AmayaOkami
In the Brooder
- Sep 29, 2016
- 57
- 5
- 21
I have been lurking this site for a few weeks now and have decided to just sign up and get it over with. I'm 24 and I've lived out on about 13acres for over ten years. I recently moved back home with my mom after college to help with homeschooling my 10yr old younger brother. We used to have alpacas, a couple horses, and bantams for a while. Recently my mother decided to take the plunge into poultry. We started off with some coturnix quail then moved to some heritage turkeys. Recently we sold the bulk of our turkeys and have switched to chickens. She currently has about 6 red ranger crosses, and since we sold off the turkeys, there is now an extra run open and I've decided to take the plunge myself with trying out some Ayam Cemani.
Now before I even started, I had done my homework and researched this breed for weeks (half of my lurking this place actually). I purchased 6 day olds from Feather Lover Farms during their "summer sale" from the Greenfire Farm line. To start off, I am not in it for the money (as this breed seems to be a hot topic on some sites). I learned of this breed the beginning of the year and have had my eye on them for forever. We tried starting off with ordering hatching eggs, but with the shipping and our incubator (so far seems to hatch quail but nothing else) I had only one chick start to hatch, but died in the egg. Due to the pricing I wasn't exactly planning on getting anymore, until I found the chick sale.
I have always been a fan of genetics and have helped my mom run our boxer kennel for over 10years, and I actually recently decided to start my own with papillons. I currently work in a hospital lab, so to me this breed posed a unique curiosity on the way their genetics work. I got my chicks about a week ago and all were nice and healthy. And well living in Florida, I made the mistake and tried to move them to the coop on our back porch a bit too early. That night we ended up getting a bunch of rain, and the next morning I found one extremely lethargic and cold to the touch. I immediately brought them all back in under the heat lamp. I worked on the poor guy all day feeding glucose water and keeping him close to the heat, but sadly he didn't make it. I was really mad at myself, and it will not happen again with any of the 5 I still have.
After browsing here and looking up countless photos, I have found a few flaws in the few that I have, and actually look forward to learning how to breed them out to help strengthen the line I have if anyone has any input for what they see. I have found mixed messages about white toes and feather tips darkening with age, but will just have to see with how things go with my guys. I'm here to learn and can't wait to be able to hear from others with more experience and learn from their trial and errors. Anyway, sorry for the extremely long rant in the welcome post. Not exactly sure where would be the place to post a "journal" of sorts to keep up to date with this journey, so I am sorry if this is not the place, I just want to share why I've chosen to join up here.
Anyway, hi guys!
Here are a few after I got them out in the sun.
Here is one with a white tip on his beak. I'm not sure if it is part of the egg tooth, or if not, will it darken?
Not sure if the bit of white on his wing is just how the light is hitting the down or not. Everything else on this one is black.
This one has white toes, and from what I've read these will likely not darken.
This one I feel is a cockerel just by how he seems to puff up. His fluff seems to be a light gray in areas as you can see, but the feathers coming in are nice and black.
Now before I even started, I had done my homework and researched this breed for weeks (half of my lurking this place actually). I purchased 6 day olds from Feather Lover Farms during their "summer sale" from the Greenfire Farm line. To start off, I am not in it for the money (as this breed seems to be a hot topic on some sites). I learned of this breed the beginning of the year and have had my eye on them for forever. We tried starting off with ordering hatching eggs, but with the shipping and our incubator (so far seems to hatch quail but nothing else) I had only one chick start to hatch, but died in the egg. Due to the pricing I wasn't exactly planning on getting anymore, until I found the chick sale.
I have always been a fan of genetics and have helped my mom run our boxer kennel for over 10years, and I actually recently decided to start my own with papillons. I currently work in a hospital lab, so to me this breed posed a unique curiosity on the way their genetics work. I got my chicks about a week ago and all were nice and healthy. And well living in Florida, I made the mistake and tried to move them to the coop on our back porch a bit too early. That night we ended up getting a bunch of rain, and the next morning I found one extremely lethargic and cold to the touch. I immediately brought them all back in under the heat lamp. I worked on the poor guy all day feeding glucose water and keeping him close to the heat, but sadly he didn't make it. I was really mad at myself, and it will not happen again with any of the 5 I still have.
After browsing here and looking up countless photos, I have found a few flaws in the few that I have, and actually look forward to learning how to breed them out to help strengthen the line I have if anyone has any input for what they see. I have found mixed messages about white toes and feather tips darkening with age, but will just have to see with how things go with my guys. I'm here to learn and can't wait to be able to hear from others with more experience and learn from their trial and errors. Anyway, sorry for the extremely long rant in the welcome post. Not exactly sure where would be the place to post a "journal" of sorts to keep up to date with this journey, so I am sorry if this is not the place, I just want to share why I've chosen to join up here.
Anyway, hi guys!
Here are a few after I got them out in the sun.
Here is one with a white tip on his beak. I'm not sure if it is part of the egg tooth, or if not, will it darken?
Not sure if the bit of white on his wing is just how the light is hitting the down or not. Everything else on this one is black.
This one has white toes, and from what I've read these will likely not darken.
This one I feel is a cockerel just by how he seems to puff up. His fluff seems to be a light gray in areas as you can see, but the feathers coming in are nice and black.
. Nice to have you aboard! Great intro and great pics of your chicks! You said you've been lurking on BYC but in case you didn't come across it, here's a link to the Ayam Cemani thread 
