Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So let's go back to sorta behaving--yeh as behaving as I can be...which is not too much...

We have done the WHITE chooks which were "c" and now let's do the big C as in C"+" ("+" as in superscript just means WILD TYPE).

Know that the more proper scientific genetic way is for one series to have say, one letter of the alphabet, in this instance, we are dealing with the "C" series, so typed out nice and proper, we are doing the "c-series." If the series had more than just two alleles, we can add more letters (E-series is so far made up of: E for extended black, ER for birchen, e"+" for duckwing, eb for brown, and eWh for wheaten). Hope that makes sense fer y'all.

Me funking with your brains when I go big D and big C for DUCK and CHICKEN...or big D for DUCK and little s for SOCCER-BALL...that is not completely correct BUT (I do have a big one) that is a good way to begin the Punnett Squares to make it make some sense--start slow, be totally wrong and go from there (no place but UP from that, eh). So, like now we gotta be good (gooder, eh) and make improvements and be more proper.

So if there are two alleles on one series, in this case the little "c" was for WHITE (recessive white <--this is a review mention on that) and the big "C" is for NOT-White (non-white) or simply put, COLOURED. We will add the superscript of the plus sign ("+") to show this allele in the c-series is the wild type. Got it, I hope so...

So let's get going on this...should be pretty easy, peasy...

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So I have the plastic chickens, the coloured chooks...I have two types of hens, one type of female is more a dual purpose heritage hen shaped set and the other type, a more eggy layer heritage hen shaped set. Only one set thus far of coloured males...I will eventually find a set of coloured males I like and add those and have TWO sets of coloured chooks...but fer now...one set of males and two sets of females (eggy and the duallies).

So the little scrap of paper above says, simply, "Not white, Coloured, BR (meaning like brown) and C"+" C"+"...

Now right off...jest like the Whites, we will keep this demo real simple (big kissy KISS eh!).

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Y'all gotta know that if we breed coloured chook to coloured chook, the NORMAL expectation is for coloured chooks in the kids. The progeny being evenly divided up with coloured females and coloured males. Not no rocket science in this round. We will be kind and simple to ourselves, eh.

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So let's get set up to do the Punnett Square for the genetics...

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See the female and the male are Velcro stuck to the little pieces of yeller paper... female bird on P1 and male bird on P1 paper...the PARENTS...

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So each P1 has the genetics of being C"+"/C"+", so we put one C"+" in each square....

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Tis a no brainer...fill in the progeny as C"+"/C"+"...the ratio for the geno and pheno in this case is 100 percent for both the C"+"/C"+" and they are all gonna be coloured progeny.

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So here are the kids; note the yeller patches of paper, each one stating "F1" with gender opposite...makes sense I hope fer yah now.

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See if you turn the yeller patch of paper over, you can see the genotype...C"+" C"+"... A very good visual and hands on kinda demo, only we have to do it by photos.

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I mean we knew coloured chook to coloured chook (C"+"/C"+") was gonna equal all coloured chooks in the phenotype...yes?

That is the normal expectation...but things don't always stay normal or simple...but that is a set I have yet to take photos of...so we can get into when white x white does not equal white offspring, when coloured x coloured don't end up with coloured.

In the real world, we see things that should be "like begets like" NOT happening and when this happens to us Poultry Folks...well our feathers get all ruffled up and we eventually ask the open ended question..."WHY?" and then we often go on to discover genetics to help us understand the WHY...it works, it's kewl, you'll learn to LOVE it. Simply because it makes sense and you know why and you can figure it out and I feel, it makes all of us much better breeders...birds sure benefit from us learning about them, dat's fer sure!

Genetic Knowledge is POWER

Fear The Duck!​

Wisher is absolutely correct..."genetic knowledge is power" and we need to become all powerful with the knowledge of genetics to assist us...now don't we! Still need to fear the duck though...heh heh heh,...FTD...

