NY chicken lover!!!!

[kadoer12]

WOW, kinda new to BYC, I found a upstate NY thread! Looking for a heritage meat bird breed, non-cornish x frankenbirds and hope to try a few in the spring. I plan on trying Breiss to see if they live up to the hype and have found a breeder driving distance from me selling breeding trios for $125, more expensive than some but after paying for 15 minimum for chicks and shipping at places I've found they really are not and I can breed their numbers up. Does anyone know where I can find Jersey Giant, non-hatchery, preferably white? I planned on getting some blacks from "Marias Giants", she from what I've read has the best but I'd rather not have them mailed If I can find some local. I read a old thread on BYC where a guy was looking for big heritage JG whites wanting to preserve the breed, and I'm thinking white ones would dress out nicer. Plan on ordering some cheap roos from Meyers also to practice canonizing before trying it on the Breiss and JG. Anyone know where I can find JG heritage big bred birds (I've heard hatchery ones don't grow to as big as they say) in upstate NY? I live between Binghamton and Oneonta.

Hi and Welcome! We have a couple JG blacks, but our three came from McMurrays. Would love to get some black and blues from a breeder. I've been interested in the dorkings, which I guess the white variety is the best(well second to the much rarer cuckoo). Maybe it will be similar in Jersey's? The skin may be whiter to in the whites. Good luck on your birds and would love to know how your caponizing goes! Also, if your way upstate ny, then I'm way,way, way upstate, lol.

 

[kadoer12]

No, I got the Ameracuanas, Black Copper Marans, Olive Eggers and Lavender Orpingtons from Chicken Scratch Poultry.

That's good. I'm not familair with Chicken Scratch Poultry. We order the ameraucanas from McMurrays, and realized as we watched them grow that they were really EE's. Well, learned to read the fine print carefully. Can't wait to see pics of the ones you keep.

 

[sarahandbray]

Yeah, I can't exactly endorse this breeder/ hatchery since we had a rough go of shipping with them, but the birds have turned out nicely.

 

[horsekeeper]

WOW, kinda new to BYC, I found a upstate NY thread! Looking for a heritage meat bird breed, non-cornish x frankenbirds and hope to try a few in the spring. I plan on trying Breiss to see if they live up to the hype and have found a breeder driving distance from me selling breeding trios for $125, more expensive than some but after paying for 15 minimum for chicks and shipping at places I've found they really are not and I can breed their numbers up. Does anyone know where I can find Jersey Giant, non-hatchery, preferably white? I planned on getting some blacks from "Marias Giants", she from what I've read has the best but I'd rather not have them mailed If I can find some local. I read a old thread on BYC where a guy was looking for big heritage JG whites wanting to preserve the breed, and I'm thinking white ones would dress out nicer. Plan on ordering some cheap roos from Meyers also to practice canonizing before trying it on the Breiss and JG. Anyone know where I can find JG heritage big bred birds (I've heard hatchery ones don't grow to as big as they say) in upstate NY? I live between Binghamton and Oneonta.

I joined the Jersey Giant club and they sent me the membership list that shows who has what variety and what they sell. I think if you contact the club they may send you the list. I have black JGs, but they aren't grown out enough yet to tell how good they will be. Marqiusella's coronation sussex are beautiful big birds that you may want to consider. There is also a facebook page for JGs.

I found that marans grow to a nice size and make a lovely carcass. Taste excellent, too.

 

[kadoer12]

I'll give them a look the next time we order. That's great they are coming out nicely! I love raising chicks, watching them grow and admiring them.

 

[rancher hicks]

Blue laced red Wyandottes were the first birds I started breeding back in 2003. I had them for 6 or 7 years, then gave up. They are not good layers, nor are they very big. Yes they were pretty, but even that was hard to accomplish. They were popular for a while, and then died back some. I think because the frustration in trying to breed good birds. I didn't see any better personality in them than any of the other breeds I had. Just my experience, and at one point, I was 1 of about 4 serious breeders of them in the US. Jerry Foley even bought a roo from me when he first started. I don't think any of them are still breeding them now.

Marq, this is not pointed at you, just some thoughts.


One of the things that can frustrate working with older pure breeds is bringing them back into Utility/dual purpose quality aka meat and eggs.

Expecting the meat quantity we're used to in Cornish Rocks and the egg laying we see in the sex links. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

You'd be hard pressed to feed a family of four on heritage/dual purpose birds imo. Not eating the amount we eat today at least.

Not every chick we hatch will be show the SOP. We simply have to hatch lots and lots of chicks. Then too, even those SOP's will throw some not so SOP's. Such is life.

We also will have to undo years of breeding for appearance rather than utility. I've been singing this song for a long time but folks just don't want to face the truth. Gene pools become shallow and egg laying in exchange for beauty is the norm. The practical poultry magazine has mentioned many times that show birds may lack egg laying and fertility.

My BR's are beautiful but lay medium sized eggs and aren't great. My Columbian rocks are huge but not great layers. My Dels are great layers but lack meat and the size I'd like to see.

