Third place goes to Ferdi

2nd place goes to Roundheadman

First place goes to Decoyman

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks for all the great pics that were submitted this month. If you want to enter your birds in our free monthly photo contest, just go to the Ultimate Fowl Forum, and sign up!

Trimming spurs on roosters is primarily done for several reasons. Most people trim them to help protect their hen’s back from getting punctured from being topped, but they also need trimmed to avoid injuries from roosters sparring, and in extreme cases, to allow them to walk easier. There are basically two methods for doing this, cutting the spur with a saw, or twisting the spur off with pliers. The method I prefer is to cut the spurs off because when you are done, you will have short, blunt spurs that will be as safe to your other chickens as possible. If you decide to twist off the spurs, you will have short spurs, but they will still be sharp, and can still do damage.

Cutting off spurs is very simple, and does not hurt your chickens at all. Spurs have an inner core, which is the live part, and an outer husk, which is the hard horn type material. When you trim the spur, you are cutting the outer husk. The trick is to not cut into the inner core, which can bleed. The first thing you will need to do is to immobilize your bird. What I have found works well for this is to take an old towel, fold it in half, lay the bird down on it, hold the wings tight to the body, and leaving only the head and legs sticking out, roll the bird in the towel nice and snug. By doing this, it will allow you to work on his spurs much easier, and even do it by yourself! After securing the bird, you will need to decide where you need to cut the spur off. As a rule of thumb, I have found that the length of the inner core is approximately three times the size of the diameter of the spur itself, which on most standard sized, mature roosters will be about 5/8 of an inch away from the leg. Next, grab the spur at the base, while supporting the leg at the same time. Doing this is very important as the saw can grab while cutting, and you don’t want to excessively torque the spur which can actually break the connection of it to the leg bone. Next, use a small, fine toothed hacksaw to cut the spur off. I find it works best to use short, light strokes with the saw. Some people prefer to use a rotary tool to do this, if you do, just make sure that you don’t inadvertently hit the leg, or your fingers for that matter, because it will cut anything it touches very quickly. If done properly, you will see no bleeding at all. If you do trim them a little short, and get into the inner core, you may get some bleeding. This is nothing to be concerned about, as it won’t bleed excessively, and will soon stop on it’s own.

Notice how the bird is immobilized in the towel with only his head and feet hanging out. This will allow you to work on your bird without assistance.

Spur before trimming.

While gripping the spur firmly, begin to make your cut. Notice how I hold both the leg, and the spur at the same time.

This is what you should end up with after being cut, and as you can see, the spur is very blunt. This is the best option to help keep your hens from getting damaged from being topped.

Twisting off the spur is a little more difficult in my opinion. You may have had people tell you to use a potato, or some other method, but you don’t need anything special to twist them off. What you are doing by twisting off the spurs, is removing the outer husk from the inner core completely. To do this, follow the method above to immobilize the bird, then hold the bird by the leg where the spur is attached. Take a pair of ordinary pliers and grip the spur approximately where the inner core ends, and rock the spur gently side to side to help break it loose. Once you feel the spur start to loosen, use the pliers in a twisting motion to pop off the outer husk. What you will end up with is the soft inner core of the spur. You will see some blood, but it is typically minimal. After a few days, the spur will harden up, and you will have a stag sized spur again.

Spurs that have grown long after being trimmed before.

Hold the leg firmly as you begin to remove the outer casing, notice the placement of the pliers, if you get them too close to the leg, you will have trouble twisting them off.

Both spurs have been removed, you can see them laying on the floor next to the legs.

Trimming toenails is another thing you can do to help protect your hen’s backsides. It also will need done to fowl that are raised on wire, because they don’t wear down the toenails naturally as they would if they were raised on the ground. It’s really easy to do with no bleeding, as long as you do it right. To start, you will need to immobilize the bird in the same fashion I already described, and a pair of dog toenail clippers. Some breeds have dark nails, and some have lighter ones. The lighter ones are much easier to do since you can see the vein in the nail. The vein is like the quick in a dog, if you hit the vein while trimming, it will cause some bleeding. On the chickens with light colored nails, it is easy to see where the vein is, so just cut enough that you don’t hit it. On the dark nails, I find it best to hold them up in the light to trim. It can be tricky with really dark ones to see, but by holding them against a light source, it will help you see where you need to cut. It is best to leave them longer if you are not sure where to cut, than to cut too close. If you do cut too far back, and get some bleeding, it will stop by applying pressure. Even if you still see some bleeding after that, don’t worry too much as it will quit on its own.

