Hello Old Friend

Wow it has been forever since I have posted here. it is one of those things like visiting old friends. You know you want and need to do it, but get caught up in other things and before you know it you have missed all those opportunities. Well we got moved, been fighting lots of health issues. Me and Molly find it hard to do much some days due to aches and pains. Then mom and dad have had several health issues that we are really glad that we are close enough to help out. Been working with the poultry some, expanding in all directions. I plan on raising several Asil this year. I have 2 brood cocks and some real nice hens. I expect to see good things with the asil.

My KO shamo have been breeding like rats. There is a very good market for these little guys so I have been incubating all the eggs I can from them. Market isn't the only reason I like these little guys. They have as much heart as any gamefowl out there. They are just pretty neat little fowl to have around.

I am breeding out of 4 pair of bantam asil. I plan on raising enough of these little guys that I can show some this fall. APA and the American Bantam Assoc. has excepted them in their list of fowl that can be shown in their shows. I am breeding blacks, spangled, BBReds and silver.

I have a real nice asil stag in with the 2 best madagascar game hens I retained from last year. I intend to beef the madagascar up a little this year. We will see how I progress on this.

My last poultry project is for meat and egg production. I love the blue turken or naked neck which ever you wish to call them. They lay a huge egg. They are very calm, and lets face it, they are cool to look at.

I have purchased a real nice blue naked neck rooster and several large black hens. The NN gene is dominate so I will get blue and black nn chicks from here. All the hens are larger than the nn hens so I plan on getting a little bigger bird for processing. NNs are a large bird but I am hoping to get a little hybred vigor on size and get a little more meat per bird for the table. All the hens I keep NN and blacks used for this project all lay a huge light brown egg. I am hoping to get a real nice dual purpose chicken in this cross.

I have lots of plans for gardening this spring. I have access to some ground here where I live and besides expanding my chicken project, I plan on putting in a garden about 3oo feet long by 40 feet wide. I am checking into Okla. regulations that pertain to home grown garden items being sold to the public. I hope this year is much wetter than last. Plans are for a couple hundred tomato plants. Some will be planted in tubs and near the house, while others will be in the garden. I also will be planting corn, green beans, black eyed peas, corn, peppers, cantaloupe, okra and water melons. I will be starting my tomato plants in about a week. I will start them in doors and try to start them staggered out so I will have tomatoes for several months. Hopefully this summer I will get a greenhouse of some sort put up so that I can move some of the tomatoes that are planted in tubs can be moved in and have fresh tomatoes after the first frosts.

Things they are a changing

Well it has been too long since my last post. Lots have happened since then. For one the weather is finally getting cooler. Health seems to be getting a little worse. Doctors got me on new meds and seeing some more doctors. Just keep running back and forth to OKC to the doctor, bout all we get done anymore. My son Ethan, the last of 4 kids has enrolled in OU and is living on campus in Norman. Miss him a bunch, but also miss all his help around here.
A big change is fixing to happen. Molly and I will be moving to Arapaho OK. Really miss Ethan on this move. I will be moving next door to the house I grew up in as a kid. Since dad is in the nursing home for over a year now, and mom doesn't drive. I figure we could help get her to and fro and give my oldest sister some help in that department. Also it will be nice to be close in case something happened to mom we would be right next door and will be checking on her more. Plus will get to see dad more. It is hard trying to get down to see him from where we are at now. I am also looking forward to being close to many of my old and all time friends that I don't get to see very often.
When we get moved I will have access to the 5 acres I grew up on. I remember feeding chickens and milking goats and taking care of other choirs there as a child. I am looking forward to doing the same now. Dads health keep him from doing much the last few years and the place has gone down alot. I plan on trying to clean it up and fix it up some. Molly and I want to get the yard turned back into a yard with grass and flowers for mom. Trim and clear lots of the old trees that have died and limbs fallen. I also hope to get the out buildings back into fair shape. It takes me about 4 times longer to do stuff than it used to, work a little rest alot. But I figure in time we can make the old home place look good.
I am also excited with the fowl I have raised this year. I will be moving chickens and pens etc. as we go. There are already pens there but most need work. I have really expanded my Cornish bantam flock. Very good quality in whites, dark and white laced red. These little birds grow fast and will provide us with much meat and they lay a fairly big egg for a bantam breed. I also have all my oriental game. I raise 6 breeds of oriental game fowl that are all on the rare breeds list, plus the Cornish bantams. I am looking at some grants online for people that raise this kind of birds and if I can qualify hope to get some grant money to help restore some of the buildings for fowl production.

