Bittersweet choices - albinos, double silvers, which to keep...

[FloorCandy]

This week my ~5-6 week old albinos and double silvers had a crowing, foaming, albino roo. I moved him to the albino cage with a couple of his female litter mates, this brings me up to 5 hens and a roo as far as albinos go. I had the dad in with the hens, as I’ve read albinism is sex linked, and I had only gotten hens, which seemed to support this. So dad moved out and son moved in. I have 1 more albino chick, about 2.5 - 3 weeks old, that was in a brooder with a double silver litter mate. After about a week, I have to separate the blind birds because the sighted littermates peck their eyes. Anyway I have a total of 7 albinos, the youngest chick seems to be male because I moved him in with Snowflake and the double silvers, and Snowflake is crowing like crazy, but not harming him. I’ll see how they do, I don’t wanna move the baby out until it’s fully feathered, and he’s a bit behind because the blind ones sometimes take a couple extra days to start thriving at first.

I have Snowflake in with 3 double silver ladies, and then the 6 adult albinos live outside. I have a total of 5 extra double silvers, 3 males, 1 hen, 1 too young to tell. I may keep the hen, snowflake can take one more. But the rest have to go to the auction. I’d like to have an heir and a spare so to speak with my albino Roos, which means I need 2 cages, I have to be realistic and not try to keep 2 cages of albinos, 2 cages of double silvers, sex link celadons, snowie celadons, a cage of k dale sparklies, and my black project cage, plus 2 cages of buttons eventually. It’s too much. So I’ve had to choose between albino and double silvers. I’ve worked really hard on the doubles, and they almost always hatch and do well now, I’m so conflicted in selling them. Snowflake is basically our pet, so he isn’t going. I’ll keep him in his inside home with his ladies, but I’ll probably change his ladies out to albinos as I get more. So I’ll be no longer working on doubles, and I’ll put the efforts into my albinos. I actually have a bunch of anxiety about selling my doubles lol.

Anyway, here they are, getting ready to go:

 

[kurby22]

This week my ~5-6 week old albinos and double silvers had a crowing, foaming, albino roo. I moved him to the albino cage with a couple of his female litter mates, this brings me up to 5 hens and a roo as far as albinos go. I had the dad in with the hens, as I’ve read albinism is sex linked, and I had only gotten hens, which seemed to support this. So dad moved out and son moved in. I have 1 more albino chick, about 2.5 - 3 weeks old, that was in a brooder with a double silver litter mate. After about a week, I have to separate the blind birds because the sighted littermates peck their eyes. Anyway I have a total of 7 albinos, the youngest chick seems to be male because I moved him in with Snowflake and the double silvers, and Snowflake is crowing like crazy, but not harming him. I’ll see how they do, I don’t wanna move the baby out until it’s fully feathered, and he’s a bit behind because the blind ones sometimes take a couple extra days to start thriving at first.

I have Snowflake in with 3 double silver ladies, and then the 6 adult albinos live outside. I have a total of 5 extra double silvers, 3 males, 1 hen, 1 too young to tell. I may keep the hen, snowflake can take one more. But the rest have to go to the auction. I’d like to have an heir and a spare so to speak with my albino Roos, which means I need 2 cages, I have to be realistic and not try to keep 2 cages of albinos, 2 cages of double silvers, sex link celadons, snowie celadons, a cage of k dale sparklies, and my black project cage, plus 2 cages of buttons eventually. It’s too much. So I’ve had to choose between albino and double silvers. I’ve worked really hard on the doubles, and they almost always hatch and do well now, I’m so conflicted in selling them. Snowflake is basically our pet, so he isn’t going. I’ll keep him in his inside home with his ladies, but I’ll probably change his ladies out to albinos as I get more. So I’ll be no longer working on doubles, and I’ll put the efforts into my albinos. I actually have a bunch of anxiety about selling my doubles lol.

Anyway, here they are, getting ready to go:
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Awww man! That’s such a tough choice! Letting go of something you eat worked so hard on is not easy I’m not sure I could do it! Did you ever catch the predator that got your babies?? I was thinking it could also have been a mink since the river flooded and probably moved them out of their normal homes?

 

[FloorCandy]

Awww man! That’s such a tough choice! Letting go of something you eat worked so hard on is not easy I’m not sure I could do it! Did you ever catch the predator that got your babies?? I was thinking it could also have been a mink since the river flooded and probably moved them out of their normal homes?

I looked it up, and we could have mink, they live in NJ, but I think in my very urban/suburban area overall, I’m more likely to encounter rats. I did notice that something has dug tunnels into the pen I haven’t secured yet, but these occurred after the slaughter. I saw something scurry, but I couldn’t tell if it was a small rat or a mole. Ive seen moles, and I’ve seen the stray cats carrying them off to the woods. My neighbor says “voles” but voles seem to look like mice, and what Ive seen are dark, fat things with piggy-ish noses, so I think now that the quail are gone, some moles might have dug in. Unless I see something or catch it in a trap, I guess I won’t know for sure, I’m going to pull out the pen and put hardware cloth under it so nothing can dig in. I only have 4 Quail in the pen I secured, and I’ll move them into the other pen once I have the floor covered, then I’ll cover the other floor in the cage they’re in now, then I’ll move the grow out birds into the secure pen, and cover the floor of the grow out. Even though nothing has dug into the others yet, I’m fearful that even if it’s moles, they might give the rats access.

 

[FloorCandy]

I kept the 2 babies from the brooder, snowflake stopped crowing at the albino, and the double silver can join his harem. Not sure what I’ll do with tiny when he’s too big for snowflake to tolerate lol.