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Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Now for a smattering of my more usual posts here about Pear-A-Dice. Been letting the pics build up and now it's time to release...the hounds, the food, the silliness...

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Made up a Chef Salad...which came first, the chicken or the egg...like WHO cares...it all tastes good eh.

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Steak and mushrooms for moi...Rick traded his mushies for mashies as in potatoes...​

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Now I have a set of Cushion Combs I bin meaning to post...the first two are from our foundation standard sized Buff Chanteclers ... explains why we have sometimes pretty much like NO wattles on a few of the generations... The SOP says that Chants are to have wattles, little ones, but they do have WATTLES...

Chantelle


Charles


Some standard sized Red Chantecler cockerels...virtually NO wattles.​

Another buncha standard sized Red Chantecler cockerels...but with some WANTED wattles.

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I am starting to really like this Partridge standard sized Chant cockerel....

Now dare's some nice blip of a wattle...hope it stays relatively small...looking pretty nice, nice...thus far!

Here's a trio of the bantam project self-buff Chanteclers...

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Pullet

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Cockerel




Another Pullet

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We got another two, but darker in the buff colourations and well, uh, actually with light lacing on them...but form looks good AND firmer feather is a true bonus so might add them to the breeding pen...shall see.

Things not good...soft soft feathers...blah (but soft feather is and has been an issue in the large fowl buff Chantelcers too)...mis-colours in the self-buff, but hey... they have breed form so me is happy. I know the self-buff variety is gonna take WAY more work to get correct than the self-whites, so these ones as F4's are doing not so bad. How's that for a pep talk! LOL

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So a vintage vehicle friend of ours asked me if I could supply them with a photo of a wooden bucket...closest I could get was an old vintage ice cream maker...

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So here are some random collectibles we have kicking round here...

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On the right thar, is a wooden crate for eggs...that is the transition from the slatted wooden ones (pic below of the ones, think we have about six of these...that we have in the Man Porch) and the more modern plastic ones. The butter churn is one Rick refurbished a few years back...

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Rick is going to take the old sharpening stone off this metal stand and refurbish the stand for a better sharpening stone that one I have, but that sharpening stone is on a wooden stand and I would like to see it on this metal one.

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See the much better sharpening stone down on the right bottom side?

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One year for my b-day, I got a little yellow dinky truck and a cow that walks to the edge of the counter...little string and a weight...it has long ago disappeared but in my adult travels, I have aced myself a little herd...love these things...silly really.

MOO-licious​

So it has been exceptionally warm the past few days...and the snow is melting off...thought this was kinda kewl...pebbly ice patches on the top of the snow...neat.

March 4, 2015​

Before it got warm...the beginning of March came on in like a lion...we got some pretty cold nights.

March 3, 2015​

Did not stop the Fix from coming out to help with the chores.

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I made her go in the igloo dog house though...while I did some ruminant chores...no cold toes, eh.

March 4, 2015 - play time!

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So at the beginning of the week, I fed Fix and Rick came down to watch her eat...suddenly I hear him call me...one word, simple and direct..."TARA!" I burn down to the kitchen and he says, she has blood coming out of her nose and mouth. I hit the floor and have a look...nope, good, just a tiny cut on the side of nose...thank heavens! I never like to hear that "blood out of nose OR mouth but both has me near hysterics, eh.

Over the years, Fixins has been using up her body parts...she favours one leg but darn if she don't run completely four footed to the pasture to play dog time each evening, she gurgles a bit when she is deep asleep, she sticks her tongue out when she sleeps sometimes (relaxed, old, it happens), she has the annoying histiocytomas, not coloured or hairless just lumps and bumps...her mother Makins had them...at first you freak but the vet draws a sample and if clear, it is a benign tumour...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histiocytoma_(dog)

Dogs, goats, cows get them. I laugh and call them her lard lumps, like she is a camel and saving up the fat for hard times (yeh, not ever gonna happen here--not fer dawgs ever gonna be hard times, eh)...

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We have hats with this logo on it...too old to part out...it is Rick's handle and he sure means it.

