Back At The Chicken Shack

[Lauravonsmurf]

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well I went back to work… got immunizations… caught the plague anyway… been fighting it, got well enough to go back to work with long haul issues, got okayed for booster… and reacted badly to booster, got super ill been fighting effects of that… but back to work…

And in the middle of all this something started getting into coops, killing both old and new flock birds… we made changes to coops… to no avail. We ultimately combined flocks and moved into biggest coop, with coop moved on bricks and reinforced... one morning kids found a raccoon in the big coop, many dead birds… no discernible way the raccoon got in, and he was trapped and couldn’t get out… he is now a dead raccoon.

One black hen made it, two phoenixes survived one with only one wing now, two naked necks, two crested Legbar mixes, one D’Uccle and one French Maran… very frustrating.

I will be relaying bricks throughout the chicken yard area, once my lungs are a bit better… still to much to do more brick laying… then steel caging needs to go up… I got to construct something way better, for the next night time murder hobo critter that discovers the hens.

Next spring I will reorder chicks and hatching eggs.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Update on the girls… they are all doing well. The Naked Necks are really looking huge compared to the other girls. I am rather impressed with how the two are maturing. I need to get some scales to weight living birds to see how they are progressing. The crested Legbar crosses are carrying the blue gene, they are laying a greenish egg.

We put in an order for Saipans, New Jersey Giants, Buckeyes, Rhode Island Whites, Egyptian FayoumI.

We will need to order more Swedish Black hatching eggs. We decided we really like them. Also pick up a few Easter Egger and other breed chicks when feed store starts caring them.

The Saipan and Egyptians are straight runs so knock on wood on what we get. I really would like to have a Saipan Rooster to breed over the Naked Necks. Anyway the chicks are months out. Hopefully the Saipan get delivered this time.

I have been ill since August, Covid really did a number on my lungs… so been putting off major yard projects. Hopefully the medicine I am on now will finally take care of the pneumonia I have been fighting for months (I have been sick in bed all month, the kids are helping with the birds, and I can start getting the yard redesign back on track soon. I have things to build in the chicken area and garden boxes to construct, winter cleanup and fruit trees to plant… so yeah... I know how to grow jungles

Blessings everyone

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

An Olive Egg from one of the Crested Cream Legbar X Welsummer

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I had the kids bring the girls in for a photo shoot, I am still sick… I also wanted to give them a look over.

First Up: The two Olive Eggers, which are Crested Cream Legbar X Welsummer and the eggs they laid this morning. I need to figure out which one lays which but they are distinguishable which means once we add a rooster to the flock I will be able to know the parentage of chicks.

Coratina

Caterina

Next Up: The two remaining Phoenixes
These girls are very light small birds, but the one that survived loosing a wing (bottom bird) from the raccoon attack is an amazing jumper.
They lay light brown eggs, but have not laid yet today.

Aelita

Eveena

Next: The Swedish Black Hen
She also lays a light brown egg, a very active forager

Inky

The Little D’UCCLE
Cute and beautiful, I do not think she has started laying yet.

Cecile

The Blue Maran
I am waiting to see her egg as well, however she is a beautiful and large bird.

Lana

Finally the two Naked Necks
They should lay a brown egg again we are waiting… I do know one of these girls and or the Maran maybe laying a brown egg but if it is the Maran it is not very dark, so I am inclined to think the gRey Naked Neck maybe laying as she has finished feathering out sooner than the golden girl. The phoenixes and Swedish lay pretty small eggs but those girls like the shrubs and wander out, and the Maran and Naked Necks hang together close to the coop, and the brown egg is being found in the coop.

Igraine

Guinevere

Hopefully we get more eggs today. So far I am seeing small to medium eggs.

I am kicking around ideas on how to improve the flock and what I would like to breed towards. We ordered several breeds we never see in feed stores. Of the ordered chicks I am hoping for one of the Saipans to be a cockerel I then can cross over the Olive Eggers and Naked Necks. We ordered a few Buckeyes, Saipans, New Jersey Giants, Rhode Island Whites and Egyptian Fayoumis… we wanted to check these breeds out but they won’t be shipped till April.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I am hoping to start a breeding project… so I am definitely going to use the two Naked Necks once we have a viable rooster… so annoying the raccoon killed the cockerel we had. Now I have to raise a new one.

Anyway I should start considering their possible genetics… both are Single Comb so recessive (rrpp) is likely comb genetic combo on both.
Both are yellow skinned so recessive (ww)
Both show some sort of additional pigment to shanks so probably both have at least one (E) gene, as the buff bird has a light dusky greenish leg not really willow but not really yellow. The grey (pencile or barred?) has extremely dark legs so I am figuring she is dominant for (Id) which is absence of Dermal Melanin.

Both have feathers on their neck the buff is still growing them in so this means they probably both have only one dominant gene for Naked Neck (Na).

