Cream Legbars

[Fire Ant Farm]

TY. I took several different camera, flash, no flash, diff background , it makes a difference. No wonder eggs are judged on plain plates with white towels under them. The girls are 6 months old tomorrow. They have been teasing us with the egg song for a week, lol. Tomorrow we find out if the cockerel is doing is job when I crack the egg

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I found it so hard to get a photo that looked like what I was seeing with my eyes. The best results were outside in natural sunlight (I'm using an iPhone 6) - by best results, I mean that I look at the photo and it looks like what it looks like in real life.

Anyone know where I can get one of those blue green color cards? I'd love to keep one in my kitchen...

- Ant Farm

 

[terrip824]

Our ladies are laying strong around here! I am blown away by how prolific they are. We are getting this cool color off of our Jill Reese line girls

Love the egg color!

 

[terrip824]

I found it so hard to get a photo that looked like what I was seeing with my eyes. The best results were outside in natural sunlight (I'm using an iPhone 6) - by best results, I mean that I look at the photo and it looks like what it looks like in real life.

Anyone know where I can get one of those blue green color cards? I'd love to keep one in my kitchen...

- Ant Farm

GaryDean26 put the Araucana (green) 1 up. You can get a blue one from the Ameraucana club at there website. I heard it was better in natural sun. I'll mess with it tomorrow before I feed it to my son. I'm pleased with the color either way.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

GaryDean26 put the Araucana (green) 1 up. You can get a blue one from the Ameraucana club at there website. I heard it was better in natural sun. I'll mess with it tomorrow before I feed it to my son. I'm pleased with the color either way.

I saw that - was wondering whether it would be better to have a physical card (because it might look different on my monitor)...

Yep, they are lovely!!!!

- Ant Farm

 

[henless]

How about getting some of those paint strips at Lowes or Walmart? They're free and easy for everyone to get.

 

[Red Banks]

Our ladies are laying strong around here! I am blown away by how prolific they are. We are getting this cool color off of our Jill Reese line girls

Pretty eggs!

 

[FancyFarmQ]

I have 2 CL Roos, how do I decide which one to keep?

 

[GaryDean26]

Read the articles on evaluating chickens on the Heritage Livestock Association webpage. Read chapters two and three. They only about 3 pages each but go over everything chicken breeders need to consider when evaluating their flock.

Basically you start by looking at vigor. Vigor is defined as anything that help livestock thrive as a farm animal. The bird must be free of physical defects, it must be disease free, it must be the correct weight for the the breed, it must be active during the day and have good movements, it must be build correctly for the desired utilities of the breed, etc.

If I were you I would start by feeling the keel to make sure it is straight, then I would have the bird stand and make sure its legs are straight up and down and wide apart. I would also compare the thickness of the shanks. Then I would compare the length of the keel and the length of the back (longer is better). Then I would pull the wings out and see how fast the cockerel pulled them back in (a quick snap is a strong wing, a slow snap is a weak wing). You can measure the depth from the keel to the back, you can feel the flesh on the keel to see who is better conditioned (the less keel that you can feel the better). You can put your hand around the legs to see who has more meat on the legs. You can weigh them to see which one is heavier.

That would be your best bet if you only have two cockerels. Once you have about 30 we can get into the Hogan Method and measure head points pelvic bones, etc. and the Kansas Agricultural research station's method of culling by head points. We also would need to look at breeds type and and color in a big group.

 

[sol2go]

I have 2 CL Roos, how do I decide which one to keep?

In addition to the awesome guidance provided by GaryDean26, it has been recommended to try and let the cockerels mature as they change quite a bit in the first year.
The overall recommendation to consider vigor also looks at defects that we want to avoid passing along in a breeding program.
These relate to structural defects such as the keel, legs, and a wry tail.

While there are also "cosmetic" defects which we want to avoid as it relates to the Standard of Perfection - crooked combs, high tail angle, low wings, etc. these are more readily corrected than the structural defects.

I guess I could add the mantra - build the barn and then paint it. It is helpful to keep an eye towards color as you go along, but structural considerations are more difficult to adjust later.

 

[phoenix-silkie]

ya... my eggs went down in lock down today