Bay area, Fort bragg, Willits, Ukiah, Sacramento, Tracy, CA or Reno

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I have contacted John about Flrpl (I need to email him back) and he has contacted a couple people (one a BYC member). The thought is Flrpl is not from his Lavs but is a sport from the blacks. -There is a lot of genetic talk that I just do not understand at this point - sometime ago John had a Smokey project and Flrpl might be a sport from that. The BYC member has one also. For now, I am going to keep him and see how he develops. In the mean time, I have a tentative plan to use him like I was going as a Lav – over my black hens and maybe my black orps (for some nice fat EEs), see what color his first generation is, then take his daughters (F1) and cross them back to him for a final color “check” – verification – worse that will happen is some more EEs (cause he is an EE – guess he was as a Lav also since they are not recognized). I might even get really crazy and cross him over my EEs I already have - just to boost the egg color of their daughters - I was not going to when he was a Lav as I did not want that color "wildly" out there, but if he is a sport - he might throw some really pretty EE hens.

At this age, he has a much better comb than my black cockerel HR. But HR has a tail, where Flrpl still is growing from the bottom up - I think he has 4 on one side and 6 on the other now.

They are finally starting to calm down, and it has happened almost overnight. In fact they are letting me pick them up and starting to crowd for attention.

So I am thinking about joining the ABC – anyone on this thread a member already? – Sunny?



eta: plus if I cross him over Sweet Amelia (Silver Belle's mother), it should take care of the comb problem and the lack of beard/muff that her chicks have when crossed to Versace. Crossing with the Buff, wow, I have been looking at my birds and Orps have a different body style than Amers. Ams are sloped from neck to tail, Orps are flat - then you have the whole comb difference issue, but it would give the Ams size (which I think they need - I just like my birds big I guess).

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Holy mackerel, you should have seen the size of the Black Am roo I sold to AmCanyon Stables last night! He was HUGE!! Already 2" taller than my Buff Orps. I wish I could have kept him, but I can't have roos at all here. He was soooo sweet, and quite a looker!!

Sadly, I gotta say, I would have probably been better off if I didn't do the Ameraucanas this year. It was a lot of work for both me, and everyone who chick sat for me when I went to Seattle and North Carolina for family events that I couldn't miss. And, then I lost one of my best BO layers to a raccoon because I isolated her when there were problems integrating the babies into the flock. And, then they turned out to be all roos. I actually have less laying birds than if I'd done nothing.

Normally, I try to be upbeat about it, but tonight I am bummed. Probably because I sold my favorite roo, and am giving the other two away, and they're gorgeous birds!! When I add up all the feed, time, gas and tolls to rehome them, I could just cry. If I could cull them, I would save myself some money, but I just can't, so I just keep doing what I have to do. Darn. I hope the roos help produce some beautiful babies. Maybe someday, I'll get one of them. But, I don't think I'll take a chance on a straight run of anything again.

The only upside I can think of is that I got to meet some great people because of the Ameraucanas. Sorry I am in such a bad space.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
I can't wait to see what he produces! They should be gorgeous birds!

Quote:
I haven't joined yet but I've been playing voyeur for a bit now. It's interesting to read all the genetics stuff even if it is way over my head.

Quote:
Yea, all this genetics stuff is a very long drawn out process and involves a lot of culling and crossing, over many generations of birds to finally get an acceptable cross. I have no idea what the whole process would involve after mixing with BOs but I thought the mix would be a gorgeous EE right from the start. They probably take the pullets from this mix and breed the roo back to them to strengthen the Ameraucana genes but I really don't know.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
Go ahead and vent

I will have Am pullets in the future and will give you one or two if you have the room (and desire) for them.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
We understand! It was a frustrating process, especially for you and me. We seem to have suffered the most losses and gotten the most roos by far. It was a huge learning experience for me too and definitely a costly one but I learned a lot and plan to continue trying to work with a few Ams. My culling method was giving them away too. My roos are not beautiful specimans but I can keep one. I should probably try again for a better roo as well since these boys would not be great breeding specimans and if I can only have one... Would you sell me one of your pretty boys?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Sunny, you and I did seem to get the rough end of it this time. I'm really glad whattheflock(Tim) is going to trade pullets with you, so you have a chance at breeding some birds to APA standards. I would give you back your own roo, but I promised him to Tim, sort of as a thank you for trading pullets with you, since he didn't think he ended up with a roo after all. That leaves General Napoleon, who is quite pretty, but needs to refine his approach to the Barnevelders. They find him to be a nuisance, and he gets quite insulted. He doesn't have problems with people, but he needs to learn to behave around those Barnies!!

I was going to send General Napoleon up to ChanceRider, but I think she was taking him if I couldn't find somewhere else to rehome him. (Eve??) If she doesn't mind, then I could give him to you this weekend. I don't need to be paid. You have gone out of your way for me quite a bit in this.

