-Second oldest breed of poultry in America-
4th Quarter Newsletter November 2011
Java Breeders of America Mission Statement The purpose of the Java Breeders of America Poultry Club is to encourage the long term preservation of Javas through selective breeding, exhibition, and through sharing knowledge. We also realize it takes alot of hard work and determination. Here are the steps we will take In order to achieve our goals. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
We must show quality sportsmanship among our fellow members. Provide our members with adequate information on breeding Javas. Help our members locate hatching eggs, chicks or breeding stock. Educate our members with information on breeding and showing Javas. Help the general public to recognize that the Java is on the threatened list and what we can do to increase its numbers. Encourage and educate the junior poultry person on the value of breeding Javas.
With these goals the Java Breeders of America Poultry Club will preservere. Members will learn about showing Javas and the steps they need to take to become an exhibitor. The Java Breeders of America poultry club publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, which is e-mailed to all members. We also have special discounts for club members only. Membership to the Java Breeders of America Poultry club is $10.00 a year. Please send a check or money order to Got Java? 195 Northglen Lane, Martindale, Texas 78655. Membership fees help pay for our ads and website fees.
Photo taken by Jim Ward
From the Secretary/TreasurerJava Breeders of America would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an annual tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year and is a holiday in the United States and Canada. Normally, people will gather with their family and friends to enjoy Thanksgiving meal – Turkey. The true meaning of Thanksgiving is Gratitude and we need to grateful of everything that we have. This is also a great time to look over our birds and re-home some of them to our freezers. I have recently processed about 8 large cockerals and my friend Jeff has been doing that also. You can read about some of his observations on Page 7. Reminder: Java Breeders of America now has a spot at the showbird bid website. This is a place where alot of bird clubs have a large forum. There is alot of great information there. Check it out when you have some spare time and let me know what you think. The website is http://showbirdbid.proboards.com. The American Standard of Perfection is the official publication for poultry fanciers in the U.S. First published in 1874 by the American Poultry Association, the Standard of Perfection Standard classifies and describes the standard physical appearance, coloring and temperament for all recognized breeds of poultry. It is also used by A.P.A judges at sanctioned poultry shows to judge poultry, and by those who participate in competitive showing and breeding to select birds that conform to the standard. The first edition of the book listed 41 breeds, and today’s versions have nearly 60. There are 19 classes of poultry recognized by the American Poultry Association. Ten of these classes are devoted to chickens, of which 6 are classes of large breeds and 5 are bantam classes. There are four classes of ducks and three classes of geese, both divided by weight. All breeds of turkeys are grouped into one class. You can order a copy of the standard at http://www.amerpoultryassn.com. Are you in need of Javas? We have a breeders list on our website. If you have any questions please Contact Ruth Caron at carondesign@yahoo.com. Send your stories, pictures, recipes, show wins, or anything else Java to Ruth at carondesign@yahoo.com Java Chicks owned by Mary Blackmon
How to Breed Black Java Large Fowl using the Hogan Method by Robert Blosl In preparing this article on How to Breed Black Java’s using the Hogan Method of Selection I reread his book The Call of the Hen written by Walter Hogan in 1913 which can be read on line by going to http://www.archive.org/stream/callhenscience00hogarich/callhenscience00hogarich_ djvu.txt. In trying to write the highlights of this book in short article is difficult and so I will just try to take the issues Mr. Hogan was trying to get across to his readers and the issues that would help the beginner in the Poultry Industry of that time period. I have sent to the Poultry Press Editor a great article written by Barred Plymouth Rock breeder Jamie Duckworth as it was in my opinion one of the best articles written in modern time on how a breeder used Mr. Hogan’s methods on his current flock of Barred Rock Large Fowl. What I will also try to do in this article is relate what I think would be the methods of taking a average strain of line breed Black Java’s and improving them in or around a five year period using the teachings of Mr. Hogan in his book the Call of the Hen.In reading this book the first time 22 years ago I wondered how I could take what Hogan was trying to get across to me as a reader and apply it to my then Strain of Rhode Island Red Large Fowl. My goal in using his concepts was not to produce the next world record laying Rhode Island Red but to improve feather quality on my females top section from a stringy type of feather to a feather which the standard calls for in a good healthy producing American Class female.In