Toenails in need of trimming.

Find your placement for the cut by watching where the vein ends in the nail.

After the nails have been trimmed.

Some additional notes: Trimming both the spurs, and toenails will definitely help keep your hens from getting damage from them when being topped, but something that is just as important is your hen to rooster ratio. Too many roosters can literally kill your hens from being topped too much, even after being trimmed. Some breeds of chickens are worse than others for this, but as a rule of thumb, one rooster can top several hens without a problem. Also, you can run into problems with abnormally submissive hens. Hens like this will drop to be bred just by the sight of a rooster getting close. When this situation happens, the hen will be over bred, and can easily be damaged from this. There isn’t much you can do about this situation except to keep roosters away from them, put a chicken saddle on her, or what I do, cull her out. This is not a desirable trait, so I prefer to not breed off them. Something else you may run across, are hens that are spurred. I prefer to leave the spurs on the hens, as they won’t hurt anything to let them keep them, and having spurs will help them defend their chicks, especially if they are free ranging. Another thing to consider if you are free ranging is to not trim the spurs on your rooster for the same reasons. A good rooster will help protect your flock, and chicks as well, and having spurs will help him do this. Now saying this, if you let them get too long, they will start curling to the point it won’t help, and will actually hinder him walking properly. This is where twisting off the spur is the better choice, because by doing this, the spur will harden back up to a weapon for the rooster to use for defending with. Either way, you will have to make your own decisions when deciding whether or not to trim your birds, but hopefully this information will help you make that decision. If you want to learn more about this, or any other issues with the caring of your fowl, check out our forum for this at www.ultimatefowl.com.

3rd Place goes to Hawk7 and his Buckeye

2nd Place goes to redbeard on his Brazilian

First place goes to Ferdi for his Roundhead

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks for all the great pics that were submitted this month. If you want to enter your birds in our free monthly photo contest, just go to the Ultimate Fowl Forum, and sign up!

The old, rickety rocking chair on my back porch groaned with protest as I eased down into it for the evening. For early summer, it was already uncommonly hot. Sweat tricked down my temple as I reached into the old metal cooler behind me, which had more rust than green paint on it anymore, for a nice cold beer. I plunged my arthritic, swollen fingers into the icy cold depths, which at this point, felt almost as good as that first swallow of beer was going to taste… almost. As I cracked open the beer, cold water from the side of the can started running down my arm, sending shivers that went all the way up to the back of my neck. I leaned back in the chair, looked out into my back yard, and started what was probably going to be a fine drunk!

There was almost no breeze this evening, and the red squirrels were buzzing away, like they were having a contest to see who could be the loudest. The sun was nearing the treetops off to the west, casting an amber hue to the sky. What few clouds that were up there, were violet, with bright pink highlights on the bottom of them. I sat my beer down on the railing of the porch, and grabbed the half empty pack of cigarettes from my shirt pocket. I was supposed to be quitting, according to my old lady, but at my age, what’s the point, huh? I slid the book of matches from under the cellophane, struck one up, and breathed the cigarette to life. As I settled back, sweet smoke hanging in the air around me, I picked up my beer, and started to unwind from a long week at work.

I don’t know how long I had been sitting there, but there was now a couple of empty cans laying on the floor of the porch next to me, and the butt of a cigarette ground into a crack in the railing. At some point during this time, my best hen, Charlotte, came wandering into the backyard trailing a pack of fuzzy little black chicks that she just hatched a couple of weeks ago. They were just getting to the point they would wander away a little bit, but they still didn’t go too far from mom. Charlotte was still a little thin from brooding her chicks, so those tempting little black crickets she was scaring up, had her clucking like a pullet again! Some of the chicks couldn’t decide whether they wanted to hide up under mom’s protective shadow, or chase up some crickets themselves! Others were like little lawn mowers as they bit the tops off blades of grass, while scratching up whatever else the thick lawn had to offer. I looked down to get another beer when a shadow caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see that Charlotte had all of the chicks up underneath her, with her neck stretched way out, and was clucking excitedly. I started to stand up, when streaking from the sky came a large Red Tail hawk. Its talons were stretched out in front of it, as it swooped down at Charlotte. I could see almost immediately, that I wasn’t going to be able to do anything to help her. All I could do was stand by and watch as Charlotte stood her ground, protecting her biddies, with the hawk nearly on top of her. I knew in my heart, my favorite hen was about to become a hungry Red Tail’s dinner, but just as the hawk was upon her, she lunged. Chicks went scattering everywhere, as Charlotte came straight at the diving raptor, her feet churning in front of her. The hawk was clearly taken by surprise by this, and started to veer off at the last second, but it was too late, Charlotte had him dead in her sights. (I know what you’re thinking, what does it matter if she is fighting back, she doesn’t stand a chance, right? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Charlotte is a sweet little three year old ,Rampuri Asil hen, with a couple of half inch surprises growing out the back of her legs!) Charlotte hit the hawk like a sledgehammer, knocking them both to the ground in a rolling mass of fury and feathers. The hawk, wanting no part of a crazy chicken that fought back, was doing everything it could to get back in the air, but my little hen wasn’t having any of that. She had the hawk by the back of the head in her bill, and was tearing his backside to shreds! Somehow, with all the thrashing around, the hawk broke loose, and lept to the sky. Little red and white feathers floated down around Charlotte as the hawk went screeching into the distance. She started strutting around, with her feathers all fluffed out, calling to the hawk to come back, if he decided he wanted a little bit more!

