show quality speckled sussex ??

[Orange Ribbon]

Hey Don, I didn't know you were posting until I put my post up. Thanks for those critiques. What is your take on what I did, and what I should do concerning the swollen eye on the one hen?

If I cut the sprig off the hen and not tell anybody, can I show her? I'M JUST KIDDING! HA!

 

[math ace]

Side springs are bad because they are highly inheritary. They are disqualifiers from the show ring.....

Nothing stops a pullet from being a good egg layer, just not a breeder.
I've sold them before on Craigslist without any problems... I specifiy that their comb has a side spring which stops them from being show quality BUT not from laying eggs.
Those who just want a pretty backyard bird will be more than glad to purchase your girl.

I wouldn't sell her until you solve the eye mystery. Isolate the infected bird and watch her. I use a Large dog carrier in my garage for a temp hospital.
I have found it a nightmare trying to find a good bird vet that isn't crazy expensive. I found a bird vet, but she wanted to treat my birds like they were pets..... one bird at a time.
Can you imagine be hauling an entire cage of birds into her office to have each one individual examined for the same disease? Crazy!

I've personally only had to deal with Fowl pox.... so I can not give you any advice or words of wisdom on any of the other diseases.
From what I've read on Coryza, there should be a distinctive smell associated with the disease. They say if you smell it once you will know it forever.

Fowl pox will start off with scabs on the birds combs, wattles, or eyelids. It is spread by mosquito bites. The fowl pox they will get over and be fine to keep. They will have a natural immunity to the disease after that. The problems comes in when the birds get fowl pox, it weakens their immunity and they can get secondary infections that can kill them. So, birds are put on 2 weeks of antibiotics for the secondary infection... fowl pox has to run its course and there is not treatment for it. Also, eye ointment is put in the eyes twice a day to help with eye infections. You can use plain triple antibiotic ointment from the drugstore - -PLAIN - NOT the stuff with pain reliever. It is a real PITA to treat which is why I vaccinate all my birds for it now. IT is slow spreading unless you have the right age group of birds. I had young cockerels that were at the fighting stage. The were spreading it quickly because they were tearing combs when fighting. The good thing about fowl pox is the birds are still safe to use as breeders if they survive the secondary infections that are associated with fowl pox.

 

[math ace]

My birds are MOLTING like crazy. I am in Florida. My one BCM rooster looks like a RAT from where he has lost so many feathers. I noticed today that my delaware roo seems to have a full blown molt going on too.

Jeff, your birds may be molting so don't let the feather thing super concern you.

Birds do need extra protein when they are sick or molting. I would try to feed this group a higher protein feed ( like a gamebird feed) OR supplement their food with some chopped boiled egg for a couple of weeks.

The university of missippi has a very good web site discussing diseases and their symptoms. Here is a link : http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/

Let us know if you have any questions..... Don't feel alone. Each of us will have to deal with diseases if we stay in the hobby long enough. We will really have to deal with issues when we start taking our birds out to shows and exposing them to things that we wouldn't allow at our bio-secure properties.

 

[math ace]

I monitor a couple of other thread on a regular basis and just saw this posting - - -

I agree with Walt that raisinng healthing birds is better than constantly treating them with medicine, but I have seen sick birds at shows many times. I think it was in Belvidere 2 years ago that the judge actually wrote on the cage card "this bird has Coryza", but they didn't make them take it out of the show.

When I go to a show, I take a bottle of diluted Oxine and spray the cages and my birds once a day just in case. Maybe it doesn't do anything, but it makes me feel better. So far, I haven't brought any disease home since I've been doing it.

After my very first show, one of my birds came down with LT a week later and it spread before I knew what it was. It was not fun

This is the risk we take if and when we finally decide to show our birds. . . . I have been at county fairs and see birds infested with lice that were NOT REMOVED from the showing. They were sitting right next to the grand champion's cage. OMG, I would of gone NUTS on the folks, if my bird had been entered.

 

[Orange Ribbon]

The more time I spend with this hen, the more I am sure she doesn't have an illness. If her swollen eye was a symptom I am sure there would be other things going on too. Oh, the eye looks bad, but there is nothing else going on like drainage and other things I read about. I will keep an eye on them though, and start giving them some extra protein tomorrow. I never been around molting birds and didn't know how long the process took. The stuff I gave them wont hurt them, just can't eat any of the eggs they lay for 10 days after the medicine is gone. I wasn't eating them anyway. I have 4 in the incubator right now!

And just to undo a misspoken comment I made earlier: The older birds were not in the same pen with the younger birds when we got them. I was so excited about them possibly being sick I forgot about that. The younger birds were in a different lot, and it was BIG! We had a time catching those boogers, but it was fun. And I also want to say one thing about the breeders I got them from. They were of the nicest, honest people I ever met. I sometimes wonder if they are sorry they got rid of those birds. You got to admit, they are some of the best SS ever seen on this site regardless of faults or a swollen eyeball.

