Whoops, I just went back and looked over the Aloha thread and guess what, I goofed GAAARR! Almost every SFH & Aloha that had very little mottling to begin with got more mottled. Sorry everyone, I guess that's what happens when I try to remember stuff I see a couple weeks before I post it. Thanks...
Black actually might be a SFH. Sometimes Mottled birds loose their mottling as they get older, if you look at these pics, there is some slight mottling on her chest.
9 wks old
Even at 14 weeks old, she still has some leakage.
It would if the parents were both homozygous for crests (if X is crested and x is no crest, the parents would have to be XX and XX, not Xx and Xx or Xx and XX. There are over sizers in these others, but only a percentage of them are over sized.)
Last I checked, Greenfire doesn't sell hatching eggs, so unless he got stock and then bred them, I'm a little skeptical. But still, you might just want to go ahead and buy them. If they turn out to be SFH's, then great, if not, you haven't paid that much for some chicks.
In order to prevent that from happening again, take a aluminum pie pan, poke a hole in the middle, tie a rock to some string, then put the string through the hole and tie a knot. put the pan over the feeder and put the rock inside to keep it from being knocked off. BTW make sure that the pan is...
Don't ever put down a chick!!! It is generally best just to isolate it and feed the same feed and water with antibiotics. I've seen too many people who put down chicks who still have a chance at living. If it looks like marek's or coccidiosis, isolate and medicate, and have patience.
I heard somewhere that, the crested gene, like the frizzled and rumpless genes, when over crossed or interbred too much, can cause fatal mutations in chicks. Don't know for sure if this is true, but it sounds reasonable.