Deerhen Project

[E flowers]

Update on the chicks. They're doing great! I've been handling them while they're on the roost. I still haven't named them but I'm leaning towards Tony for the black & red rooster. I think it's kinda cute that one of the white hens has like 3 tiny feathers on her feet/legs like barely any feather to actually count as booted. The other has a good amount of feathering on her feet/legs that she's definitely booted. The gold and black ones are both bare legged.

One white chick has a crazy looking hairdo. While the other has none. The black and gold have small head poofs.

 

[E flowers]

Comparing Cookie to her daughter at around the same age.

 

[E flowers]

Adding to the Deerhen genetics talk.

I was looking into larger bodied gamefowl breeds and came across Australian gamefowl and Australian pit gamefowl. Used for cockfighting and meat. They're said to be docile towards owners but I'm assuming aggressive towards other roosters.

I wonder if taking some of that stock and breeding it with the Ameraucana beardless birds would make for a good foraging, camoflaged, predator resistant, and meaty bird?

Florida bullfrog had talked about his terror fowl which if I remember correctly have asil mixed in are turning more predatory. They're actively catching mice or just eating the ones he feeds them. He's been having to give them more protein.

If my birds learned how to actively hunt they would probably do really well on freerange.

 

[E flowers]

Adding to Deerhen genetics talk

I've also come across the Bruges fighter which I may be able to get ahold of quicker than the Australian pit gamefowl.
I'd be crossing them with the beardless Ameraucana's and possibly another breed but I'm not sure what yet.

 

[E flowers]

Hopefully I'll be able to bring down my outdoor dog kennel by spring. I'll definitely be on the lookout for Brown Leghorns and Easter eggers.

I've decided on just doing 3 10x10ft pens with open air shelters or long off the ground coops.

 

[E flowers]

The shelters will probably look something like this.

 

[E flowers]

In February I'll be getting at least 4 crested cream legbars for my other project and maybe some hand selected Easter Eggers or Ameraucana's. Depends on what stock Scott's and Tractor Supply get and if I'm there on the right days.

Luckily Scott's has a list of the breeds they order and when they'll have them.
I'm also trying to get my dad to finally order the building materials for the coop we've been working on (for close to a year now!). We've got the tyvec on and haven't touched it since.
"We've gotta order the siding." He says. "Well then order it already!"

He spends all day watching TV during the weekends and all he has to do is call to place the order. Doesn't even have to get up.

 

[E flowers]

Balancing comb and wattle heat dispersion with frostbite resistance.

Sampson's comb and wattles are definitely undesirable under these standards. Bruce However seems to be on the smaller more desirable side.

Sampson has been extremely close to getting frostbite this week. Thankfully he's made a full recovery with no damage.

 

[E flowers]

Comparing father, son, and grandsons comb and wattles. There's definitely a difference in size but I need to see if Bruce's grows a bit more or stays about the same.

Comparing Bruce to the desirable examples he's not that far off. Spikes should be a bit shorter and the back flat piece shouldn't stick out as much from the skull but maybe I'm nitpicking

 

[NatJ]

Comparing father, son, and grandsons comb and wattles. There's definitely a difference in size but I need to see if Bruce's grows a bit more or stays about the same.

Would the comb and wattles grow a different size if the chick grows up during hot vs. cold weather? I think I may have read something about that in the past.
[Goes briefly down a rabbit-hole of research...]

Oh, I think I found it, or at least one source of it.
The book Genetics of the Fowl, by H.B. Hutt, published in 1949
It's available online through a link here:
https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/chla2837819

Going by the page numbers on the actual book pages, page 83 and 84 talk about things that influence comb development. Researchers in the 1930s found that cockerels raised indoors with little exposure to light would have extra-large combs compared with ones that had plenty of access to outdoors and natural sunlight while they were growing. Someone in the early 1940s decided that temperature had an even bigger effect than the amount of sunlight, with higher temperatures causing chickens to grow larger combs than cooler temperatures.

I can't tell if anyone followed up on that in later years or not.