HorseFeathers, thanks for understanding my need to vent. I was really in a bad space about this tonight.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
We are going to come next weekend instead of this weekend. If Eve wants The General that's fine but if she doesn't mind...

Here he would have 28 girls to choose from so he will probably be pretty tired!

I'm going to build a separate pen for him and only put the girls in I want to hatch eggs from.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
We are going to come next weekend instead of this weekend. If Eve wants The General that's fine but if she doesn't mind...

Here he would have 28 girls to choose from so he will probably be pretty tired!

I'm going to build a separate pen for him and only put the girls in I want to hatch eggs from.

Yikes!! How did you end up with so many birds?? Oh, he NEEDS to be tired!

Yeah, Tim said you were holding off on the switch until he was sure about the gender on his birds. he checked the saddle feathers, but I'm not sure I described it right to him.

My roos are not a mystery at all anymore. everyone crows. everyone pursues the girls, everyone does the rooster song, although no one can match General Napoleon's rooster dance. *step right, right, kick right, step left, left, kick left, drag those wings and fluff it up* or something like that. there is definitely some music playing in his head when he dances. maybe I should have named him Arthur Murray (hmmm...now there's an idea).

The girls just do not appreciate an artist when they see it!

I put him in the tractor today, and let the Barnies free range with the BOs and Clark Kent. GN was really unhappy with drawing the short straw today, and crowed and crowed his disapproval. I'd be surprised if I didn't hear from the neighbors on this one

Clark Kent was trying on his Superman cape today, but the girls didn't find him any more appealing than GN. All-in-all, the mini-barnyard is in chaos today. Even Tatertot had a bit of a temper, and she never gets grumpy.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
We are going to come next weekend instead of this weekend. If Eve wants The General that's fine but if she doesn't mind...

Here he would have 28 girls to choose from so he will probably be pretty tired!

I'm going to build a separate pen for him and only put the girls in I want to hatch eggs from.

Yikes!! How did you end up with so many birds?? Oh, he NEEDS to be tired!

Yeah, Tim said you were holding off on the switch until he was sure about the gender on his birds. he checked the saddle feathers, but I'm not sure I described it right to him.

My roos are not a mystery at all anymore. everyone crows. everyone pursues the girls, everyone does the rooster song, although no one can match General Napoleon's rooster dance. *step right, right, kick right, step left, left, kick left, drag those wings and fluff it up* or something like that. there is definitely some music playing in his head when he dances. maybe I should have named him Arthur Murray (hmmm...now there's an idea).

The girls just do not appreciate an artist when they see it!

I put him in the tractor today, and let the Barnies free range with the BOs and Clark Kent. GN was really unhappy with drawing the short straw today, and crowed and crowed his disapproval. I'd be surprised if I didn't hear from the neighbors on this one

Clark Kent was trying on his Superman cape today, but the girls didn't find him any more appealing than GN. All-in-all, the mini-barnyard is in chaos today. Even Tatertot had a bit of a temper, and she never gets grumpy.

They'll tucker him out I'm sure! I can't wait to see The General's dance!

I don't know how I ended up with so many! Everyone around me kept tempting me and I just couldn't resist!

Yea, that's it! It's not my fault! I'm not obsessed! I can stop any time I want! Honest!

I'd have even more if I thought I could get away with it.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:

Yikes!! How did you end up with so many birds?? Oh, he NEEDS to be tired!

Yeah, Tim said you were holding off on the switch until he was sure about the gender on his birds. he checked the saddle feathers, but I'm not sure I described it right to him.

My roos are not a mystery at all anymore. everyone crows. everyone pursues the girls, everyone does the rooster song, although no one can match General Napoleon's rooster dance. *step right, right, kick right, step left, left, kick left, drag those wings and fluff it up* or something like that. there is definitely some music playing in his head when he dances. maybe I should have named him Arthur Murray (hmmm...now there's an idea).

The girls just do not appreciate an artist when they see it!

I put him in the tractor today, and let the Barnies free range with the BOs and Clark Kent. GN was really unhappy with drawing the short straw today, and crowed and crowed his disapproval. I'd be surprised if I didn't hear from the neighbors on this one

Clark Kent was trying on his Superman cape today, but the girls didn't find him any more appealing than GN. All-in-all, the mini-barnyard is in chaos today. Even Tatertot had a bit of a temper, and she never gets grumpy.

They'll tucker him out I'm sure! I can't wait to see The General's dance!

I don't know how I ended up with so many! Everyone around me kept tempting me and I just couldn't resist!

Yea, that's it! It's not my fault! I'm not obsessed! I can stop any time I want! Honest!

I'd have even more if I thought I could get away with it. http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Animals/animals-12.gif

oh, forgot to say, the General is the bird we thought had the most impressive beard and muff at Chickenstock. he still does!

no, you're not addicted. sure, sure. (I love the smiley netting the chicken!

)