Old and Rare Breeds

[Illia]

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The one on the right looks kind of white because it has a lot of calcium pockets in it, making it shiny and light in color. Shamos do come in different colors and most of the time do breed true. The recognized varieties are Dark, Wheaten, and Black, but they also come in colors like my Barred Wheaten stag as well as White, Blue, Splash, etc.

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I do keep them separate, but regardless, I have a couple pullets who wander around peacefully with these guys, no matter how many times I try and put them back in the pasture with the rest of my chickens. I only have the one stag and pullet for now, but plan to get more pullets from other breeders this spring. Most of the day, the pullet spends her time nearby the other chicken's pasture and my "Bachelor Pad" filled with cockerels and cocks who have great interest in her teasing affairs with them across the fence. The stag usually stays up by our houses, following us wherever we go, trying to entice us into the excitement of whatever treats, bugs, grass, or other random objects he finds. He is a hoot!

 

[spartacus_63]

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I completely understand what your saying Dave, and in the genre of showing I absolutely agree. It would otherwise be like breeding hounds that can't hunt. My comments are completely unrelated to the show ring and more inclined to the market and the purpose of the breed.

 

[welasharon]

Thank you. I am very intrigued by these. Course I still lust after the tolbunt! LOL I am afraid it is going to look like a compound around here before long!
sharon

 

[DaveK]

The crele looking Shamo, I don't know a good one from a not so good but what a beautiful photo of this young cockerel. One thing about the Oriental games that always strikes me is their look of intelligence and deep thinking. It's real easy to think about some sort of real Oriental game. And I'm laughing about the lack of egg song. I have always said that all that screaming and cackling to tell the whole hungry world that you've just laid an egg isn't, somehow, biologically sound.

 

[buffalogal]

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But it is; the egg song is a mating call. The hen is telling any males in the area that *right now* would be a great time to get over and commence to courtin', as this is the best chance his sperm is going to have to reach an ova without having another egg in the way.
In addition to having a few cocks that have their regular "harems", all day long I see the males both young and old waiting around the chicken house while the hens are laying. In fact, I have one Ancona that will stand guard in front of the nest box while his favorite girl is going into her egg trance. They "talk" back and forth to each other until she's finished. That's not to say they're a monogamous pair; he'll cheerfully breed other females, but he *especially* wants to breed that one, and doesn't seem to mind waiting around for a chance. So everyday, he's right there telling her "breath Honey, puff puff puff..." because once she's done, well, guess who's going to fertilizing tomorrow's egg?

 

[Illia]

Quote:
But it is; the egg song is a mating call. The hen is telling any males in the area that *right now* would be a great time to get over and commence to courtin', as this is the best chance his sperm is going to have to reach an ova without having another egg in the way.
In addition to having a few cocks that have their regular "harems", all day long I see the males both young and old waiting around the chicken house while the hens are laying. In fact, I have one Ancona that will stand guard in front of the nest box while his favorite girl is going into her egg trance. They "talk" back and forth to each other until she's finished. That's not to say they're a monogamous pair; he'll cheerfully breed other females, but he *especially* wants to breed that one, and doesn't seem to mind waiting around for a chance. So everyday, he's right there telling her "breath Honey, puff puff puff..." because once she's done, well, guess who's going to fertilizing tomorrow's egg?

Agreed entirely.

My Ameraucanas and Araucanas are especially that way. When a hen is laying her egg in the nesting box, the cock(erel) will stand beside it, looking right at her, and make a long trilling noise, over and over, as if calming her into a meditative state.

 

[DTchickens]

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From the info I've received about Shamos from a big time breeder, someone who has studied Shamo fowl very deeply and even has been to Japan.. No, Shamo do not breed true. A lot of Oriental gamefowl now do breed true to colors due to a lot of breeding based primarily on color, in Japan they do not breed this way and nor does Julia Keeling (or Shamolady, the lady I talk to.) She will quickly stand out on her opinion too if someone mentions breeding Shamo for color lol.

