Ok.. so I'm not buying the whole.... Updated with pics...breeding hens

[Germaine_11.20]

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Oh my gosh, that was funny about eating the pin feathers and darn it, you're right! I have the book to build the Whizband and still haven't gotten to it yet. Sheesh. Those nubby gloves sure are nice though for getting the feathers out!

And you bet I will have pics. I will try and be diligent about record keeping but I am more of an eyeballer. Looks good, should be big enough... I will do better.

 

[al6517]

Now your talkin.......... good job. I have also looked at the buckeye and see a huge cornish influence already there, just look at the head, if thats not cornish I don't know what is. I think a White rock Roo over the buckeye hen would add some bulk and growth speed.

AL

 

[al6517]

I am working at making my plucker from a washing machine, should be done by spring.

AL

 

[Germaine_11.20]

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Yes, yes, yes! I just hatched 6 buckeyes, have more in the hatcher and more coming in the mail soon! Brilliant minds think alike.

 

[al6517]

Your not experimenting with hatchery buckeyes are you ??????????????.

AL

 

[dancingbear]

My Little Sister's Farm :

All I can say is genetics is a lot harder than you think. It isn't a simple math equation of 1 gene plus 1 gene equals either this or that. There are so many pairings that will control different things. There are poultry professors that can't pin point where on the dna the brown egg genes are, they've identified 13. It takes more than a google page and breeding 2 chickens together. You will have fertility and laying issues regardless of diet. You are focusing on a "male" characteristic in muscle development and will have to sacrifice the female characteristics of # of eggs and fertility to do such.

I'm know that's true, genetic issues get really complex. I have to wonder though, how deep you really need to get? Basics selective breeding is keeping the best ones, and breeding them, then keep the best and breed those, and so on. If you have brown egg layers bred to brown egg layers, you're gonna get more brown egg layers. It doesn't matter that you don't know exactly what gene controls the brown pigment.

A lot of people, throughout history, have successfully bred animals for the traits they wanted, and developed a good, strong, stable breed, without knowing all that. Good breeding was being done before DNA was ever discovered.

Seems to me that one of the problems of our advanced scientific knowledge is the tendency to over analyze and micromanage every little thing.

Most of us who lean toward the sustainable poultry, accept that we won't have the super fast growers or the super producing egg layers. What we will have, or what we hope for, (this is my personal hope, others may have a different take on this) is a healthy line of birds that make a reasonably sized table bird in 16-20 weeks, and hens that lay a reasonable number of eggs. They don't have to set records.

A lot of people (and I'm not saying you are one of them, I know almost nothing about you) have bought into the idea that everything has to be the biggest, the fastest, the most, etc. The concept of "enough" has gotten lost. Our health and our environment, and our wallets have shown the real cost of all this. I, and many others, are saying "enough", is good enough.

The idea of breeding the X's down a little, and getting a reasonably good, sustainable meat bird has great appeal, to me. I'm wanting to try it, along with my other experiments.​

 

[Germaine_11.20]

No siree, not me. I am getting them from bigredfeather, pathfinders and JamesA They have excellent buckeyes. You should pop over to the buckeye thread. Mmmmm nice birds.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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I'm not....

 

[Germaine_11.20]

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I'm not....

Sounds guilty.

 

[dancingbear]

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Nubby gloves? Got a pic? or a brand name or something?