The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

I like the painting where it's at now. Pulls the entire room together. It's beautiful!

When Hector dipped his wing at you, I hope you chased him, or at least smacked his bottom with your rooster stick to get him moving away from you, and to make him realize you are not one of his flock, but Alpha, and he's part of your flock. He is beautiful, and I hope he gets his tail feathers soon.

Thanks, I like it there between the chairs, too. Yes, regarding Hector's behavior, I got another switch that was laying nearby and ran him around. He's been really good about just moving out of my way lately. Maybe a slight lapse in judgement on his part-it was early, so you know those rooster hormones first thing in the a.m.

Please forgive my ignorance, I don't know Hector's lineage, but could it be there is one of the tailless breeds somewhere back in his line? I know you've had some bearded ladies in your crew, any chance of araurcana (sp?) in his background? Still, he knows he's da man, with or without tail feathers! Could someone be plucking them out?

No, he is pure BR. He is just very slow to get his tail. He's not the type who would stand still for any other bird plucking his tail feathers. Maybe it will be worth the wait.

 

[getaclue]

Don't forget that the non-hatchery stock is typically slower to develop. Even though Hector is acting as if he's older, the truth is that he's still got quite a bit of development still going on. He will get his tail, and I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

It's better to deal with teenage male hormones in a chicken, than dealing with teenage male hormones in a human, but it's typically harder to deal with teens of any species.

 

[speckledhen]

Don't forget that the non-hatchery stock is typically slower to develop. Even though Hector is acting as if he's older, the truth is that he's still got quite a bit of development still going on. He will get his tail, and I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

It's better to deal with teenage male hormones in a chicken, than dealing with teenage male hormones in a human, but it's typically harder to deal with teens of any species.

Though that is true and I expect slower development, generally, Hector is definitely the slowest I've seen to get his tail of all the BRs I've had. He really is more like the Orpingtons in this regard. I did have the original pure Stukel male up until he was around 25 weeks old or so. Here he is at around 18 weeks old. Hatched April 6, this was mid August, as you can see by the date stamp.



We'll just go with "Perfection takes time".

 

[speckledhen]

Off topic: Today's activities, making spiced pear preserves. For the first time ever, the Moonglow pear tree, the only one that has ever actually produced here, had more than last year's 20 pears. There were at least 5x that many. We've eaten them for weeks already but finally decided to strip the tree today and try our hand at preserves for the first time.

We only made 3 jars, plus one jar of the extra syrup for pouring over ice cream, so we can see how this recipe is. I used way less than the sugar called for (8 cups white, plus 1/2 cup brown to 6 cups sliced pears was the recipe--I used about 5 cups white and 1/3 cup brown, but the full amount of nutmeg and allspice). Depending on how they taste, will use the other pears and make more, adjusting for taste.

The entire stripped tree was a full 5 gallon bucket-we'd already cored and peeled some when I took the photo.



First with the white sugar, then the brown with spices added:





And the jars fresh from the water bath. Hope this is thick enough when it cools. I grew up eating pear preserves, fig preserves, apple jelly and jams, blackberry jelly/jam plus the usual grape jellies and jams, all from our property or Granddaddy's farm in Carrollton, GA.




And since it's a very cool day, still only 60* at 11:25 a.m., will get back to work on this bed quilt.

 

[robhuncor]

Looks yummy! I love preserves of any kind!

 

[speckledhen]

Looks yummy! I love preserves of any kind!

I hope it's yummy! Depending on how it tastes, will process the others similarly. Wish I could make something different, though. Maybe pear butter?

 

[robhuncor]

Or fruit leather. You have to boil it down forever, though. I have a quince tree I planted because I loved the spiced quince preserves my mother and grandmother used to make. Oh, man, that dark red syrup was divine! When my tree was finally producing, I discovered that quinces are harder than iron - I mean, you needed a cleaver to chop them up! And then when I started cooking them down, they just never softened up enough to even get your teeth into. I don't know if I had a different variety or what. But, I persevered and cooked and cooked..... and cooked. In the end, I ended up with fruit leather. Poured the thick goo out on wax paper and after it dried, cut it in strips, tossed it in fine sugar and stored in jars or some even in plastic bags. It keeps forever - I had it for years and it never went bad! And it was delicious. Now, when I'm feeling strong, I just boil some up for the syrup and throw out the tough fruit.

 

[speckledhen]

Or fruit leather. You have to boil it down forever, though. I have a quince tree I planted because I loved the spiced quince preserves my mother and grandmother used to make. Oh, man, that dark red syrup was divine! When my tree was finally producing, I discovered that quinces are harder than iron - I mean, you needed a cleaver to chop them up! And then when I started cooking them down, they just never softened up enough to even get your teeth into. I don't know if I had a different variety or what. But, I persevered and cooked and cooked..... and cooked. In the end, I ended up with fruit leather. Poured the thick goo out on wax paper and after it dried, cut it in strips, tossed it in fine sugar and stored in jars or some even in plastic bags. It keeps forever - I had it for years and it never went bad! And it was delicious. Now, when I'm feeling strong, I just boil some up for the syrup and throw out the tough fruit.

Looks like my preserves will not be super thick, but I found a recipe for pear jam and with the other pears, I'm going to make that instead. I think it may be thicker by virtue of the fact that you mash up the pears rather than slice them. I can't let them just go and can't eat all those. Moonglow pears are not soft pears. They always stay rather firm, but juicy with a nice sweetness. My Bartlett and my Orient, both planted at the same time, have never produced anything, so I think DH is going to graft a few branches of the Moonglow onto one of the other two trees and see if we can get more pears. If they ever produce what they were supposed to, then great, but it's better than just cutting them down. And they are too large to move now with extensive root systems, being about 13 years old.

 

[1muttsfan]

Do they blossom? I know pears require a pollinator that blooms at the same time. Overfertilizing with nitrogen will reduce blossoms. And they need quite a bit of sun.

I found this on an almanac website:

We planted a Bartlett and an Ayers pear tree 5 years ago. Each we roughly 5' tall at planting. Both are 14' tall now. 2 years ago the Ayers tree produced 5 pears. The Bartlett has never produced any blooms or pears. Last year neither tree even produced a bloom. This year the Ayers has a few blooms but none on the Bartlett. What am I doing wrong?
NO FLOWERS OR FRUIT
reply
Submitted by Almanac Staff on March 29, 2016 - 11:15am
Check that you are not giving the trees (or lawn surrounding them) too much fertilizer, which will encourage leaf growth over flowering, and also encourages fire blight. Also check that you are pruning correctly. Examine each plant for stresses, such as disease.

If you live in the deep south, it may also be that the trees are not getting enough chilling hours (below 45F). Ayers is hardy in Zones 6 to 8, and requires about 350 to 600 chilling hours (sources vary). Bartlett is hardy in Zones 5 to 8, and requires about 800 chilling hours.

 

[1muttsfan]

I was curious about the quince and found this - apparently there are quite a few varieties, some of which are only ornamental, and others that vary in their sweetness and softness.
https://www.albemarleciderworks.com/orchard/fruit/quince