So basically, Princess Warrior is getting old, gracefully or not, she is using up parts and enjoying herself immensely--kinda my theory, we start out complete and the competition is to see who can have the most FUN with what you got before the grim reaper comes to take you...better USE it all up, eh.

Fixins will be 14 years old in July...she is rough on herself, she is pedal to the metal and she is always raring to go, go, GO. She never did throttle it back, was on or off and more ON her game than ever. Over the years, I have had seven dogs pass...you would expect that it gets easier each time but the simple fact is NO, it gets harder and harder with each dog that passes because YOU know the outcome is not good, you know the pain and suffering you feel and selfishly, I'd like to skip that eh. Practise does not make perfect and just when you think you have no more pieces of your heart to have ripped out, another dog passes on and your soul takes a kick to the kahoonas...it seems that it hurts more and more each time. I know your heart expands back up, to receive a new dog eventually if you decide after you recover (HA, recover...OK, get managing it better so you don't burst out in tears in public--every second or so...sorta!), that you will have more love for a new dog, a new individual, a new one to learn about and live to love with.

I GET that while all dogs DO go to heaven, they can't live here with us on Earth forever, or even as long as mere humans do. I would like them to selfishly live forever, or at least as long as I do...but that is not to be. In reality, Fixins is getting old and she is going to go...someday. I hope not soon but I noted recently, that she has a lump, another histio, on her head now. Between her Bently bumps and as it grows, it is going to cause her some grief (and me, I like to scratch them bad ACDogs on the skull, eh) as she let out a yelp the other day when I brushed her noggin...no noggin brushing no more. I'm old and this old dog has to learn new tricks about caring for old dogs...behave myself and adjust to each new day and what that means.

Below, I use to tag this one line on my sig file...in fond memory of the three ACD's we here no longer have blessing our lives...I fear I may have to update this one...I sure hope not this month, this week, or ever but I do know way better. Selfishly for me and Rick...we need to start bracing ourselves for the inevitable. Fixins has parts failing, she is getting old just like us and there will come a time, maybe she will pass in her sleep or we will have to take them in like we did with her mother Makins (cancer).

^~~^ Miss yah Makins (Dec 7, 1995–Feb 4, 2011) Miss yah HyBlade (Mar 23, 2000-Aug 7, 2012) Miss yah Stoggar (Mar 17, 1998-Sep 18, 2013) ^~~^​

For now, Fixins gets choice pieces of food in her breaky and dinner, she gets special dog dog time to chase the toys, she looks perky and energetic, she looks pretty fine and healthy--for a dog her age, she gets to be chore dog & my shadow/velcro dawg/Siamese twin, she gets to sit on Rick's feet and hold him hostage--can't move without her knowing, she eats the best pieces from his plate saved from his dinner...and on and on...she gets to be my companion for as long as she wants to be here...heaven help me she remains pain free and able. I know it's ultimately selfish to wish something lives on...yer time is yer time. Average lifespan for most Australian Cattle Dogs (Heelers) runs about nine years for a working herding dog...world record is over 29 years for the breed.

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It's a heads up and a note...there is never gonna be NO paradise for real here on Earth...we can try, we can enjoy every single day here, breathe it in deep and enjoy it for all its worth. The only constant is change and I am not so sure I am gonna like the change...when that change makes itself present here.

Phil Vassar - Just Another Day In Paradise:

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[hennible]

Hey Tara, I have a Bantam cross pullet that I think is going to have a cushion comb, but both her parents were pea comb is this possible? I think it's possible?
Also with sex linked birds what are the chances you could get a bird that's showing the colouring of the wrong sex?

 

[CanuckBock]

Hey Tara, I have a Bantam cross pullet that I think is going to have a cushion comb, but both her parents were pea comb is this possible? I think it's possible?
Also with sex linked birds what are the chances you could get a bird that's showing the colouring of the wrong sex?

http://www.wolven.ca/higgins/ratranch/

Go to Page; Tales from Rat World...

