Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

I've had personal contact on several occasions with RB, Slate, and RP...i must say the friendliest were the RB.


In other news....Anyone know if you allowed to register boer goats that have been dehorned? I'm looking at possibly buying a boer buck but all of their bucks are dehorned...the owner says buying the registration papers later may be an option. I was under the impression boer could not be registered if they had been dehorned...anyone know off hand?

 

[Latestarter]

Actually I believe the horn issue for them is a "show" issue, not a registration issue. For sanctioned shows, I believe they must have their horns. @Mini Horses or maybe @ragdollcatlady may know...

Also: https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/heritage.html I ordered my chickens from them and was very pleased. I lost one that was a runt and never developed, the rest thrived. If you order turkeys from them I'd suggest also ordering a handful of chicks at the same time to show the poults how to eat/drink/thrive. I understand turkey chicks are not the brightest poultry in the world and require their parents to teach them survival... kinda like humans...

 

[farmerjan]

For the most comprehensive turkey breedings, look at Porters heritage turkeys in Idaho. They have the breeding of colors down to a T. Not cheap, and they cannot be sent here to Va so I am trying to find a "friend" in WVa or some other state that they can be shipped to. Also try your local/state Purebred Poultry assoc. Find some shows and there are often turkeys at these show. Yes, expect to pay $30-50 a piece. I wouldn't sell mine any cheaper than $30 ea. Too much time and effort goes into breeding them to be true to the standard. And if you are not going to breed them to the standard then you are going to have mediocre turkeys that may look like certain color patterns, but may/may not breed true. I've always believed that if you are going to go heritage/purebred, then know what you are doing and follow the standard of perfection. I cannot tell you how many heritage turkeys I went through that really were very poor representatives of the actual breed. Also, try Poultry Press. A monthly newpaper that is devoted to the poultry fancy. In the springtime there will be ads for breeders that will sell hatching eggs and ship live chicks and poults.
Ideal Hatchery in Tx has some decent birds. They contract out all their turkey offerings, so you are going to get some decent ones. I have had very good luck with their commercial layer chicks.

 

[Baymule]

2 1/2 hours away is keeping you from getting the turkeys you want? You could go get them and be back in less than a day..... Stop and eat lunch before you pick them up, make a day of it....why is this stopping you? I can understand it in the winter with the snow and ice on roads, but come spring, you have no excuse!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Actually I believe the horn issue for them is a "show" issue, not a registration issue. For sanctioned shows, I believe they must have their horns. @Mini Horses or maybe @ragdollcatlady may know...

Also: https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/heritage.html I ordered my chickens from them and was very pleased. I lost one that was a runt and never developed, the rest thrived. If you order turkeys from them I'd suggest also ordering a handful of chicks at the same time to show the poults how to eat/drink/thrive. I understand turkey chicks are not the brightest poultry in the world and require their parents to teach them survival... kinda like humans...

I was not aware the hatcheries were carrying heritage birds. Maybe i knew at one time and forgot? We generally buy thru the local feed mill and they only offer the broad. The only reason we go thru them is because if DH and i each buy a bag of bird starter or meat maker we get 20 free cornish rocks. We figure you need the food anyhow for the chicks so why not get 20 free meat birds.

For the most comprehensive turkey breedings, look at Porters heritage turkeys in Idaho. They have the breeding of colors down to a T. Not cheap, and they cannot be sent here to Va so I am trying to find a "friend" in WVa or some other state that they can be shipped to. Also try your local/state Purebred Poultry assoc. Find some shows and there are often turkeys at these show. Yes, expect to pay $30-50 a piece. I wouldn't sell mine any cheaper than $30 ea. Too much time and effort goes into breeding them to be true to the standard. And if you are not going to breed them to the standard then you are going to have mediocre turkeys that may look like certain color patterns, but may/may not breed true. I've always believed that if you are going to go heritage/purebred, then know what you are doing and follow the standard of perfection. I cannot tell you how many heritage turkeys I went through that really were very poor representatives of the actual breed. Also, try Poultry Press. A monthly newpaper that is devoted to the poultry fancy. In the springtime there will be ads for breeders that will sell hatching eggs and ship live chicks and poults.
Ideal Hatchery in Tx has some decent birds. They contract out all their turkey offerings, so you are going to get some decent ones. I have had very good luck with their commercial layer chicks.

