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

[getaclue]

Yeah, I was looking, and there is not much of a selection available for your particular wants, and needs. Another thing, even though the real estate market began calling trailers a manufactured home, that's not true. A manufactured home, or prefab home is built on site. It's totally different than a trailer, or mobile home. The real estate market began calling them all the same thing, because manufactured homes were worth a lot more. This enabled them to sell stupid trailers for more, to people that didn't know the difference.

I too am very leery when a place says totally remodeled. Many times this translates into: they took a crap heap, and made cosmetic changes so it would look good. It's not just trailers they do this to.

 

[speckledhen]

Cheryl, a manufactured home is a mobile home. A modular home is made in panels at the factory and built/assembled on site. Modular is not considered manufactured, which is a trailer. That is the way the categories are set in real estate. Remember, I did that for years and I see it in the listings every day, even as I cannot get into the "back room", so to speak. I've seen both at lots. I'd live in a modular, but never a manufactured/mobile. Modular is actually stick-built but at the factory in parts/panels. Any time they say "manufactured" in a listing, it never means modular, only mobile.

I had only one listing myself that was a manufactured/mobile/trailer. It had to have a vehicle tag, not a deed. The 14 acres of land it sat on had a deed, but not the trailer.

 

[getaclue]

Ok. It's a bit different here. As long as the wheels are not removed, and it isn't set on a permanent foundation, it has to have a vehicle sticker. When it's set on a foundation, you pay taxes as if it were a regular home. Here, trailer, pre-fab, mobile home, and modular home are used interchangeably by many realtors. You have to look it up on the tax appraiser's website to make sure you're not being told it's a modular home, when in fact it's a trailer that they've set on a permanent foundation.

 

[speckledhen]

Here, trailer, pre-fab, mobile home, and modular home are used interchangeably by many realtors

Here, it's said that way only by realtors who are clueless. I've seen mobile homes called "modular"when they obviously weren't. I've been misled by many realtors, trust me. Once some idiot yahoo listed a house as a 4 bedroom, which my client needed. The 4th bedroom was an extra large landing at the top of the stairs. I lambasted her, told her it didn't have a closet much less walls, that she was just lying to get people in to see it. I really hated that.

There is no "pre-fab" category for house types in real estate in GA, only
manufactured/mobile. Modulars are considered stick built, or close enough.

To me, putting a mobile home on a permanent foundation doesn't make it much better. It still falls apart and will never last like a stick-built house. And it's almost always cookie-cutter and ugly, made with cheap materials. Unless they gut the inside like that listing I showed you, I can always tell a trailer from outside and inside. I always wondered why Florida had so many trailers when you have to leave your home in a storm. That's nuts to me.

 

[getaclue]

Florida only allows 2 mobile home manufacturers to put homes in our state. Palm Harbor Homes, https://www.palmharbor.com/, and Jacobsen Homes, https://www.jachomes.com/Photo-Gallery. No others are allowed, because they don't manufacture to Florida's hurricane standards, and those two do a Florida version of their homes, that is up to our hurricane standards. You can't get permits to put any others on any property, let alone set them up, or try to hook them up. They did allow another one for a short period, but not for long, because the state found out they were cutting corners, and not manufacturing them up to our standards. The anchoring system is what determines how severe a storm they can weather. The much older ones still don't have to be evacuated until it becomes a Cat 3 hurricane, but the newer ones will withstand a Cat 4, so unless there is flooding, or gusts that surpass the anchor allowances, they don't evacuate them.

 

[speckledhen]

I'd never feel safe in one so it's not something I'd consider. I've seen Palm Harbor; there's a dealer near here that has mobiles and also modulars. Still not interested in them. So, I'm very limited because there are so many here and I can't choose to eliminate them from my search, it seems, sigh.

