Tell me about Narragansetts

[jandlpoultry]

I maybe jumping ahead of myself here, but which breed makes the best mothers, and is more likely to go broody?
Really, it would be neat to cross a few to see the outcome, but Narragansetts are on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's threatened list, and Blacks the watch.I'd like to keep a pure strain of both, but it wouldn't hurt if I didn't use the crosses to breed.Some of the offspring will be invited to dinner.

 

[JHorn91180]

LOL Its been my experience that all the breeds I have had seem just as likely to go broody as any other. The broad breasted bronze and the whites commonly used in the commercial industry for meat have been breed for size and have been domesticated so long that they r probably the furthest breeds away from the wild and have less instincts so I would imagine those would b the least likely to go broody and the least likely to b successful at it. I always break mine up when they go broody because most r very paternal and become mean when they have babies. I use broody chickens as surrogates sometimes as they will set and hatch the eggs plus raise the poults. Most the time I just hatch them in the incubator tho and brooder raise them by themselves and keep them away from other types of fowl until they r about 3 months old. My narri hen, even if I collect her egg each day always goes broody after she lays 10 to 14 eggs and I had to break her up 4 or 5 times this season. I sent many of her eggs to a close friend of mine on the west coast that just wanted turkeys and didn't care if they were mixed and she hatched several and treats them as pets altho extra gobblers will probably end up on the dinner table. That pairing produces bronze looking offspring, some that look like pure blue slates, solid blacks, a few that look like pure narris and sometimes a few odd ones that feather out a sandy color with blue lacing that r gorgeous. Altho the color doesn't have a name if I had to call them something I would say blue narris as they look like narris except replace all the black markings with blue. I think its great that people r working to preserve breeds and we personally breed our chickens true unless we r doing a project but I like the idea of creating new colors in turkeys and having beautiful surprises hatch. Several colors that r considered breeds today were created this way and now breed true and r beautiful. I used to keep different species separated and breed them true but that became very boring to me as every poult was just an exact replica of the parents and IMO a turkey is a turkey so why not have some fun with them and see what u get? I don't know that black over Narri would create anything very neat tho as black is dominant and the the poults would probably just feather in black but have some brown leakage in them if both your lines r pure and have nothing special hidden in their background. How old r your Spanish now and is this your first time having turkeys?

 

[jandlpoultry]

You may as well say it is our first time. The poults we had shipped to us this spring didn't make it.I think they were in the mail too long, because I lost a bunch of the chicks they shipped with them too. I'm guessing the Blacks are 2 and a half months old.They may be three.Their wings are clipped and tails are scraggly from being in a cage.
DH came out of wal-mart, and someone with a truck load of turkeys was parked beside him,so he waited on them to come out.The funny thing is when we unloaded them and put them in a pen, the Narras were calling and chirping to them, and they were answering back.

 

[jandlpoultry]

I might get those fall eggs.The Tom strutted and, danced for the hens and, one of them squatted.He walked on her for about 3 minutes before things lined up and they connected.Should I be on the lookout for her to lay?

 

[Builderofempire]

Our hen is still laying into december. We have a seperate pin for her and the tom. However, she always wants to get in with the chickens. She has layed 5 eggs now which have all been fertile. We made her a large nesting box in her pin but she always wants to lay in the chickens nesting box lol. Its just a dresser drawer that we put some hay in and she loves to lay in it. She is also free range and we dont give her any light. I dont know if its because she sees our chickens laying or because we feed her so well. We put all our eggs inside our homemade incubator due to the fact we live in missouri and its getting cold out.