Langshan Thread!!!

[thorleif]

Luke, just click on PDF, and either save or open. If you want to keep the book, use "save". It also opens a lot faster then, than when you have to open it every time you want to look.

 

[NJNick]

Hello to all.
Like I said I was given a bunch of the LF Langshans from Rich Higman. He had culled alot and gave me a bunch. As I have a flock of many Heavy and Games. And I went there just to visit. Well I saw some really nice big SQ White Rocks. And he said I am raising these for a guy in Pa. So he said take all these Langshans. They are culls. So I did. He said Nick I will call my buddy in Pa. To see if he wanted me to give them to you or send them to him. He did not want them. So I took the very large and fast feathering White Rocks home. All brothers and sisters. But one rooster or young male. His comb did not grow and I culled him. Though the comb and testicles have to do with good fertility.
So back to the Langshans. They were all sizes. And when I pulled up to the auction. The auctioneer said to me keep the smaller ones. They have no size to them. So I did. They grew to some very large and very nice chickens. I had one of the young pullets go broody. So I crossed some with Black Austrolop. But sold them.
And should have some hatching soon as my 2one gens are now laying. And have some in the incubator.....Thanks.......Nick

 

[pcchickens]

Hi everyone, my wife and I have been lurking on this thread for quite a while, and I've finally decided to create an account and join the fun. Right now, we have one white Langshan (or at least part Langshan) rooster named Andy (for a long time we thought he was an Anna) for our flock of eight hens, all different breeds. Andy's story is pretty amazing. We got him about two years ago. We were absolutely sure he was a hen, if not a bantam hen. He just grew so much more slowly than all the other chicks. Eventually, though, he showed cockerel signs. This wasn't good since we had two other cockerels, one a production red and one a golden comet. We were only going to keep one. At first, we really didn't want to keep Andy because we thought his slower growth compared to the other cockerels was a negative. At this point, Andy was on the bottom of the pecking order among the cockerels. Still, Andy kept growing and growing by the time spring rolled around and the males were all high on testosterone--he had ascended straight to the top. But unlike the other two cockerels, Andy has never showed any aggression toward us and has always looked out for the hens. So that cemented it: we kept Andy, and butchered the other two. Apparently, nice guys don't always finish last.



On another note, my wife and are looking to start a breeding flock of black Langshans. Our long term goal is to start a small scale pastured poultry operation. We're not big fans of cornish crosses, to say the least, and want to stick to a dual purpose heritage breed. We like what the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has done with buckeyes--in terms of breeding them to APA standards and for production qualities for both meat and egg production. I've seen some buckeyes from that line, and they're pretty impressive in terms of breast size, rate of growth, and egg production. For more info on the ALBC breeding program, check out this link: http://www.albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/chickens.html

At any rate, we love Langshans--and I'd love to hear what you think about Langshan's current "state of the union" so to speak. I know a lot of heritage breeds have degenerated in quality since the early to mid 1900s. Are any current breeders emphasizing production qualities in addition to APA standards?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Luke, just click on PDF, and either save or open. If you want to keep the book, use "save". It also opens a lot faster then, than when you have to open it every time you want to look.

Cool, got it.

 

[thorleif]

Hi, Pcchickens and wife! Welcome to the thread. I can see you live just up the road from my brother! Small world. It is a wise choice, breeding Langshans. I also blog a bit on my friends site, www.thechickenwhisperer.co.uk Here I will soon (next week or two) be explaining a bit about successfully creating better quality chickens by selecting matings, to help beginners with the rarer breeds. Otherwise, you will find very helpful people here on this thread, as I am sure you have found out by now. Just get your stock in, and get going. My brother was here a few months back, and he is toying with the idea of getting some chickens, and I will have as a guess my Langshans has convinced him what breed to get. He could not get over how quick my Langshans accepted him as a member of the crew.

 

[pcchickens]

Thanks for the welcome, Thorleif. I will definitely be on the lookout for those posts about breeding. My wife says her family came over here from Wales in the late 1600s. Where exactly does your brother live if you don't mind me asking?

 

[thorleif]

My brother lives in Cummings, Georgia, probably 120-130 miles down the road? Was your wofes family Davies? That is the 2.nd most common name in Wales, yet there is no "V" in the Welsh alphabet.

 

[pcchickens]

We have some good friends who live in Georgia, near there. My wife's ancestors were Edwards and Ayers and supposedly they came from Cardiff and Swansea. Is it possible to ship hatching eggs across pond both legally and in time for them to hatch? I noticed on your blog that you said you shipped hatching eggs to Denmark.

 

[thorleif]

I am on top of the Swansea Valley, at the edge of the Brecon Beacons, a famous mountainrange, a National Park. I think it is a bit of a logistic nightmare to send eggs to the US. It is possible, but very bureaucratic. At some stage in the future, I suppose we should look into it and do it, as the outcross would be absolutely fantastic, but it would have to be very well organised, and with a courier, as the X-Raying of parcels would kill any embryo. In the old days there were no restrictions, and there was quite a traffic across the Atlantic with live chickens, Americans would exibit birds in England, and vice versa.
There is still a lot of investegation needed into the Langshan-chickens in China, the Langshans we know about there are all clean legged, but China is big, and we are hoping that out in the countryside there may still be some Langshans as we know them, hopefully they have not died out. There is one place here in the UK that imported some American Langshans a few years ago, and they are thriving.

 

[msladyhawke]

Just for the cuteness factor. My newest bantam Langshan. Currently 4 days old.