The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

Nah....don't break his heart!

Great pics! I love that roost....looks like mine!

 

[bruceh]

bee,
now you have done it w r 's. im am happy for you. however im so jealous i could scream. i want white rocks so bad, i can not find a darn sole with good ones around. i called d. padgette have heard a word since i pm'd you.

 

[Beekissed]

bee,
now you have done it w r 's. im am happy for you. however im so jealous i could scream. i want white rocks so bad, i can not find a darn sole with good ones around. i called d. padgette have heard a word since i pm'd you.

Well, my friend....as soon as mine are up and runnin', I'll get you some eggs!

Might be awhile but we'll see. I've already got two WR pullets from Kathyinmo that I really like but were late maturing. The jury is out on their rate of lay but so far I love their feed thrift, foraging, hardiness, conformation, feathering and conformation. Whatever eggs you get out of mine will be from the best of the bunch and the eggs will be from FF, so they should produce well. I'm only breeding and saving eggs from the very best of pairings and will cull vigorously for the best. What I'll be breeding for is SOP, hardiness, broodiness, foraging capabilities(able to derive almost 100% of their nutrition on the land and still produce well in the nest), feed thrift, and temperament.

Eventually, I'll be putting out a bird that can lay without lighting in the winter, is parasite and disease resistant(does not require meds to thrive), can rustle her own grub, reproduce her own kind and still keep an excellent rate of lay and turn out a good carcass....while still being able to win at show. If one is going into this, one should go for the ultimate bird or keep trying until you die, IMO.

 

[bruceh]

Well, my friend....as soon as mine are up and runnin', I'll get you some eggs!

Might be awhile but we'll see. I've already got two WR pullets from Kathyinmo that I really like but were late maturing. The jury is out on their rate of lay but so far I love their feed thrift, foraging, hardiness, conformation, feathering and conformation. Whatever eggs you get out of mine will be from the best of the bunch and the eggs will be from FF, so they should produce well. I'm only breeding and saving eggs from the very best of pairings and will cull vigorously for the best. What I'll be breeding for is SOP, hardiness, broodiness, foraging capabilities(able to derive almost 100% of their nutrition on the land and still produce well in the nest), feed thrift, and temperament.

Eventually, I'll be putting out a bird that can lay without lighting in the winter, is parasite and disease resistant(does not require meds to thrive), can rustle her own grub, reproduce her own kind and still keep an excellent rate of lay and turn out a good carcass....while still being able to win at show. If one is going into this, one should go for the ultimate bird or keep trying until you die, IMO.

i can wait. you and i know . nothing is fast in birds. your offer is much welcome. bee doing a sop bird. you have lost for sure. first a silkie on your land. now a sop w r. oh my bob blosl is speaking from the grave. i going to ask jim r if he will give me permission to post high stepper the red

 

[Beekissed]

i can wait. you and i know . nothing is fast in birds. your offer is much welcome. bee doing a sop bird. you have lost for sure. first a silkie on your land. now a sop w r. oh my bob blosl is speaking from the grave. i going to ask jim r if he will give me permission to post high stepper the red

I know....I know such a thing takes years upon years, but I have to start now to get to that place. Sort of like when folks ask when is the perfect time to plant fruit trees...and the answer is ten years ago, but if you have not done that, then today is the next best option.

I know a few breeders who are trying to go old school on the heritage lines and they can't really talk much about it because they are outnumbered by those who feel you have to give meds, light them to get eggs, give high pro feeds to get the best results, pen them so they don't come in contact with wild birds or the possibility of parasites in the soils, etc. I'm different...I've always been different. I cull hard and am very critical of a bird.....it matters not to me if she is the prettiest of the bunch~if she cannot perform she's just window dressing. I'll be working on performance and hardiness first and looks along the way but they will come second to performance. Supposedly if you work for SOP, performance follows, but I'm not hearing that on the heritage thread...all I seem to hear are people crutching immune systems along, making excuses for mediocre laying, lighting them up to get them to lay in the winter, and not letting their birds go broody and reproduce their own kind.

Only a few of the old breeders seem to be also breeding for hardiness and performance as well as SOP...that's who I want to be.

 

[lindz8504]

You guys are so inspiring! Good luck with your breeding plans! I look forward to hearing about your experiences!

 

[Beekissed]

You guys are so inspiring! Good luck with your breeding plans! I look forward to hearing about your experiences!

This will be my first foray into quality poultry, so I'm pretty excited to start seeing if what I've learned down through the years is applicable and can be translated into a heritage line. The exciting thing is that the eggs I'll be getting are already of such high quality that one doesn't have to work for years upon years to get them to a certain point to clarify them....they have had all the hard work done, for the most part. My job will be to not mess them up and then add my own little touches to the line~I think that is what makes one person's line so distinctive from another...that little personal touch that they've concentrated on and tried to instill into the line.

I'm also starting with a breed that is just superior to other breeds in so many ways that it makes it more satisfying to work on them...they are the royalty of poultry, IMO.

 

[lindz8504]

I just have the comets, EE s and a couple of marans and bantam cochins pullets.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

On the topic of high protein feeds for heritage breeds ... you know I've been working this topic to death ... I've finally written to the ALBC (I think that's the group, I'll have to check when I'm on my computer) and asked them to point me to the science on that ... their site suggests starting the chicks on 28% feed and maintaining them at between 18% and 20% ...

I wonder if I'll get an answer. I can't remember shopping and paying for 28% turkey starter as being all that much fun ... and that's a LOT of soy! which we've known for years is not great for breeders ... and this past year my now-former feed store pretended turkey starter only came in 10 lb bags ... I had bought 25 poults from them and had started trying to line up 300 lbs of turkey starter a year in advance. The jerks.

Now I know a local source for 50 lb bags of the turkey starter ... but still, the soy ... I want a single-feed solution for my birds that I can cut with grains to balance for each type of bird ... it would take a lot of grains to bring the 28% feed down to what the ducks need. For example.

 

[Beekissed]

On the topic of high protein feeds for heritage breeds ... you know I've been working this topic to death ... I've finally written to the ALBC (I think that's the group, I'll have to check when I'm on my computer) and asked them to point me to the science on that ... their site suggests starting the chicks on 28% feed and maintaining them at between 18% and 20% ...

I wonder if I'll get an answer. I can't remember shopping and paying for 28% turkey starter as being all that much fun ... and that's a LOT of soy! which we've known for years is not great for breeders ... and this past year my now-former feed store pretended turkey starter only came in 10 lb bags ... I had bought 25 poults from them and had started trying to line up 300 lbs of turkey starter a year in advance. The jerks.

Now I know a local source for 50 lb bags of the turkey starter ... but still, the soy ... I want a single-feed solution for my birds that I can cut with grains to balance for each type of bird ... it would take a lot of grains to bring the 28% feed down to what the ducks need. For example.

LJ, I can only say that this whole poultry thing has gotten way out of hand and over thinking things is the culprit. We raised turkeys on whole corn and free range when I was young and they finished out at good weights. Why not just use chick starter per normal and then free range the birds and feed fermented scratch grains with some kelp meal added for mineral content? Or just an "all flock" feed for everyone and not stress about protein percentages? You don't have a deadline on getting birds to size, so just let nature happen!

I've heard argument from those who raise broilers that they use high pro feeds so they can finish a bird faster because the longer you have to feed a bird, the less the profit....but isn't the price of feeding high pro already cutting into the profit margin the same as if you fed regular feeds for a longer period of time? I call that six of one, half dozen of the other. Same-o, same-o.