Langshan Thread!!!

[Illia]

That is a gorgeous photo of a gorgeous black.

Love how the pose really shows how "extreme" the breed is.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Haha! Thanks Illia! I love that photo...shows how Clyde can let loose also!
I just got some updated photos. Clyde has apparently not been breeding the hens in his pen, so I put them on the ground with the white male. Should get black chicks (if recessive) or white chicks (if dominant). He covered both black females in less than 5 minutes so I put them back in with Clyde. It's a win-win. Shame though...I was really hoping for some offspring from Clyde this year. I will probably have to start AIing him...that blind side is just gonna keep him from performing as well as I'd hoped.

Starting off, more photos of the cull:

Let's add poor wing carriage to the list...

Now for the breeders:
Hen 2:

The group:

Cock:

 

[Illia]

Haha, I was thinking "wings" before I saw your note about the wing carriage.

Now, me knowing nothing of Langshan breedings, how often is it to find good/bad Whites? Who's lines are those? I like the breeders, but certainly not as much as Clyde and his girls. Sorry to hear of the lack of success. The whites are nice, but even the breeder hen has a slightly droopy wing carriage, and both hen and cock just aren't "perky" enough of carriage in concerns to the whole body. (tail mainly)

I hope you don't mind, but I certainly plan to use some of your photos as references for my artwork on Langshans.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Oh thank you! By all means, feel free to use them. Eventually I would like to get a painting of Clyde that I could frame and hang in the living room. Brandon has already realized everything but his computer room will be done in chickens.

I'm hoping up north it will be much easier to find whites. Forrest had them awhile ago and his daughter sold all of them when he became ill.

Yes, even the second hen is slightly droopy, but that could also be from lack of exercise. Their cage is in the background and doesn't allow for much roaming which is a shame but all I can do at the moment. Yes, the cock I am definitely not entirely pleased with. That's why I'm outcrossing to the blacks and blues that have a little too much perk. I like the overall shape of the hen but it's lacking something...the cock is lacking all over but has good size and decent leg and breast.

 

[devobrew]

So I head out last night to get a free pair of Black Dominiques (from graiglist) and since I have never heard or seen Black Dominiques I was curious (any reason to add to the flock, aye?). I get home about 1030pm and sneek em into the coop. This morning when I opened up the coop and the chookers came sleepily out into the yard I was wonderfully suprised, for I now have Langshans in my flock.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Congrats devobrew! You MUST show photos of your new flock members!

 

[devobrew]

The 2 in the background are the Langshans'

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I think you might have a Langshan cockerel (the one in the "middle" of the two groups of birds). Are you talking about the furthest bird in the picture? She looks to be a Cochin from the amount of feathering on her legs.

On the flip-side, my Blue x White breeding resulted in:


drumroll please


A black chick. SO the hen is recessive white!!!

 

[skorff]

I've had black Langshans for a few years and my oldest is Jessica who is five now. Last year I bought five white langshan day old chicks, straight run. Ended up with three pullets and two cockerels and they grew into awesome looking birds. However both the cocks always have bloody legs. I can't tell if they are pulling their own feathers out or the girls are. The hens' legs are fine. I give the birds animal protein and feather picking is not common in my diverse flock.
Any ideas about these roosters' bloody legs?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I would assume feather picking. You say your hens are fine which leads me to believe the hens are the ones causing the damage. I had the same thing happen in my Brahmas (when I had them).

Here is what I did:

I took a pair of nail clippers and barely clipped the end off of the top part of the beak. Literally, I barely made a dent, but it was enough that you could see the bottom beak jutting out barely ahead of the now "squared off" top beak. This keeps the beak from completely coming together and ruins the ability to cause damage as they are not able to get a good grip on the feathers to rip or pluck it out.

I did this to all hens. On the males, I sprayed Adams Flea and Tick spray to help with any mites and to make the feathers "taste" bad although I'm not certain that the birds can even taste it because they only have 24 taste buds to begin with. After that, I applied petroleum jelly to the entire leg. This gave it a bad texture for the birds that continued picking.

After this, the males grew their feathers back very quickly. I only had to do this once as once the birds realized they were not getting what they wanted (fresh feathers) they seemed to forget to do it.