Hackle Chickens

[Ebrant10 0]

So i wanted to share what ive been starting to "tinker" with over the last 8 months. I purchased a dozen hatching eggs from a breeder last spring, after the incubation was over with i had eight out of the dozen hatch, 6 roosters and 2 hens. They have been growing well and i have been tying with the feathers since they have been developed. While i do eventually plan on selling necks later down the road and hatching eggs in another month, i wanted to share my breeder birds with you all and see what you think. I have two males i am using for breeding, both have great feather qualities for comming from a no name breeder, the grizzly bird is currently with the hens and i will begin fertility testing in a few weeks. The bard dun will be crossed with the grizzly hens i have in hopes of darker dun barring on the feathers.

Evan

[BassMouth87 0]

That is some very interesting stuff. My father raises and breeds champion show pigeons, rumblers and homers and I have often thought about asking him if he would be interested in starting a small breeding program for hackle chickens. He has access to a lot of people with good genetics as far as many different kinds of birds go so it may be a very good venture as far as saving money on hackle goes.

 

I am interested in anymore information you would like to share as far as your coop, feeding, breeding programs, etc. Also when you say you have been tying with the feathers from your young birds do you mean just loose feathers from the coop?

[throwinflys 0]

I'll be following this thread for sure. Everything that I have read says it is extremely hard to get dry fly hackle that way. If this turns out for you I may have to try this! Good luck

 

[tidewaterfly 0]

I raised Barred Rocks & White Rocks for several years. My primary interest was for saltwater & bass flies, so it was much easier to get good feathers to suit my tying purposes. I enjoyed raising them, and will also be interested in how things progress for you.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

I will be watching with peaked interest

[Ebrant10 0]

Thanks all, it is hard to get these, and about just as hard to find a breeder selling birds because of competition. Personally i am not scared about competition because i am just doing this for the heck of it.

Bassmouth: right now im very small scale and only have the 6 roosters to choose from. The birds i chose to use had hackles that didnt twist, that is the worst thing to wreck a flock according to Charlie Collins. They luckily also had the best looking feathers as far as length and width were concerned. So really for my first generation it was an easy choice. These two birds will continue breeding until the next generation of roosters are old enough to determine which ones i need to use. My coop right now is a small garden shed, i have individual cages for the roosters, with individual feeders and waterers. The bottom of the cages is wire so any poop falls right through and is not cluttered amongst the birds. I have enough room for all the roosters in individual cages but one( the one eith the chickens for breeding) I have a larger group of regular egg layers that i will be slowly getting rid of and replacing with the chickens from this flock.

 

Evan

[Ebrant10 0]

Ohh and about the feathers i have been tying with, ive been plucking them from the birds. Im using all sizes, saddle and neck feathers, they tie well, by no means are they the quality of a Whitings neck but are about as good as a number 3 metz, I am anxious to see what the next generation will bring.

Evan

[JSzymczyk 0]

the saddle hackles on the pic of the first rooster look really REALLY good for things like woolly buggers! With the constant push toward dry fly saddles, those long, webby, narrow hackles have become increasingly difficult to find.

[vicrider 0]

I hate chickens. We had a bunch of those miserable, ornery, pecking, always hungry, noisy, dirty foul mouthed fowl up north. I don't care what hair braiding does to the price of a chicken feather, no way am I raising any of those chicken necked miserable creatures again. Good luck and my hats off to you but from now on chickens are only to provide feathers for purchase or frying. It's Whiting or KFC for me.

[Chefben4 0]

Very cool! Keep us up to date!

[Peterjay 0]

I hate chickens. We had a bunch of those miserable, ornery, pecking, always hungry, noisy, dirty foul mouthed fowl up north. I don't care what hair braiding does to the price of a chicken feather, no way am I raising any of those chicken necked miserable creatures again. Good luck and my hats off to you but from now on chickens are only to provide feathers for purchase or frying. It's Whiting or KFC for me.

 

C'mon Vic, don't be shy - tell us what you REALLY think. BTW - I agree with you - I grew up with the damned things, and the only thing I hate worse than chickens are monkeys. We've got Perdue and Tyson processing facilities a few miles up the road here, and one of my favorite pastimes is to stand out in front of the plants and cheer every time another truckload of birds comes in.

 

Back on topic: Evan, that's a great looking rooster. I'll bet I could find a use for every feather on that bird. Good luck with your project.

[Ebrant10 0]

Here is more recent pictures of the barred dun bird, hes my favorite over all. They do have good bugger feathers along with the dry fly hackle they hav se. When I do start to sell necks, i plan on selling the saddle from the bird along with the neck.

 

 

Evan

[mybadhabit 0]

There is a dealer called Conranch Hackle that sells the whole bird skin, that might be something to look into also, many of those not so select feathers can serve great purposes too you know.

 

Blane

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

that is a beautiful rooster

[brookiehunter 0]

I agree with selling the whole skin. I prefer to buy a full skin whenever possible.