Chicken Breeds: Choosing Your Backyard Brood
(Page 3 of 6)
March/April 1976
By GT Klein
U.S. Pullorum Controlled—Fewer than 2 per cent reactors.
RELATED CONTENT
Ten breeds of rabbits are now included in the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s mission to pr...
Many people interested in sustainably raised meat are concerned about the need to preserve heritage...
Do brown cows give chocolate milk? Do Milking Devon cows give more healthful milk than Holsteins? T...
Diagrams and specifications of several milking cattle....
THE HEALTHY PLATE: Recipe for chicken and shiitake mushroom lo mein...
U.S. Pullorum Tested—Fewer than 7 per cent reactors.
It is quite obvious that the higher one goes on this list, the more certain he can be of getting chicks that are free of this disease. Pullorum Clean and Pullorum Passed are better grades than those in which infection has been found, even though the reacting birds have been removed. There is always the chance that some infection has been missed if the test indicates that it is present to a considerable extent. There is a great thrill in being able to raise practically all of the chicks that one purchases.
A homesteader, on the other hand, is not doomed if a few chicks die and if some that had the infection recover. They will likely be reasonably good layers, and they will not carry a disease that is transmissible to humans. They are not dangerous birds so far as food production is concerned.
NATIONAL BREEDING GRADES
The National Poultry Improvement Plan also sets up other grades which are nationally recognized. These grades with a description of each follow:
U.S. Record of Performance Chicks —These chicks come from a line of ancestry known to have been better than average in ability to produce eggs. The mother must have laid at least 200 eggs in a trapnest, and father's mother must have been at least a 200-egg producer.
U.S. Certified Chicks —A good line of selected hens mated to males whose dams produced 200 eggs or more.
U.S. Verified —Similar to the U.S. Certified grade, and for all practical purposes, they are equal to it.
U.S. Approved Chicks —Both the mother and father, or in poultry terms the hens and the roosters, are selected for production ability as determined by their appearance. They are not trapnested. They are selected for health, vitality, good body-type and color.
To one not accustomed to these terms, they must be very confusing. The chicks they represent, however, give the public the best assurance of getting what is paid for. The higher up the line that one can go in his purchases, the better he is assured that the chicks have the inheritance to lay many eggs.
The better the breeding back of the stock, the easier it will be to manage and the better it will lay in cold winter weather. The better the stock, the better it will perform in the hands of a beginner. It is a good investment to buy a high quality chick.
SOURCES OF STOCK AND INFORMATION
Because the number of chicks required for the average backyard flock is rather small, it is best to get the chicks as close to home as possible. Moreover, most hatchery-men do not like to bother with shipping small orders. But if you cannot find a suitable local source of chicks, you may have to get your chicks by mail order.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 | 3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Next >>
