d'anver lovers,discuss the breed and post some pics!

[LauraLee]

Aubrey can't remember where they are in the pic so posting again.

The 3 blacks together top right and the one between the greys are the Crele.
The 2 grey and the little one at the bottom with the white spot on it's head are the Dun Cuckoo
and the little gorgeous yellow and black is the Dun Mottled.

And Yep little #8 he's Dun Cuckoo
Now what is it you said again about the difference in the colors??? Not make it too complicated now, not a chicken brainiac like you.

All are still doing great, and they are more calm, content, and easier to show where the food and water is, and just all around better chick than the "Ideal" peeps. I'm already seeing a BIG difference.
Loving my new babies peeps!!!

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

FourPawz thats a nice bird, congrats on the RV. What other colors do you have?

jj

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

OK Laura Lee

lets see here.
Here's how it works. the colors dun and blue do not breed true.
However they breed exactly the same blue and dun that is.

To keep it simple, I'll just call them dun, but you can sub blue in and it works the same way as well.

OK you breed dun to dun you get 50% of them dun 25% will be black (their normal phase) and 25% will be sports (khaki in dun or splash in blue)

breed dun to black you will get 50% dun 50% black

breed dun to a sport you get 50% dun 50% sport

sport to sport will breed true giving all sports

sports to black will give all dun.

So that looks what happened to the dun mottled, even though he came from dun mottleds, he just ended up being a black.


Now on your cuckoos there. Looks like you got 3 kinds. The lightest looks to be a khaki cuckoo ( the sport version of dun) The medium is a smokey dun, the dark one is a chocolate dun. The latter the " chocolate" dun is the preferred color in them.

Just like blues can vary in shade from pale sky blue to almost black. The duns can too. They can go from smokey which is a well smokey grey color to chocolate, to a dull black.

here's some pics to show the difference



Here's a smokey dun

here's the preferred chocolate phase

here's the near black phase, note he has no shine to the feathers, it's dull black....blues can come this way too

heres the light smokey next to the near black to show how far it can vary in shading

Even though there's that much difference in the color, the genetics are still the same. Without getting too deep into it, they are still dun.



Hope that all made sense

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Look forward to that day JJ, come on .

And yes, that boy does look to be a splash quail, as are the two lightest pullets for sure. The other two blue pullets may be as well, but think they are just blues, hard to tell from that pic. The rust stain look is just what 2 doses of blue ( splash) does to the gold/red color of a normal quail. Got a very similar color in my khaki quails just with a tan body instead of powder blue.

Pick the best of them and the best of your quail and breed them together and you'll get all blue quails and have all 3 for sure then.

One thing I see with them that will most likely give you a hard time to correct is what I call a pinched tail, that and just thin feathering. But like you said, they are hatchery stock. So for that, they aint half bad. I'll try to get you some good ones along with some silvers next spring to help you along with them.

But the pinched tail thing, just in case you're not sure of it. See where all of their tail feather meet the back. It's almost a sharp abrupt stop to the back feathers, then a tail sprouts straight up. There should be no end to one and beginning to the other. It should just all flow together. This could get better with age as they add on more feathers too though.
But on your males especially, you want the hackle to draped over the back all the way to where the saddles start. Then a nice fat full tail. Basically a profile shot of them would look almost like a big V. With virtually no back showing. If any of them develop with age into something like that, use them for your main breeders. Beards and stuff like that are an easy fix. That good type, feathering and shape arent.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Fourpawz,
That is a very nice lavender. Hate he started molting on you. To me he looks better than what I can see of that one caged next to him. Much better lavender color and a better comb too. Glad he placed for you!

I love to see people using cock birds in shows. To me , that's where a breeder really show what they have as they are harder to get, show more flaws,have more areas to pick over, and get judged stricter. So many seem to just show pullets any more. Which is fine, but to me... show me you males...they tell the tale about what you have

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

I get it about the pinched tail. I wasnt planning on mating any of these with each other. I have got some better quail to cross them with. Was Just going to use them to get the blue, then move on from there. These are just an experiment so I can see what comes out and learn a little in the process. Thanks for the advice.

jj

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I got ya. Then yes if you do have some good quail, use the splash, your best one of the bunch, to them and you'll have all blues. Then pick your best blue and go back to the good quail line the following year. You should get some pretty nice ones then that way.

 

[FourPawz]

Thanks Aubrey, I really appreciate your comments on him. The judges have to go on condition on the day and I figured they would ding him on missing feathers. I really like the little beast. He's such a nice little guy - no toerag here.

There was an absolutely stunning quail cock that won the breed. I got my quails from his owner. I'm kicking myself I didn't get a picture of him.

 

[FourPawz]

Quote:
I just have the lavenders and quails. I figure I'll work on them until I have some nice ones from my breeding birds and then I might branch out.

Laura Lee, those babies are adorable!

 

[LauraLee]

Fourpaws, thanks for the compliment, I think so too, but mommy's are always prejudice. LOL

Aubrey, I got it!!! But wouldn't have without the pics. LOL Thanks so much for the help. Little #8 has jumped right in there and his acting like he's bigger than the rest. LOL I love watching them. I have a regular chicken feeder in with them and rather than eat from the sides like they should, they jump on the food and go all the way around, like they are walking the path of food as they eat. It's so cute to watch!!
Have a great night all!