These little ones have grown exceptionally fast, but are super flighty, and seem to not have any depth perception. They miss the food when I feed them from my hand. I have not had chicks do this when I raise them instead of allowing Gamey to set and raise them. Perhaps I have developed some sort of genetic flaw? These eggs were from the Cog/Red Sexlink breedings, as were most of the others. These 3 hatched on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe it is because of the late year breeding? Who knows. The experiment continues...
I had a rooster that was 1/2 Light Brahma and 1/2 Red Sexlink. He had a hybrid comb that had an inverted back end, too. I saw a photo of the hen and she had an identical comb. I did a bit of reading and found that a common defect of the rose comb is an inverted spike and that if combined with a pea comb, can cause what they called a chalice comb. I always assumed that the hen was a single x rose comb like maybe a Brown Leghorn x Wyandotte or something similar.
That rooster could be a jerk sometimes, but he was pretty awesome from a predator protection standpoint. He stared down a Cooper's Hawk in our yard. I heard noises and went out to see him a few feet from the hawk (it was a juvenile). The hawk just looked at him and once I was out the back door, the two dominant hens in my flock came out from cover and triangulated in on him. The hawk was very confused and after about a minute flew off. So yes, there are other roos that will face off a hawk. I ended up hatching a batch of his babies and all 3 were roos--the opposite problem from your hatch! With mixed feelings I sold 2 of the babies and the roo to a nice lady that was interested in flock protection as my daughter loved one of the babies and wanted to keep him and we have close neighbors, so there can be only one.
Last edited: