Ohiki Chicken Thread

[Toni-Marie]

Steve, If you did not go through all the Chanel's,legal and all the import papers,Vet statements,etc and all the other red tape I would not be stating that on a forum about getting eggs from Italy.. If you did not you can risk all of your birds being taken by authorities. Yes true.If your new you have lots to learn and I would hate to see you get in big trouble to start off.. Ask Manderz on here or Aubrey,Chuck,Chris or other breeders if they have anything to sale...I do but none leave here less than $350.00 a pair. So with that said I place very few young birds. To my good friends nothing.That's how we do it.. Ohiki are new to the USA so they will be like the Serama when they first came out..Now that's just me.I worked hard for 9 years on these birds. What my friends do is up to them. Again beware about getting eggs without proper paper work and all the other red tape...TM.

 

[Toni-Marie]

Oh yes almost forgot...I would not call 9 years a short time....TM

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep I'd agree , it wasn't an over night success for sure. you got them in in what 2002 or so... that's far from a short run.

Steve the ones she imported were pure to start with so that's what it was a "short period" just a little out crossing to add strenght to the blood lines, back breed 9 year to fix type back perfect and they're done.
That being said, now there are still lots of them out there that are not done, or culls.
I myself still have some that need refining as do most of the others. But with our good birds ( thanks to Toni) it's just a matter of a couple crossings to better stock and it's done. Really most of this too if for color project work anymore ( at least here) and not so much more about type correction . One thing I have and still see in a lot of pics is ear lobes, leg color, and the occasional leg stubble. But these are minor things to fix. And honestly I could care less about a certain leg color as long as every thing else was in good order.
I still get some thin bodied birds here, but not too many, as long as they are short leg birds I just put them in with a good round bodied mate. And even those after a year or so can fill out and surprise you.

Buying eggs now, beware on that. I brought it up earlier in the year that I saw some on eBay that were not in any way ohiki.Some people are just after a dollar and aren't very honest. They made the ol cochin x phoenix look a like crosses.
Also ask before you buy and be sure the eggs will be coming from the breeders better stock and not their left over culls. There's no need to start out going backwards on them.
Right now, I'm still building and refining my personal stock. Once I have them ALL in good order, I'll start letting some go. When I do, I just want to be sure the new buyer will be getting birds from pretty decent stock. That way they'll have the best chance at getting good birds and not be so much a contributor to taking the breed backwards here.
You know how some folks are, as long as they can call it by a name, they don't care to learn any more about it, know the type or anything and there they'll be on eBay, culls being sold as pure refined birds. I just don't want any part in that.

I did send out a small cherry picked group of chicks this year a a few eggs out of my finish birds to someone I knew, but that was it. Personally I'm getting there now though, wont be long. Think after this year coming up I can have mostly finish birds and be in good shape.

You can find some though, just go with the names Toni-Marie listed, there's a couple more too, but outside those, I'd be leery. Just be sure to know the birds before you get them.

Most of mine are doing great on normal chicken food. But like Toni mentioned earlier, there are some still out there that have gluten issues. I bring this up cause I noticed you said in a post you don't feed corn. Just be aware virtually all sore bought chicken feed is made of corn, any grain for that matter has gluten in it. so if you do get some with issues to the grain diet, you will have to make home made feed pretty much, unless you get lucky and find a gluten free prepared ration some where.

Oh , Toni.. He lived in Italy if I read all the post right. I think he may have meant ( in Italy) as when he lived there?? I might be wrong. If so Steve, yes like Toni said, they'll burn you on illegal imports.

 

[HeritageSeekers]

Steve, If you did not go through all the Chanel's,legal and all the import papers,Vet statements,etc and all the other red tape I would not be stating that on a forum about getting eggs from Italy.. If you did not you can risk all of your birds being taken by authorities. Yes true.If your new you have lots to learn and I would hate to see you get in big trouble to start off.. Ask Manderz on here or Aubrey,Chuck,Chris or other breeders if they have anything to sale...I do but none leave here less than $350.00 a pair. So with that said I place very few young birds. To my good friends nothing.That's how we do it.. Ohiki are new to the USA so they will be like the Serama when they first came out..Now that's just me.I worked hard for 9 years on these birds. What my friends do is up to them. Again beware about getting eggs without proper paper work and all the other red tape...TM.

Oh goodness no.. I did not mean to give that impression. I was referring to when I lived in Italy (lived there for 8 years) I'm a square peg when it comes doing legalities! LOL

I won't pretend that I know much at all about breeding chickens. I have bred many animals over the past 25 years and focused on Toygers and Bengals (cat breeds) for the past 8 years. My reference to "in such a short time" was based off of working with these and other animals and knowing that it would be an absolute dream to achieve perfect conformation in 9 years. When I think of the American Ohiki being developed from one group of purebred birds that had to be outcrossed I just assumed that there was work to be done. Obviously it's "quicker" (and I use that term loosely) to move forward with chickens than mammals. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone and their hard work with my naivety on chicken breeding.

Steve

 

[HeritageSeekers]

yep I'd agree , it wasn't an over night success for sure. you got them in in what 2002 or so... that's far from a short run.

Steve the ones she imported were pure to start with so that's what it was a "short period" just a little out crossing to add strenght to the blood lines, back breed 9 year to fix type back perfect and they're done.
That being said, now there are still lots of them out there that are not done, or culls.
I myself still have some that need refining as do most of the others. But with our good birds ( thanks to Toni) it's just a matter of a couple crossings to better stock and it's done. Really most of this too if for color project work anymore ( at least here) and not so much more about type correction . One thing I have and still see in a lot of pics is ear lobes, leg color, and the occasional leg stubble. But these are minor things to fix. And honestly I could care less about a certain leg color as long as every thing else was in good order.
I still get some thin bodied birds here, but not too many, as long as they are short leg birds I just put them in with a good round bodied mate. And even those after a year or so can fill out and surprise you.

Buying eggs now, beware on that. I brought it up earlier in the year that I saw some on eBay that were not in any way ohiki.Some people are just after a dollar and aren't very honest. They made the ol cochin x phoenix look a like crosses.
Also ask before you buy and be sure the eggs will be coming from the breeders better stock and not their left over culls. There's no need to start out going backwards on them.
Right now, I'm still building and refining my personal stock. Once I have them ALL in good order, I'll start letting some go. When I do, I just want to be sure the new buyer will be getting birds from pretty decent stock. That way they'll have the best chance at getting good birds and not be so much a contributor to taking the breed backwards here.
You know how some folks are, as long as they can call it by a name, they don't care to learn any more about it, know the type or anything and there they'll be on eBay, culls being sold as pure refined birds. I just don't want any part in that.

I did send out a small cherry picked group of chicks this year a a few eggs out of my finish birds to someone I knew, but that was it. Personally I'm getting there now though, wont be long. Think after this year coming up I can have mostly finish birds and be in good shape.

You can find some though, just go with the names Toni-Marie listed, there's a couple more too, but outside those, I'd be leery. Just be sure to know the birds before you get them.

Most of mine are doing great on normal chicken food. But like Toni mentioned earlier, there are some still out there that have gluten issues. I bring this up cause I noticed you said in a post you don't feed corn. Just be aware virtually all sore bought chicken feed is made of corn, any grain for that matter has gluten in it. so if you do get some with issues to the grain diet, you will have to make home made feed pretty much, unless you get lucky and find a gluten free prepared ration some where.

Oh , Toni.. He lived in Italy if I read all the post right. I think he may have meant ( in Italy) as when he lived there?? I might be wrong. If so Steve, yes like Toni said, they'll burn you on illegal imports.

Thank you for this information. Much appreciated.

I've waited for years and years so I'm certainly in no rush. I guess the biggest obstacle has been finding anything. Even in Europe it's not so easy. As I said before, I had Marc King trying to help me find them and it never materialized. (considing it was Marc who sent the original eggs over to TM you'd think he could fine them! hahaha)
I never understood why people never allowed others to participate in the breed. It's a sure fire way to never see it prosper to it's full potential. I find this a very dangerous business when something is so rare. It takes a village.. at least that's always how I've approached breeding or rare and/or endangered breeds.

Granted there are always those to are out to make a buck. It certainly leaves a big trust issue and a bad taste in the mouth. However, in the long term, those types are usually weeded out quite quickly when they realize it's never a quick money scheme.....in my experience that is. (again.. not referring to chickens so much here but in my experience with many other birds/animals/exotics)

I'll be patient... no worries. \

Thanks again, ladies. Much appreciated.

Steve

 

[Toni-Marie]

Not at all...I just didnt want someone new to rare long-tails to get in trouble...Glad your up and up with that...I breed and showed cats for 22 years and chihuahuas for 12...And chickens my entire life...It's a long long road working on them..So with the Ohiki 9 years of breeding back to pure and blending and more blending is more work than one would think..I'm just glad there done..Even though there finished you still get culls as in all birds... And the work continues..........God bless....TM..

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep Steve, no problem. Think the biggest issue or difference between birds and mammals is the amount you can breed which certainly helps on the poultry end of it . It allows you to make a bunch in one summer , then you can cull them down to just the very best and do it again the following year. This compared to just a few animals per litter. I use to raise wildlife too. Arctic fox and other varieties of them as well, wolves, ferrets, etc, even had alligators to parrie dogs at one time. Had a bit of everything over the years, the ol Game Wardens use to love me!! They had to come inspect them all threw out the year, oh and about 100 species of migratory waterfowl they had to check up on a few times a year too.... sure love it though. But by far, breeding wise the poultry is certainly quicker just due to the numbers...

 

[tandersphoenix]

First Ohiki for the new year. These 2 are Shojo (ginger red) I have about 20 more due to hatch in a couple weeks along with some other colors too!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

congrats Travis,
they slowed way down here since it finally cooled off, but still setting a few eggs each week. Think I hatched a mixed batch of about 10 this weekend, little of this little of that. Got some nice ones in the brooder coming along though, kinda excited to see how they turn out.
Keep 'em coming, they are looking good!

 

[Toni-Marie]

Oh great! I've got about 300 chicks out so far. That includes Phoenix and Cemoni, and ohiki....Call me stupid....LOL...TM