Tolbunt Polish

[AmyP716]

Blackgoat how old is your girl? Mine is nine months old and I'm still waiting for an egg. I thought she laid one but it was one of my other pullets. I'm hoping it will be soon.

 

[eeyore75]

I have one that isn't bearded. I think I like that look better. She also had a smaller crest, which I also like. She laid her first egg a few days ago. It's so teeny. I thought she was supposed to be LF sized, but she is pretty small.

Polish are small chickens. Their eggs are barely bigger than bantam eggs, but they do lay a lot of them.

Polish come in both bantam size and large fowl, which LF are suppose to be minimum 4 lbs for pullets, 6 lbs for cockerels, 4 1/2 lbs for hens, and 6 1/2 lbs for roosters.

Tolbunts are normally large fowl, but there are a few breeders working on getting the variety bred down to a bantam size.

LF polish tend to run close to the minimum weights and undersize birds do occur, and bantams often have oversized birds that crop up as well.

I have never owned bantam polish, so I can not give a common egg size on those. We do have Tolbunt, White Crested, and some Golden for the Tolbunt outcrosse, we had Buff and Silver lace in the past. All of our polish have started off laying small pullet eggs, but increased to a large medium egg size within about a month of laying and most increased to a large egg size around a year of age.

 

[eeyore75]

Blackgoat how old is your girl? Mine is nine months old and I'm still waiting for an egg. I thought she laid one but it was one of my other pullets. I'm hoping it will be soon.

Mine usually start laying between 6-9 month of age, some people have had them go over a year, but I haven't seen that yet. Not sure where you are in MI, but we are in southern lower Michigan and it has just gotten warm in the last week- I would think your girl should start laying soon. Many if they are close to laying age when the cold starts in the fall will not lay until it warms up in the spring.

 

[AmyP716]

Yeah I am in south east lower MI. It just started getting warm here too. All of my chickens stopped laying over winter this year and one just started up two days ago. So I'm hoping it will be soon.

 

[jnkir7]

how do you cross a polish with a non crested bird and still keep the crest

 

[misfitmorgan]

Polish are small chickens. Their eggs are barely bigger than bantam eggs, but they do lay a lot of them.

I have one that isn't bearded. I think I like that look better. She also had a smaller crest, which I also like. She laid her first egg a few days ago. It's so teeny. I thought she was supposed to be LF sized, but she is pretty small.

Polish come in both bantam size and large fowl, which LF are suppose to be minimum 4 lbs for pullets, 6 lbs for cockerels, 4 1/2 lbs for hens, and 6 1/2 lbs for roosters.

Tolbunts are normally large fowl, but there are a few breeders working on getting the variety bred down to a bantam size.

LF polish tend to run close to the minimum weights and undersize birds do occur, and bantams often have oversized birds that crop up as well.

I have never owned bantam polish, so I can not give a common egg size on those. We do have Tolbunt, White Crested, and some Golden for the Tolbunt outcrosse, we had Buff and Silver lace in the past. All of our polish have started off laying small pullet eggs, but increased to a large medium egg size within about a month of laying and most increased to a large egg size around a year of age.

i agree with Eeyore...i have LF Polish and they lay eggs the same size as my White Leghorns and sometimes bigger.

 

[SkinnyDragon23]

Random question: Do tolbunts tend to be more susceptible to disease/weaker than other chickens? The chicks that I've had have always seemed more puny than other polish chicks.

 

[eeyore75]

Random question: Do tolbunts tend to be more susceptible to disease/weaker than other chickens? The chicks that I've had have always seemed more puny than other polish chicks.

I haven't had much issues with them being "weaker", they hatch slower than our WC polish do (and the laced ones even). I don't know if you are talking "puny" on size or vigor- I do not think enough people cull for size on them and that is needed in a breeding program. Not every bird that hatches out should be used in a breeding program, culling is very important for the variety (culling just means removing it from your breeding flock- it does not have to mean kill them- but it can include that).
Mine are usually pretty bouncy babies so I don't see issues with vigor with them, but I outcross to gold lace frequently and have gotten new tolbunt stock from several sources 3 of the 5 years I've had them. I think that any breed or variety that has limited genetics tends to have have more issues with viability if it is continually bred to itself, and it wasn't strong to start with. I have heard stories of how weak the variety was in the past, but I think that isn't a big issue with them overall anymore. Or maybe I just don't see it in mine or the people I know with them so think it is better.

 

[mikkles]

I was wondering if anyone had any Frizzle polish eggs? i would so love to add a frizzle to my Polish! My tolbunts are coming along so nicely, I'm ready to "up the ante!" lol

 

[ladycat]

I was wondering if anyone had any Frizzle polish eggs? i would so love to add a frizzle to my Polish! My tolbunts are coming along so nicely, I'm ready to "up the ante!" lol

I want some too!