We have also purchased a Nubian doeling and will probable get up to 5 milking does once we get settled. I have had milk goats off and on since I was about 14. I have found also on the Internet some available grant money in small scale dairy goat operations. 
I know its lots of big ideas and big dreams for a couple of old cripple folks like me and Molly. But I have wanted to homestead (for lack of a better term) for most of my adult life. Get off the grid, get back to simple and and slow. Molly she is game and is looking forward to gardening, canning etc. I think the move is great. Help mom out, and slow down our pace some. Time will tell, and I will keep you posted.

More heat

I haven't wrote in awhile so figured I better try and catch up. I hate starting out over and over about this heat, but hey it really sucks. Over 45 days of 105 degree and higher temps. It is hard on people, and real hard on my chickens also. All my pens have shade and are set up where any breeze will reach them. I change water twice a day to keep cool water in front of them. I wet down the dirt in their pens so they can scratch and peck in cool dirt. To date I have only lost 5 chickens to the heat but that is 5 too many. The old saying, only the good die young holds true with chickens also. The ones I have lost are some of my better hens. The heat has also slowed down the egg production. I am still getting eggs but not like before. I guess that don't mater to much, I am about done hatching it seems. I have a few eggs left to hatch in a borrowed incubator from a friend, but this year has been a little bit of a bust. I said I wouldn't go into much detail on the custom built incubator until I found out how well they stood behind it. Their service seems to be the same quality as their construction. If it wasn't so damn far to Marlow I would drive their and throw the worthless POS in their front yard. I sent email after email and phone message after message and they will not answer any of them. Only thing one of them answered one email and said,"everyone else seems to be happy with theirs". $385 dollars out the window. I could have bought a good used GQF for that or even 5 or 6 of the little 50 eggs hova bators and hatched alot more eggs. When it cools back down I will tear into it and see if I can do anything with it to make it more dependable.  Custom Incubators of Marlow Oklahoma. I highly do NOT recommend anyone using these guys.

I have been to 4 more chicken auctions since last posting. I have several guinea keets now, a few older guineas, some more naked neck chickens, and some very nice bantam white leghorn chickens.

 I drove to a mans house a week back and looked at some awesome fowl there. I left his place with 3 more pair of large shamo fowl that are about 4 months old.

Got 2 stags in the barred color like this one, then one black stag. All the pullets are black. But then I got a bonus. I got 2 pair and 3 trios of juvenile Ko Shamo......... From Ultimate Fowl Wikipedia
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The Japanese are masters in minimizing objects and living things (bonsai trees, chickens, fish) The geographical conditions in Japan promote this skill. On the main island Honshu, there is almost no space to build, except on the East coast margin, as Japan is mostly a country of hills and mountains. To enable the keeping of game fowl in very small spaces they have created the Ko Shamo, a small game breed still in possession of a game character. A trio of these birds can be kept in a space of 4 square feet. Despite these conditions fertility is excellent, as is their laying ability and hatch rate. Chicks also grow without problems, however overcrowding can lead to problems as they display their game "killer" instincts at an early age.

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Weights Cock 1000g (2lb4oz) cockerel 800g (1lb12oz) Hen 800g (1lb12oz) pullet 600g 1lb6oz)

As you can see, they are small, yet very proud. What I like about them, it doesn't take large pens to house them in. My health seems to be worse, or its this heat (again with the heat). It is nice to have some birds that I can take care of with out having to carry water and feed along ways. I have these guys in some cage battery's set up in the garage where I can use fans to keep them a little cooler than the outside birds, and they are all in one spot where care is easier.

Wed. 6-30-2011

Well it is still hot, but we have got a little rain, so it may get better. Not having the best of luck with the new incubator. Hatching rate has sucked and have wasted several eggs. These eggs have been out of some very nice fowl and if I would of had to buy the eggs I would have several dollars in them. I guess since lots of my breeding stock cost a lot, I did have lots in them. I am not going to go into much details right now. I have contacted the makers of the incubator explaining my troubles to them. After I see how well they stand behind what they sale, I will post more. I have hatched several eggs under broody hens this year. Thank God for broody hens. I bought some baby Madagascar game chicks, they are doing well. In fact all my chicks have done well. Just having heck getting them hatched.

Myself, Molly and a friend from the panhandle went to a chicken auction in Blanchard OK last weekend. I picked up some show quality dark Cornish bantams to add to my Cornish bantam flock I have here already. Did not get them at the auction got them from a man in Chickasha on the way down.

I did however pick up a pair of Rhode Island red bantams at the auction that were better quality than I expected to go thru an auction. The rooster is a little man hater, might be the reason they got sold. I have a soft spot in my head, I mean heart for RIR bantams. I got my first bantams when I was about 14 from a man named Lee Johnson, north of Arapaho OK where I was raised. I bought a trio of RIRs. Good ones are hard to find in this area, so I was pleased to get the ones I got. And heck, how much damage can a 2 pound rooster do. (says the man with scars on his hand from being flogged)

I also picked up 8 more naked necks and 14 Guineas to run the yard and outer area to help bug control.