Looking at how the two have feathered, the grey pullet should be normal fast feathering (k+) recessive. The buff puff/golden pullet though the same age as the other Naked Neck is still growing in feathers so probably possess the dominant (K) slow feathering gene. Though I am not entirely sure, so I will have to see what happens we these girls are bred.

I will have to try and figure out genetics such as feather color and pattern genes. As well as earlobe color, beak, and eyes.

They should both lay brown eggs but there are a bunch of genes that create the brown bloom so it is not as easy as one would think to breed for dark brown eggs.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Grouping Plans

Spent sometime making preliminary plans for grouping the chickens. This is just beginning divisions based on size of birds, ability to tell eggs apart and project plans. There are still a lot of unknowns, such as how many cockerels in April chick order and which breeds, (if we incubate hatching eggs or add chicks from feed store that will change plans) but if I end up with at least one Saipan and one Egyptian Fayoumi cockerel splitting the breeds into at least a few groups makes sense. Also this preliminary planing will no doubt go through refinement changes, I could end up with lots of cockerels of these two breeds (in which case I will need to choose keepers), no cockerels could happen to.

The Bantams: The D’Uccles should be housed alone once we have at least two. We have a mini coop that will work perfect for them. So separate them completely, build a dividing pen around the little coop.

The Light Breeds: The Swedish Black, Phoenixes, Olive Eggers and Egyptian Fayoumis will be the next group. I should be able to tell all eggs apart of these hens making pure and crossed eggs identifiable. Inky lays a light brown egg, Eveena and Aelita lay speckled brown small eggs, Coratina and Catarina lay medium olive eggs, and Egyptian Fayoumi lay white eggs. These are the flyers and escape artists they need a good sized house, higher roosts and completely roofed enclosed pen.

The Medium to Heavier Breeds: The heavyweights need the largest house with much lower roosts and lower larger boxes. The Jersey Giants and Saipans are huge and should have lower roosts to help prevent bumble foot. All these breeds lay some sort of brown egg, but Saipan lay the lightest colored eggs so hopefully I can tell them apart if not that’s okay for now. So I plan to house ultimately Guinevere and Igraine (Naked Necks) with the incoming Saipans, Black Jersey Giants, Buckeyes, and Rhode Island Whites. Lana the French Maran will probably be placed with this group as she is pretty big girl. This is the yard patrol group. They will need biggest house and pen and should be given as much roaming space as possible.

I currently have 3 houses, but only the one I plan to use for the Bantams is new. I think I should do some major rebuilds and replace the other two… I may do repair work and modify the older medium small house as a back up extra house.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

More on flock genetics… the Olive Eggers are a Crested Cream Legbar X Welsummer. I found the genetic break down for the CCL.

Crested Cream Legbar which should be the sire Z chromosome contribution to the mix…

Feathering: k+/k+ or k+/_W
Autosomal Red Genes
Red Bay Eye Color Genes
e+/e+, s+/s+, ig/ig, B/B or B/w
Yellow Skin w/w, Id/Id or Id/id
Cr/Cr (crest)
White Ear genes
O/O (blue egg)
Inhibitor for browning
(ig is gold inhibitor, ID is Dermal Melanin inhibitor)
Beak Yellow
Single Comb rrpp

So that is the potential genetic code of the roosters used to make my two Olive Eggers…

Welsummers taking a stab at their mother genetics the W side of the mix.

No Cr genes
white egg gene o/o
multiple browning genes
Yellow Skin w/w, Id/Id or Id/id, probably e+/e+
Red Bay Eye color genes
Red Earlobe genes
Feathering ?
There are variations Silver Duckwing, Gold Duckwing and Partridge. I think Partridge Autosomal Red is most likely. So s+
I think Partridge is 2 Brown genes, 2 Pattern Genes, and the gold gene (s+)… 2 gold in roosters, 1 in hens.
Beak Horn & Black
Single Comb rrpp

Okay that’s the start to figuring it out, so since hens are ZW and both girls look different… maybe something like this

Olive Egg = O/o & browning and browning inhibitors, but more browning genes so Olive color created.

I have not looked closely at their ears but they are probably part red and white

Single Comb rrpp

Both have a Crest so Cr/cr, Yellow skin so w/w, Id/Id or Id/id and ig/ig, Red Bay Eye genes, Yellow beak genes,

The big difference between Coratina and Catarina is feather pattern and color…

I think both are s+ on the Z chromosome, Autosomal Red, but in looking at the two parent breeds and comparing them Catarina definitely looks the most like a Crested Cream Legbar and Welsummer in pattern…
so probably e+/e+, s+, ig/?, B/w, Db (dark brown), a lacing gene Pg maybe, she posses patterning but is not very cream looking… it is possible her sire was a dark Legbar and was not ig/ig. Hatchery birds…

Now looking at her hatch sister Coratina the obvious difference is a lack of pattern… and a much lighter feather color so I think e+/e+, s+, ig/?, Br, no B or Pg at all so w/w, she may even posses Colombian genes Co… again big hatcheries breed in huge indoor facilities with multiple roosters and hens and as these are crosses they may be using lines that produce nice Olive Eggs but are not
necessarily closest to SOP… but that’s my thoughts on these two.

