Jersey Giants thread for pictures and discussion

[cabinchicky]

Splash is not recognized? I may have a few of those from Maria Hall in my incubator.

Splash are pretty though, and handy for use in breeding. The only mating that will give 100% blues is Black X Splash.

I am notgoing to be picky once (hopefully) they breed and lay. Once they hatch I will thin them as needed but white will go along with any not up to par. Waited long enough to get a good string of these and I am going to run with them and my cochins. not mixin them though.

 

[cyborg]

 

Does your friend have any blue JG's? That's what that looks like.


I just noticed 2 small black spots. A splash?

She probably does. She has many different varieties and sells her eggs, chicks and chickens.I just did a search for JG and a black chicken popped up so that is what I was expecting. Hope it's a pullet.

The accepted varieties are blue, black and white, but I'm working on a barred version! The blues can be beautiful, but I think the whites look too weird with their black legs.

Splash is not recognized? I may have a few of those from Maria Hall in my incubator.

Splash is not recognized? I may have a few of those from Maria Hall in my incubator.

Splash are pretty though, and handy for use in breeding. The only mating that will give 100% blues is Black X Splash.

Splash are not an a APA recognized color, but as Beer can pointed out, they are pretty, and needed when you start playing around with the black/blue/splash color genes. In this grouping of colors, black is the recessive gene. The splash x black mating will give you 100% blues, but they still will all carry the recessive bl gene (black) so the blue/blue mating will not give you 100% blues.

 

[Beer can]

And to add, you shouldn't get any whites. To the best of my knowledge it never happens. When the breed was started hundreds upon hundreds of chicks were hatched by each breeder, you don't see this today, so much less likely to get a 'miracle' white 'sport'. And back then they were mainly breed for the meat market, so they would have been sent to the butcher without much thought. Now I'm wondering how many of these 'sports' white giant's were actually used in the start of the beginning developing the white jersey giant line??
I bet not many, probably just a handful.
I can't remember where I read it, maybe National Jersey Giant Club, possibly a old APA newsletter I've read plenty of them also, from what I read someone hatched out some white giant's and Golda Miller got wind of it and snatched them up and started breeding them separate. It could be all white giant's trail back to this.

I like the white variety cause no one else does, and I like to be different ;-)
And I want to start a commercial capon farm when I retire and the whites dress out cleaner, just getting a jump start on my line of breeding stock :-D

 

[cabinchicky]

Thank you both! I hope mostly for blues. Blue LF, ohh my yesss! This will be the start of my second breed of blues hopefully. I have splash, black and blue stock in my LF Cochins as well. I can not wait for Memorial Day weekend to get here! Praying my hatch goes well. Get ready for pictures.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I am raising some JG for meat (yes I know how long they take to mature) and plan on keeping a few back for breeding. I have put them with my meat hybrids. Because I prefer a healthier chicken, I restrict the hybrids food. I feed them in the morning and evening and allow them to freerange throughout the day.
I have noticed a slight drop in my JG weight gain and am concerned that this is because of their limited feed. Does anyone here limit their JG feed? They do have potentially 17 acres to free range but because they are small yet still stick to about 1 acre

 

[cyborg]

I am raising some JG for meat (yes I know how long they take to mature) and plan on keeping a few back for breeding. I have put them with my meat hybrids. Because I prefer a healthier chicken, I restrict the hybrids food. I feed them in the morning and evening and allow them to freerange throughout the day.
I have noticed a slight drop in my JG weight gain and am concerned that this is because of their limited feed. Does anyone here limit their JG feed? They do have potentially 17 acres to free range but because they are small yet still stick to about 1 acre

I have several batches of Cornish going, and I do restrict their feed, but I normally free feed all my other chickens. Take a look at Maria's Jersey Giants site, she has pretty specific feeding guidelines for JG's.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I am raising some JG for meat (yes I know how long they take to mature) and plan on keeping a few back for breeding. I have put them with my meat hybrids. Because I prefer a healthier chicken, I restrict the hybrids food. I feed them in the morning and evening and allow them to freerange throughout the day.
I have noticed a slight drop in my JG weight gain and am concerned that this is because of their limited feed. Does anyone here limit their JG feed? They do have potentially 17 acres to free range but because they are small yet still stick to about 1 acre

I have several batches of Cornish going, and I do restrict their feed, but I normally free feed all my other chickens. Take a look at Maria's Jersey Giants site, she has pretty specific feeding guidelines for JG's.

Thank you!

 

[brahmabreeder]

Hi, I have a question for you jersey breeders about chick feed. I figured I would ask over here since these birds grow in a similar fashion to brahmas. I am toying around with what to feed my chicks this year and I'm trying a 28% medicated turkey starter for at least the first four months of these birds lives and then I'll probably cut it down some. Does anyone else on here feed a higher protein chick starter to their birds and notice a difference in growth rate/ending size?

 

[cyborg]

Some people feel that that is too much protein, and recommend 18%. Personally, I use 25% for the first 4 to 6 weeks, then drop back to 20% until they start to lay, then go to a 50/50 mix of 16% layer feed and 20% grower feed.

That said, I do use 30% turkey starter, but only for Cornish X chicks.

 

[brahmabreeder]

Interesting, I'll put some thought into maybe only doing the 28% for less time before I lower it a bit more. Thank you for the input!