She will tell you most of her birds come in BBred, black, black red, and Wheaten because out of her lines those were the ones with a better type, and temperament.. But she does occasionally get other colors too, like I've seen blues come from her line. My line came from Prariefowl/Fowlafoot, and they originally got their blood from Jim Zook, but my line is actually three lines crossed together.

I haven't been able to find out info on the Will Robert's/Dr. Sapaphor lines, but I talked to Jim Zook.. All of his birds came from one line from my understanding, his father bought Shamo's from Mr. Horst Schmudde in the 1940's I believe it was. One line, supposedly nothing added. If you look at Jim Zook's page, you will see White, Grey, Crele, BBred, and Wheaten Shamos, I have seen him selling blue wheatens and stuff like that. The old hen I have and was the main brood hen Prariechiken and Fowlafoot bred is a Wheaten and crossed with what I'd call a Black Red cock has thrown (so far), black reds, dark Wheaten's, and solid black that I know of.

Being partially Horst Schmudde, I am sure after breeding I will probably end up with many of the colors Jim Zook has, if not more since they have three lines in them. They can come pretty much any color in the book from my understanding, the only things I remember being told was from out crossing would be the barring gene. The barring gene isn't supposed to be in Shamo's, but she said probably came from Brazilian crosses with them which are a blend of Spanish gamefowl (similar to American, but I imagine you know that) crossed with Shamo. I am thinking she told me pumpkin's are an example of a cross too, but will have to check back on that.

I am thinking I will probably end up with some crele, or barred bird's since Jim Zook has some.. But have decided not to keep/breed them because it is not a color pure Shamo should have. I like them to resemble the "real thing" as much as possible.

Miss Julia even got a henny Shamo out of her breeding's before, yet none of the other birds were?

-Daniel

 

[VillageChicken]

They shut this thread down right when I got through reading the whole thing last night, right when I wanted to post.
Glad it is open again.

Living in Europe I have found that almost every country has their own "heritage" breeds that are on the brink of disappearing. There are preservation societies in every country.

There are some "rare" fowl in the U.S. that are quite common here in Europe though, and before choosing which breed to invest in, I recommend researching to make sure that breed really needs preserving.

Sussex is one example. The light sussex is very common in the UK. I've even seen them here in Hungary. There are other varieties of sussex though that are indeed critically rare.

Here's a good UK website with some data on breeds on the critical list .

 

[DaveK]

Quote:
But it is; the egg song is a mating call. The hen is telling any males in the area that *right now* would be a great time to get over and commence to courtin', as this is the best chance his sperm is going to have to reach an ova without having another egg in the way.
In addition to having a few cocks that have their regular "harems", all day long I see the males both young and old waiting around the chicken house while the hens are laying. In fact, I have one Ancona that will stand guard in front of the nest box while his favorite girl is going into her egg trance. They "talk" back and forth to each other until she's finished. That's not to say they're a monogamous pair; he'll cheerfully breed other females, but he *especially* wants to breed that one, and doesn't seem to mind waiting around for a chance. So everyday, he's right there telling her "breath Honey, puff puff puff..." because once she's done, well, guess who's going to fertilizing tomorrow's egg?

Agreed entirely.

My Ameraucanas and Araucanas are especially that way. When a hen is laying her egg in the nesting box, the cock(erel) will stand beside it, looking right at her, and make a long trilling noise, over and over, as if calming her into a meditative state.

Of course you are both right. As fast as I hit send I thought that someone will mention this behavior. Still seems odd to me on some level and the Shamos continue to grace us with their prescence so not calling and trilling must work also. More than one way to get from here to there I guess.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Lurking here in Southeastern Virginia also.

So far I only have hatchery birds, but I'm trying to soak up information as I make up my mind about which breeds I'm most interested in.

The mommy in me requires me to say "Be Nice!" before I go back to lurking. We need more Niceness in the world. Personally, I've had my quota of rude people. You can disagree with anyone and still be nice about it. It might take a few rough drafts and rewrites, but niceness CAN be maintained. As the Great Sages* said, "Be excellent to one another!"

*You babies can go google "Bill & Ted". I'm back to lurking.