The Old Folks Home

[chickadoodles]

ChickenCanoe,
It looks like she is having a great time. Love all the pic's.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Hmm, flirting with a concrete lawn ornament...that could explain why they were posing where I could get a picky like that, eh?

Reason we are polite is probably BECAUSE of the cabin fever...we know we are going to be rough around the edges, so get real use to apologizing...otherwise we'd really be isolated, even from each other..."Sorry!" "No, I'm sorry!" "No, I am more sorry..." Hee hee hee....

Thank you...I look forward to the statues & dog dog pic. "Squeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!"

Love the news from your daughter and the pics of the bats... Still can't really l00k at a bat and not get startled...really nice creatures (one of the presents the kid made for us were bat boxes) eat a ton of bugs but I think the combo of fur and those featherless wings...just don't make me wanna give 'em a big ol' hug...hee ha ha


Love reading your adventurous life. Such a home body myself...day trips for us! Fun that you share your travels with us. Thank you for that.

No piccy of the young ballerina? My mother enrolled my sis and I in ballet...don't think it did me much good in the grace department (thundering moose would be moi!) but I can keep a musical beat fairly well. I also remember the teacher was a retired Russian ballerina and gave all us kids candied orange peel at Christmas time. We found it strange till my father advised us that sometimes the only food treat present you got was an orange at Christmas...a very rare commodity. That made the candied peel much more special when we understood that...we tossed the peels into the compost and being young and having our tastebuds still intact...the candied peel was very over powering. LOL


Calmer and friendlier, yes.

I have a theory that the bigger birds, the smarter ones; they are going to make a better calmer happier chicken flock for us backyarders. Not confined in cages, pumping out swill eggs or in large dark barns where all they do is eat and crap to make mush meat. Temperaments don't matter when you are confined in a cage with your beak trimmed or you only live for what, 47 days before you are rounded up and eaten? Terminal crosses are not meant to live well amongst others for years and years. I want my interactions to be fun, not duck and dodge their bad moods. Inside my boundaries, it has to be this silly, happy safe home. If I want evil, all I need to do is step outside the perimeters...got lots of nasty just waiting to jump the unsuspecting...hee hee...mean world sometimes!

You can taste the happiness in animals that are a joy to themselves and their keepers.

It costs more to do things right (quality) but the outputs from good inputs are never questioned when you can feel the love from your labours and theirs. It has to be happy or why are we bothering...cheaper to buy food than raise it right ourselves.



The big chickens tend to be the calmer ones...certainly not always but I have kept back hens that were big and good tempered. This is Gert (Goliath Gerty), kept because she is BIG and calm. She is too light in the ground colour to be a real decent partridge AND she has a blade comb (not cushion). Why keep her with these faults? Because I value that she is big and well mannered more than cushion combed and decently ground coloured--I got ones that are right in these traits so hoping to combine these in future generations. I'm old myself and have learned to be patient. Takes time and all the stuff we want is not gonna show up in one season of breeding or in one bird right at the beginnings. Takes time and when you see things you want more of, I say grab them and go with it. Weed out the bads and hope to keep more of the goods as you continue along.

​

Room to make eggs in and skeletal structure to hang meat off of; Gerty has a nice wide back. The old timer Leghorns were a bird with substance but the commercial factory farm versions are IMHO, skitso in temperaments and mostly ill structured, lacking depth/width, to be for both meat AND eggs. I often tell people I want a Chantecler you could throw a saddle on...room on the back.

These retouched photos by Arthur Schilling from 1923 are the shape I wanna see in the Chants. Dwarfs and fairies could go for a ride on those backs, eh?

The self-buffs I received to start had very soft feathers...

This is Chantelle, she's got a deep body (a block shape) but very soft feathers.​

So I am now working at getting them an even self-Buff (trace mine to originator Walter Franklin - he used self-Buff large fowl breeds in the Cornish, Wyandotte and Plymouth Rock) along with this firmer feather texture.

The large fowl/standard Chants we have here are not timid or afraid, but curious and self aware...."Did you bring goodies? No goodies, no admittance!" See how every EYE is upon me?

