A new Serama-sized game bantam

[fluffycrow]

They're looking great, but that's true across all your birds!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Update for these birds at the end of the video:
Terrorfowl Super Free Range Survival Chickens Spring 2023 Update!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Both micro hens have chicks now. I’ll now refer to them as black band and red band to tell them apart.

Black band is at least 2 years old and is an excellent mother. She is still roosting on the ground with them, which I consider a positive trait. Hens that rush coop or tree roosting when the chicks simply can’t make it is a pet peeve of mine. She lost one chick when I introduced her to the AGB coop. The other hens killed and ate it so I put her in her own small coop with the 7 bitties she has left. I did cull their father, the fat combed stag.

Red band came off the next with her 6 bitties today. Too early to tell anything about them.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’m in the process of downsizing my projects. But I am going to keep this project going. The micro offspring are doing well. Very healthy and vibrant. They have a strong RJF look. This stag will have his first adult molt this summer. I am excited to see what his adult plumage looks like. I am hoping his tail drops some carriage.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Marek’s ripped through my flock last year and decimated many of my project birds. The micros were highly inbred and they all tanked but one hen.

I have the one hen in with a small pure Cracker. I am hoping they’re both resistant to the Marek’s and I can start a new flock of the micros.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Same two birds in post #85. Batch of 8 bitties the hen took to the ground today.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Here's the growouts from post #86. 3 stags, 5 pullets.

The hen with her back turned is their mother. She hatched out a new batch but only two remain. Unknown individuals of the previous brood, or the hen herself, killed the rest.

The pure Cracker blood added is giving them a more athletic physic than their mother, but they're keeping the small size.

The pullets are cooped with their mother and their father. The stags are on free range. I am going to move the mother and father soon and bring in a couple of stag from my AGB project that are distant cousins of these. I want to move away from brother-sister breeding for a good while. It seems like the yard is over Marek's, and I think one way to keep that going is to keep the genetics fresh in all of the lines.

 

[Yard Farmer]

Here's the growouts from post #86. 3 stags, 5 pullets.

View attachment 3871039View attachment 3871040View attachment 3871041

The hen with her back turned is their mother. She hatched out a new batch but only two remain. Unknown individuals of the previous brood, or the hen herself, killed the rest.

View attachment 3871043

The pure Cracker blood added is giving them a more athletic physic than their mother, but they're keeping the small size.

The pullets are cooped with their mother and their father. The stags are on free range. I am going to move the mother and father soon and bring in a couple of stag from my AGB project that are distant cousins of these. I want to move away from brother-sister breeding for a good while. It seems like the yard is over Marek's, and I think one way to keep that going is to keep the genetics fresh in all of the lines.

Looking good.