On my YouTube about contagious respiratory disease, suddenly I'm being ganged up on again. Some lady asked if I took medicine what I'm sick. I explained, in so many words, that I don't have herpes or HIV/AIDS which is more like the chicken diseases, so my seasonal colds don't leave me a carrier when I'm recovered. Geez. Then, I got the Denagard lecture, which is again, ridiculous since it doesn't change the carrier status of the birds and you have to medicate affected birds monthly, a crazy expense.

 

[speckledhen]

So, apparently a moderator featured my dwarfism article. And I got a nasty comment for the first time about it.

so you gave the rooster to someone else who could spread the genes ever farther instead of culing the bird with known issues it can pass on down the line? that doesn't seem responsible.

No, I was responsible. No rooster left here without full disclosure of the gene, how it works and what might happen. The dwarf gene does not stop them from being good flock guardians. They are beautiful and easy to manage, non-human-aggressive, the latter part being of paramount importance to many backyard flock owners, actually most. If no one had wanted to take on that responsibility, they would have stayed here. I saw no reason to kill a beautiful, sweet rooster like Apollo that was not sick if someone wanted him for their hens for a free range guardian. Lizzie and Tessa were sold as layers because I had no idea if they even carried that gene. Zara and Athena are here as layers for us, no more reproducing them. I quit breeding from that line and that's all I can do now.

 

[1muttsfan]

That's the mentality that "if it has balls you should breed it". Like some birds can't be kept simply for production, or even as eye candy.

 

[speckledhen]

That's the mentality that "if it has balls you should breed it". Like some birds can't be kept simply for production, or even as eye candy.

Exactly. Apollo, for instance, had more reasons to be alive than just reproduction. He was sweet, he was stunningly gorgeous, he was easy to manage and he was on the spot to defend his hens. I saw no reason to execute him if someone wanted him with full disclosure of what the dwarf gene does. If no one wanted him, he would have lived out his life as a guardian over some group I didn't breed from and I would have figured out how to do that.

I've been told by some breeders that I should continue breeding that line because of the show-quality birds it was producing, even with the gene, and just cull the dwarfs. I'm not sure that's prudent, however, I see their point. It's not a black and white issue, I guess. Me, I'd rather just let it go, though it's painful to do so.

And to state the obvious, I have not culled Atlas, either, nor Zara and Athena. I just don't breed from them. Atlas watches over the hens on range as well as any rooster could.

 

[speckledhen]

Okay, he replied to my reply, but there is no option to answer this comment for me:

there is no way on earth to ever know with 100% certainty that the new owners wont slip up and hatch a few chicks he has sired or the rooster might switch hands again and you dont know if the person you gave them too is as responsible as you and will pass on that information. thats a perfect example of how recessive genes keep getting spread, it's irresponsible animal husbandry. They say you shouldn't give away a bird that you wouldn't feel comfortable using in your own breeding program. Not saying they would purposely spread this gene but any animal with faulty genes should be put down so that it doesnt keep spreading

No one needs to lecture me on ethics. And what someone else does is NOT my responsibility! It's not like I gave someone a diseased bird. He has a genetic anomaly that the new owners were informed of before taking him, that does not affect his health nor the health of the hens he is with, nor his ability to guard them on range and sacrifice himself for them. I'm becoming a bit irritated here. And he rates it one star because he thinks I should kill all my dwarf gene carriers. What does his difference of opinion in how to handle the carriers have to do with the information in the article? Geez, you get all kinds of childish folks.


ETA: And, to put this into perspective, these are backyard flock folks, not breeders, that Apollo and his brothers went to live with. There were other folks who took males from the line before I was even aware that the gene still existed in the line, no breeders just backyarders. They are chickens, not humans; world peace is not at stake. The gene will likely never make it out of their backyard. And, though it sounds bad, it's likely that the males I sold from Atlas will be killed by predators because, well, it always seems to happen elsewhere.

Seems I'm being stalked now by this member, who reported me and keeps rating my articles low, even the tongue-in-cheek Speck's Standard of Perfection. LOL. Wonder if this is a kid. They are so easily set off these days. But, then, so are supposed adults.