 

[Sally PB]

Following....

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Buckeyes, Rhode Island Whites, Rhode Island Reds, and Golden Sex Links (Cinnamon Queen, Golden Comet)…

Okay I ordered Buckeye Pullets and Rhode Island White Pullets. More than likely I will pick up at least 1 Rhode Island Red and 1 Golden Sex Link chick locally. The reason I am interested in the Golden sex link is it is suppose to be the Rhode Island Red rooster X the Rhode Island White hen. Now we are talking egg production lines of the Rhode Island Chicken so I can’t expect them to be representative of the dual purpose heritage breeds... but you never know my daughter’s 4H Show Bird when she was a little kid that won all the time was a hatchery bred got at the feed store Rhode Island Red hen... much to everyone’s surprise. Her name was Henny Penny and she thought she was a dog. An absolutely unforgettable chicken she was and much loved. My daughter’s favorite bird breed to this day are the RIR… last time we talked chickens she was planning her back yard chicken set up and she only wants RIRs. I have no digital pictures of old Henny Penny, and the old photo albums are in storage right now. I will have to see if I can find one next time I rummage in storage.

The following pictures are not my birds I burrowed them from the net to help show what these breeds look like and discuss them. I am not an expert on any of these breeds but I am interested in them…

The Buckeye and the Rhode Island Red at first glance look similar but their body shape is different, RIR are horizontal bricks, Buckeyes are slanted triangles and more like the early 1905 Cornish body. In addition the back feathers of the Buckeye have a slate bar that helps them really pop. Comb wise every RIR I have seen in real life has been Single Comb rrpp, however I have seen photographic evidence Rose Comb exist! So those are probably Rrpp or RRpp. Both Buckeye and RIR breeds will have similar pattern and color genetics from what I can tell, including the Mahogany gene. The Buckeye has a Pea Comb so rrPp or rrPP.

Buckeye Chicks

Rhode Island Red Chicks

Buckeye Adult Hens

Rhode Island Red Adult Hen

I think you can see the slight difference to the look of the plumage and it is caused by this in the Buckeye breed.

This is an article that has nice pictures to show body form differences between the two breeds. In my research what I understand is the Buckeyes and RIR where developed separately, for a short while the Buckeye was called a Pea Comb RIR but it is different, though some single comb Buckeye ended up in RIR lines. Buckeyes are the only American breed developed by a women, she wanted predator savy, active foraging, dual purpose, healthy, intelligent birds… everything I have read on them indicates that is exactly what they are. So we will see how the hatchery chicks do once here in April.

Now I ordered Rhode Island Whites because I have never ever seen a living one! The whites are not a sport by the way but where bred separately from the Rhode Island Red but conform to the same body type as the RIR.

Rhode Island White Chicks and adults. The Whites also have a Rose Comb variety but alas that is not what the hatchery sells! Now these are Silver based birds.

This brings us to those lovely popular Golden Sex Links… if they are bred correctly they should be the combination of the two distinct Rhode Island Breeds, and should have a good Rhode Island body… now I have only seen single comb Golden Sex Links… but if one had Rose Comb RIR and RIW well how cool would that be Rose Combed Goldens! I need to find some Rose Comb RIR and RIW next… Sadly some hatcheries are using White Rocks instead of RIW from what I can tell… you need to do a bit of research if you want the RIRxRIW combo instead. A well bred Golden should be a Rhode Island Golden, classic Rhode Island in all but feather colour.

Some Goldens…

Golden Chicks Males are White, Females are Golden… F1 generation only. If you breed Golden to Golden then you will get different non sex linked color results depending what the parents pass on.

Random thoughts about combs… right now Rose Combs are on the out with production hatcheries because of fertility issues in some breeds… but not all. Rose Combs like Pea Combs both have the advantage of not being so frostbite sensitive. In addition my poking around in studies indicates if you want to have a more uniform size in your meat birds Walnut Combs (combination of pea and rose genes) for some reason does this so you have more predictable weights out of your meat birds. Still poking around on comb effect on fertility, breeding, wattle size (yep that’s a thing), cold and heat hardiness… but I like Pea and Rose Combs in general and suspect the “flat” comb with no wattles in the description of a properly bred Saipan is in fact a small no wrinkle walnut comb combo.

Rose Comb Goldens would be cool, I really need to find RIRs with Rose Combs I think.