Chick Pics for New 2 and Our Chart

[AugeredIn]

I really hate to keep quoting Brad Legg and what he has told me, but here I go again, so prepare yourself. He told me that a two-year-old does not have to have train eyes to breed. That they are totally capable although the viability of the sperm is lower, couple that with their inexperience and they don't do as well in a breeding program, but still capable. What that makes me wonder is if they don't need eyes to be viable, why do people assume that mature males are not either?

My supposedly high percentage Spaulding Purple BS two-year-old pair were alone in their own pen and did not lay one fertile egg out of the dozen she layed. That was dissapointing.

As I understand it, hens choose the males based on the appearance of the train and number of eyes. Perhaps they are not interested in a cock who has lost his train, and therefore we assume that he is not viable.

Also, he pairs them up in the fall to assure that they are well aquainted and more likely to breed come breeding season. Many of his pens have six hens to a cock. This year I did not sell off all the extra IB hens I wanted to and had nine hens with one cock in my IB pen. I was concerned that I would have many clear eggs, but the hatch rate was just as good in that pen as in the pen where there were only three hens to one cock. It was not my intent to run that many hens in that pen, I would certainly have liked to have had only six although it turned out to be ok probably because the cock was mature enough to handle the situation.

Every two year old male I have bred has produced fertilized eggs. Some have not had eyes. Most, however, have had eyes. The lowest % of fertilized eggs using a two year old male comes from mating the two year old male with two year old hens. I don't believe that if you put one cock in a pen with hens that the girls will decide they don't want to breed with that male, regardless of size or appearance of the train. If they can see another male you could have a problem. Now if there are two cocks in a pen, the females may prefer the larger trained cock, I don't know. Even one year old birds recognize mating behavior from males. I now have four chicks from the yearling pen here at the farm. Those males don't have any train but they figured out what was going on. One of the chicks appears to be opal silver pied.

 

[DylansMom]

I really hate to keep quoting Brad Legg and what he has told me, but here I go again, so prepare yourself. He told me that a two-year-old does not have to have train eyes to breed. That they are totally capable although the viability of the sperm is lower, couple that with their inexperience and they don't do as well in a breeding program, but still capable. What that makes me wonder is if they don't need eyes to be viable, why do people assume that mature males are not either?

My supposedly high percentage Spaulding Purple BS two-year-old pair were alone in their own pen and did not lay one fertile egg out of the dozen she layed. That was dissapointing.

As I understand it, hens choose the males based on the appearance of the train and number of eyes. Perhaps they are not interested in a cock who has lost his train, and therefore we assume that he is not viable.

Also, he pairs them up in the fall to assure that they are well aquainted and more likely to breed come breeding season. Many of his pens have six hens to a cock. This year I did not sell off all the extra IB hens I wanted to and had nine hens with one cock in my IB pen. I was concerned that I would have many clear eggs, but the hatch rate was just as good in that pen as in the pen where there were only three hens to one cock. It was not my intent to run that many hens in that pen, I would certainly have liked to have had only six although it turned out to be ok probably because the cock was mature enough to handle the situation.

I didn't know there was such a thing as......... "mature enough to handle nine women"!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I just remembered that i had another 2 year old male which is doing a great job, hatched 8 chicks out of 9 eggs, but as Phill said i mate him with older hen, even the other male which is not doing a great job is paired with an older hen.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

By the way, have you heard your 2 year old male calling? Its an important sign, not saying he should be calling to produce fertile eggs, but if he is calling then he could produce fertile eggs.

 

[KsKingBee]

By the way, have you heard your 2 year old male calling? Its an important sign, not saying he should be calling to produce fertile eggs, but if he is calling then he could produce fertile eggs.

No, I don't think did...

 

[KsKingBee]

I need some help identifying a few chicks for the chart.

All three chicks are from Pipers pen, the first one is a four week old, his father is the IB Pied WE split Cameo, split BS. Possible hens are IB Pied, IBSP, CSP, or Cameo Pied WE.

My hope is that it is a Cameo BS Pied WE
Perhaps it is just Cameo BS WE?
Or Cameo BS Pied?
Or IB BS Pied WE?










The second one is less than a week old and what I think may be IBSP or IBSPWE, but Piper does not carry SP so maybe it is an IB Loud Pied WE?







And the last one is also about a week old. I think it is an IB Dark Pied, but it carries WE, but it looks too dark to be WE?

 

[DylansMom]

I need some help identifying a few chicks for the chart.

All three chicks are from Pipers pen, the first one is a four week old, his father is the IB Pied WE split Cameo, split BS. Possible hens are IB Pied, IBSP, CSP, or Cameo Pied WE.

My hope is that it is a Cameo BS Pied WE
Perhaps it is just Cameo BS WE?
Or Cameo BS Pied?
Or IB BS Pied WE?










The second one is less than a week old and what I think may be IBSP or IBSPWE, but Piper does not carry SP so maybe it is an IB Loud Pied WE?







And the last one is also about a week old. I think it is an IB Dark Pied, but it carries WE, but it looks too dark to be WE?

Number 1 is not a Cameo, Cameo won't get any of those dark gray/black feathers. So it is an IB BS I would say Pied or split White and the WE remains to be seen, it does appear to have a lot of white tipped feathers.


I would call number 2 an IB SP and watch to see if it darkens into a loud pied, however it has been my experience that chicks with such little color on their heads are usually SP.

Last one could be dark pied or split pied again, the WE remains to be seen.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Number 1 is not a Cameo, Cameo won't get any of those dark gray/black feathers. So it is an IB BS I would say Pied or split White and the WE remains to be seen, it does appear to have a lot of white tipped feathers.


I would call number 2 an IB SP and watch to see if it darkens into a loud pied, however it has been my experience that chicks with such little color on their heads are usually SP.

Last one could be dark pied or split pied again, the WE remains to be seen.

I agree with everything you said, and the last one still could be white eye, these chicks are both carrying two genes of white eye, but the right one is opal dark pied and left one is opal white eye:


The dark pied is much darker.

 

[thndrdancr]

Here is a simple old India blue split to black shoulder 3 week old peachick. . Meet ZeeBee (again my niece's name for her)

Anyone sex her yet? Thinking girl?

She was a little chilled this morn so quite annoyed with me!

 

[KsKingBee]

Number 1 is not a Cameo, Cameo won't get any of those dark gray/black feathers. So it is an IB BS I would say Pied or split White and the WE remains to be seen, it does appear to have a lot of white tipped feathers.


I would call number 2 an IB SP and watch to see if it darkens into a loud pied, however it has been my experience that chicks with such little color on their heads are usually SP.

Last one could be dark pied or split pied again, the WE remains to be seen.

Thank you for your help, I am trying to find unusual chicks and documenting their progress as they age and these stand out.

I am confused though about the First one as you and I went through a process last year with three Cameo chicks of which two turned out to be CBS. Those two started out yellow and progressed as BS with black/gray feathers on their backs, so now I don't know what to think. I still have them although I am now having a hard time telling them apart at times. One of them has a feather or two with barring.

The one I think is the Cameo cock is the one with the darkest head, front here and the CBS behind it with the lighter head.





Front center and top right bird.



Here is one of the CBS (?) chicks last October.









I don't know what to think now.

As for the IBSP, that would add a lot more to the genetic makeup of the cock wouldn't it? He is already quite the Heinz 57.