Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Kev]

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

Haha thank you, been using them for years, it just seems normal to me now. Expect some looks, maybe some comments when you plop down 4-5 cat litter boxes in front of the cashier..... With a bag of cat food(great as treats for peafowl and chickens) you are certifiable crazy cat person.

 

[Phill98]

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.

I will try to candle eggs if we get a new broody and put smaller number of eggs. I will also crack different eggs and then put the ones with harder shells under a broody (not the ones I cracket, the others that have same shape and color). I think that we will set every single broody this year. I want some hens and my grandma wants to re-do her flock. So there is space to experiment!

 

[Phill98]

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 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!

Do you still have scaleless chickens and how many of them? I have another color guestion. Can you get some kind of silver except silver laced with white columbians or any other colors?

 

[Kev]

Do you still have scaleless chickens and how many of them?

I have another color guestion. Can you get some kind of silver except silver laced with white columbians or any other colors?

Yeah 6 scaleless total right now. 20 carriers plus around 90 carrier chicks growing out- some bantams, most are from trying to see if I can produce broiler sized ones and maintaining "regular size".

Yes but it does depend on whether the silver bird is pure for columbian and wheaten- powerful combination... the only thing that would overcome that in the first cross is with blacks. If the bird is not pure for Co and is bred to birds without Co, there will be more variety, depending on what the base pattern is.

Is there a color pattern you like the best or would like to try for? A problem with many production bred birds being very limited in color.

 

[Phill98]

Yeah 6 scaleless total right now.  20 carriers plus around 90 carrier chicks growing out- some bantams, most are from trying to see if I can produce broiler sized ones and maintaining "regular size".

Yes but it does depend on whether the silver bird is pure for columbian and wheaten- powerful combination...   the only thing that would overcome that in the first cross is with blacks.  If the bird is not pure for Co and is bred to birds without Co, there will be more variety, depending on what the base pattern is. 

Is there a color pattern you like the best or would like to try for?  A problem with many production bred birds being very limited in color.

So I should breed Co with wheaten to get silver? I don't understand the part with black chickens. I would like to get any kind of silver, but I love the silver dorking color or something like that.

 

[Flowerbh]

Good question.
Her mom was a "mystery chick" we got from the feed store. I think she was an Amber link (Rhode Island white x Rhode Island red). Her dad was half crested cream legbar, half Ameraucana (we think blue wheaten but I'm not entirely sure). We hatch out four eggs and all the chicks were amazingly beautiful color combinations. The one in my avatar was the only pulllet. When she hatched she was white with red racing stripes.

She was my favorite pullet ever. Sadly she passed away from Marek's disease. Her mom also died mysteriously over the winter, and the rooster died after a coyote attack (yes, I've had a rough year). Sometimes life isn't fair, but I supposed it is teaching me some kind of lesson.

I hatched out some of her "second cousins". Maybe I'll get her twin in there some place. Everyone will be vaccinated from now on!
Here is a better pic of her. She had the cutest beard!

Did she have 5 toes?

 

[ochochicas]

Did she have 5 toes?

No, she is not faverolles. She got the beard from the ameraucana.

 

[hellbender]

@ ochochicas....Just curious...you say one of your hens succumbed to Marek's Disease. Was that pinned down with a clinical autopsy?

 

[Kev]

So I should breed Co with wheaten to get silver? I don't understand the part with black chickens. I would like to get any kind of silver, but I love the silver dorking color or something like that.

Are there any hens with lots of streaks, pencilling, almost all over them? Especially ones with salmon breasts? Or roosters with duckwings? Those are the best bet for crossing with silvers. If the silver bird is pure for Co, the chicks will grow up white with black tails but breed them again and there will be more pattern variety in the second generation..

If there are only black tail reds or black tail whites, no other pattern then it is about impossible to get other patterns out of these..

 

[hellbender]

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

Hi Phill98. I have a friend who consistently breeds Grand Champion Buff Orpingtons by keeping a small flock of quality birds (Dragon Lady) and she has done so for many years...not a flash in the pan.