By now, every rooster in my yard was throwing a ruckus! It sounded like the crack of dawn with all the crowing going on around me. I was so shocked by what I had just witnessed, I lept down the steps of my porch in one bound, without even thinking twice. The yard was in chaos around me, but all I could think about was Charlotte, and making sure she was OK. As I ran up to her, she started talking to me, telling me that I had better wait a minute while she gathered her chicks and calmed down some, or I might get something more than I bargained for! I may be a lot of things, but I ain’t no fool, so I backed off a little. She didn’t look any worse for wear, so I told her a couple of sweet nothings, and turned back towards the porch. As I did, by wife of 36 years stepped up to the screen door, “What the heck is all the commotion out here?” she said. “It sounds like world war three!”

“Oh nothing mother,” I replied, “Charlotte’s just teaching her chicks what to do when an uninvited guest comes a calling for dinner is all!”

We had lot’s of pictures submitted this month, so it was very hard to narrow it down, but here we go!

3rd place goes to Chinadoll Green for her Barred Rock

2nd place goes to Razorfarm for his Butcher stag

1st place goes to Al Sanchez for his Jerezano/Spanish cock

The May contest is now going too, so be sure to come over and enter your pictures of your birds at the Ultimate Fowl Forum!

As our forum at Ultimate Fowl is expanding, we are constantly adding things to our site. We are in the in the process of adding a high quality chat to our site as you read this. If you have considered to promote your business before, or just your personal website that relates to chickens and their care, right now is the time to do it! You can add your banner in a rotation on our forum for the low price of 20.00 per year, and we can even provide a banner for you if you need one. We also have other opportunities for fixed banners for an additional fee, but space is limited, so please contact me for more details at cuda@ultimatefowl.com. We operate our site on a non profit basis, that is why our prices are so low, we do it because we want to help, and bring chicken enthusiasts together. We are just trying to raise enough money to help support our site, and to add a top quality chat, which is something we need to do with all the traffic we get now days. If this sounds like a good fit to your business, just contact me for more information!

The results are in for the special fuzzy butt photo contest at the Ultimate Fowl Forum…

3rd place goes to rodriguezpoultry for her black Langshan chick

2nd place goes to bobbled67 for his game hen sitting on her chicks

1st place goes to decoyman for his assortment of bantam chicks

Congratulations to all our winners! If you like to take pictures of your chickens, whether they are games, or barnyard breeds, come on over to our forum to enter them in our monthly contest for a chance at winning a ribbon!

Hatching and Brooding Chicks

Since springtime is just around the corner, I thought that an article on hatching, and care of chicks would be appropriate. I’ll discuss the hatching of eggs, to brooding and caring for your newly hatched chicks. Hatching chicks can be a lot of fun for anyone of any age. If you decide to incubate your own, here are some tips for doing so.

Setting Eggs

Always set the cleanest, nice sized eggs in the incubator. It is best to avoid small, or misshaped eggs. If they are dirty, do not wash them. I take a fine steel wool and gently rub them until the dirt comes off and then place them in the incubator. Remember to place them with the large end up, as the air cell needs to be pointed up for proper incubation. Chicken eggs will need to be incubated for 21 days and should be turned at least 3 times a day. Temperatures vary with different styles of incubators as well as humidity. Most generally you want your temperature to set at about 99.7 to 100 degrees F. It will really depend on what kind of incubator you have, so check with the manufacturer guidelines. Over the years, with the many hatches I’ve done, I’ve learned of the dry incubation method, and prefer to do that. I run my incubator at 100 degrees F and my humidity about 50-55% until day 18. On day 18 I bump the humidity up to 60%, and stop turning them. If you are using trays to hold your eggs, you need to take them out of the trays, and lay them on their sides at this point. When the chicks begin to pip, they will automatically raise the humidity themselves. You just have to remember not to open the incubator door, or lid, and allow for the natural ventilation to take place. Opening the incubator will drastically drop the humidity level, and can lead to the eggs drying out too much, and won’t allow the chicks to hatch properly. It is best to let the chicks dry off fully in the incubator before placing in the brooder.