Ethan and I did some mowing this morning before it got hot, need to get legged propped up, looks like it could pop. I have another doctor appointment in OKC Friday, so may go to another chicken auction Friday night in Harrah OK, Being laid up and not being able to get around well, these dang chickens have sure been a life saver to keep my mind occupied, and gives me a reason to get up and move a little.  

First day of summer

This wouldn't be so bad if we haven't had several days above 100 already. I hate hot weather. Fat people do not do well in the heat. We sweat and smell bad. Have to change clothes more often, shower 2, 3 times a day if outside much and then need to go somewhere. Again I say, I hate hot weather.
Got more eggs hatching seems like daily. I bought a used brooder that needs some repair, but 3 out of 5 levels work so It is good. My hens are doing a great job on their eggs and biddys. It sure is hard on them ole gals in this heat. (again with the heat).
I may be trashing my Madagascar project. I have 15 Madagascar chicks coming this week. If they are good quality, I will use them to build my naked neck warriors out of. The 4 naked necks I picked up the other day have the run of the place. They are sorta growing on all of us. It is always a mystery to find where the little ugly buggers are.
Picked up a trio of Shamo last week. For you all that don't know, shamo are like really big fowl. My rooster is only 11 months old, and already about 28 inches tall. They do not mature till about 2 or 3 years old, so he could be a horse.

It isn't a very good picture, and he is in real poor feather, but this gives you an idea what the young guy looks like. Been doing a little work on pens and such during the cool of the morning. Ethan has been helping tremendously. This will be the end of Ethans help before long. He has enrolled in OU (Hookem Horns). He will do well there. I know I sure am going to miss him. But it is time for him to leave the nest, spread his wings and all that crap. I am very proud of him. So many kids (male mostly) seem to have problems with cutting the cord and moving on. It saddens me that we will be childless in our home in a couple months. But it makes me glad that he has the ambition to get out and make something of himself. Good luck son, and always know we love you. Dad.

Young Champions

Is it luck, or is it many hours of figuring, thinking, studying, and planning that makes a mating click. Sometimes luck will wipe you out, that happens, but most of the time it is the other that will cause one to stumble or be victorious. I checked on my hens today. I have two that should hatch today or tomorrow. I saw three heads sticking out from under the hen so am guessing more today. I hope that the planning pays off, and of course I can always use the luck.                                              

This hen was selected for qualities that have been passed down thru generations of planned breeding. I acquired the rooster she was bred to in hopes of helping my breeding pens. Anyone can throw two chickens and a pen and they will make young. The thing is though, one should upgrade the type of young one gets. Going backwards or staying where you are already is not an option. It is illegal to test these birds as has been done for thousands of years. But as they grow I will watch them. I will see how they interact with their siblings and other chicks in the brood house. As they mature I will separate the ones that need separated, and the others will find their way to the frying pan. Planning, studying, selection, culling, and of course a little luck. With out it, one would just be raising chickens.  

Todays Ramblings

Well last night we got some much needed rain. It was raining when I went to sleep, and woke up a couple hours later it was still raining. Thank you Lord for the rain we really needed it. Had a doctors appointment in OKC Thursday. Coming home stopped at some chicken places. Picked up 10 young Shamo Bantams from one guy. Not real high on bantams other than my Cornish, but I figure these are a fair investment, when I get them mature they should be easy to turn, unless by then I have decided they are something I want to keep. You never can tell about me. I stopped at 2 more places but only bought fowl from one of them. I picked up a real nice Gray game stag.

I also picked up some Naked Neck chickens (Turkens).

I know, they are ugly, but they grow on you. Really the naked necks don't do much for me, BUT I have a plan. I have been looking at the Madagascar game here on the internet, and they do entice me.

I am looking for pure Madagascar game fowl as we speak. But as a back up plan if I cant find any or afford those found, I will start breeding toward my on version. I will breed the naked neck into my oriental game fowl to get the naked neck gene. It is dominant so it will be easy to insert into my breeding. I will then cull deep and keep breeding into my better orientals. Malay, Saipain, Thai and Asil. Birds will be culled hard according to gameness, then standard features. One thing about it, birds this size that do not meet my standards, will look good in the freezer. As stated before, I know I would be better off starting with pure Madagascar (using the word pure loosely as I think pure fowl don't exist) But one must use what he has available. I will keep you posted on how this turns out. If any one out there knows where I might locate some of these please contact me.