Temperament wise, absolutely got NO tolerance for bad behaviours in the domestics (yes, we keep the wild ones and I expect them not always to be nice/nice or like the geese, hiss at me but let still me do my chores thanks!). I prefer critters with lots of attitude, but not unexplained aggression...I want a bird to look me in the eye with confidence, but not fly at my face in some unfounded rage or run away and hide like some wimp (suck it up Buttercup!). I need spunk but calmness in the creatures...I totally understand a protective hen giving me a well deserved beak bite if I choose to mess with her eggs but cannot stand an unfounded attack, by male or female just cause I showed up. Also, a nervous bird, to me, is stressing and stress invites diseases to take hold. Sick birds can't give you good eggs and meat, I want to see happiness abounding here. Happy eggs and happy meat...tastes great!

I need laying flocks and breeders that are calm, happy, active foragers (the Chants in my Sing Brightly Happy Hen flock are sweeties). They will rush the door of the coop, hoping I let them out. They are not timid and sulky, I'd find those ones a waste of my efforts...a big disappointment. Big smart birds tug at my heart strings; pretty inside and out.

​

If I wanted a more nervous fowl, I'd go more Mediterranean breeds. Unknown to a lot of people, as per Bro Wilfrid's obituary, his last influx in HIS Oka Chanteclers was White Leghorns in 1930 which explains why we see some versions of the Chanteclers a lot more Leghorny in build/breed shape. This Chantecler above with Bro W is certainly more "Leghorn" than what was accepted into the APA SOP in 1921.


The Leghorn addition was certainly something that increased egg production BUT the Chant is not to be solely an eggy breed, but also a meat breed...GENERAL PURPOSE fowl. In the 1927 brochure published for the World Poultry Congress held in Ottawa, Canada...note the Chant was never intended to be just for EGGs.



I believe that if you make selections for better temperament, you will see size increase in a chicken's brain/skull width too. Smarter chickens, better bird brains I hope! The APA SOP suggests we not choose for "crow heads" which are narrow, shallow and over-refined--this is considered a serious defect in poultry.

What may be happening in some of the White Chants is more Leghorn/eggy is being selected for (thinking the Chant is ONLY about winter eggs when she is not just that!) and therefore, a less stable and not so much sedate temperament is being caught up in the ride, too.

Old timer Leghorns are a wonderful breed; the commercial kinds, not so much. Can't really get too overly mad as what does one care if the bird has a good temperament or not when they are confined so it does not really matter how they behave so long as they are productive? I was completely put off Leghorns until I met an exhibition one. Charlie (white bantam) was the most wonderful Leghorn I had ever had the pleasure to meet...calm, beauty, awesome...he would perch on his owner's arm with the most regal of demeanors; wise and wonderful! Then it was perfectly clear to me what Leghorns were meant to be like. If commercial Leghorn is being added to the composite mix in the White Chanteclers, then it would explain the potential for less than desirable temperaments in some strains. Factory farms are not putting temperaments a backyarder would admire way up in their selection criterion.

There ARE many good lines of Whites in the Chanteclers; depends a lot on who is breeding and for what purposes. No one variety in the Chantecler breed can be labelled with any certainties; good or bad.

Studies have been done that show "temperament" is genetic AND environmentally influenced. How one raises the birds also accounts for how they turn out too. Crowding, less than good feed, bad water, constant interruptions to calmness, improper facilities, predation...not always a breeder's fault how young stocks turn out if sent on to less than ideal places...

Fred Jeffrey's describes the bantam Chantecler breed as being shaped like a Rhode Island, which to me is a BLOCK of a bird. If an elephant had the temperament of a weasel, I expect we would never see elephants being used as a beast of burden.

How's that for a nice amble ramble for today...never know where we may end up here...hee hee...not seeing pink flamingos, how about PINK ellyphonts??

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

I really loved the read on Chanteclers.
I'm working on a similar project. Black Penedesencas. True, a skittish Mediterranean breed but it's the only variety of Pene meant to be DP. Most of my hens are a good size but I'd like to get more size on the roosters. I weigh them at intervals while growing and I agree that fast growth doesn't necessarily equate to adult size. That selection requires keeping many more adult roosters IMO. They'll never be a Cornish width bird but I think I can achieve a fair amount of meat.
Once the birds mature, they're much calmer and I can walk amidst them without them freaking out. Strangers are another story though. I think the skittishness/alertness is really important in the case of predators. IMO, aloofness prevents aggression.
Size, temperament and egg color are high on my agenda.

