Colored rangers -- sex link plumage?

[brandywine]

At five weeks, it looks as if all of my tricolors are cockerels. I have maybe 6 or 8 tricolors out of 100 total rangers from JM.

I'm kind of bummed, because I wanted to keep one of these flashy-looking chooks for my regular flock. But I don't need no extra 12-pound rooster lumbering around here eating cats.

Is this just bad luck, or is the plumage sex-linked?

Has anyone gotten a female tricolor from JM?

 

[Judy]

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[moenmitz]

We raised 100 JM colored broilers last fall-several tricolor hens. We kept back a few to experiment with breeding, but the tri-color hen we kept, "Big Rhonda" sufferred an unfortuante injury and had to be done in. Big Rhonda dressed out at 9.5 lbs (she was, by this time, 7 months old, but was missing a chunk of meat that would have probably put her at the ten pound mark) Alan, our tri-color rooster, weighed a hefty 14 pounds at last check-which was a few months ago. I suspect he is heavier now, at 9 months. No leg problems with any of the JM broilers, btw. No suspicious cat deaths either.

 

[brandywine]

Ah, so just bad luck on the all-rooster lineup. Perhaps I'll get some tri pullets in the next batch. Or maybe some of these will turn out to be pullets after all. I've got another six weeks to find out.

Fourteen pounds is a big rooster. Our current flock guardian, Henery Hawk, is maybe four pounds with a full crop. He's been bullied by a gang of guineas and lost his tail feathers, and then got a broken leg through no fault of his own, but he's bouncing back. I think a roo like Allan would be the end of him.

Anyway, I've got an Ameraucana cockerel and several Delaware cockerels in this year's batch, plus 7 offspring of Henery, some of whom must be male. I will keep two, maybe three if they are peaceful.

Have there been any missing cats?

 

[zephyrcreek]

Ok, I've gat a batch from J&M here right now and was hoping to keep some tri-colors back myself. I have to admit that mine are a little young yet, and I am not sure which ones are which as all I have right now as they are not feathered out.

Going from wing feathers, which ones are the tri-colors? Looking at mine right now makes me think I have 4-5 differnt color patterns happening.

 

[brandywine]

I got red ones, red with white feathers, yellow, yellow with white feathers, yellow with a few black feathers, tricolors, and Dale .

Not sure which ones were which, except Dale. There were too many to keep track of individuals as they developed.

 

[zephyrcreek]

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I have quite a few that look like Dale. I did notice today that many of the chicks are starting to look darker. The yellow and reds are obvious. It's all the others that have the variety. Hopefully they will all be beutiful tri-colors. I know that I read somewhere that J&M says everyone prefers the reds, but the tricolors were the ones that caught my eye right off the bat. My next shipment is Dixie Rainbows coming from S&G Poultry.

 

[vermontgal]

I can't tell who is going to turn out to be what, except the yellows. We have two very "chipmunky" chicks and a couple that are semi-chipmunky.

My 12 chicks are just over 2 weeks old. It is starting to become apparent who is definitely a cockerel. The maybe-girls, I am also trying to decide whether any of them might stick around. They turn out to be 10 lbs, though!? That is a bit much chicken!

Sic'ing them on the neighborhood cats sounds like a great idea, though.

 

[brandywine]

Dale was the chipmunky chick, hence the name, courtesy of my Mom.

I had one other "semi-chipmunk."