Care of Chicks

Hatch Day is upon you! You have everything ready. Brooder is in place with waterer, feeder, and heat lamp. I want to add, that chicks actually don’t need any food for the first 48 hours, as they can live off their yolk sacs for that time so in the event that you don’t have any feed, don’t be too concerned, they will do just fine. Sometimes I just run vitamin water through them the first day, and add feed the second day. You can also prepare boiled egg and feed that to them, as it is a good source of protein for baby chicks. I sometimes make up a mash of chick feed, boiled egg, and yogurt to get their natural gut flora started. Yogurt has acidophilis and is high in Vitamin A & D. Good nutrition is essential to starting off a great flock. Not only will it help in prime growth, but will aid in a better immune system to fight off the bad bacterias, while settling in the good bacterias. Chicks require constant feed and water, so never let them run out. It is also very important to keep the bedding clean. This may require you changing it several times a day depending on how many chicks you have, or only several times a week for just a few. Never put your chicks on newspaper, as it gets wet and slippery, and can cause splayed legs. To keep the waterer free of bedding, place it on a block of wood, or a brick in the brooder. When there are a lot of chicks, they sometimes tend to get crowded at the tray and get too wet, and can fall in and drown. Placing a few marbles will help avoid that when using a normal chick watering dish. Another thing you can do is use a quail size waterer for the first few days, then switch to the chick size waterer as they grow. Just make sure they have access to water at all times.

Brooding

Brooders can be purchased, or easily made from something so simple as a Rubbermaid tote, or a cardboard box and a heat lamp. The key is to keeping the heat source even in the brooder. For the most part, I use Rubbermaid totes and peat moss. I have found that the peat moss holds heat better, and is more efficient. With wood shavings, the heat doesn’t spread as evenly, and the chicks tend to want to eat the small chips, where when you use peat moss, they don’t. Peat moss also has a little dirt, and the chicks are exposed to natural bacterias as they scratch about, but again this is only my preference, and I have found it seems to work better from years of experience brooding chicks. I also don’t have to use that high of a wattage heat lamp with peat moss. A 100 watt bulb will do in most cases. It is also best to use an infrared light, as it helps keep them from picking at each other. If you see the chicks gathering under the light too much, that will tell you that you need a stronger lamp. If they are gathering in the corners of the brooder away from the light, that will tell you that the lamp is too hot. The ideal temperature under the light should be around 95 degrees for newly hatched chicks, and work your way down as they grow. It is best if you ween them off the heat gradually. Just place the light higher and higher from the chicks to lower the temperature. What you want to see is the chicks scratching, and walking about comfortably. That’s when you have it just right. Once they are weened of the heat, and are feathered out, they are ready to go outside, as long as you have a warm, dry place for them to get to when they need it, as it will take a while before they are ready to deal with cold, windy, or damp weather on their own.

If you want to learn more about this, or want to ask me a question, I can be reached at the Ultimate Fowl Forum.

The standard breed contest winners are:

3rd place goes to Ja8edfyre for her sexlink x OEGB

2nd place goes to Alpha_K for his Indian red junglefowl stag

1st place goes to fowlafoot for her Spangled Russian Orloff Cockerel

For the Gamefowl side of the contest we have:

3rd place goes to johnv for his Asil cock

2nd place goes to tuzojoe

1st place goes to red beard for his pyle miner

Congratulations to all the winners! For the month of March, we are going to have a baby chick contest, as hatching season is here, so if you have some pictures of your little fuzzy butts, be sure to enter them at the March Photo Contest.

