Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Phill98]

If you know the breeding behind the hen or rooster, you can make a good guess.  Dominant white is common in White leghorns, Rhode Island whites, and others.  If you breed one of these to another colored chicken, the chicks will predominantly be white. (Assuming the parents are homozygous for white).

Recessive white is common in White plymouth rocks, orpingtons, and others.  They have to have two of the white genes to be white.  When I crossed my white rock to my turken, all the babies hatched black.  That is how I knew she was recessive white.  If the all the chicks had been white, I could assume the parent was dominant white.  

Hope this helps!

Yes it does, thanks!

 

[Phill98]

Good to know.  I actually crossed the son of my former rooster (who is mostly the same color) with my rhode island red hen.  Since there is no dominant white in there, perhaps the chicks will a darker red with black tail.  The chicks just hatched yesterday.  I think there are five of them.  I was going to sell them, but now you've convinced me to keep the ALL just to see what color they turn out to be.  You are such an enabler!


Seriously though, 52 chickens sounds like the perfect number.  DH said we could have 56, so it has been approved.  Looks like I get as many chicks as I want.

None of this hatch are turkens though.  My turken pullets are getting big and sure are cute.  They are almost ready to go in the coop.  I'll have to get better pics of them. 

You made a good decision about those chicks. I can only dream about 50 chickens. We will probably get 4 hens and a rooster so I will try to hatch a few eggs next year with broody.

Oh, you can get us some pics, we won't be mad

 

[draye]

Are those peck marks?

It is really hard to tell for sure. To me it almost looks like a bruise so it could possibly be where another chicken pecked it.

 

[DesertChic]

Here's my newest addition, hatched yesterday, a barred NN OE cockerel. He may also be frizzle, I'll know once he starts getting feathers. I am calling him Squeak.

Squeak! Love it! Adorable chick and great name. (I had one I'd named Screech because he came out of the egg screeching and never stopped, and looked like a punk rocker with his outrageous feathering.)

 

[DesertChic]

It helps a lot to have nests that are identical and preferably easily move-able. I use covered cat litter boxes, most of them are solid blue. I just pick up the whole box with the hen still inside.. no problem.

Isolate a broody hen, completely. Letting other hens have access to her nest is asking for trouble- a lot of eggs get broken this way.

Cat litter boxes? Why didn't I ever think of this? That's brilliant!

 

[DesertChic]

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I agree with @draye . It looks to me like a bruise from being pecked. As they reach maturity you can expect to see a lot more bruises...and worse. I actually brought a few of my pullets into the house to clean and treat their wounds as the cockerels became more "frisky". I'm actually quite amazed by how well these birds heal on their own, but I still occasionally treat some of their more inflamed and severe wounds with Desitin. (Yes...the diaper ointment. It's really amazing stuff!)

 

[tlee1956]

Thanks for both of your inputs. And for the tip @DesertChic

 

[Kev]

I really don't know. Everything is the same like you said.. Separate pen, straw, nice sized nest and place to take a brake, not many eggs, same sized eggs. Only thing that can be is too thin shell or a broody that pushes eggs too hard. I was at my grandma's today and she said that the broody broke another three eggs.So now she has 10 or 11.

Ouch, see if they do better with fewer eggs? There are a lot of hens that do best with 6-10 eggs tops and they start breaking or some eggs get chilled if they get more than that.

Do less especially if the eggs are easy to crack open, they don't do well tightly packed under a hen. Something else I should do more often but not always, is to candle the eggs before setting.. there can be eggs that look fine but candling shows minor cracks, areas with weak spots.

 

[Kev]

If you know the breeding behind the hen or rooster, you can make a good guess. Dominant white is common in White leghorns, Rhode Island whites, and others. If you breed one of these to another colored chicken, the chicks will predominantly be white. (Assuming the parents are homozygous for white).

Recessive white is common in White plymouth rocks, orpingtons, and others. They have to have two of the white genes to be white. When I crossed my white rock to my turken, all the babies hatched black. That is how I knew she was recessive white. If the all the chicks had been white, I could assume the parent was dominant white.

Hope this helps!

Great answer. To add to this, if the chicken is either white with buff wash over it or is red with white tail and neck it is dominant white.

Most usually but not 100%, a white chicken with dark blue or green legs are likely recessive white. There is nothing to stop them from having white or yellow legs though, this is the reason for sometimes one just has to cross and see what happens like above.

 

[Kev]

Good to know. I actually crossed the son of my former rooster (who is mostly the same color) with my rhode island red hen. Since there is no dominant white in there, perhaps the chicks will a darker red with black tail. The chicks just hatched yesterday. I think there are five of them. I was going to sell them, but now you've convinced me to keep the ALL just to see what color they turn out to be. You are such an enabler!

Seriously though, 52 chickens sounds like the perfect number. DH said we could have 56, so it has been approved. Looks like I get as many chicks as I want.

None of this hatch are turkens though. My turken pullets are getting big and sure are cute. They are almost ready to go in the coop. I'll have to get better pics of them.

My apologies at being an enabler!

It is easy to get carried away with the chick numbers... like I tried to make several lines of scaleless carriers so there would be both a variety and less-related birds to cross for naked chicks. But this requires hatching 20 or more eggs from each line for selection reasons(example, wanting rose comb with carrier signs on the legs plus having silver<not present in any other line> from one line- the odds of this is pretty low)... just by having 5 lines this magically becomes 100 chicks.. and then there are other lines such as fibro NN of which there are a couple lines... and getting black mouths is HARD.... oh man, chick explosion!