If it was birds someone had put time into and breed properly, etc i could see the price. Thats not the case, these are mostly old birds...like they missed butcher time or just couldn't bring themselves to butcher or mixed breed. As in adult breeding pair, hen is blue slate x bourbon red and tom is royal palm x bronze...or some other silly combo that you wonder who ever bred the thing. They have no care for the breed, they want to make a quick buck or thought hey this would look cool crossed with this. I know a guy locally who has one blue slate hen, two bourbon red toms and one royal palm hen...he lets them breeds and sit on nests and then takes the eggs away about a week before hatch and throws them in an incubator. His goal is to sell the poults, he is doesnt care at all what they actually grow up to look like he just wants the money and those were the cheapest turkeys he could find to breed.

We did the hatching eggs things for almost a year straight and i found shipped turkey eggs really didnt do well at all. Chicken eggs were better and geese eggs didnt work even a little, not for me anyhow.

2 1/2 hours away is keeping you from getting the turkeys you want? You could go get them and be back in less than a day..... Stop and eat lunch before you pick them up, make a day of it....why is this stopping you? I can understand it in the winter with the snow and ice on roads, but come spring, you have no excuse!

Its not just the time Bay, its also the money atm. Winter doesnt make a ton of difference. There are some colored muscovy juveniles over there in the same area for sale for $5 that i was as well as juvenile sebastol geese for $15 each...again want so bad. I have to wait, no money to do it atm and DH would have a fit.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Update on my BIL, a few days ago he had surgery and they removed his rectum, he will have a colostomy bag for the rest of his life but they believe they got all the cancer.

He made the very long slow trip home yesterday.

On a happier note DH has agreed to let me list Moon our jerk buck for sale and if i sell him i we can use that money to help buy a boer buck.

 

[misfitmorgan]

 

[misfitmorgan]

I know Bay....it's not herefords.....

 

[Southern by choice]

Do you DNA for scrapie susceptibility? Black faced sheep are the most susceptible.
The last case of scrapie was in Michigan I believe.

 

[misfitmorgan]

We do not DNA for scrapie susceptibility as of yet. I was told the herd we recently got our ewe lambs from is entirely QR or RR ewes and last years ram was RR...so they should be RR or QR which means even if i bred a QQ Ram i would still get 50% of my offspring that were resistant to scrapie. I will likely do the susceptibility test this year when we draw blood to do cae/cl/johnes and fecals.

Black face are the most well known for getting scrapie, that is only true because black face(suffolk, hampshire, etc.) are/were the highest commercially bred sheep in the US. The last case was actually 5 goats in Colorado in 2015, the last case from Michigan was 6 goats in 2008. In the past 16yrs 41 goats total have been confirmed positive with scrapie, since 1947 only approx 1,600 sheep/goats have been found positive for scrapie with 0 in 2016 and 2017.

We do participate in the national scrapie program. Really participation in the scrapie program should be all around....it is 100% free and not many farms do it.

Mi's district actually had the most samples collected this year out of all of the US, 1,460 sheep sample, 150 goats samples. For comparison the next highest was Pa's district with 436 sheep samples and 270 goat samples, the lowest TX's district had 16 sheep samples and 0 goat samples.

Basically all of this is to say the chances of your sheep or goats actually having or getting scrapie according to the reports provided is very very very low we are talking something like 0.0001% which would be 0% with an entirely RR flock or even a high percentage RR flock.

I'm glad you brought this up,I forgot I need to call and let them know I need new tags since we moved.