The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[ShrekDawg]

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Add this point,and I may be wrong.
But from what I've read from Mooney in the past, he's got a spider web breeding program that branches out to other things if he sees potential he runs with it. It's quite complicated and simple only for The Moonshiner Mad Scientist.

He is the definition of a squirrel running through a rabbit hole

 

[The Moonshiner]

Years back I got some white leghorns. They were kind of a shout out to my grandmother who raised them for eggs when I was a kid. She was the biggest influence of chickens in my life. She helped me order birds through the mail and took me to shows etc.
I had a large flock of different breeds that free ranged. I worried about their bright white color and predators so when I came across some brown leghorns I grabbed them up.
At the time I was raising the Orps. Mostly only focusing on type. I also had Marans and was working on egg color. I had a few other things going on.
I saw something about red Pyle leghorns and also talk about the whites having all these hidden colors.
I knew the two patterns I had would make red Pyle so I decided to cross them.
I started liking everything about the leghorns so much over the Orps and others. The Orps were as good as I was gonna get them and I was at the point of getting into different colors of those.
I decided to look into what was available in legorns and was a bit surprised there was several other colors out there. I started trying to collect them all. They're hard to come by. Once I got what I could I decided to look and see what I could do with what I had. The Isabella's came out and it was new and exciting. I had some stuff going on by then but they showed me that something all new could be done.
I decided I'd run with crossing and putting different genes together to create new patterns of leghorns.
Genetics come easy to me. Not that I know everything or studied them or even wanted to.
ChicKat said I was a visionary. That's it. I'm no smarter then most but I see a birds pattern and automatically try to break it down in my head. I've bred a lot of birds and that's where I figure most things out. I hate books I love hatching. I know enough about genes to be dangerous. I look at a pattern and think what can take away, what can I add? What can I change that pattern to.
It's not rocket science to me. You figure out what you want and figure out what two patterns you can cross and get all the genes you need. You then breed the offspring either to each other or to one of the parent patterns or to something else. The goal is to lock in the genes you want and breed out the genes you don't want.
Sometimes you can expect 50% to be what you want but usually it's 1 out of 4, 1 out of 16 or some ungodly amount. I try to stay away from the long shots. It just takes too many chicks to get there.
But ya when you're doing the cross it produces chicks that aren't what you want. I call them throw aways. I guess I was raised waste not want not because I start seeing what else will be produced and what I can do with those. That's how it spiderwebs. You want one certain pattern but for every one you're producing like 3 or more of something else. My brain just clicks hey I can use that to cross with this to make something entirely different.
For every project I come up with I also come up with something else then another and another. It seems endless sometimes.
Projects move so much slower then my mind works and I'll never get to them all. When I started this thread it was for me to keep track of stuff but it was to show others what they could do. It was never about leghorns specifically it was about dreaming and doing. All the genes are the same so it works with any breeds. If someone has a favorite breed and can get a handful of patterns they can do what I do.
I truly believe I've not done anything anyone else couldn't do. Maybe my brain works in a way that makes it easier for me but idk.
I just wanted to create. Not really for anything other then myself. To make me think and to learn. To come up with a plan and work towards it. To open that hatcher and see that chick I've worked for. To see what was in my head so long to be right there. That's a high. Good stuff.
Maybe others will see this thread and say to themselves if that guy can do this then I surely can. Even just one project.
I know how it will be for them when they get that dream chick.
That's what I want. Not fame or fortune. Not to even be known for what I do. Just to encourage is where it's at.
And hey if you never want to work on a project that's cool you can just follow and wait for those eggs to start shipping.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

ChicKat said I was a visionary.

She's the coolest.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

. I know enough about genes to be dangerous.

I do too, but more so that I get into trouble and have to figure out who threw what to make this disaster

 

[The Moonshiner]

So now I have a question.....
Why am I seeing no ratings from all you all on my Pepsi incubator build article?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-moonshiners-pepsi-cooler-incubator.76077/

 

[ShrekDawg]