using Mr. Hogan’s methods with Black Java’s the goal is the same to improve egg production and feather quality which in my view will also pull in the correct type which the standard calls for in a Black Java. From the teachings of Mr. Hogan I knew to get better feather quality on my pullets I would have to increase their egg production by about 35 to 40 eggs per year. I would have to choose breeders each year for a period of about 5 years to get my females to lay about 200 eggs per year if I was using the old trap nest method of counting each and every egg. I was not interested in counting each and every egg or what female laid the most eggs per year just wanting to get better feather quality on their back section of their bodies like a hen would have after her first molt. First Year: What I would do my first year is have baby chick brooders that could hold about ten to fifteen chicks per box and I would use a method of different colored magic felt marking pens to I D each chick by placing a mark over their right or left eye using different colors and then marking these chicks ID on a 5x7 index card. My notes will be very simple as Hogan stressed wing and tail development in the tracts of the chicks feathering. So I will write down on my index card the number of days it took my chicks to shoot out their first tail feathers. Some chicks may take 24 days some, 20 days some might take 18 days. The goal is to select chicks as breeders who show early tail feather development which is the number one trait of the fast feathering egg laying gene. The goal to be set in five years would be about a time period of 8 to 10 days to shoot out their first tail feathers. My other concerns will first be age of primary wing development need to write this down as the birds that shoot out their wing feathers before others must be considered as potential breeders for the following year. Then when the males first started crowing showing their maturing age to locate the better birds that grown-up and crow sooner
than the other brothers and cousins. Then of course the pullets first day she laid her egg and then if I kept her how old she was when she started her molt to become a hen. The more she lay per year the longer her length is with her adult feathers. Females that lay like their sisters then star to molt should not be used as breeders as they lack the fast feathering gene. Next, I would try to keep track of how they molted as good layers molt fast and get back into production sooner than poor layers. So in my method of selection it is not measurement of pubic and pelvic bones or measurement of the skull which is very important but just what number of birds out of ten can mature the fastest and still maintain good Black Java type and can use them to improve your strain. In Selecting your very best Black Java’s cull these types of Hens. Sick, weak, lacking vigor, lazy, poor eaters, slow feathering, with small, wrinkled hard, dry vents also remove birds with small, shriveled dreary colored combs, Remove females with, pelvic bones close together, small spread gaps between their pelvic bones and rear end of their keels. (See article by Jamie Duckworth for more details of this culling method in this months issue of Poultry Press.) Keep as breeders these kinds of Black Java pullets. Healthy, strong, vigorous, alert and active; heavy eaters; Females with large, moist vents; with relative large, bright-red combs; skinny, Pliable pelvic bones well extended apart, broadly spread between their pelvic Bones and rear ends of their keels, and hefty, soft, flexible abdomens. Eliminate the DRONES: You just cannot use any male in the breeding pen he must come from mothers who are like the ones I stated above and lay lots of eggs. These males have extreme body capacity themselves and they have to feather as fast as their sisters do in order to make it to the breeding pen and pass these traits onto their daughters. Slow feathering lack of vitality males who are not gallant are not going to pass these traits on to their off spring. Males also, need to crow and crow a lot. They must be fearless and when sparing do not run from a fight. Males that run into a corner or hide under a bush to hide his head from a more vigorous gallant male must not be used in the breeding pen. These males need to have extended keel bones to hold the flesh and give the bird the shape that we need in a Black Java. They need a bright, clear eye a well set body with legs dead center to support the weight of the body. The male must be free of physical defects and if sound in type and body capacity as described in Jamie Duckworth’s article picking birds that have good weight at about 16 weeks of age. These will be one of your better show birds to display a much better and improved old fashion Java type. Here is Mr. Hogan’s General Basic Rules of selection to deliver high egg laying productive strain of Fowl. These are his rules taken from his book of 1913 they are as follows: 1. Market those which have been slow to feather or seem to lack vitality. 2. Keep the pullets which mature quickly and start laying first. Those which start laying when less than 200 days old will be the best layers if they have the right care. 3. Keep the late molters. 4. Keep the birds with rather large, plump combs and wattles. 5. Hens with pale vents, pale beaks and pale legs have been good layers.