It is work and I've learned just this year to hatch 100 chicks and from those choose 10. Of course I can't hatch that many, unless I give up breeds.

All this must be kept in the back of your mind when working with chickens. Only then will you be satisfied or content with the hobby.

I wish you all well.

 

[Beer can]

Also, if your way upstate ny, then I'm way,way, way upstate, lol.

Lol! Most the posters I've saw on this site are from other States, I've been in the Army, and around some of the country and most people think NY is NY, the city. I just meant I was WAY away from there! I live in the middle of redneck, hillbilly dairy farm country, some of the best in NY. Most in the rest of the Country would never believe us from the Catskills, or my favorite hunting camping mountains the Adirondacks are not much different than those from the Appalachia!
If your looking for good breeder 'show quality' JG check out 'Marias Jersey Giants' she has had a closed flock, coming from a old well known breeder. She has black, blue and splash, but no whites. A little expensive, and defensive of her birds (you will understand that one if you read her site). If I can't find what I'm looking for I'll probably try ordering from her. Sand Hill Preservation Center has the whites, and supposedly originally from the same old well known breeder Maria inherited her flock from, Golda Miller. But I have heard mixed reviews about them, and they have many different breeds of birds, not a good thing if your looking for real good bred birds. Marias only breeds Giants, and they look like big beautiful birds from the pics, she (her birds)has been featured in many chicken mags. Hopefully I will get lucky and find some good super extra large JG whites not to far from me, I was quite surprised to see Breisse on Craigslist not to far away.

 

[Pyxis]

Do some research on the vaccinations. I think I seen in the southern NY thread that someone had vaccinated birds, therefore any new ones also needed to be vaccinated. The hatchery birds will shed the killed virus in droppings and potentially infect your breeder birds. Can't remember exactly though, so someone else chime in? We had an avian vet tech floating around here somewhere...

Avian vet tech in training here. but don't know if it was me you're talking about. With the Marek's vaccine this isn't true, since they don't vaccinate using Marek's, they vaccinate using a turkey virus that is close enough to Marek's that it provides antibodies that work on it. And coccidiosis is actually caused by a parasite, so chicks are actually given live oocytes to ingest, and yes, they do shed it, so yes, you could give birds without immunity to the disease coccidiosis this way. However this strain is not resistant to medicine like other strains are, so it's fairly easy to treat if it happens. So if you have your chicks vaccinated for coccidiosis, you're actually paying to have them infected with it, and there is the slight chance that they will die from it, but the idea is that young chicks are the least valuable birds to lose, they are the least susceptible to cocci at that age, this is before a natural outbreak would occur, this occurs before the stress period that rapid growth induces so they are better able to fight it off, and if they do get sick, the medicine costs to treat young chicks are less than that to treat an older bird. So that's why they do it, but yes, if you buy chicks vaccinated for coccidiosis, you are actually buying chicks that have been infected with it.

 

[Beer can]

I joined the Jersey Giant club and they sent me the membership list that shows who has what variety and what they sell. I think if you contact the club they may send you the list.

Does their list have more than what their website shows? Cause I've only saw one in PA that is somewhat close, and they do have whites. I thought about Dorkings, but I can't segregate too many breeds, already have brown leghorns, EEgrs and Welsummers together for eggs, all others will be segregated. Only want to try two breeds right now, the Breese and Giants.

 

[horsekeeper]

Sand Hill Preservation Center has the whites, and supposedly originally from the same old well known breeder Maria inherited her flock from, Golda Miller. But I have heard mixed reviews about them, and they have many different breeds of birds, not a good thing if your looking for real good bred birds. Marias only breeds Giants, and they look like big beautiful birds from the pics, she (her birds)has been featured in many chicken mags. Hopefully I will get lucky and find some good super extra large JG whites not to far from me, I was quite surprised to see Breisse on Craigslist not to far away.

I started out with a rooster and four hens from a private breeder and the hens were all different shapes and sizes. The roo was small for a JG and I lost him this summer. I got hatching eggs at this year's chicken stock from another BYCer and she said she got hers from Sand Hill. Out of the ones I managed to hatch, one of the roos is at that gangly/ugly stage and his neck is a mass of pinfeathers right now. He is a clumsy adolescent, but is already almost as big as the one I lost. He is a very handsome fella even though he does have one crooked toe. A couple of the pullets are looking pretty good as well.

From the reviews I read, it seems that Sand Hill focuses on preserving more of the old heritage breed characteristics over the big fancy show conformation. The original bunch turned out to be excellent layers and foragers and one of the hens is quite chunky and has a nice wide fluffy butt.

I am hoping to cross her with the young roo this spring and get some vigorous chicks that are close to the SOP. Did I mention one of the hens had a new chick when I bought them? She was an excellent mother and all of them attempted going broody this year.

What line you get depends on what you want from them. I don't plan to show, so a sturdy old fashioned type of bird works well for my backyard flock. I want the size they are known for, but also want to retain the dual purpose characteristics and I don't mind waiting for them to grow out. Maria's chickens are impressive, but a bit expensive for me. I've lost enough of them to sudden unexplained death that I am leery of paying too much for something "special".