Years back I got some white leghorns. They were kind of a shout out to my grandmother who raised them for eggs when I was a kid. She was the biggest influence of chickens in my life. She helped me order birds through the mail and took me to shows etc.
I had a large flock of different breeds that free ranged. I worried about their bright white color and predators so when I came across some brown leghorns I grabbed them up.
At the time I was raising the Orps. Mostly only focusing on type. I also had Marans and was working on egg color. I had a few other things going on.
I saw something about red Pyle leghorns and also talk about the whites having all these hidden colors.
I knew the two patterns I had would make red Pyle so I decided to cross them.
I started liking everything about the leghorns so much over the Orps and others. The Orps were as good as I was gonna get them and I was at the point of getting into different colors of those.
I decided to look into what was available in legorns and was a bit surprised there was several other colors out there. I started trying to collect them all. They're hard to come by. Once I got what I could I decided to look and see what I could do with what I had. The Isabella's came out and it was new and exciting. I had some stuff going on by then but they showed me that something all new could be done.
I decided I'd run with crossing and putting different genes together to create new patterns of leghorns.
Genetics come easy to me. Not that I know everything or studied them or even wanted to.
ChicKat said I was a visionary. That's it. I'm no smarter then most but I see a birds pattern and automatically try to break it down in my head. I've bred a lot of birds and that's where I figure most things out. I hate books I love hatching. I know enough about genes to be dangerous. I look at a pattern and think what can take away, what can I add? What can I change that pattern to.
It's not rocket science to me. You figure out what you want and figure out what two patterns you can cross and get all the genes you need. You then breed the offspring either to each other or to one of the parent patterns or to something else. The goal is to lock in the genes you want and breed out the genes you don't want.
Sometimes you can expect 50% to be what you want but usually it's 1 out of 4, 1 out of 16 or some ungodly amount. I try to stay away from the long shots. It just takes too many chicks to get there.
But ya when you're doing the cross it produces chicks that aren't what you want. I call them throw aways. I guess I was raised waste not want not because I start seeing what else will be produced and what I can do with those. That's how it spiderwebs. You want one certain pattern but for every one you're producing like 3 or more of something else. My brain just clicks hey I can use that to cross with this to make something entirely different.
For every project I come up with I also come up with something else then another and another. It seems endless sometimes.
Projects move so much slower then my mind works and I'll never get to them all. When I started this thread it was for me to keep track of stuff but it was to show others what they could do. It was never about leghorns specifically it was about dreaming and doing. All the genes are the same so it works with any breeds. If someone has a favorite breed and can get a handful of patterns they can do what I do.
I truly believe I've not done anything anyone else couldn't do. Maybe my brain works in a way that makes it easier for me but idk.
I just wanted to create. Not really for anything other then myself. To make me think and to learn. To come up with a plan and work towards it. To open that hatcher and see that chick I've worked for. To see what was in my head so long to be right there. That's a high. Good stuff.
Maybe others will see this thread and say to themselves if that guy can do this then I surely can. Even just one project.
I know how it will be for them when they get that dream chick.
That's what I want. Not fame or fortune. Not to even be known for what I do. Just to encourage is where it's at.
And hey if you never want to work on a project that's cool you can just follow and wait for those eggs to start shipping.

I think this exceeds my novels I loved reading it though. And honestly you’re definitely an inspiration. And you’re right that hatching is exhilarating. I miss it. It was so fun for me when I started getting into multiple generations and getting such a huge variety in colors. Colors I never expected. Like barred with gold leakage and a blue and paint (splash?) and just such fun stuff. I miss those birds. I lost the last of that line to predators. it was just getting fun too. Most laid colored eggs as well. Anyway, when I can get chickens again I want to start experimenting again.

 

[ShrekDawg]

So now I have a question.....
Why am I seeing no ratings from all you all on my Pepsi incubator build article?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-moonshiners-pepsi-cooler-incubator.76077/

I honestly didn’t know you had one but I just read it and I loved it!!

 

[RiverOtter]

Ok, maybe I'm just that kinda poor, but I pay $4 for a live, healthy, sexed pullet chick. I think anyone paying $4 for a shipped - therefore possibly broken or scrambled - egg, plus shipping, which makes it more like $6 each, is someone coming off crack or out of Vegas and looking for a different way to set fire to their money.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, P.T. Barnum and I are absolutely certain it does, and I am truly happy for anyone making that kind of money, but lots and lots of people don't have that to gamble with, so prices like that limit the market.

If Moony wants to pay for pig feed, I'd happily pay $1 an egg for as many as could be packed in a box, I wouldn't care in the least what colors they were, so long as I got a rainbow of typey Leghorns, and I'd do it more than once.

