Re: Brooding hens that won't let me near the eggs

Farm1 wrote:

Domestic fowl have not been Jungle fowl for over 4000 years - and
some say a lot longer
The heat in the "jungle" they came from was much nearer your
temperature than ours, so there is a greater degree adaptation to
our climate than yours.

I'm was initially quite shocked at your ignorance but on reflection I
guess living in a hot counry makes me more aware of the problems than
you could be expected to be. Domestic birds suffer dramatically and
in many cases, fatally, from heat stress.

I know
But you were overly dismissive of the problems that wet and cold can produce
I was flippant but you are also seemingly ill-informed quite naturally of
the problems in other parts of the world.
:~)

As you have illustrated this is a well researched situation and there is a
lot of advice for coping with it


And its been the same there in all the thousands of generations that
have gone into creating the birds you have in Australia. Birds have
been breeding in those conditions for

Pure supposition on your part. The birds are bred here just as in the
UK for your favoured "productivity" in terms of egg production and
table birds or a combination of both.

And there are LOTS of different strains within those criteria for different
conditions around the world
The companies producing birds are breeding several thousand strains at any
one time for production around the world.
Physiological situations are part of that as well
I DO understand that extremes require management solutions - I would not
have said that should condemn every breed out of hand though.

If you bother to read the cites
you'll realise what heat affects the birds at a the level of their
blood metabolism. Breeders don't "do" blood because it has nothing to
do with Poultry Standards or appearance or egg or meat production.

But they will do physiology - its part of survival
You can breed for improvements in being able to cope with a lot of different
things and the free range breeder you would expect to be better than some of
the intensives who can control more of their environment artificially
I DO realise that you cannot breed for it entirely just as we cannot breed
for our birds to come out with mackintoshes on.:~))))


And chooks will die in that heat MUCH easier than they
will from -5 and rain if they have halfway adequate shelter where
they can stay out of the rain if they choose.

And you do not provide halfway adequate shelter/provision from your
heat? ;)

Of course. They live in an orchard and thier house is in the
permanent shade from evergreen trees, but you try surviving 40+C temps
for weeks and you'll realise how hard that is as human let alome a
chook with a permanent feather coverage. I was in Paris 2? years ago
during their heatwave when thousands of humans died from the heat and
it was not as hot as here (and I still have the blister scars on my
feet to prove it).

I know - but they are not used to it.
You are saying that this is not unusual for you so provision is part of your
natural set up
I would not want to try to survive in that sort of heat but then I have
trouble in the south of England <BG>

I suppose what I am saying is that it DOES surprise me that you are
suggesting that there has been no selection at all in the pure breeds for
qualities that can cope with the conditions better. You suggest that the
mongrels you create by random matings of some of "this and that" have more
"toughness" which I take to being ability to cope and control their
metabolism better, and have better liveability. So the qualities exist
genetically in the poultry genome within the populations of the birds
available so why has no-one bred for it in the past 200 years?
It has happened in other countries. Africa is pretty hot but they are keen
breeders and improvers of their stocks.


--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk


.

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