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Post by diane on Dec 23, 2015 1:02:39 GMT -5
Over the years I had a lot of fancy hens, and occasionally a rooster, so I'd get mixed chicks. One year I gave a batch of cockerels
to someone to eat. He reported he had thrown them into the garbage because they were rotten. This startled me - they were alive when
I caught them. Well, when they were plucked, they revealed black skin, so the people assumed the worst. Then I remembered that
white silkies were in their ancestry, and silkies have dark skin.
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Post by reed on Dec 23, 2015 7:25:59 GMT -5
I just try to keep my chickens from being inbred. Not easy when you only keep a dozen or so. I thought for sure that Gladys Bob should have some Rhode Island Red but she sure don't look like it. I hope to expand my chicken operation this year with ability to keep different roosters separated into different breeding groups. If it ever happens that I can't get new ones for some reason (bird flu, government regs) I can still keep a healthy little flock. Ideally I would like to have about twenty chickens with each one having genetics from four or more breeds and and as many as possible different four breed combinations.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 25, 2016 10:38:46 GMT -5
TWO YEARS LATER: Swedish Flower is another example of a landrace breed. (Do you have any of those Flower?) Our little breeding actually has a couple (literally, two) fans now. They are still lean in the breast, but great layers through the winter months. We are finding that crossed breeds are healthier and need a little less attention than the pure breeds with less genetic diversity. Additionally, to address the lean breast issue I have a couple of Cornish X x Bresse hybrids that we will work into our system over the coming year. I'm hoping to get some more eggs from the same person for hatching. We are up to over 200 birds (remember when there were only 8?) The laying flock is about 90 birds and we get a guessed average of about 63 eggs daily. I'll do the math later.  There are days we get 70+ eggs and the most ever was 76 which was just a couple days ago. Along with the chickens there are guineas which seem to be doing really well this year. Maybe they are at last at a stable number? There are 18 now. We intend to bring in a few more from an outside source and of course we are hoping there will be a nest or two from these guys that we can grab eggs from and incubate over the season. Steev, you would love to see Mike's revamped smoker. Much smaller than the original that was made from plywood panels. He reused some of the wood and used a lot more roofing tin. Tightened up some of the seams by welding them as well. We've done a ham but a few chickens rolled in papers would be nice too. |
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Post by prairiegarden on Mar 28, 2016 22:59:30 GMT -5
In reference to chickens losing the innate ability to fear what they should fear and vice versa, today I heard about an interesting study (which was unfortunately not footnoted as to what/where) that supposedly went like this. Scientists who were studying genetics trained chickens to fear a certain type of music by shocking them when that music came on and not when different music came on. Apparently they found that chicks from those hens were hatched with a fear reaction to the music that had been accompanied by a shock. No idea what that means in terms of anything at all, but if true, I thought it was interesting.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 29, 2016 13:39:31 GMT -5
Bizarre. :/
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 20, 2018 1:16:06 GMT -5
My first chicks hatched this week. Incubators are not my style, so a broody hen raised them. I don't think I have the community organizational skills to turn them into a local landrace. Four flocks provided eggs to the hen, including Icelandics, Silkies, and a couple of mixed breed flocks.  Some of the parents:  |
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There are days we get 70+ eggs and the most ever was 76 which was just a couple days ago.
