Siana
Chirping
Hi all, I thought I'd open a thread to share what I have, from time to time.
I am from Uzbekistan and we have very limited access to heritage breeds, and I am not interested in commercial crosses, as I want poultry that can reproduce itself and even be improved at least a bit (hopefully).
I started in the end of summer 2022 with a project to rescue mistreated commercial layer roos who were kept in a tiny box, malnourished and eating each other.
There were 20 of these. I paid several dollars for them, but ultimately this was a bad idea, because they never fully recovered, and some weren't even good enough for soup (my dog ate them). Well, it is okay, now I know.
Immediately after these, I bought 20 mutts who were in a much better condition, also very cheap. I just wanted to see if the poultry is for me, so didn't want to invest much. I think I don't even have photos, just videos... here's one of them.
They were red, cream and black. I have no idea about their descent, just a bunch of pullets and four roos.
After these I decided to buy something purebred and bought several chicks labelled Amrock from a very irresponsible breeder. I think they were very heavily inbred, some of them turned out to be dwarfs, but I still have two hens, and they are not bad. They are almost two years old now. They are good layers and one of them is hatching eggs right now. Only they are not Amrock, being small and of a dirty coloring. I like them anyway and their progeny sired by a JG rooster last year was quite nice and not small sized at all.
All of these were in 2022. Then in the beginning of 2023 I already had an NR 360 and hatched some JGs and Russian Kuchinsky.
The Kuchinsky turned to be a disaster, truly, I am not sure what was wrong with them but they had bold heads and weren't growing. Only two hens turned out nicely, that's out of 34. I slaughtered all the others, as I already had no hopes of fattening them. Many were just 20 ounces when they were supposed to be at least 4-5 lbs. I would have thought worms or disease but it were only the Kuchinsky who had these issues. I kept two hens who I am using this year to get crosses with JGs, they are solidly built strong hens. All the others were almost wasted. I was extremely sad.
This is a 4 months' Kuhinsky roo from last year, he's one of the best ones, the others were mostly worse. Looks okay but really small.
My JGs that I hatched last spring are very much a hatchery quality or even worse than that, but they are still better than the mutts I had before them. Two died from something non-communicable (not at the same time) and the others seem to be thriving. I am not impressed with them as layers, but I guess my expectations were a bit high.
Some of these hens look large but it is mostly feathers. And some are very modestly dressed and aren't pretty but they are larger and heavier. Go figure... maybe the larger ones are crosses, JG and something else.
In any case, my plan now is to decrease the number of JGs in the autumn. I have hatched several Australorp and have 10 more eggs in the incubator, and I have hatched a number of JGs and their crosses for meat. I hope to like the Australorp and maybe focus on them, it would save me the need to keep two breeds (one for eggs and one for meat). I don't have very much space, the poultry yard is 600 square meters (717 square yards) and I am unwilling to break it into compartments; it is a lot of work, it is expensive, and then, I like the birds to have more space.
I am from Uzbekistan and we have very limited access to heritage breeds, and I am not interested in commercial crosses, as I want poultry that can reproduce itself and even be improved at least a bit (hopefully).
I started in the end of summer 2022 with a project to rescue mistreated commercial layer roos who were kept in a tiny box, malnourished and eating each other.
There were 20 of these. I paid several dollars for them, but ultimately this was a bad idea, because they never fully recovered, and some weren't even good enough for soup (my dog ate them). Well, it is okay, now I know.
Immediately after these, I bought 20 mutts who were in a much better condition, also very cheap. I just wanted to see if the poultry is for me, so didn't want to invest much. I think I don't even have photos, just videos... here's one of them.
They were red, cream and black. I have no idea about their descent, just a bunch of pullets and four roos.
After these I decided to buy something purebred and bought several chicks labelled Amrock from a very irresponsible breeder. I think they were very heavily inbred, some of them turned out to be dwarfs, but I still have two hens, and they are not bad. They are almost two years old now. They are good layers and one of them is hatching eggs right now. Only they are not Amrock, being small and of a dirty coloring. I like them anyway and their progeny sired by a JG rooster last year was quite nice and not small sized at all.
All of these were in 2022. Then in the beginning of 2023 I already had an NR 360 and hatched some JGs and Russian Kuchinsky.
The Kuchinsky turned to be a disaster, truly, I am not sure what was wrong with them but they had bold heads and weren't growing. Only two hens turned out nicely, that's out of 34. I slaughtered all the others, as I already had no hopes of fattening them. Many were just 20 ounces when they were supposed to be at least 4-5 lbs. I would have thought worms or disease but it were only the Kuchinsky who had these issues. I kept two hens who I am using this year to get crosses with JGs, they are solidly built strong hens. All the others were almost wasted. I was extremely sad.
This is a 4 months' Kuhinsky roo from last year, he's one of the best ones, the others were mostly worse. Looks okay but really small.
My JGs that I hatched last spring are very much a hatchery quality or even worse than that, but they are still better than the mutts I had before them. Two died from something non-communicable (not at the same time) and the others seem to be thriving. I am not impressed with them as layers, but I guess my expectations were a bit high.
Some of these hens look large but it is mostly feathers. And some are very modestly dressed and aren't pretty but they are larger and heavier. Go figure... maybe the larger ones are crosses, JG and something else.
In any case, my plan now is to decrease the number of JGs in the autumn. I have hatched several Australorp and have 10 more eggs in the incubator, and I have hatched a number of JGs and their crosses for meat. I hope to like the Australorp and maybe focus on them, it would save me the need to keep two breeds (one for eggs and one for meat). I don't have very much space, the poultry yard is 600 square meters (717 square yards) and I am unwilling to break it into compartments; it is a lot of work, it is expensive, and then, I like the birds to have more space.
