Show Off Your Games!

[Md Whitehackle]

Now that's a good looking pullet! What are you breeding her with this year?

my old leiper cock that is in my avatar

 

[Md Whitehackle]

Murphey whitehackle over col. Givens hatch

do you have a pic of the murphey

 

[sdm111]

Yes but it has the owners face and I don't think he would like for me to put it on the net. I can explain him, mostly white with some black in his tail, shoulders dark red and black, lower 3/4 of wings white, red hackles and sickle feathers with white streamers and I think black spangled chest can't remember the chest.

 

[hildar]

Back in the early 1970’s I used to visit with my great-uncle that was very much into games. He had a typical cockyard that covered about 3 acres on a hillside, a series of about 30 cinderblock flypens, and multiple hen houses where hens not in breeding were kept. He also had a lot of the old modified wooden coops like what were at one time used to ship birds. Those little coops were scattered about a field adjacent to cockyard and around buildings and even his front yard. During spring most of the coops had in each a hen with chicks where chicks could run about a short distance from their mothers. The cocks and stags penned on hill were mostly what people these days would automatically call a Hatch although I am fairly certain that if it was in their background, it represented only a portion of what they were derived from. There is an interesting story as to how those birds came to be but that is not important at this time. The other colors that were said to be from our blood were a dirty version of the “Hatch-colored” which was actually the most common, another we called brown red which better described as brown-breasted brown red. We also had some proper brown reds that started off as dark brown chicks and even some redquill. When anything that did not look like a proper black-breasted red was bred to almost black stags of what we called ‘Doc Kniefords” a much higher proportion of redquills where thrown. None had white except for cotton of tails and every bird had green legs. White or greys for some reason where not held in high esteem.


The farm of my upbringing was at a different location and supported some of my great-uncles walks. We had multiple barnyards because we kept cattle and stored all hay as square bales in those barns and it was not practical to store all in a single location. The main barnyard surrounding house of my grandparents had enough buildings and acreage to enable existence of three discrete walks so long as the number of birds was not too high. Grandparents there were not related to my great-uncle; we are far enough north that at least some forks in the family tree are to be expected. About the time of my great-uncles passing, his “birding partner” named Buss brought out a single cock he said was a grey toppy with yellow legs. He did not try to set up the typical multiple walk system nor did he take the time to make certain hens were staying where they were supped to be or were not pullets not harvested from season before. Pullets normally did not get to breed on walks. That cock sired more than a dozen broods (well over a hundred birds come September when stags where harvested) from a group of hens and their daughters that normally represented three discrete lines. A good portion of those young birds were grays of some sort but about half were not which in hindsight means that cock was golden duckwing. The cock also through some yellow legged offspring. A bunch of other colortypes I had not seen in our birds before also popped up, including wheaton which was directly evident in some the nonwhite birds. I had my eye on a couple stags but Buss harvested those leaving me to pick through the post June hatched birds and one grey pullet that roosted in a location he could not get to because he was too heavy. That pullet was magic to me! She was a gray toppied redquill (approximately silverquill but just a little lighter) with willow legs. I bred her to a range of males in the following years and got color-types that were even more unpredictable than in her generation. These included more wheatons. I was young and had very little experience seeing such variation in games. My grandfather allowed my brother and I to use a couple barnyards as walks over the following decade and we also talked our way into using barnyards of neighbors for the same purpose. During this time we had birds that differed markedly from what our family was known for. In the end I had to go college for too long and was not able to take birds with me so they were lost to a range of outcomes, my first hen went to Buss as he tried to salvage the grey cocks bloodline and others I do not know. My brother had a core group that was not contaminated by Buss’s efforts and it from that I acquired my current lines which does not include the grays, wheatons or the brown reds. Latter my brother had but was lost in genetic bottleneck my current founding stock represented. My experience with wheatons ended back in the early 1980’s resulting in my having to beg for pictures over the internet.

See it is stuff like this that takes us back to the stories that our parents told us about how breeds came about, and how they created certain blood lines. I know I have heard my dad and uncles talking for years about roosters back grounds and how to breed them with certain hens to make certain colors. It's all stuff that back as a child I found was interesting but not as interesting as playing with the chickens.

Family farms were also a big thing back then. We had over 100 acres to take care of growing up, and my uncle had another farm in town and a barn on our property, then my 3rd uncle was down on the coast of Maine with 3 more barns and another 40 acres, that was just on my dads side, then on my moms side they had over 12,000 acres total between 5 of her brothers.

Wow so sorry for your loss, but you will get what you have always wanted some day. My plans some day is to get a bird that I have always wanted when I do, I will then die happy, I hope after generations of chicks though.

 

[sdm111]

do you have a pic of the murphey

Pretty much like this pic I pulled from the net

 

[troyer]

Or not. In 54 years of raising thousands of birds I've never quarantined a bird & never had a problem as a result. Try buying from reliable sources.

