Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[drom]

He's very nice. How old is he?


You know, none of my first gen roosters have 5 points. They all have 6 and one of them has a comb that is really too big. The blade goes all the way back and touches his head. All of my 2nd and 3rd gen roosters have 5 points. Go figure. I guess it must have been the hens. I never really notice the hen combs, except that quite of few of mine flop over in the back when they start laying, I wish they didn't do that.

But I think the hens have influence on the number of points.
Anyway, he has a nice sized comb.

His tail looks wee bit long in that picture but the angle is great!
I haven't seen many pictures of roosters with shortish tails. As mine mature, the tails get longer and look less correct.
He looks like he has good size as well. I don't care much for rangy looking Marans, I like the roosters to have a little size and girth.

 

[berkeleysprings]

he is close to a year
i am sure he has many faults but he is the cross of davis roo over /presley hens ...F1 ... i think how genetic talk goes that my origonal 4 are P generation
he still has white fluff aroung the tail but thats ok with me because if france has it and front page of MCC has it i guess its normal... his foott feathers are a bit much also the white in his foot feathers

but im working comb and egg color right now


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[berkeleysprings]

more pics

interesting about the tail , il show some otherpictures after i gett off work playing carpenter thanks for the advice /thoughts



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[drom]

OMG! That little possum is so cute

Is that a baby?

Thank you for the pictures!!

So, I think the little white tips on shank feathers are transient. I had a hen with some and they eventually fell out and grew back in black.
I guess the genes for shank feathers are a little trickier than almost everyone thought, so I prefer to err on the side of more shank feathers than less just so long they are all on the outside toe. I'd rather have that than really sparse almost clean legged birds.
I agree it's best to concentrate on a few really important priorities and try to lock in those characteristics. Then work on the minor faults.


Edited to add on the feather shank-I just read something Blackdotte wrote on the genes for feathered shanks and clean shanks. Genes for feathered shanks are dominant which everyone knows. Clean shanked birds can pop up in feathered shank flocks because of a recessive gene that inhibits feathers on the shank. That is less complicated than I was thinking it was.

 

[kathyinmo]

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This is very interesting! I have found most of my eggs to be, "glossy," rather than matte. I had planned to take some egg pictures today, but forgot to .... now they are all gone (sold)... I will get some in a few days.

Satin, maybe like satin finish in paint? In between matte and glossy?

 

[drom]

It's really clear what a matt egg looks like, but I'm not sure I totally get the difference between satin and bright.

And yes! Please post some eggie pictures

 

[Lotsapaints]

I'll try and take some I have a couple that lay what I would call satin I like the dark reddish glossy ones..

 

[geebs]

Uh ya. Well um.... Did you know there was an opposum looking at the rooster???

 

[drom]

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Cool!

 

[drom]

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He's just a baby. Look at his little ears-

He's too small to eat a rooster.

I should really knock wood when I say this; I have had zero trouble with predators. I think perhaps it is because I am surrounded by neighbors with dogs and we all have fairly small parcels around 2 1/2 to 5 acres. So I think the neighbors dogs keep the predators away. I have become too lax though. My best girls are out loose most of the day sometimes-it makes them so happy to be out and about. I even let them roost under the porch sometimes at night. No one's dogs have come on my property for quite some time so I kind of stopped worrying about it. But I need to be careful. Tonight they are all in their hutches sung and safe.
My rooster who acts like the spawn of Satan is out under the porch. He's expendable.