California - Northern

[chicksnthestiks]

Just catching up this morning, Chiqita and Lawatt so sorry for the losses. Chickengirl1304, wow! Beautiful color on that hen, I am sure you will never have a problem selling eggs or chicks, keep the photos coming. Congrats on the first egg AlpineButterfly.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote: I had 2 English Orps. One is usually a good layer, but she has spent the entire summer broody this year. (long story) My other hen was a so-so layer, but I lost her this year. They take positively FOREVER to come back to laying after a molt - but in their defense, they have a ton of feathers to grow in.

My babies laid their first egg today!

I hadn't quite gotten to putting a fake egg in the nest box, but this afternoon when I went to clean out the coop, I found this in the center of the nest box!



They will be 18 weeks old tomorrow. Buff brahma bantams. 22 gram egg. I'm so proud of them!

Congrats!

 

[lawatt]

hooray for the new egg!!!

and i have a monday morning (ugh) question for anyone who might know: is there a particular age at which cockerels start not getting along, if they aren't going to? or is it totally random? i've still got Harold (CL), Jack (marans), and Blue (isbar) in the same grow-out pen with 9 girls, and so far they all get along fabulously, and if they're out free-ranging at the same time as the older flock, Max the rooster just ignores them. the grow-outs are roughly 12-14 weeks old now. should i be on the lookout for trouble?

(Jack will probably end up not staying, as he's supposed to be birchen but has absolutely no silver around his neck yet, just solid black -- Blue definitely stays, not sure about Harold yet)

 

[debs_flock]

It totally depends on the breed and the individual birds involved. I have quite a few pens with multiple adult cocks living together and have seen no fighting with them.

The ones I've had luck with, campines, isbars, HRIR, polish, PR (bantam & LF), Icelandic, silkies, bresse. They all have more than one roo and in some cases they weren't even raised together.

I have some pens that it would only work if they were raised together and a couple of breeds that they had to be separated. The legbar pen was one that I could only keep one roo.

 

[lawatt]

thanks Deb! i will just keep on keeping an eye on them, for now -- and will have a new bunch of chicks hatching in the next couple of weeks, too, which will become a whole new grow-out pen. i can barely keep up already!

 

[lawatt]

oh, and one more question, this one about genetics: are ALL black chickens part of the BBS "system" of genetics, or is there an always-black gene? for instance, Jack the supposedly-birchen marans is looking all black. if i mated him with a blue isbar pullet, would i get the BBS combos of offspring, or would they just be black? (or, conversely, if my black australorp was mated with a blue isbar roo?)

 

[Happy Chooks]

oh, and one more question, this one about genetics: are ALL black chickens part of the BBS "system" of genetics, or is there an always-black gene? for instance, Jack the supposedly-birchen marans is looking all black. if i mated him with a blue isbar pullet, would i get the BBS combos of offspring, or would they just be black? (or, conversely, if my black australorp was mated with a blue isbar roo?)

You would get black and blue offspring. Blue is a dilution of black.

 

[ChickNmamma]

oh, and one more question, this one about genetics: are ALL black chickens part of the BBS "system" of genetics, or is there an always-black gene? for instance, Jack the supposedly-birchen marans is looking all black. if i mated him with a blue isbar pullet, would i get the BBS combos of offspring, or would they just be black? (or, conversely, if my black australorp was mated with a blue isbar roo?)

All black chickens can be included in the B/B/S breeding combo. As far as I know there is no known "all black" gene that would prevent the imcomplete dominant (bossy) Blue from modifying the Black to present the blue color. The Blue ones have one copy of the Blue gene, the Black ones have no copies. Add in one copy of Blue, and you get Blue. To get splash you need two copies. There are some bossy genes that can make certain areas black even with blue present, but not for the whole bird. I have a blue based Silkie that has a black head - the head is not affected by the Blue gene that is affecting the rest of the body. I think there is one for the tail as well.

To get a Birchen bird all black either requires excessive melanizers (those bossy ones above plus some more) or it may have been crossed to an Extended Black (E) based bird and only carry one Birchen (E^R) gene. I am not sure what the base on the Isbars are, so that would change what the kids could be. They will all be either blue or black - but might show colors in the males more like the Birchen does if they have a different base other than E.

The Black Australorp with Blue Isbar would give blue and black. I think the Australorp is E based.

 

[lawatt]

thanks for the genetics info, very useful!! i don't think i'm going to keep the all-black birchen, since the whole point of birchen is to have the silvery extras, but am curious to understand better how these things work/cross. clearly lots to learn!!

 

[Ali707]

My babies laid their first egg today!

I hadn't quite gotten to putting a fake egg in the nest box, but this afternoon when I went to clean out the coop, I found this in the center of the nest box!



They will be 18 weeks old tomorrow. Buff brahma bantams. 22 gram egg. I'm so proud of them!

One day I will also get my egg.....Contratulations! I love the small ones, but I didn't get any bantam chickens .... I guess I will get the quail for the small eggs this time.

All black chickens can be included in the B/B/S breeding combo. As far as I know there is no known "all black" gene that would prevent the imcomplete dominant (bossy) Blue from modifying the Black to present the blue color. The Blue ones have one copy of the Blue gene, the Black ones have no copies. Add in one copy of Blue, and you get Blue. To get splash you need two copies. There are some bossy genes that can make certain areas black even with blue present, but not for the whole bird. I have a blue based Silkie that has a black head - the head is not affected by the Blue gene that is affecting the rest of the body. I think there is one for the tail as well.

To get a Birchen bird all black either requires excessive melanizers (those bossy ones above plus some more) or it may have been crossed to an Extended Black (E) based bird and only carry one Birchen (E^R) gene. I am not sure what the base on the Isbars are, so that would change what the kids could be. They will all be either blue or black - but might show colors in the males more like the Birchen does if they have a different base other than E.

The Black Australorp with Blue Isbar would give blue and black. I think the Australorp is E based.