Messages

646

Breeding / Shafting in silvers

« on: April 23, 2012, 11:18:23 AM »

Jean,  Yes I am using the ABA silver description.  Should be the same as the APA silver dutch color.   I have not seen LF other than in pictures.  Actually have only seen a few bantams in this color.  Just appears that the black stripes go almost to the head from what I have seen.  

I guess I was thinking that the Ar was always in the background and this was why so many folks had trouble when they crossed different lines.  The cross disturbed the different melanizers.  Glad to know that there are lines that are clean of Ar to try to use.

So the birchen are solid black when hatched?  I would be interested in hearing how the cross with the whites carries thru.  

I have heard the old barn/paint adage many times.  From other posts, is it fair to say that color comes from the male, type and maybe size from the female?  I was hoping that the body was there on the bantams, now we can focus more on the color.      

647

Breeding / Shafting in silvers

« on: April 16, 2012, 04:11:22 PM »

Silvers seem to be so complicated to me because we are trying to do so many things at one time with the color.  Those that I have seen are generally darker than the standard.  I guess I mean by that the stripping in the head, upper hackle and back should be greatly reduced to solid white or silver.  The wings should have a solid white block while the breast in the males still needs to be solid black.  It seems like adding black to reduce shafting would work against this need to add light to the top of the bird.  I am sure that its not as simple as this.  

Curtis, you mentioned that you added black to reduce the red in the wings, and that the birchen hens from these crosses help with this.  I understand that the Birchen and Brown Red that you used in these crosses are related in the color patterns, but why does this not add to the red coloration.  Are you finding lines of blacks that have NO autosomnal red in their background?  Can you help me understand this better?  Also, can you tell the birchen from silver at hatch?   Are the birchen solid black similar to the brown red?    

648

Ameraucana Marketplace / Stock Available

« on: April 16, 2012, 03:34:44 PM »

We have a couple Pairs of 9 month old white bantams available.  Hope to have a few Silver bantams available in a month or so.  These will be about 5 months old.  

We also have eggs from these varieties as well as Lavs.

All of these are from Jerry\'s lines.   Please send me an email if you are interested.  We can try to meet at a show or work out something to get them to work for you for this season.  

649

Housing, Health & Hatching / House Pets....?%&@

« on: April 07, 2012, 12:15:51 AM »

Jes, I think Beth was just talking about Folks and the Full moon on another post.  Folks will try to make pets of all sorts of animals.  Just not too sure how to over come all of the crazy things I\'ve had chickens do in their own houses and in the yard.  

650

Housing, Health & Hatching / Infertility question

« on: March 24, 2012, 06:20:42 PM »

Sharon,   You did not mention their pen arrangement but could there could be other issues such as hen fighting, tight quarters or even just inexperience for the year.   If you really want to to hatch from her, then trim them and put her in with the male as a pair in as large a pen as you can spare.  A little quality time might get them working together better.  If she is a real prize winner as a last resort you could always try AI to see if you can get a few chicks out.  You will want to follow chicks that are from this mating to see if its going to repeat itself.  Obviously the goal is create a very active and productive line of birds.

651

Exhibiting & Promoting / Chick Hatchery

« on: March 14, 2012, 03:26:29 PM »

Great Video John and great setup!  

For the Leahy, did you use the GQF turning trays/system or some other system?  

652

Housing, Health & Hatching / Feed Prices

« on: February 28, 2012, 04:40:34 PM »

Purina Layer crumbles 15.75, pellets 16.25
Nutrena and Barlett Brands feeds are usually comparable in quality and percentage of protein

Bartlett Chick Start and Grow 14.50
Bartlett Layer Crumbles 13.00 @ 17 % protein
Three grain scratch 12.00

One of our feed dealers says that almost any mill will accept competitors coupons, especially Purina\'s, if you can find them.

If we drive a half hour out from the city we can buy grains from farmers that grow it for about 8.00/bag. This includes wheat, oats, millet and corn.  Cracked corn or mixed grains add a dollar for the extra efforts.  We do not have access to peas here.    

Roasted soybean meal is $18.00    All prices 50#bags

653

Housing, Health & Hatching / Culling chicks

« on: February 24, 2012, 11:14:18 PM »

How quickly a train can jump the track!

654

Exhibiting & Promoting / Club shirts / vinyl decals

« on: February 23, 2012, 02:14:41 PM »

Not sure what costs might be involved in shipping special orders to size or the cost to setup individual runs for shirts and similar items.  Maybe Tricia can fill in some of the numbers for these variables.  In looking at the picture of folks at the National, caps might be a good option if there were a couple of colors that most liked.  Tricia, can you do embroidered logos or just silk screen images?  At least the size would not be an issue for adult caps.  The investment/quantity wise would not have to be so great and people could pick them up at the shows or order ready made.  The logo decals would be an easy option since they could be printed in small numbers and they could probably be mailed in a normal letter envelope.    

655

Exhibiting & Promoting / Splashes

« on: February 09, 2012, 11:11:51 PM »

We might be able to contribute a few splash bantams and Maybe a few SW LF if all goes well.  Lucasville is usually a great show, though we have not been in several years.  We can not help with the 5 year history though.

BTW, we are new to the forum although have been reading and trying to learn what we can.