The McGraw Thread

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My McGraws are sixteen weeks old and are to my eye very beautiful. I am surprised at the uniformity of the flock. They are truly amazing birds and behave quite different from the other breeds they are living with. Shortly before I took this video, I had just filled their feeder and while most of the other breeds were fighting for the feed, this McGraw pair took off to an "abandon" feeder to find their own grub. They are by far the best foragers of any large fowl breed I have raised. And as you can see in the video they are very alert birds, hence I took the video from nearly thirty feet away. They are going through their final molt so their feathers are still improving.


Ryan
 
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Thanks for the update Ryan. Pretty skittish, at least at this age, but that's not all bad for a free rangeing bird that's predominately white.

Have you decided to go with one skin/shank color over the other?
 
Steve,

I plan on selecting for yellow skin and willow legs. Since silver spangled varieties such as Spitzhaubens and Hamburgs(both of which the McGraw originates from) have white skin and slate legs, this would further distinguish them.

There is, to my knowledge, one gold spangled McGraw hen in existence. This hen is in the flock my birds are from so I am hoping for a heterozygous silver cockerel.

Thanks,

Ryan
 
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My thinking exactly! Plus to me the willow legs under them adds to their beauty. I think they need standardized a bit before calling them a breed; but between them and the recently imported Cream Legbars, the Ameraucanas and Aracaunas may be faceing some very serious competion.
Keep on keeping on.
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I do like the rumpless versions of these birds too, it would be nice to see more of them around in tailed, rumpless, gold, and silver but one can only dream...
 
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I hope if they become a recognized breed, Ryan's birds are the version accepted.
Rumpless
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Correction on the gold spangled subject that I mentioned in a previous post: It seems the two roosters that fathered my McGraws are both heterozygous for silver.
 
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I finally took some pics of the birds I hatched this summer. Yeah, I know I'm really slow. Here's a pullet with pretty nice spangling.

10380_mcgrawpullet.jpg


another pullet with lighter spangling
10380_mcgrawpullet2.jpg


cockerels

10380_mcgrawroo.jpg

10380_mcgtrawroo.jpg


I'm only going to keep a pair, so I have 18 to sell. I just don't have time to take care of too many birds. I guess I'll post them in the auction section, though most people won't know what they are. I'll ad a link to this thread in the auction.
 

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