Article 1. Combs & Wattles in the Chantecler Chicken


If the two parents have "true" pea combs (even a single dose of pea comb should mask a chook that has a single comb AND pea and rose are of equal dominance...same status, equal in the fight to express selves--so the fight if both pea and rose combs are present is a cushion comb...no winners in pea or rose!)...so it is not possible to throw Cushion Comb if two P1's both have pea combs. I have seen a "blade" or "leaf" comb expressed by chooks that have what we think is a single dose of pea comb...but there it is again, some expression that pea comb is present in a chicken...not hidden.

Half the equation for cushion/walnut/strawberry (all same thing, with variable in expression), is ROSE comb.

PEA + ROSE = Cushion comb.


I have chosen to retain nothing about production of gender linked breeds--nada. I refuse to bother to fill my head with that non-sense...infringes on my personal ethics and beliefs about gender equality in all living beings.

MY issue, not everyone's.

I can say that female birds may change to male birds when their ovary quits and does not continue to make hormones to make the bird a girl. The ovary may quit due to old age or some disorder or accident. Now if it was an infection of the ovary, and if cured, it may result in the former female but now male looking bird (she may crow too) reverting back to its original gender & back to laying eggs with female plumage once again.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[hennible]

Thanks Tara, I think you explained this pea, rose, cushion comb thing before for me... It rings a bell.

 

[CanuckBock]

Thanks Tara, I think you explained this pea, rose, cushion comb thing before for me... It rings a bell.

Yeh, the article I wrote on the Chant Combs was published in the Feather Fancier and the Chantecler International newsletter... Met alot of persons thru that article.

There's a buncha photos in it to help out too...

I believe on this thread too, I added some chick (day old) photos of single, rose, pea and the cushion combs. We have those four here. I'll post some again...

ALL DAY OLD CHICKS


Single combs - Booted Bantams



Rose combs - Bantam Wyandottes



Pea combs - Bantam Brahmas​

Three day olds with cushion combs - Chanteclers​

Cushions usually have bristly hairs around the comb...

Day old cushion comb with hairs​

Yeh, hairy scary chooks...

Female exhibiting bristle hairs on a cushion comb​

The 1/3 upper transverse groove on the top portion of the Cushion Comb too is a genetic expectation of the combination of rose plus pea comb too.

Cushion combs - Day old on the right has a transverse groove
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Female with transverse groove on cushion comb​

The Silkie breed often has this groove in their "walnut" comb which is a good "helper" for crested chooks too.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[chickisoup]

OH CRUD

Just read that the H5N2 bird flu virus was found in a professional turkey farm in Minnesota.

It hit so hard that over 1000 birds were dead before they discovered it with another 800 will be destroyed.
So far none has been discovered outside this facility but all backyard flocks nearby are being tested. Minnesota
is the largest producer of turkeys in the country so this is going to be quite a hit for them. It is also the first time
bird flu has been found in the Mississippi fly way. The migration season is just kicking into full swing.
Everyone I know with a flock is now officially nervous.

 

[CanuckBock]

OH CRUD

Just read that the H5N2 bird flu virus was found in a professional turkey farm in Minnesota.

It hit so hard that over 1000 birds were dead before they discovered it with another 800 will be destroyed.
So far none has been discovered outside this facility but all backyard flocks nearby are being tested. Minnesota
is the largest producer of turkeys in the country so this is going to be quite a hit for them. It is also the first time
bird flu has been found in the Mississippi fly way. The migration season is just kicking into full swing.
Everyone I know with a flock is now officially nervous.

STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why should you be nervous...what will be, will be. This has been ongoing for decades and decades in poultry. The big boys tell the little ones what to do and how high to jump. If you are only getting nervous now, it is far far too late an emotion to be bothered with. The barn door can be closed all you want...the horses have run off and are long gone now.

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I am not their puppet to jump at their command. I will continue to do what we do and do it well.

