Java Thread

[SavageDestiny]

I would say it's normal for any new bird who has been taken out of her old environment. You don't mention if you have a flock of your own or if this bird will be integrating into your own flock. If so, and it might be too late already, you should isolate her for several weeks to avoid introducing a pathogen into your flock.

Well, I originally had her separated, but she was absolutely losing her mind. She kept flinging herself against the fencing, screaming, and would not settle. She continued this even after dark. So I caved and ended up putting her in with my girls, despite that I know it's a risk. She immediately went into hiding but stopped having a meltdown at least.

Today she actually came out for a minute before she ran back to her hidey hole. Hoping this is progress.

 

[mchugh6806]

I may be getting a java chicken this week around the 9 week mark. I am new to chickens and my flock is young. I can not have a rooster and wasn't sure if by this age I would be able to tell a pullet from a roo. Any tips so I make sure I come home with a hen? Thanks!

 

[bnjrob]

I may be getting a java chicken this week around the 9 week mark. I am new to chickens and my flock is young. I can not have a rooster and wasn't sure if by this age I would be able to tell a pullet from a roo. Any tips so I make sure I come home with a hen? Thanks!

The cockerels will usually have larger/redder wattles and comb at that age compared to the others. Although occasionally there will be a slower maturing male that can fool you and look more like the pullets. Some cockerels may also be showing signs of spur bumps on their legs.

 

[BlackPanther]

Sometimes you can tell by the feathers, too.
Generally, a hen should have a round-ish feather shape; a rooster's will be more pointed. He may also have feathers that appear shiny; those seem to develop into his draping hackle and saddle feathers.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

This is a Mottled Java hen and her 17 guinea keets. The first photo was taken at night, as she roosted against the gate, trying to cover her brood.

The second photo shows her and part of her brood. I use Mottled Java hens and Black Langshan hens to hatch out my guineas because they make better mothers than guinea hens and have a better hatch ratio.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Hello Javas! Anyone still out there??

I have a question about choosing a male mottled Java as a breeder. I have one male that is predominately white, even his under-belly fluff. The 2nd male and all the females are the traditional solid black with white specs on the tips. I think it would be best to keep the mostly-black male, because he looks the most like a mottled Java should... but I'm not sure. Any tips?

 

[bnjrob]

Hello Javas! Anyone still out there??

I have a question about choosing a male mottled Java as a breeder. I have one male that is predominately white, even his under-belly fluff. The 2nd male and all the females are the traditional solid black with white specs on the tips. I think it would be best to keep the mostly-black male, because he looks the most like a mottled Java should... but I'm not sure. Any tips?

Mottled Javas get whiter as they age. So theoretically, it would be better to use darker birds for breeding. BUT when you are looking at the birds' "type", aka "conformation" (not sure if you are experienced with the APA SOP or not so pardon me if I am telling you something you already know about), it is better to choose the bird with the best size and "type" over color, unless the color is just really wrong - like getting rusty colored feathers instead of black/white.

If you have room to keep more than one male, it is nice to always have at least two of them so that you have a backup if something happens to one, but also so that you don't shrink your gene pool way down. In your situation, I would look at complementary breeding - if that male is pretty good looking as far as the other physical characteristics, then mating him up with darker hens will help to even out the coloring in the offspring.

Of course as you try to darken up the offspring, don't forget to watch out for those yellow feet. I have found that pink feet like to sneak in really easy with those black genes, so it does become a balancing act between getting the offspring darker in the feathers and fluff, while still keeping their feet yellow.

If your darker male has better size/type and other characteristics, you can still breed him to darker hens if that is all you have for hens - because they WILL lighten as they age. How fast they lighten just depends on each individual and how much white they start out with.

.

 

[luvnjavas]

I have a question about the coloring of my Black Java's legs and feet. At @4 months of age (the first inspection and recording of un-culled individual chicks in our hatchery), one of my males had beautiful dark legs and yellowish feet- he is now 2 1/2 yrs old and his feet and we noticed at our last show that his feet have turned a decidedly white color. We are perplexed as each flock including him, have had all immunizations and are NPIP certified. Is there some vitamin or mineral that he is missing? Does this occasionally happen as they age? Someone please help- as I have no idea what to do for him and he is a beauty!!!

 

[bnjrob]

I have a question about the coloring of my Black Java's legs and feet. At @4 months of age (the first inspection and recording of un-culled individual chicks in our hatchery), one of my males had beautiful dark legs and yellowish feet- he is now 2 1/2 yrs old and his feet and we noticed at our last show that his feet have turned a decidedly white color. We are perplexed as each flock including him, have had all immunizations and are NPIP certified. Is there some vitamin or mineral that he is missing? Does this occasionally happen as they age? Someone please help- as I have no idea what to do for him and he is a beauty!!!

Their feet/legs start getting a washed out color as they age. Sometimes it happens once they hit sexual maturity, other times it is later. Was just going through some antique literature on Javas today that mentioned some color change in their legs as they mature, so I don't think this is an entirely modern phenomenon. I see this in our Blacks and Mottleds. Have heard some folks have been able to get better yellow coloring for shows by increasing the amount of corn and marigold petals in their diets, but have not tried it myself to see how well it works and how much you actually have to feed them to get the desired result.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Same problem here. Most of my birds had some degree of yellow in their soles as chicks, and have lost the yellow as they aged.

I am grateful for wing tags. This is my first year with chicks from my own breeding pairs. I have been wing-tagging them when they are a few days old, and making notes about skin color and sole color. That history has been valuable. A dog killed all of my promising potential breeders this year. I am left with mediocrity. Despite the white-looking soles of the remaining birds, I know most of them showed some yellow in their soles when they were chicks. So I know there is some yellow in their genetic makeup and I can probably use a couple of them in a breeding program without losing that trait entirely.

I did notice that the young chicks with yellow in their soles also had yellowish combs, and the young chicks with pink soles (no yellow) had pink combs. That seemed to hold for the first week or two, until the faster-developing chicks started to grow out their combs and wattles. It is my understanding, possibly wrong, that the yellow skin gene is the same gene driving the yellow in the sole. Not sure if I am blowing smoke or not, but it seems to make sense that a young, yellow-skinned chick would have a yellow-tinted comb. I'm wondering if comb color in 1-5 day old chicks would be a reliable way of telling if a bird has that yellow-sole gene, even if the yellow in the soles is really faint? In my young chicks it was easier to tell comb color than foot color. I will have to pay more attention to this in the future, to see if there is a correlation. Has anyone else tried to use comb color in 1-5 day old black java chicks to make decisions about sole color and possible culling? Does this make any sense at all?

I have been using marigold petals sprinkled on their feed for a few months. Haven't noticed a difference. Probably not using enough to have an effect. Will probably stop when I run out of petals. A pound of marigold petals is expensive, even if it does go a long way.