Tomaru Longcrowers...

[faykokoWV]

Well, I the chickens are growing up. Boy these birds sure develop slow!! we narrowed down to 9 birds. I kept more roos than I normally would for breeding, 5 roos 4 hens. i'll probably have to separate some of the roos out so the hens don't get abused. I still haven't heard a single crow.

 

[Wynette]

faykoko - they DO seem to develop slowly, for sure! But once those males get their gorgeous tail feathers in, they surely are a sight to behold!

 

[faykokoWV]

faykoko - they DO seem to develop slowly, for sure! But once those males get their gorgeous tail feathers in, they surely are a sight to behold!

I guess about half of these are offspring of your birds. I wasn't able to segregate them at the hatch due to life issues that were going on at the time. the other half are from Steve Mowry in PA. I'm glad that I was able to get two different bloodlines though.

did you have much interest when you were selling hatching eggs? I plan on selling eggs in the spring when they start laying, but I wasn't sure if there was much market for them.

 

[Wynette]

I guess about half of these are offspring of your birds. I wasn't able to segregate them at the hatch due to life issues that were going on at the time. the other half are from Steve Mowry in PA. I'm glad that I was able to get two different bloodlines though.

did you have much interest when you were selling hatching eggs? I plan on selling eggs in the spring when they start laying, but I wasn't sure if there was much market for them.

Oh, I didn't realize that - neat! Yep, good that you have a couple lines - that'll strengthen their vigor. I didn't have much call for the hatching eggs, but I'm not one to "advertise" much, either. I got them because I love a gorgeous crow, and the "Sumatra-style" of them, all black, really pretty tails, etc. I pretty much got them for decorative purposes!

 

[faykokoWV]

Same reason I got them! Eye candy and ear candy lol. I'm hoping they help pay for their keep a little though.

 

[faykokoWV]

Here are some updated pictures, I still haven't heard a single crow

 

[faykokoWV]

Finally, after a long long wait, I got my first egg today. I think they skipped the pullet laying and went straight to their full size egg. Still smaller than my other LF, but about the same size as the ones they hatched from! I'm starting to hear the occasional crow too.

 

[Wynette]

Finally, after a long long wait, I got my first egg today. I think they skipped the pullet laying and went straight to their full size egg. Still smaller than my other LF, but about the same size as the ones they hatched from! I'm starting to hear the occasional crow too.

How many females do you have? I like the looks of the female in your last pic above. And...how is the crow?

 

[faykokoWV]

I ended up with only 3 females, I have 4 roosters, so I'm going to need to eliminate at least one, better to get rid of two. the crow is only about 4 seconds long right now... but not bad for the first year. My understanding is that they don't get into their full crow until year 2??? It sounds very different than the other breeds, that's for sure.

 

[Wynette]

THat was my understanding as well, regardin their crow. I really preferred (personally) the ALL BLACK look of them, so I culled for red in the males.