Good info. Thanks! It makes sense that rumplessness is a skeletal mutation. I noticed my pullet tends to get a lot of droppings stuck on her feathers. This, too, could be contributed to skeletal deformation. We also have a tail-less black manx cat that has the same problems as the chicken.
gosh, I hope so...I took a chance and only got three. This is my first go with fbcm...love them so far
I have had several males that as they were getting ready to molt got white streaks in their tail feathers, sort of like the color just bleeding out, then their new feathers came in black. I would watch the underfluff, it shouldn't be positive white, the darker the better. Perhaps hatch some from each and then cull heavily for the lighter fluff. So far, knock on wood, all of mine have had at least light grey fluff. I have one about 5 months old with a white feather on each foot; I feel that they will probably molt out and come back black, but I will be watching for that. Right now tho I am concentrating most on type and culling heavy for pinched and squirrel tails. That said what I am seeing in my birds is that the ones with bad type also have bad color, too yellow and not the deep red copper I'm looking for, whereas the ones that are wider in the hips mostly have better color. And those are all coming from the same pair.
Hello all. I would like a bit of feedback from ya'll.
I have learned (another) valuable lesson about roosters.... I culled my original rooster because he had a low fertility rate, as well as a halo in his cape and he was getting a bit crazy. I had one of his sons who had much better color balance and has worked out well as far as he is mellower and seems better with the hens... however, as he feathers in with his adult plumage, he is getting more and more white in him. There is white under his hackle, he has a white spot on his main sickle tail feather as well as his foot. So I have gone backwards. I still have two of his younger brothers. One I had planned to keep. He seems to have good color, minimal halo. (thus far)... the other I would have culled but I am wondering... he is darker, but he has a kind of halo and seems less than ideal. But ideal is pretty hard to judge until they get a bit older. So I am thinking of keeping them both. And keeping the rooster with the white just because I don't know if the new ones will be worse. It seems there is a streak of what I have heard described as "Wheaten" in my birds and I don't think I can breed it out using the same stock. I am fixing to fire up the incubator for another go round. Am I better to wait to try to find a better roo. My egg color has gotten considerably darker with my newer hens, however this too is a mark against me for getting rid of the first roo. How long should you keep a roo to determine if he is any good. (Obviously longer than I did). This is the new rooster. Less blonde but he has white in him.
none of these are marans..... not really sure what they are. The roo in the last picture is laced but I don't know what breed if any he is. I don't think the pullet above him is a marans either maybe an olive egger? The silver ones are they all Easter Eggers? I think that first picture is the same roo as the last.Here are pics of my babies, they are about 14 weeks old. Bruce the Rooster
White Face & White Butt, my 7 yr old grandson named them