Biosecure protocols should be in place, risk factors are all the same as they have always been...risks come when you associate in person with other fanciers, visit other properties with birds, attend shows or enter birds and return them to your flock, borrow or lend equipment, buy used items, don't bath and don't sanitize your footwear and clothes before doing chores...even if you do a two month quarantine, things like CRD can take years to surface so it is utterly useless to think you can avoid risks if you choose to take risks. Don't bring in hatching eggs, don't bring in new birds. We have not brought in any landfowl since 2008...and hugely glad for it.

Nothing changes here...same old, same old. I sleep well at night...not like anything I can change now that I have not been doing for the past 45+ years in birds, dogs and livestock will result in anything different happening; today, tomorrow or ever. Due diligence is a must if you want to be here for the long haul and if you think you can stop big business, hardly a hope so why bother worrying about something you have no control over. Wasted emotions, I figure.

It is Big Farm that created this situation and they are the ones that keep repeating it. Until they learn from THEIR mistakes...they want this to be all our worries and I am not buying into that because I choose to do what we do and if something happens, oh well, I'll deal with it when it happens, as it happens. I am not going to pay in ways that I have no control over...not paying for all the nervous worry I don't need to be putting myself thru. Merely living is risky enough without adding more "what if's" to the equation.

Sorta like the downturn in the price of oil...anyone that was not behaving is getting caught in the repercussions...those of us that have been doing as we should, continue to reap what we have sown. I cannot control the price of oil, so we do not hinge our success or failure on things we have no control over. Chose a decrepit house to reside in...payments are less than a one bedroom apartment...cannot afford the rental fee of one bedroom apartment, then things are very very bad and I guess everyone is going to hit the ditch--I'll have company in the misery I guess. I can't plan for every disaster but you do what you are able and what you cannot do, shrug off the concern and deal with what can be dealt with.

We chose to live far away from the commercial poultry entities...we chose this location for a very good reason. If we are not far enough away, then fine, we will deal with what we have to deal with. Death...culling, killing of the birds...I guess that is the price you pay for living too close to Big Farm. Move. Start up again, relocate further away...run away...I guess that is a choice each person has to make. Is it the solution if they test your flock and decide they are going to kill the birds--likely. Like you have a choice in the matter once that happens?

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Bring it on...

Last huge cull the mush meaters and swill eggers made everyone in BC pay for...linked to a dog that was allowed outside to chase wild birds and then entered the massive poultry barn without being cleansed of what the commercial factory farm franken birds can't handle. Mr. Big is going to flex his muscles. All one can expect is that everyone and everybody will pay huge costs for their violations to Nature. Don't support factory farms, don't buy their products, write letters against how we make food nowadays, have laws changed, go psycho and have things altered I guess.

I have no solutions past what I can do (me, myself and I) and if I have to deal with being too close to the factory farms, then I have to deal with it. Not going to lose one second of sleep to being nervous about it. I have my own free will and my own emotions I choose to feel.



Paula Johnson 1998- Conservation and Use of Turkey Diversity chapter of Birds of a Feather:

Monoculture is demanded by the public...like peas in a pod, apples in a bin, birds in the meat counter. Whenever we humans feel we are gods...the real forces of Nature flex and send us scrambling to figure out how to fix our errors in our ways. This was never a surprise that factory birds were going to get wiped out...only a matter of when and who they were going to try to blame...for their errors in management, judgement, bottom line make the most profit decision making skills. When the welfare and quality of life of our foods and the very quality of food become important...then maybe mass testing and mass culls and massive mistakes MIGHT start to stop happening. Until then, expect this to repeat, repeat, repeat...