by Dr Charles R H Everett & Craig Russell

My personal research in breeding has led me to begin gathering and collecting articles and books by cockfighters (cockers) of long ago; these men of the past preserved several different breeds of chickens for hundreds possibly even thousands of years. During that time they maintained type and vigor to an unparallel degree. It is my belief that their methods of breeding should be examined in detail to be utilized by the modern preservationist. Let me add, however, that this article is not an endorsement or defense of cockfighting; neither will I belie them in any manner. Instead, it is a heartfelt acknowledgement to men who perfected the art of breeding chickens. Further, I believe the modern preservationist can learn much more from the breeding techniques of cockers than he/she can from textbooks on commercial poultry breeding. (Note* It should go without saying that at all times you must select for vigor and type regardless of the breeding system utilized. Cocker Tan Bark states, “Good breeding is only a matter of intelligent selection of brood fowl…” (Tan Bark, Game Chickens and How to Breed Them, 1964, p. 27). What the ole time cockers strove for was prepotency. They desired to be able to predict with reasonable accuracy the outcome of any particular mating. For this reason, no cocker worth his salt would have consistently used the out-and-out system. Granted, at times they did cross, but very carefully. Their records consistently indicate that when they did cross they did so using the same strain of fowl they were hoping to improve. Of course, they were looking for gameness, but using their methods a breeder can breed for type, fertility, egg production, etc. The first system I would introduce was utilized by William Morgan, of Morgan Whitehackle fame, and some of the English cockers. It is a form of breeding known as “3 times in and once out.” This system was used to produce, in cockers’ terms, a “pure strain.” The following chart will explain how the system works. First Generation Hen Cock ½ hen ½ cock

Second Generation Hen to son Cock to daughter ¾ hen ¾ cock

Third Generation Hen to grandson Cock to granddaughter 7/8 hen 7/8 cock

Fourth Generation Hen to grandson Cock to granddaughter 15/16 hen 15/16 cock

Now in the 5th generation you breed the 15/16 hen to the 15/16 cock. Then, choosing the best hen(s) and cock(s) you begin again (Narragansett, The Gamecock, 1985, pp. 44-45). C. A. Finsterbusch recommends the same breeding strategy in his famous book Cockfighting All Over the Word page 152—153. If they chose to continue line breeding these fowl were what they termed “seed stock.” Seed stock was never pitted. Instead, they were crossed to a different strain to produce their “battle cocks.” Battle cocks were never used in breeding pens if this system were employed. Or, at this point you choose the three to five best hens and begin the clan mating system. Alva Campbell who created the “Campbell Blue Boones” during the early years of the twentieth century line bred his outstanding pullets to one cock, “Daniel Boone,” for eleven straight years (Histories of Game Strains, Grit and Steel, no date given, p.26). D. H. Pierce claimed his “Wisconsin Red Shufflers” were line bred for 35 years with no loss of vigor or gameness. (Histories of Game Strains, Grit and Steel, no date given, p. 20). How did these men accomplish this when so many modern textbooks on poultry genetics maintain this is impossible to do? I have discovered several key answers. First, “an inbreeder must breed only from his most vigorous… specimens” (Tan Bark, Game Chickens, 1964, p. 28). Second, they culled ruthlessly. Third, in any form of line breeding the youthfulness of the stock used cannot be overstated. Fourth, they often carried on the same mating (One cock to one hen) for four or five years. Thus, in twenty years it was possible to have only produced four or five distinct generations. When cockers happened upon a cock and hen that produced winners in the pit, then they mated these two year after year. Fifth, they kept accurate records of every mating and often practiced single matings. Sixth, they only attempted close inbreeding on free range giving the birds every advantage of producing constitutional soundness and vitality (Tan Bark, Game Chickens, 1964, p. 28). These six keys allowed the cockers to be greatly successful at the art of breeding game fowl centuries before the advent of modern genetics. Many cockers practiced variations of the rolling-matings and clan-matings systems. When practicing the rolling-matings they would often include side matings of line breeding. When using the clan system the large breeders often kept five to seven clans. (They called them “yards.”) With the clan matings they most often used the matriarchal system as advocated by Dick Demansky. At times they would create “new” clans or yards of full sisters when a particular hen within the clan produced exceptional sons. Thus, this one hen became prepotent in the new yard through her daughters. Like those of traditional farmers, for whom poultry was an important part of the subsistence, the methods of cockers have often been disparaged by modern experts. But for serious preservationists and small flock owners in general their tried and true methods are among the surest ways to turn simple reproduction into serious breeding and systematic flock improvement. One of the truly wonderful things about raising chickens is that you the breeder can choose your own system of breeding to create your “own strain.” Yes, you can even experiment! Regardless of how you personally feel about the sport of cockfighting, these men of a by gone era have much to teach us. So, why not learn from the original preservationist: cockers?