Rosecomb Thread

[checoukan]

First thing I see you need to do if you are going to try to show your birds, is line the coops you have them in with cardboard or some thing smooth so they don't tear their feathers up on the wire cages.

 

[EyeHeartBantams]

I will do that tomorrow when I go out to feed. They are supposed to be moving into their winter housing soon, but if I want to show them am I better off keeping them in smaller pens so I can handle them more easily and get them used to me? Is there any special feeding regiment I should worry about? They're currently getting a mix of scratch and layer ration.

 

[checoukan]

eye heart.
Drop the scratch, it has corn in it, and could cause feathers to turn yellow. I leave my show birds on the chick starter, it is higher in protein and they do well on it.

Get some blackoil sunflower seeds to feed as a treat. Once they know what they are, they will eat them readily, and helps put a shine on the feathers from the natural oil.
Find some meal worms, and start offering them to them. Helps calm them down. You want them to be friendly. I use the freeze dried ones, comes in a small package.

I start put a few dried meal worms on top of the feed. They love them!. Then when they get the idea, you are going to give them some start offering them in your hand. In time they will take them from your fingers when you hold them into them.

I also use Purina Moist and meaty burger for dogs. I tap the training coop, and if they show themselves, perk up, display their feathers, I give them a piece of the burger. If they don't show themselves, they don't get a piece of the burger.

They don't get but a small piece and sure gets them to talking about it when they get some.
This is what I do, others do things differently. Seems to work for me.

 

[EyeHeartBantams]

I'll have to get a bag of chick starter I guess; just used up the last that I had. Should I keep them on the laying ration as well?

I do have BOSS but haven't started to offer any to the Rosecombs; I will start on that tomorrow, and track down mealworms. I actually saw them at the local hardware store sold for wild birds in a decent-sized tub.

I find it so strange that people use cat food and dog food to train chickens, but I suppose they are strongly omnivoric compared to many animals. I'm assuming by meaty burger you mean like a Rollover or Raw food? It often gets confusing as you folks in the states have lots of things we don't have up here, and vice versa. I will start with the BOSS and mealworms first and then move on from there I suppose. I'd rather start now than a week before the show.

Thanks so much for the help; I don't want to go into my first show clueless, so all the help I can get is greatly appreciated.

 

[checoukan]

You will do just fine! Its a lot of fun to show, and so many people to talk to about different things.

The moist and meaty dog food, is made by purina. comes in little pouches. In the general dog food isle in the grocery store.
It has a red color to it and looks like crumbled up hamburger. It is not raw, and Im sure fully cooked. Lots of people feed it to the dogs as a top dressing or treat. I don't know that it is fed as a complete dog food. I will go look. It might help in you google it, or look for it on the internet. I know what we talk about here may be something entirely different up there!

 

[NYREDS]

Go back a few posts & compare them with pictures cns2782 posted. Things to note: tail spread, width of feather. size & smoothness of lobes & shape of their heads. I think you'll see some big differences. I'm afraid your Splash aren't birds that would show well in competition.

 

[EyeHeartBantams]

I can certainly see the differences. I didn't expect miracles from birds I've purchased; whether I enter birds in it or not, I will be attending the show and sale anyway for education and, hopefully, to buy some more stock from exhibitors that come from out of province. I probably don't have a single bird in my flock that's SQ, but I'm still very proud of them and love them all to death.

 

[checoukan]

Right there is the main thing, is that you like them. As with any birds there is always room for improvement. But, by taking out getting them in the public eye, you will be able to have other breeders to talk to about them, have them point out where you need to start to improve first, and then find the birds you will need to make those changes in the young birds you will hatch. It is constant work to improve. Out of 100 chicks, you might get 10 show qualitys, that number might be off a little, but gives you an idea. Not all show quality birds have show quality chicks. It is a study you have to do on genetics. You can breed bird one to bird two, and get so so chicks. Breed bird one to bird 3 and get really nice chicks. But breed bird 1 to bird 4 and get super nice chicks. So which birds to sell, well I would sell bird 2 and 3, unless you can find a bird that will correct the faults that showed up in the first chicks of the first mating with bird one.

 

[NYREDS]

Is liking them the main thing? I suppose in one sense it is but EyeHeart Bantams asked for "more experienced eyes" to evaluate these birds in terms of their show potential. Apparently, as is so often the case here, EHB didn't really want an honest appraisel what he/she was apparently looking for was the standard BYC "they're beautiful". The problem is that in terms of their show potential they're not beautiful, they're hatchery/pet quality birds. As to talk of breeding to improve them it might be possible to bring in new blood & spend 10-15 years breeding & culling to get them to where they would be more reoresentative of the breed but if that's the goal it would certainly be quicker & cheaper to start with better stock.
It's true that breeding 2 good show birds together doesn't always produce the best outcomes but it's equally true that "you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear". To use the fact that show birds aren't always the best breeders to suggest that these birds, as presented, could produce quality offspring is ludicrous.
This particular forum is titled Breeds. Genetics & SHOWING. The birds under discussion here aren't show birds & never will be. Unfortunately they were sold to an unschooled buyer as being birds with show potential. I hate to see things like this happen. EHB is obviously energetic & states a real interest in breeding/showing poultry. I believe that interest is genuine. However, I can't count the number of times I've seen queally interested people buy poor quality birds, take them to a show only to learn they aren't the "show quality" birds they were sold. [Personally I think the phrase "show quality" is so meaningless it should be outlawed. BTW-it's not a term that's used much in the show world] Many of these people get discouraged & leave the fancy which is a loss we can't afford. Some learn from the experience, do some studying, find a mentor, and go on to be successful breeders but they are the minority.
In most hobbies or activities people tend to look for information & instruction befor starting out. I don't understand why poultry keeoing is so differebt, Maybe it's because chickens are so common people think there can't be much to breeding them. There isn't if all you want to do is reproduce chickens but producing birds of quality is a different matter entirely. There is a lot to learn if that's your goal.

 

[checoukan]

eyeheart, If I have said something out of line, my apology. I was just trying to help point somethings out.