Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[Perris]

Sadly, I lost my 12 year old hound this evening.

sorry for your loss. That sounds horrendous.

 

[Molpet]

That’s what mommas #1 and #2 did. Abandoned them at night, stayed with them a bit during the day for a few days, then totally walked away. 100% survival rate so far of those 15 that were so abandoned. So maybe the mothers knew best.

Sadly, I lost my 12 year old hound this evening. Apparently she and my bulldogs bayed something nasty and although they just came away with a few punctures and sore limbs, she got tore up bad. She drug herself home with a torn-open belly. Damage seemed most consistent with that from a boar hog. At her age, I elected to put her down.

The equation of predator control is going to change. My bulldogs only patrol the immediate farmyard. The hound delved deep into the surrounding woods and kept the varmints way back. Her loss will be hard to replace.

Sorry for your losses,,

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Consider a working line of Cur, I had a Mountain x Stevens Cur male. He was hands down the best overall hunting/farm dog I've ever had. While he protected the house and animals, his main focus in life was hunting.
I got him when he was 11 weeks old and took him into the woods at 14 weeks. My focus with him was to make him a varmint dog. When he was 17 weeks old he "treed" his first possum five feet up in a shrub, he was able to see him.
He treed his first coon at 21 weeks without any prior practice from watching another dog, from 17 to 21 weeks he was obviously trailing something but couldn't quite figure out where it was.
When he did bark treed he did it a bit half heartedly, but, when I brought the coon down it seemed to click in his head that if he puts it up I'll get it back down.
Even as a young pup he never foolishly engaged but rather wore out the varmint and then used a chokehold to end it. When he was 7 months old and I went out for 2-3 hours I could expect 3-4 coon during that time, this was in an area that was hunted regularly by others besides myself.
At approximately 12 months of age he dispatched his first adult coon by himself by digging it out of a shallow hole, after that no coon or groundhog was safe from him if he caught it on the ground.
During spring and summer he focused heavily on groundhogs.
Because of life challenges I had to give him away in late spring of this year, thankfully he went to someone that appreciates him as much as I did.
He was a couple days short of being 18 months old.
One of the keys to him becoming skilled in tracking at such a young age is because I took him out 3-4 nights a week and put him smack dab into the middle of where the varmints were.

Boar is a whole nother' story from coon and groundhog, we don't have wild pigs here, so I don't have any experience with them.

If given the opportunity I would just as easily try a Catahoula as a Cur.

I had an EXCELLENT Catahoula that I raised for just the purpose of replacing my hound when the time came that something happened just like yesterday.

I had to rehome the Catahoula because she’d roam too far from home and was running deer on the surrounding deer leases. She was bringing my other dogs with her when this would happen and the chances were high they would have all ended up shot by an angry hunter.

I need something that has the urge to patrol, but not go galavanting far from home. Most of the dedicated woods dogs will follow interesting scents for a long way. I am considering a dedicated livestock guardian breed.

 

[LaurenRitz]

One of mine did this, but with much older chicks - 3 months old or more, and in a multiple coop setup.

This is multiple coops. The broody coop is right next to coop2, so she's been focusing in that area. Now she just walks away from her chick at some point in the evening and goes to roost in her old coop.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I have a group of eggs in the incubator right now. The father was JG/RIR.

Two of the mothers are sisters, one I believe is Biel x JG and the other Biel x BA. They might both be Biel x BA. Both were heavily barred.

I am thinking that any barred birds in this group would automatically be cockerels? What are the chances that they would be black at hatch?

 

[NatJ]

I have a group of eggs in the incubator right now. The father was JG/RIR
...I am thinking that any barred birds in this group would automatically be cockerels?

Yes, because the father has no barring, any chicks with barring would be males.
You will get barred cockerels from barred mothers, and unbarred cockerels from unbarred mothers.

Daughters should all be unbarred.

What are the chances that they would be black at hatch?

That rooster should give E (the Extended Black gene that makes chicks black at hatch) to half of his chicks. The other half will inherit something else, passed down from his Rhode Island Red parent.

So assuming no hen gives a gene to turn black into white or blue or some other color, half of his chicks will be black at hatch because of his genes. The other half may be black or may not be, depending on what genes their mother gives.

Two of the mothers are sisters, one I believe is Biel x JG and the other Biel x BA. They might both be Biel x BA. Both were heavily barred.

I am thinking that any barred birds in this group would automatically be cockerels? What are the chances that they would be black at hatch?

Half of the chicks will be black at hatch (from the father.)

Those hens should also give E (Extended Black gene) to half of their chicks.
The totals should be 3/4 black at hatch, 1/4 not black at hatch, from those hens with that rooster.
1/4 of chicks inherit E from both parents, so they hatch black
1/4 of chicks inherit E from the father but not the mother, they hatch black
1/4 of chicks inherit E from the mother but not the father, they hatch black
1/4 of chicks do not inherit E from either parent, they are not black at hatch.

The not-black chicks will probably be shades of red and brown, and may have chipmunk stripes (like Bielefelder chicks) or partial striping or none at all (like Rhode Island Red chicks.) I think partial striping is the most likely.

 

[troyer]

I had an EXCELLENT Catahoula that I raised for just the purpose of replacing my hound when the time came that something happened just like yesterday.

I had to rehome the Catahoula because she’d roam too far from home and was running deer on the surrounding deer leases. She was bringing my other dogs with her when this would happen and the chances were high they would have all ended up shot by an angry hunter.

I need something that has the urge to patrol, but not go galavanting far from home. Most of the dedicated woods dogs will follow interesting scents for a long way. I am considering a dedicated livestock guardian breed.

Livestock guardian is a good way to go.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

#2 appeared with her second brood this morning. I had lost track of time and didn’t realize 3 weeks had went by. Only 7 in this batch. She got them to the ground on her own. The nest box is about 6.5’ high.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Has anyone seen a broody hen leave her chicks at night, and stay with them during the day?

I've had hens totally wean their chicks at 3 weeks. I've had hens take care of them for well over 2 months. I've had hens take care of their chicks during the day but leave them on their own at night. I've had hens roost with the chicks at night but leave them on their own during the day. In all of these the chicks survivability has been very good.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I've had hens totally wean their chicks at 3 weeks. I've had hens take care of them for well over 2 months. I've had hens take care of their chicks during the day but leave them on their own at night. I've had hens roost with the chicks at night but leave them on their own during the day. In all of these the chicks survivability has been very good.

Do you believe the decisions as to when to wean are random? Or do you think the hens are instinctively doing it for the right time for that particular brood?