So, in the next day or so I will try to get pictures of the other two older birds. One of them has a high tail, but the other does not. I will try to find some scales to weigh them. I'm no good at judging weight, but they feel pretty heavy to me. I know that if I wanted to eat any one of them (but I don't) I would get a good meal out it. I'm sure the lack of feathers will make a small difference in their weight also. Next week sometime I'll start showing off the young birds.

Thanks for the advice and critiques!
Jeff

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Good news with the hen.... just keep an eye on her and I would still isolate her.

Sometimes the things birds can get have absolutely NOTHING to do with how good we our at husbandry... Fowl Pox being one of those things. That doesn't change the fact that once your birds have an issue.... you have to deal with it. So, hang in there and keep a real good eye on this hen and the others in the flock.

I am weighing my delaware cockerels today. I have 4 to chose from and substantial differences in weight could tilt the scales in favor of one roo over another. I weighed all my ss pullets. I sold the lightest ones first... To me, keeping the size up is just as important as having the right tail angle and a good comb. PICTURES can be deceptive. Jeff, your birds may be right on target for weight, but the angle of the photo can make them look bigger or smaller than they really are.... In some of the pictures I have taken, I've included a soda can beside the bird for perspective. I do this mostly when they are small and young.

The lack of feathers can make them look smaller than they really are. My 8 3/4 lb bcm rooster is molting right now and he looks like a RAT... An Itty Bitty RAT. My scale says he is a TANK....

 

[snowbird]

Just posting a refresher on the SPRIG in poultry Combs. This is one DQ you do not want to ever breed forward regardless if it is the only SS you have period. With the other SS from this same place you would want to Single mate and check them for the SPRIG, you have to have the gene in male and female for it to showup.

A good judge can id. and spot where a sprig was cut off by running their finger nail down the side of the Comb. If a sprig is cutt off it will have a smooth place where it was located.

Most all Major faults in poultry breed forward in poultry.

Maybe some of the Judge will make a comment on this problem if they have Poultry.

 

[Orange Ribbon]

Snowbird, you sure are picky.

I'm just messing with you. So if I mate "Spriggy" to a rooster without the gene then the chicks should not have this trait. Might have to try that. But let me ask this silly question: Will a bird always show a trait if they have the right combination of genes? Say if you breed a hen and rooster that both have the sprig gene, or any other fault that requires both parents to have it before it passes down, does that automatically mean the chicks will absolutely have that trait? Also, If I breed Spriggy to a rooster without the gene, does that mean the offspring still have one gene and if they get with another mate somewhere down the line that also has the trait then the trait will/could show again? OR- after breeding Spriggy to a non-spriggy gene rooster does that kill the chance for the offspring to make sprigs even if they get with another mate that has the gene? I hope those questions made sense!

I'm not asking this so I can try to get around anything, I'm just trying to understand a little bit how genes work using the sprig as an example. If my bird(s) have an undesirable trait then I want to breed that out of them altogether if that is possible. If it isn't possible, then that is were I guess CULLING comes into play. No, I'm not going to put any of my birds to the axe, but I'm not going to pass off an inferior bird as a great bird either. Hey, I got some hatchery SS that I can breed into my flock to make them better if I have to.

WHOO! I bet Don will flip plumb out of his chair when he reads that last comment! Hee hee! I just kill me sometimes.

Let me ask you all a question about the SOP book. I joined the APA last month and plan to get the SOP next month. Fixed income and all that stuff, you know. Now, I've never even seen the book, but from what I'm gathering from some posts here and in other threads, there must be two sections to the book as far as judging a certain breed goes. One section that gives a general standard for ALL chickens, then a section on each breed that covers specific things for that breed. As an example say the general SOP for all chickens might say how the feet should be shaped, but only in the SS section will you find out what color they should be. I'm just asking because if there is more to judging a bird than just one place in the book, and some people are just jumping to the section on their breed, then they may not realize there is more in there they need to look at. If that is how the book works. So, is that how the book works?

I am almost done with my new setup, so will be getting back to picture taking soon. I have 2 older hens I haven't put on here yet. One has a high tail, but I think the comb is okay. The other has what I think is a good comb and possibly a good tail too. I'll be interested to especially see what you think of her.

 

[lauralou]

Orange Ribbon,

I'm interested in genetics, so I did some googling on the side sprig. What I found indicated that the defect is not caused by a single gene, but by a combination of genes. To the regular guy like you and me, this means that the defect is very hard to breed out. It's not simple like a single Dominant gene, or even a pain in the butt like a single recessive gene. It's extremely complicated, because more than one gene is at play.

What it says to me is that any bird showing the trait should be completely eliminated as a breeder, period, and the rest of the line should be treated with deep suspicion, and their offspring should be watched very closely for the trait. It could pop up at any time as the right combination of genes is inherited. This is where single mating is a very good thing to do. And is still not foolproof.




Did that make sense?

 

[lauralou]

Forgot to add: Does anyone disagree with this? I'm not an expert.