6. The skin of the best layers should be rather loose and flabby on the abdomen between the vent and breastbone. 7. The pelvic bones must be thin, straight, flexible and wide apart. 8. Market the hens which are baggy behind and which have a heavy, fat, thick abdomen which hangs down below the point of the breastbone. 9. Keep the hustlers and heavy eaters that go to bed late and with full crops. 10. Birds that have long toenails and show no signs of being workers are usually unprofitable. 11. If a bird meets the above requirements, it should have a broad back, long body, be stoutly built and in good flesh. 12. If a bird is not molting and still has a small dried-up comb covered with a sort of whitish substance, or if a bird has thick or crooked pelvic bones, which will be found on each side of the vent and above The point of the breas bone, these are money losers Summary: What Mr. Hogan was trying to get across in his book to us the beginners in this hobby of breeding Standard Breed Large fowl is there are no profits in keeping poultry that are lacking in production and growth of their bodies. In his day you made it buy farming with fowls that produced lots of eggs and if you were not successful you did not make much money and would soon be out of business. He was not a person who raised and breed Exhibition Poultry, but I can promise you many of the great large fowl breeders used his concepts in their success of their large fowl for a farm type chicken and when they went to the big shows such as Madison and Boston Garden in the 1930s and 40s they won using his concepts that he wrote about in his book. In the beginning you must take it slow and try to just keep the best females and males each season and you will see each and every year improvement in the feather quality, body type and egg production. In some cases if you use this concept such as in Plymouth Rocks, and Orpingtons with loose fluffy feathers in the vent area your females and males will lose their fluffy feathers as their top back feathers get more and improved webbing. Back 22 years ago I took at strain of White Rock Large Fowl in my first year of only 25 percent fertility out of all the eggs I set. Then each year by using Hogan’s method of fast feathering birds I increased my fertility in my white rocks to 85 % in just five years of using this Hogan method of selection and breeding. I believe with Black Java’s you will also get a bird with improved type, good body capacity, tremendous feather quality, better vitality and you will have a strain of Java’s that are what you are trying to improve which is the purpose of this article. I think if we just use some of Jamie Duckworth’s Methods with any large fowl such as in the Black Java described in this article you will see fast and goal setting results. If you read Mr. Hogan’s book will see he was a goal oriented poultry men. His goal was to produce a high egg laying chickens and he found these secrets in his over 50 years experience as a poultryman. There is no reason that we today cannot take any breed of Quality Standard Breed Large Fowl and improve their breed type , feather quality and egg laying capacity as others have done in before us. I hope you will take up the Black Java large fowl and try to improve their overall appearance using the Hogan’s Call of the Hen Methods.
Final Java Culling at Diamond T Well the last 2 Black Java cockerels that didn’t make the final cut have started the next chapter of The Java experience at Diamond T Poultry. They were 9 months old and had been on the meat bird feeding program because, one had a tail set that was a little to low and 1 has about 8 points on his comb and a light eye. These birds went from chick starter to broiler ration free choice, at 11 weeks. Live weight on the the first bird was 10lbs. 2oz. And dressed easily,and very easy to pick by hand. The bird had a very developed breast and broad back just generally a very blocky, meaty bird. I was very pleased with final yield on the carcass. After cooling the bird for 12 Hours and seasoning it was roasted to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. I have raised and roasted a lot of chickens in the last 40+ years, but this bird was as juicy and tender as any bird I have processed before. I recently read a post on the Java thread on Show Bird Bid by Mr. Brian Decker in which he told about caponizing Java cockerels to increase growth rate. Which in turn would translate to earlier processing for consumption. And after some research I have read that it should make the meat even more tender. So sometime in the next year I will be learning to caponize. I will be processing Java cockerel #2 for Thanksgiving and I have an Orpington cockerel from a color project the will probably be invited to Christmas dinner. I have said all of this to say lets not lose sight of why chickens were domesticated and then continually refined and improved to produce more eggs and meat. Then 100+ years ago, because a couple of our ancestors were bragging at some feed store somewhere that they were raising the best chickens ever, was poultry exhibition born and now keeps so many of us entertained and not sitting in front of the TV. So lets remember if that bird won’t make Champions row, you don’t need it in the layer house, and the neighbor isn’t just dieing for an almost show bird, process it and serve it to your family at least you’ll know what it ate. I believe with the right breeding we can turn the traditional dual purpose breeds, producing eggs and meat, into triple purpose breeds to include winning in the show room. Keep the young people involved. Jeff Thornton Diamond T Poultry diamondtpoultry@yahoo.com www.diamondtpoultry.com
Java Winners from The Crossroads Show photos by Jim Ward There were an amazing 10,276 entries at the Crossroads show this year. There were four exhibitors that showed 25 Black Javas, 7 Mottled Javas, and 14 Bantam Black Javas. That's right! Longtime Java breeder Monte Bowen has been developing a strain of bantam Black Javas for the past ten years and he chose the Crossroads show to reveal his creations. He started by crossing a standard black java cockerel and a black rock bantam pullet. His bantams are still about a pound too heavy but they have good type and are improving year by year. Monte Bowen also had the best and reserve variety standard mottled Javas. Moore Farms of Arkansas had best and reserve of breed with their black java pullets. Jim Ward donated a pair of his Black Javas and also a pair of Dominiques to the APA/ABA Youth club raffle which was also a success--Jim also took the time to take these pictures and to get this story. Thanks to all the exhibitors and to Jim Ward for his donation. Donating birds to our youth and getting them interested in poultry is what keeps this hobby alive. A big huge thank you to Monte Bowen for his endeavor in creating the Java bantams. I wonder if he has a secret Mottled Java Project?
Best of Breed owned by Moore Farms
Bantam Javas owned by Monte Bowen
Best of Variety owned by Monte Bowen