Barnevelder breeders lets work together and improve the breed

[Happy Chooks]

islandgal......it may not be sour crop right now, but it certainly looks impacted. You can try feeding her some bread soaked in olive oil and see if that clears the blockage.

 

[AyaBlodgett]

Way to go, Pysanskigirl! You are figuring it out. The genetic coloring patterns make no sense to me. I'm impressed you are starting to get it!

 

[tls_ranch]

okay...just because I am curious. How do you think sex-linked silver would influence barnevelder coloring (I also have silver-Grey Dorkings)(I think they might be e+ instead of eb? no pattern genes, probably no melanizers?)

this is so facinating!

You could play around with the Chicken Calculator with crosses. Here's the link:
http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

It can be kind of fun to see what patterns happen from different crossings

Trisha

 

[tls_ranch]

Island gal, the crop does look impacted. Does it go down in size overnight or see if it does if you withhold food. The crop should empty at some point.

Trisha

 

[AyaBlodgett]

104 today. The chooks like the frozen watermelon. Thanks for the tip Trisha. I'll bet it's hotter where you live. We are waiting for the cool ocean breezes to make their way over the mountains. Layers seem to be ok. Pullets and young cockerals are panting hard. I just wet down their pen again. Any other hints for hot weather?

 

[pysankigirl]

fun calculator!

no idea what an "extended black patterned yellow/gold duckwing" is

or "black/gold incomplete quail"

so funny.

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Island gal

I had a pullet that developed a blocked crop like yours appears to have. she was a valuable bird so I went to some lengths to cure it. I isolated her and she had stopped laying. I cut her feed way back and gave her milk in her feed to make it mushy. I did the olive oil in eyedropper and massaged crop. It would get smaller and she remained alert and always hungry. The food was not getting through, When I lift her up the green liquid would spill out of her crop. I never resorted to cutting the crop, as some advised me to do, I wish I had now just for the sake of knowing if it works. After while I put her back with the main coop and within a day she had filled it to capacity and could hardly lug it around. It was a busy time of year and I ended up culling and eating her. I think the blockage was caused by long grass, but can't really be sure. I hope you have better luck with yours.

Andy

 

[islandgal99]

re: crop problems - it has become apparent the little girl has sour crop. She's been spitting up like a baby. And her crop did not go down overnight. It's soft and squishy, not hard. So I did a whole lot of reading and then spent the day massaging her crop and making her regurgitate, a little at a time and very careful so she didn't aspirate any. When she had enough of that, I made her a mash of pellets, yoghurt, baking soda and carway seed ground up. She's been eating that good, and though her crop is still big, she is pooping so she's not blocked. I read to repeat it for three days... So regurgitating again tomorrow.

Tailfeathers: yes I'm the one who drove down from Canada and picked up the eggs for my aunt in Seattle. The fertility on the eggs was outstanding. Unfortunately there was a power outage while she was away at work and most of the eggs were lost, but three wellies (2 girls and 1 boy) and 3 Barnies made it. I just saw them and the Barnies are spectacular, already showing double lacing and absolute healthy little chicks- they are quite a bit bigger than the Wellies. Next time I see her I'll get some pics. I know she's hoping the Barnies are not all boys. Down sexing...one boy, one girl, one?. Size of combs - different than the down. Development of feathers, different than the previous two. So I guess its wait till they are a little older. Beautiful chicks.

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Pysankigirl

Your Splash marans are probably E/E or extended black. If they are splashes from blue coppers they are Er/Er which is the birchen gene. The Extended black is dominant over the eb of the Barnevelder and the cross will be E/eb in genotype and will look like the extended black in the phenotype, that is they will all be blue, because the splash is bl/bl and the Barnevelder is Bl/Bl which is black based and the cross is Bl/bl which is blue. There may be some brown striping leaking through on your males hackles, but they will look like blue solid colored birds. They will probably have grey or dark grey legs and feathered shanks. I have not gone the marans route in getting a blue gene because of all this extra stuff you get that you have to breed out.
I think the main strike against the marans is the type is so different from the Barnevelder's. I think either the Wyandotte or the Plymouth rock is a more direct route. But hey it could be interesting to try it, especially if you have a nice marans you want to use.

I have been working on a silver project that is getting the silver gene into my barnevelders. the sex linked silver turns the gold into silver (white) in theory. In practice it does turn most of the gold into silver but there is more to it. Not all the brown and gold color in the Barnevelder is sex linked, and there is some gold that shows up and this is commonly called autosomal red. In my project birds the autosomal or non sexlinked gold shows up as either a tan shade on the silver, like tarnished silver or as reddish gold blotches in parts of the back feathers. The literature and advice I have gotten from others research I have done suggests it can eventually be bred out by selecting against the gold. The Europeans have managed to get clear silvers. I have many backcrosses to Barnevelders yet to come in my project, so I will be looking at the leaky red-gold for some years I suspect.

The color calculator that Trisha told you about is a fun way to learn the effects of gene combinations.
Have fun with it.

Andy

 

[ChickenExtreme]

I have some pullets at 20 weeks and still no eggs

. Maybe it's the heat.