As for dancing. My daughter started when she was 4 doing the

 

[Arielle]

Just stopped in to say howdy. I seem to have to much going on these days.

Daughter number 3 got engaged on Christmas and her engagement party was last weekend. Daughter #4 has a baby shower on the 16th. Of course it ended up being the same day as the chicken show here. First year here and 10 minutes away and I'll be over 100 miles away. Dang kids! Don't they know better than to find out if there's something else I actually want to do? Grand baby number 29.......wonder if they'd miss me? My baby boy Dakotah graduates from high school in May, turns 18 in May and is excited about going away to college..... I haven't been childless in 38 years. I have no idea what to do with myself. I'm home all day with the animals and Makayla comes home on weekends, holidays and Summer, but I'm starting to feel really alone these days.

I finally have some of my young birds laying, but they aren't separated by breed. Using their eggs to test fertility, then into a layer pen with no roos until I get clear eggs and into the breeding pens. Found my Wellie roo sitting funny in the coop. Pale comb and very thin. No discharges or rattling or anything. Just bony. I have him crated and dosing him with B12 with K and trying to get him to eat. he pecks a little but doesn't really eat. Reminds me I need to go out and try to get more food in him before I go to bed.

29 grand kids??

Deling with just 2 tweens is more than enough for me . . . . guess grandkids are just another facet of child rearing to grow into !! I need at least 10 more years . . .

 

[chickisoup]

Aren't we all thrilled??? How am I supposed to reset the time on my furry four-footed alarm clock when I can't even find her snooze button????

 

[chickensnewtome]

So hubby brought me some bantams home. They are an assortment and the only one that I have no clue what it is, is this little yellow chick with furry blue feet and a blue beak. Does anyone have any ideas? He has a bit of an afro going on.

 

[ronott1]

I really loved the read on Chanteclers.
I'm working on a similar project. Black Penedesencas. True, a skittish Mediterranean breed but it's the only variety of Pene meant to be DP. Most of my hens are a good size but I'd like to get more size on the roosters. I weigh them at intervals while growing and I agree that fast growth doesn't necessarily equate to adult size. That selection requires keeping many more adult roosters IMO. They'll never be a Cornish width bird but I think I can achieve a fair amount of meat.
Once the birds mature, they're much calmer and I can walk amidst them without them freaking out. Strangers are another story though. I think the skittishness/alertness is really important in the case of predators. Size, demeanor and egg color are tops on my agenda.

We need to get the weight on the one Jason has from the Florida flock.

I sure hope the Import goes through!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Me too. I got eggs last year on e-bay from perhaps the same person but none hatched. I'm sure, in addition to being shipped, my incubator was partly to blame.
I was really bummed, If I could get just a bit of new blood, I'd be set.

I have 2 unrelated hens that are nice except that their eggs aren't dark at all. Hopefully by the end of May, I'll know if my roosters are giving the unrelated hen's daughters a darker egg gene. I would have known by now but raccoons broke into the cellar last year and killed all the chicks I had hatched from them.

 

[ronott1]

Me too. I got eggs last year on e-bay from perhaps the same person but none hatched. I'm sure, in addition to being shipped, my incubator was partly to blame.
I was really bummed, If I could get just a bit of new blood, I'd be set.

I have 2 unrelated hens that are nice except that their eggs aren't dark at all. Hopefully by the end of May, I'll know if my roosters are giving the unrelated hen's daughters a darker egg gene. I would have known by now but raccoons broke into the cellar last year and killed all the chicks I had hatched from them.

Jason wants to try a trick--incubate the eggs for one day, remove them and ship them. It may help them hatch better after shipping.

I managed to hatch two of the Black Pene eggs--using a Brinsea with the cool down cycle. Shipping is murder on Pene eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Jason wants to try a trick--incubate the eggs for one day, remove them and ship them. It may help them hatch better after shipping.

I think that's a great idea. It is supposed to help them keep longer. Perhaps we could ship each other eggs. 6 fresh and 6 pre-incubated.
Storing eggs for a long time for incubation wrapped in plastic is supposed to help too.
I'll have to do that experiment.

 

[scottcaddy]

Aren't we all thrilled??? How am I supposed to reset the time on my furry four-footed alarm clock when I can't even find her snooze button????

Scott