Ok Jerry, Susan, or anyone else that wants to weigh in:
Oz sent me a picture last night, and maybe he will post it here. One of the chicks I sold him has what appears to be a slipped tendon. It was fine for two weeks, and that just popped up yesterday. I have seen them hatch that way, but have never seen it show up at two weeks. When they hatch like that, that's a cull for me. I'm hoping it's an injury, not genetic. It's one of the black rooster's chicks
I'm already having fertility issues with him, and if he is passing down genetic issues that beautiful boy is going to become a cull. I need a black or blue in my program, and my other rooster is splash, so Johnny's pen was set up for a black rooster. The blue hens are too light for me to put another blue rooster over them, unless I do it to get a black cockerel from him. I have a blue rooster that is gorgeous, has the best type of the 3, but was relegated to an OE pen because of a little rusty leakage on his left shoulder. Fertility is NOT a problem for him. He was the alpha from the beginning.
Am I being overly concerned about the black? Should I see if his fertility improves, then watch those chicks as they grow, or should I put the big leaky blue in that pen?
Oz sent me a picture last night, and maybe he will post it here. One of the chicks I sold him has what appears to be a slipped tendon. It was fine for two weeks, and that just popped up yesterday. I have seen them hatch that way, but have never seen it show up at two weeks. When they hatch like that, that's a cull for me. I'm hoping it's an injury, not genetic. It's one of the black rooster's chicks

I'm already having fertility issues with him, and if he is passing down genetic issues that beautiful boy is going to become a cull. I need a black or blue in my program, and my other rooster is splash, so Johnny's pen was set up for a black rooster. The blue hens are too light for me to put another blue rooster over them, unless I do it to get a black cockerel from him. I have a blue rooster that is gorgeous, has the best type of the 3, but was relegated to an OE pen because of a little rusty leakage on his left shoulder. Fertility is NOT a problem for him. He was the alpha from the beginning.
Am I being overly concerned about the black? Should I see if his fertility improves, then watch those chicks as they grow, or should I put the big leaky blue in that pen?