Bantam chickens.. a friendly discussion about all pure and mixed breeds.

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Great Pictures! I need more Banties!

Yes!! It killed me to drive away without any new bantams in the back seat!! (Especially without any of those Moderns and their awkward, leggy adorability. ) Oh, well, guess I'll just have to tough it out until spring for chicks!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Sorry for not replying sooner to tags! I was at the Ohio Nationals all day yesterday--I got home just before coop-up time for my birds and had to wash up real quick to get them locked up for the night. I have a ton of pictures to share, just need to sort out the bantams for this thread.







Thanks for the info on Eagle Nest! I went to the Nationals yesterday!! Didn't find any OEGBs in the colors I wanted, so it looks like I'm going for chicks from Eagle Nest in the spring! Actually, there was a pair of Blue Reds at the very back of the sale area, but I decided that if I'm going with Blue Reds, I may as well save myself some quarantining and go with chicks. And that gives me the opportunity to pick up some of those Wheaten Ameraucana bantams along with them.

So, so sorry about Nugget.







Uh-huh, I've watched that before. Outcrossing to introduce new genes is nothing revolutionary.

As a side note, I just feel super bad for that Silkie boy they bathe in this video. He seems so miserable, and he's gasping like he couldn't breathe very well, or maybe breathed water when they dunked him... Makes me so sad.

Wasn't sure you've watched it or not. They took standard silkies, & bred them down to bantams using other bantams. Once genes from a foreign chicken is added to a breed that's pure, they take away alot of the original features, & behaviors the original breed had.
Like for example: I take my Porcelain D'Uccle X Chinese white silkie cross, & cross it back to Silkies, & porcelain D'Uccles until I result in Porcelain "Silkies."
My Porcelain D'Uccle X Chinese White Silkie cross.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Factoid: Genetic studies of Standard Chinese Silkies, show that they're more related to White Leghorns.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of outcrossing from personal experience, and some genetics and agriculture classes I took in college that looked into mechanics a bit more deeply. I know how outcrossing works.

Do you have any links to these studies on Silkies and Leghorns? I'd be interested in reading further.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of outcrossing from personal experience, and some genetics and agriculture classes I took in college that looked into mechanics a bit more deeply. I know how outcrossing works.

Do you have any links to these studies on Silkies and Leghorns? I'd be interested in reading further.

I'll see if I can find the link with the study, again. I read it like a year ago.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Can't find the site right now, I'll look for it again later.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aw, that's too bad! Will have to do some digging, myself, when I get the chance and see what I can find.



EDIT: Okay, that wasn't too hard to find with a quick Google Scholar search.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpsa/41/1/41_1_76/_pdf

The thing is... They literally only compared it to one other chicken breed, which just happened to be the White Leghorn because they used another article's White Leghorn sequence as a reference point. So from this, you can't say Silkies are more closely related to Leghorns than any other chicken breed, you can only say that they are chicken breeds and are therefore more closely related to each other than to the other species of birds that were sequenced by these scientists or their references. They also used a Japanese Silkie, not a Chinese one, and never said if it was large fowl or bantam.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

I'm devastated tonight....it appears I lost one of my first two "homemade" OEGBs. Nugget, to be specific. Sprout was especially needy this evening, almost as if she sensed her solitary state. It's looking as if I might need to integrate the poor little thing with the SDW x Creles.

~Alex

I’m so sorry to hear this.

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Oh my goodness that’s cold

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

Brr, already so cold there! We were only around -2° C here this morning (nothing on your temps, I know!), but everyone's running around out in the yard still, even my practically naked Cochin bantam, Bryony, who decided to lose 80% of her feathers at the end of October!

That’s as cold as we have been in the mornings for a few weeks and then in warmed up a ton! And of course then rain... it is Portland!! I was in Ohio a few Octobers many years ago and it was the coldest I’ve ever felt!!! But it was sooooo beautiful!!