Wynette i understand that buying chicks is not going to get u into the winner circle but u should wind up with breeders that with time you may get there !!! i used to hatch 500 chicks each year lg fowl brahmas , and was the 2nd man to ever have and breed golden partridge brahmas i help to devlope them tom wiltshire was the first to have themand we worked together to develop them . so you see i know what im doing with birds i can say for a fact that if you would of bought chicks from me you would of had show quality breeders with out a dought !!!! and there are lots of breeders i know that you would get the same from !!! and we did go to shows but there were know giants at any of them thats why we bought chicks in northern ill its all about the australorps and wyndots . and my sister is kinda stuburn she researched breeds and wants giants !!! but in this econamy 6.00 a chick is to much to pay for culls i would of gotten better chicks from a hatcery lol and i wont buy from them at all !!! buy the time these birds are grown we will have a huge investment in feed and for what ??? so some one could sell there culls instead of killing them . to me selling giant chicks the frist step in culling would be clear no yellow feet cull that can be seen from day one . its as obvious as sex link chicks would you get mad if you bought them from a breeder and they sent you all roasters yes causse its obvious they knew from the start well its the same about yellow on the feet of jersey hope you can understsand our frustration and realize i wasnt exspecting grand champion but was exspecting stock that i could star a breeding program to raise one some day thank you all for your intrest in our frustration . well take care and have a happy holliday season . thankws john

 

[birdnbeast]

So want brahmas 2 your sister should still keep trying to improve on the flock she has. T

I am going to respectfully disagree here. Just my opinion, (refuse to label it humble as it is as important as anyone else's =:~) but I agree with Brahma to get rid of all of the 'just chicken' stock and start over with at least eggs from better stock. I think Jersey should be extreme enough in type -- full head, long, deep, full body etc that it does not look like a bad 'anything' else -- Austalorp, etc. Further, I think a good Jersey chick looks like a Jersey as soon as it comes out of the hatcher -- big head, big bone, proper skin tone and huge torpedo bottom. Yes, all sorts of little details will develop as faults, even to dq's, as the chicks turn into juvies and finally mature into selectable young pullets and cockerels -- bent toes (have a few of those), low neck set, comb sprigs, off color under hackles, etc.
As others have said, but Brahma has agreed, that you can "hatch" chicks out of the best of pairings and get a whole lot of non-competitive outcomes. I think the issue is receiving chicks that are obvious culls (unless just really poorly bred!) and obvious to anyone with just a few of our special breed identifiers in their mind.
I have what I consider to be extremely typey stock and yet I know I will never beat my competitor because even tho the entry my be siblings she can put birds on the show table in superb condition and I can not do so. I know it is not because I was sold the culls, etc. and that makes all the difference in the world in my attitude. I just wish the same for Brahma's sister. 'Cause he is soooooo right, these birds are too expensive to raise just for the purpose of 'culling' when you shouldn't have them past a couple of days to begin with. Been there, done that, many times on supposedly Jersey Giant eggs/chicks ...... off my rant, back to regular scheduled programming k/

 

[Framac]

Here are a few pictures pf my Giants.

 

[silkiechicken]

How old is your second rooster vs the first rooster? He looks so chunky!

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Lucky birds get a big barn to live in!

Gorgeous ladies and gentlemen!

Here are a few pictures pf my Giants.