Old and Rare Breeds

[NYREDS]

Ok, just I had read in a few spots and been told by a different friend who has bred white face black spanish for years that frostbite on the comb would hurt fertility.

Frostbite doesn't affect fertility but it is very painful & it does affect the birds desire to mate. Once the injury heals everything's back to normal.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have a question about something someone here may have experimented with.
It's widely recommended to use Vaseline on combs and wattles for frostbite protection. I've never done it but was wondering if anyone has tried it on half of their birds to see if they or the control group was more affected.

 

[Penny Hen]

How exactly would one go about doing that?

There is a gene for that!

Sorry couldn't resist the App reference! The gene exists in Breda and one or two other rarer breeds that are escaping my head at the moment. Of course you would most likely want to run down one of the other breeds rather than the Breda because they are not very game looking in other ways. One of the other breeds that I just can't think of the name (I can see the photograph in my head) is a lightly built bird with clean legs. But I suppose it could be done even with the Breda. Just take a few more generations to get the lack of comb and clean the legs back up.

 

[Penny Hen]

Maybe olive oil will inhibit frostbite in Tennessee but not here in northern New York where it gets down to 30 below zero.

Nope that is below what it can mitigate. I have sheep and wool. Maybe I should try to design stocking caps for Roosters!

Lived in Balston Spa/Saratoga Springs for a short time. Saw my first blizzard there. 3ft. Gorgeous country Upstate NY. Miss it in the Fall. TN only has a knock out leaf turning about every 10 to 15 years. This year it stayed green until 2 weeks ago and then suddenly half the leaves dropped still green and the rest are just rusty brown. One or two are managing a pale yellow green. They didn't make hardly any sugar this year. I am hoping we don't have bitter weather or we may lose trees.

 

[Totalcolour]

Nope that is below what it can mitigate. I have sheep and wool. Maybe I should try to design stocking caps for Roosters!

I have a TNN cockerel that I was thinking of knitting a nice long tubular neck scarf for. Wonder how I would get it one him, and if he would get upset!

 

[Penny Hen]

The Malays are in desperate need of help, but you need lots of room.
The standard Old English Games are virtually non-existent in the show room today. But require separate pens for each cock.

However, there are other barnyard breeds which are also Ancient and in need of dedicated keepers.

The Dorking has been recorded since the time of the Roman Empire and is 'the' meat breed of choice for many.
Others that may not be as ancient, but are extremely old (and need dedicated keepers) would include: Crevecoeurs, Polish, Redcaps, White-face Black Spanish..... just to name a few.

I have a question about the White Faced Black Spanish. Sandhill has had them for a while and they just started this year offering White-faced White Spanish. Do you know anything about this variant?

Also I was wondering about your opinion on the relative quality Ideal Poultry's bantam WFBS? I realize that it would take work but are they are sufficient quality to start there?

 

[fowlman01]

I don't know why anyone would make wwfs when the blacks need so much work.

Walt

 

[cubalaya]

they are probably 'sports' of the blacks.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I thought the (now gone) McKinney & Govero show hatchery place created white faced blue and white faced white spanish but not sure. I saw a white faced cuckoo spanish rooster on facebook yesterday, I think the breeder was in Greece though

 

[OSUman]

They probably got them from Jim Bell in TN.