Same here, I agree with NYREDS. Buy from reliable sources. It might not give you the exact birds you want, but at least they'll be healthy.

 

[centrarchid]

A great deal of research has been investigated in how to control disease. The position held by NYREDS if presented among people with livelihoods dependent upon livestock health would not only disregard his statement but very likely challenge it as being foolhardry at best. He might even be laughed at. The concept of quarantine and biosecurity has been developed over a span greatly exceeding 54 years and many of its proponents are similarly experienced. Sometimes it pays to distinguish wisdom from simply being contrary where age alone is used to support your position.

 

[troyer]

A great deal of research has been investigated in how to control disease. The position held by NYREDS if presented among people with livelihoods dependent upon livestock health would not only disregard his statement but very likely challenge it as being foolhardry at best. He might even be laughed at. The concept of quarantine and biosecurity has been developed over a span greatly exceeding 54 years and many of its proponents are similarly experienced. Sometimes it pays to distinguish wisdom from simply being contrary where age alone is used to support your position.

I don't believe that NYREDS is against quarantine and biosecurity, necessarily. He is just advising us to use great care in where we get our livestock and if we get them from those that we know have healthy flocks then the issue with diseases becomes almost, if not completely non-existant. If you have had experience with having your flock get sick from fowl that you brought in then I can understand why you would be a strong supporter of quarantine and biosecurity.
I support disease control and biosecurity. It is possible to have disease free and disease hardy fowl. I and one of my friends trade fowl back and forth on a regular basis, we both breed for hardiness and vigor. While I am not against vaccinating, I strongly believe we do ourselves a great disfavor by medicating for every little disease and illness that our fowl get.
I have a closed flock except for trading back and forth with my friend. I cull all my fowl that get sick as I will not intentionally breed from one that has been sick. Experience has taught me that the offspring of formerly sick parent stock have a 95% higher possibility of getting sick themselves, and the ones from the parent stock that have never been sick have only a 5% possibility (in my flock as I have experienced it) of getting sick. This is my experience. It costs a lot more at start-up to take the route I just described, but in the long run it's actually cheaper because of hardy, vigorous livestock.
I'm not completely against quarantine either as I believe it has it's place.
In a society that is largely disrespectful of older people, I believe we do well to strongly consider the experiences of the same, if we personally know the older person and know firsthand they they tend to have unhealthy livestock then I believe we need to be very careful. I don't see myself bringing sick or formerly sick livestock to my place, to me that would be unwise. I also understand the principle for the importation laws.
I grew up on a dairy farm and understand the value of having healthy livestock. On the farm we always bred for hardiness and vigor. Anyone that has ever tried raising calves for profit knows the diseases and sicknesses that will accompany that endeavor. We had very little sickness on our farm and we did very little vaccinating. We vaccinated as the laws required. There were neighboring farmers that vaccinated and medicated for every little thing and it seemed they were always struggling to have hardy, healthy and vigorous livestock. We would not have even considered bringing in and breeding from any of their livestock, knowing that it would only weaken what we had.
I am not against research and I appreciate the efforts of those that have extended themselves in it, but I can't force myself to believe everything that "research" says is right. I do know that what I have experienced is true and know that it works for me. I also believe that we need to keep the living quarters of our animals clean and fresh. It only makes sense that animals that are in crowded, stressful situations will get sick quicker and easier, besides it is poor animal husbandry and cruelty to let them live in such situations. We are responsible as keepers of animals no matter what they are, to give them a good life. Again, experience has taught me that a largely stress free animal will do 100% better than one in a crowded situation. i.e. (pen to small for it). Perhaps if we were not allowed to house animals in crowded/over crowded conditions we would have for less problems with diseases, as the diseases/sicknesses seem to thrive well in poopy/wet conditions. A clean, well ventilated area is only one of many keys to have happy healthy livestock.

 

[sdm111]

My mentors men in their 60's, 70's, & 80's are the ones to teach me to quarantine and closely watch any new birds brought onto the property and to cull if need be. They would be the first ones to chop a head off. I guess I just don't understand putting a lot of time and money at risk but that's just me.

 

[hildar]

My mentors men in their 60's, 70's, & 80's are the ones to teach me to quarantine and closely watch any new birds brought onto the property and to cull if need be. They would be the first ones to chop a head off. I guess I just don't understand putting a lot of time and money at risk but that's just me.

I also have had mentors all my life time that have taught me what I know. Also where we happen to have a registered farm we have to quarantine, it's the state law. If I don't do it with new birds they can close me down real fast and with all the money that I have in my Emu's and other birds I see no sense at all in losing everything. Even if I have a bird come in from the NCSU I have to quarantine them. Shoot I can't even move one from the small property up to the large one without a 30 day quarantine, and it's from one of my own flocks. It is something that I do without even thinking about it any more, they go into a holding area out back until when they can finally go in with everyone else.