Nature is biting the factory farmed birds...biting them hard and fast for their violations to Nature. Who in their right minds figures antibiotics in the poultry feeds to get them to marketable weights was a good idea...obviously this "solution" was doomed from the start...no surprise eh.

http://awguarantee.ca/en/

Watch the fast food companies flogging beef burgers with "no steroids or hormones" and NO mention of beef with no antibiotics or fed only veg diet as in NO animal by-products? Eggs from chooks on a veg diet (no animal by-products but what about hormones, steroids, antibiotics?). What about the chicken burgers...no antibiotics or non-veg feed (we've always done that, no biggy)...but no mention in the ad like in the beef one of no steroids or no hormones...does that mean no antibiotics are there but...what is being said that is being EXCLUDED, eh. Time to wise up as a consumer and realize what is missing in the advertisements...an oversight or a leash to run wild in other aspects...dunno, don't care. On a more humorous note...that fast food company cannot use products from the very province I live in...have to source these foods outside the province where I reside...not Canadian made, eh.

Canadian Dr. Roy D. Crawford 1984, editor of the poultry genetics bible:

Will they learn from the massive mistakes...I suspect hardly. Not until they have wiped all birds off the face of the planet in their efforts to prop up the sickness in their commercial birds (hmm, only the strong should survive...that is unless Big Biz gets in it)...and even then, I suspect they will not be happy until they wipe backyard flocks and Fanciers off the planet too. We make them look bad...our birds taste AWESOME, we raise them happy and humanely, we do it here without EVER EVER giving our poultry antibiotics, no steroids, no hormones, no medications past ampro and a few dewormers....in sunshine, in fresh air, in natural environments...

WE are a threat and when you threaten some entity that is doing something so gravely wrong...they are gonna hit you as hard as they can...legal or illegal without a single thought as to the moral rightness of their actions or inactions. Like David and Goliath...sometimes the little guy wins, sometimes he don't. If being right means you continue, then I guess if right is allowed to win over wrong...we too shall continue and shall prosper.


Mono-Agriculture and the Big Farm keeps trying to blame the wild bird population for this. The issue is not the wild birds but the complete and utter messing with Nature that us humans in general seem to think needs to happen in our food production. The state of our food is continuing to slide down to that hot place...and fast.

Big Farm is going to run about like a chook with no head blaming wild birds, the migration and of course, biggest threat ever is the backyarder. Whatever...Dr. Carefoot has already written about how we are suppose to be pressured into vaccinating our flocks. We don't and we won't; we of the intelligent (been there, seen that, over and over and they learn nothing in the er of their ways, eh) continue to practice natural disease resistance, we continue to breed healthy heritage birds, that live long and prosper, that thrive and produce great products with absolutely NO drugs (past ampro in the starter and dewormers sometimes). We shall continue to sit back and observe the ongoing demise of the commercial factory farm stocks. This is THEIR problem...and they are continuing to slide down that slippery slope of no return....hoping to take us with them if they are able.


The factory farms continue to insist that they grow bigger, put all their eggs in one basket, breed birds that can barely make it to processing age...what, 47 days or less now in chickens...sure taste like it too...no flavour, no texture, no real chicken flavour...so what are they coating the mush meats with now...what chemical recipe tastes like chicken that is added as that slimy crap you find in those chicken body bags at the grocery, eh??


I belong to several poultry lists...they are raging over the top about this.

In reality, this has zero impact on us here because I will CHOOSE not to let them force me to fester on it. This is a problem for those that run the factory farms, the ones that feed antibiotic feeds, that raise birds with zero tolerance to the natural compromises of the immune systems. If they come calling, they shall. If they don't, they won't.

So far, from the gist of all the banter back and forth...even our human flu vaccinations are failing...this year, stats are being reported that only 30% success rate for those that got vaccinated, course the whole conspiracy groups are on about how aluminum, MSG, egg allergies and unsettling murmurs about how vacs in Africa also contain sterilizing factors to reduce certain populations...I have no idea how true any are but I don't get into all the controversy and politics involved.

Here in Pear-A-Dice it is same old, same old...so yeh, bring it on...no changes going to happen here from one day to the next for now.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[hennible]

 

[drumstick diva]

Mighty Tara has spoken

Yay to all the good guys(and gals) at "Pair of Dice," and beyond.