Silverudd's Blue

[ConchChicken]

Here are some more pics (it's so hard to get good ones!!)
To me it looks like a rose or strawberry comb?? They're just so different from my other little roo.....

Her are some updated pics of these 3 guys; it's very interesting to see how their combs have grown out!







The bottom 2 are free to good home lol! Out of 9 chicks I got 6 roosters!!!

 

[Purpletie3]

My SB have stopped laying...They did not last summer. Has anyone else experienced this? Summer molt maybe? We have had 90 degree heat here too. Very atypical.

 

[ChicKat]

My SB have stopped laying...They did not last summer. Has anyone else experienced this? Summer molt maybe? We have had 90 degree heat here too. Very atypical.

Probably the heat,, one of their claims of fame is to keep on lying throughout winter.

Mine are getting a bit older except for one pullet -- one has stopped probably for ever, and another one is laying shells so weak that they instantly break. Sometimes a breed that lays abundantly doesn't last a long-long-long time.

How are other people's layers holding up in the heat -- and what about old-lady hens....anyone have 3-year + olds that are still laying a lot with no problems?

 

[KYTinpusher]

Quote: My original hens are just over 3 yo and are still laying well despite the heat, but fertility has been hit or miss for the last few months. One difference might be that I feed a 20% layer ration that includes animal protein. They have slowed down slightly in the heat, but are still out-laying my other breeds.

 

[ChicKat]

Hi KYTinPusher

Thanks for the info!!

I switched off 'Purina's Flock Raiser',20% protein just a bit ago and now use Lone Star layer feed - at 18% protein. Have one that I think is an internal layer -- and thought I did it to her by feeding her higher than generally recommended protein. And I realize that 1. that feed has no comparison to the one that you are using and 2. if they eat a lot of bugs they have a very high protein % in their normal diet, so a good forager in a fertile area would eat a LOT of protein. Mine will eat little lizards,tiny frogs and I've seen baby snakes consumed as well as your run of the mill insects. So 'too much protein' is probably NOT her situation, since chickens are omnivores.... Chickens probably are used to a very high protein diet in the wild.

The other 'problem' Isbar can't seem to make a strong enough egg shell. -

I think that the heat here -- in my environment is very hard on the breed (or any breed for that matter that isn't geared specifically to high heat.)--- My out door tem right now is 102 and the heat index said 118 on my weather station.
Cloud goes over the sun and now it is 100 and 114 heat index..... brutal weather for chickens.....

Regarding my non-layers (aka slackers) I love them -- so they have a free pass even if their laying days are over. they can go to the hen retirement house. My legbars are a bit better or at least equal layers, though two of them are going into molt and one of those two is slow to recover from her molts -- but she is also about 4-years old. Hard to believe that time goes by so fast.

That says nothing about any statistics because of so very few numbers. I would still recommend Isbars to people who want roosters because Isbar males are so sweet. Legbar males in my experience of 5 that I have or have had are 3/5 mean and 2/5 sweet. Still just anecdotal because so few birds in the mix.

 

[Sherol]

[quote name="ChicKat" url="/t/1090421

That says nothing about any statistics because of so very few numbers.  I would still recommend Isbars to people who want roosters because Isbar males are so sweet.  Legbar males in my experience of 5 that I have or have had are 3/5 mean and 2/5 sweet.  Still just anecdotal because so few birds in the mix.  
[/quote]

Good to know as just got some legbars. Is there a way to keep roosters for breeding but not with a main flock? Do you create individual pens for them? If so what size?

 

[KYTinpusher]

Quote: Yes, it is entirely possible. In fact many breeders who raise breeds for the show ring routinely keep the cocks and hens separate to keep them in show form. I would give one at least 6-8 sq.ft. A lot of breeders use the 55 gallon barrels on their side with a wire door on the lid. This is just one example:

 

[ChicKat]

Yes, it is entirely possible. In fact many breeders who raise breeds for the show ring routinely keep the cocks and hens separate to keep them in show form. I would give one at least 6-8 sq.ft. A lot of breeders use the 55 gallon barrels on their side with a wire door on the lid. This is just one example:

My guys have a bit better housing than that...... (prison?) -- but then I have far fewer. 6 breeding age males at the moment. Have thought from time to time it would be nice to shelve the roos when they aren't needed, for example the Isbar male is so sweet and enthusiastic that he tends to over-breed the smaller Isbar females. At one point they weren't leaving the coop for pretty much all day - except for one pullet of a different breed that would hang out with him. Eventually she even started resisting his attentions...so I took him off to live alone. (Which I hate -- but seemed like a possible protection for the hens) -- Later I found his pullet pal - did have a by that time healing wound on her side...that I only found when giving her a bath.

Yes, I keep all the roosters in different pens -- they are set up like 'families' as one European friend explained her breeding set up too. I may move hens in and out or roosters in and out - but never multiple roosters in one pen. Just me, and I suppose also part of the way I know the parentage of the chicks I hatch.

Most of them have a 10x10 chain-link dog kennel sometimes multiple doors are left open to a courtyard so the male can visit hens in two pens. --- Some live in 8x8 cattle panel hoop coops, and two guys are in Eglu classics that I obtained years ago -- and love them for their ease of cleaining and maintaining -- they have attached runs that are about 3'x6' with a door to a pod where they safely spend the nights. (Everyone gets locked in at night now-a-days even in the hot weather here)---- In those I have sometimes had two females and one male. If they are moved around frequently -- they always have fresh grass under their feet.

Some of the pens have common walls - Right now 20 linear feet of chain-link with 2' hardware cloth along the bottom has a male on each side - one boy with 11 females and one with 4. On some occasions the males try to challenge each other though the fence -- but more often go about their business. When I have had a lot of fence-fighting, I have put up a tarp between the bottom half of the wall if there was no other place to move the males farther apart.

and if the females get too worn out by a rooster, he gets pulled off and put in a bachelor pad.

 

[cgmaster]

I now have a reverse trio of blue silverudd's blues. a cock, a hen and their son. I want to know what should i be looking for in breeders?

 

[ericinga]

Almost forgot to share some of my pics for those that are not on Facebook.

My New Rooster I got from Cree57i: He is Alchemist line



Then I have my Blue rooster I hatched in April. Almost sold him but so glad I didn't