It's a funny question, who you want to market to. Do you want a lot of people to give you a little bit of money, or a few people to give you a lot? It's no secret I do horses. For horse peeps - I do riding lessons, a full hour in the saddle, so an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half here, for $50 a lesson. And yes, I let some students (not everyone who asks, but the good ones who really want it and try) work it off, 2 hours of shoveling gives you an hour of riding. That's cheap for a good lesson program. Most everyone can afford that at least once in a while, Scout groups and 4H groups can come. I'd rather make it affordable and have a large customer base.

Having said that, when I sell a horse, I have one up right now for 20k. There's not a lot of folks with that kind of money to spend on a horse, and that's ok, because I don't sell one that often, and he IS that well-bred and trained. I'm not in a rush and I'm happy with the status quo.
If I wanted, I could put 30-60 days of training on a run of the mill horse and sell them for 1/10th of that all day long, or, I could do what I do and have a rare breed and spend a grand to get them inspected and registered (Yeah, they need to be inspected and health tested before the registry I use will paper them) for a MUCH more limited market, and maybe he'll be up for sale for a year before I get that 20k. Horses don't go bad after a week, but eggs don't break a leg in the pasture, either.

So I can see it both ways. Decisions, decisions....

 

[WallyG74]

Years back I got some white leghorns. They were kind of a shout out to my grandmother who raised them for eggs when I was a kid. She was the biggest influence of chickens in my life. She helped me order birds through the mail and took me to shows etc.
I had a large flock of different breeds that free ranged. I worried about their bright white color and predators so when I came across some brown leghorns I grabbed them up.
At the time I was raising the Orps. Mostly only focusing on type. I also had Marans and was working on egg color. I had a few other things going on.
I saw something about red Pyle leghorns and also talk about the whites having all these hidden colors.
I knew the two patterns I had would make red Pyle so I decided to cross them.
I started liking everything about the leghorns so much over the Orps and others. The Orps were as good as I was gonna get them and I was at the point of getting into different colors of those.
I decided to look into what was available in legorns and was a bit surprised there was several other colors out there. I started trying to collect them all. They're hard to come by. Once I got what I could I decided to look and see what I could do with what I had. The Isabella's came out and it was new and exciting. I had some stuff going on by then but they showed me that something all new could be done.
I decided I'd run with crossing and putting different genes together to create new patterns of leghorns.
Genetics come easy to me. Not that I know everything or studied them or even wanted to.
ChicKat said I was a visionary. That's it. I'm no smarter then most but I see a birds pattern and automatically try to break it down in my head. I've bred a lot of birds and that's where I figure most things out. I hate books I love hatching. I know enough about genes to be dangerous. I look at a pattern and think what can take away, what can I add? What can I change that pattern to.
It's not rocket science to me. You figure out what you want and figure out what two patterns you can cross and get all the genes you need. You then breed the offspring either to each other or to one of the parent patterns or to something else. The goal is to lock in the genes you want and breed out the genes you don't want.
Sometimes you can expect 50% to be what you want but usually it's 1 out of 4, 1 out of 16 or some ungodly amount. I try to stay away from the long shots. It just takes too many chicks to get there.
But ya when you're doing the cross it produces chicks that aren't what you want. I call them throw aways. I guess I was raised waste not want not because I start seeing what else will be produced and what I can do with those. That's how it spiderwebs. You want one certain pattern but for every one you're producing like 3 or more of something else. My brain just clicks hey I can use that to cross with this to make something entirely different.
For every project I come up with I also come up with something else then another and another. It seems endless sometimes.
Projects move so much slower then my mind works and I'll never get to them all. When I started this thread it was for me to keep track of stuff but it was to show others what they could do. It was never about leghorns specifically it was about dreaming and doing. All the genes are the same so it works with any breeds. If someone has a favorite breed and can get a handful of patterns they can do what I do.
I truly believe I've not done anything anyone else couldn't do. Maybe my brain works in a way that makes it easier for me but idk.
I just wanted to create. Not really for anything other then myself. To make me think and to learn. To come up with a plan and work towards it. To open that hatcher and see that chick I've worked for. To see what was in my head so long to be right there. That's a high. Good stuff.
Maybe others will see this thread and say to themselves if that guy can do this then I surely can. Even just one project.
I know how it will be for them when they get that dream chick.
That's what I want. Not fame or fortune. Not to even be known for what I do. Just to encourage is where it's at.
And hey if you never want to work on a project that's cool you can just follow and wait for those eggs to start shipping.

Deja vu… I feel like he sat down with me, had beer, and told me that story a long time ago.