By Divine Design Farmstead • Hindsight is Always 2020

[BantyChooks]

Easter Egger Project - Pretty sure this one is a Pullet. Why does she look like an angry owl

Very cute!

 

[RememberTheWay]

That's what I've been using this year as well for all my birds. This last hatch was raised in it, but the previous hatches got the Kalmbach chick starter. I think the feathers are better with the flock maker, I had some rough looking chicks earlier this year. They all outgrew it but their first feathers were shredded looking. With this last hatch I only have one like that and she's not too bad either.

That's what I've been using this year as well for all my birds. This last hatch was raised in it, but the previous hatches got the Kalmbach chick starter. I think the feathers are better with the flock maker, I had some rough looking chicks earlier this year. They all outgrew it but their first feathers were shredded looking. With this last hatch I only have one like that and she's not too bad either.

Which chick starter were you using? TBPH- when I looked at Kalmbachs tags for their regular lines and the chick/hen house reserve line I really wasn't that impressed with them. I liked the Flock Maker but it was actually my least favorite choice of everything I looked at. My two favorites were the meat bird 24% (maybe it was 22% can't remember) start to finish and a few of the show champions lines. I didn't particularly care for the extra meds added to the champion formula though and will be doing more research on what they add to it.

 

[2ndTink]

Which chick starter were you using? TBPH- when I looked at Kalmbachs tags for their regular lines and the chick/hen house reserve line I really wasn't that impressed with them. I liked the Flock Maker but it was actually my least favorite choice of everything I looked at. My two favorites were the meat bird 24% (maybe it was 22% can't remember) start to finish and a few of the show champions lines. I didn't particularly care for the extra meds added to the champion formula though and will be doing more research on what they add to it.

I used to always use the Naturewise chick starter and it did really well, but it has been so grain mite infested the last 2 years I stopped buying all their products. I started some chicks late last year on an organic chick starter, not good at all, then went to the Kalmbach chick starter and it was ok but I don't think it was as good as the Naturwise was. I had my first ever wry neck chicks. This last hatch I used the Flock Maker and so far all is going well with them and they don't look nearly as frazzled.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Updated photos of some of the Easter Egger Project Chicks and the Legbars. They just turned 6 wks!!

I'm absolutely in love with them. They are So cute So excited to watch them mature and work with them in my breeding program.

Btw- Thank You @dheltzel Absolutely love them!

 

[RememberTheWay]

Updated photos of a couple of my favorite Legbar Grow outs and the last clutch I hatched from my Easter Egger Project. I don't think any of them will have Muffs and beards though so I am going to have to decide if that's something I want to deal with moving forward or not.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Loving this Split to Lavender Cream Legbar Pullet Her crest! Seriously is adorable

 

[RememberTheWay]

We also welcomed some new birds to the farmstead this week! A small quad of black Indian Runner Ducks and a quad of crested cream Legbar pullets and a cockerel. Very excited over these birds and so excited for them to start laying.

I am trying to decide what to focus on this breeding season for my different projects. Observations so far are as follows:

Legbars (new birds)
•work on lowering tail positions and wider pubic bone widths
• I like the width between most of the legs and they seem to have solid legs. I would like to work on getting it a bit wider though
• want to work on shorter tails
• I like the crests on several of them
• they seem to have good chest depth, wing angles, and length of back.


Need to Learn more about the Indian runners but I plan to use them to help train our rescued border collie to herd and work with the birds here.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Got really worried this week while doing chores when I looked down at this cockerels plumage. He is one of the Isabella cockerels I brought in recently to start a porcelain satin silkie project here. At first, looking at him this day, I was thinking, " Oh no, he isnt actually splash is he?" (Which would be terrible because then he wouldn't work for my project) Because of the darker plumage starting to show up on his back. He was a bit dull but all one color when I got him. Now that I've started everyone on new better quality feed I have been seeing some drastic changes in quality of feather and depth of color. Upon closer inspection, this cockerel is actually Isabella (Buff partridge with lav) Thank God! the darker bits showing in his plumage are actually new feathers growing and because of the better nutrition they are growing in with much more depth of color. He is actually genetically supposed to be a tid bit darker lavender, I suppose, then the super light color he was expressing when I obtained him and his siblings. The others are looking quite snazzy as well. Really loving the new feathers showing on this unrelated red silkie cockerel, too. He is so shiny now!

Absolutely LOVING the new feed, will never go back, and I am super excited to continue to watch the changes in my birds because they have definitely been drastic!

 

[RememberTheWay]

Photos Opal Cockerels (3) 6 wks 6 days

I am really liking all of these little guys. The biggest one is probably my favorite though. I wish his crest was bigger but everything else on him is really great so far. I am really liking the width in their stance so far. Their legs seem really nicely spread apart. A lot of birds I see these days have knock knees or very narrow spaces between their legs which in turn is a result of narrow pelvises.

I actually checked these chicks pelvic width as well and I have to say that I am quite impressed with quality about this as well. Almost all of the chicks I've ever gotten from a hatchery (and adult birds for that matter) when evaluated for pelvic bone width have been super narrow and tight. Of course you should only cull for this trait once a bird is mature and in active lay. But I want to know if this is also something that can be evaluated as they are chicks. I've picked up chicks and evaluated this and they have been super narrow right from the start, meaning you couldn't fit a piece of paper between the bones, and I've also evaluated chicks that you could almost get two fingers width between those bones. I'm assuming that a chick that starts out with very wide pelvic bone widths will end up being some of my best producers as as they mature this measurement should get even wider. Of course this is just a theory at this point but I am making notes on it and recording everything so that I can keep track of who ends up being the best producers and if they had wide measurements from the start or not.

I really like the head widths I am seeing on this lot of chicks too. And the chest depths so far.

I am noticing though some huge variation in sizes on the Legbars. The Opal and Opal splits seem to be my largest chicks and the pure cream chicks are significantly smaller then the other two groups.

Sidenote- a few wks ago I was looking through photos of silkie chicks, and when looking at the side profiles I was noticing that some of the chicks had the right proportions and were evenly balanced and other chicks were more front set or were more towards the back and others were lopsided or too upright. It got me to wondering if that over all balance actually stays with them or if it is irrelevant. Will that balance change as the chick matures or is this something we can pay attention to from hatchlings and use to help us to choose birds sooner or cull chicks sooner bc they will never be properly balanced? I decided I would start to track it after posting in a few forums about this particular issue and not really finding anyone who actually paid any mind to it at all prior to me asking. Every breed has a basic silhouette that they should fill. Knowing what that looks like helps to choose a bird closer to their standards. My question at this point is whether we can actually pay attention to the profile of a chick from early ages to help our selection process?

 

[RememberTheWay]

Crested Opal (1) and Cream (1) (Split to Opal) Legbar Pullets (2 chicks total)

6 wks 6 days old

As stated above about width between legs, their pelvic width and tail spreads those observations still apply to these ladies as well.

I am really liking the crest on these two though. I feel like they look over all balanced and proportioned when looked at from the side profiles and overhead view. I need to post the two standards here.

While I want my birds to represent their breeds well, I have found myself somewhat conflicted over what I see in the working standard for Legbars (and the UK standard). Personally I think the tail sets are being bred way too long and too high for both males and females. Of course this is my humble opinion. I see too many birds with squirrel tail in this breed. From what I've learned about tail sets regarding production traits, having the tail set correctly is very important when it comes to production value. Which bring me to my conflict, do I breed for tails that are most conducive to production value or do I breed strictly to the standard? I'm personally leaning towards production value. But I am going to consult some more experienced breeders then I am get them to weigh in on this before I make any decisions either way.

I thought the Cream Split pullet below had the nice beginning to a decent tail spread. Also if you look closely you can also see in the other photo just how wide her pelvic bone width is. As you can visually see the bone poking out a bit on both sides slightly above her vent. It is almost a two fingers width space!