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chicken on the hill, I was going to reply to your pics, but I couldn't be sure enough to give you answers. However, my guesses would be based on my pics here, since that worked for me last year. So, I hope you can see for yourself that you most likely have more girls than you thought.
Hipeatall, Funny, Last year I did the same thing you did. When I saw the white faverolles, I mistook them to be the girls, and the darker ones the boys, until I realized that there were white ones in there.
Thanks seminolewind. I think I have 3 pullets in the white and one cockerel.
Yay for pullets! The one that I think may be a cockerel is also the one with the darker spots on the wing feathers. I don't know enough to tell on the two darker chicks - there isn't much difference in their wing feathers. One has much heavier leg feathering and a lot of dark leg feathers. The other has much less leg feathering and only one or two dark feathers. They both seem to be feathering out at about the same rate. I do have questions for someone about the Salmon and Blue Salmon coloring. What is the difference? I see it in posts often put together (i.e. "Salmon/Blue Salmon") as if the colors are interchangeable. Are they two separate colors? Should you pen them together or separately for breeding purposes?
I keep my Salmon, Blue Salmon and Whites together during spring/summer for ease of keeping. They are allowed to free range as a flock and eat bugs and grass and scratch through cow plops (a chicken favorite) in search of bugs and worms. In the late fall (oct/nov) I do pen some trios and quads of blue salmon, white, and salmon. It is from these that I hatch my replacement layers and brood them through winter (Dec/Jan) and then let them out on grass in spring (Feb/March). At 4-5 months I can cull meat birds and then sell pullets as they begin laying and add any worth while birds to the 'general population' flock. It is after a summer of laying and growing into mature birds that I am then able to select who I will over winter and from the 2 year old birds who will go into the breeding pens in the fall. It is the system I have used for the past few years and seems to be working in that my Blue Salmons are very blue salmon, Salmons are correct (still woring out dark beard feathers in a few birds) and my whites were able to breed what appear to be true whites that are not showing color at one year. I think by next year I will be able to keep separate flocks of each if I choose... Always something new to do tat requires more housing, etc. as I also will not keep caged birds. Part of what I do is provide organic free range eggs for eating... and if you folks think hatching egg folks are a picky bunch you would laugh at these people who ask for a copy of the label to read the ingredients on the chicken feed bags, LOL! gotta love them!
chicken on the hill, I was going to reply to your pics, but I couldn't be sure enough to give you answers. However, my guesses would be based on my pics here, since that worked for me last year. So, I hope you can see for yourself that you most likely have more girls than you thought.
Hipeatall, Funny, Last year I did the same thing you did. When I saw the white faverolles, I mistook them to be the girls, and the darker ones the boys, until I realized that there were white ones in there.
Thanks seminolewind. I think I have 3 pullets in the white and one cockerel.
I keep my Salmon, Blue Salmon and Whites together during spring/summer for ease of keeping. They are allowed to free range as a flock and eat bugs and grass and scratch through cow plops (a chicken favorite) in search of bugs and worms. In the late fall (oct/nov) I do pen some trios and quads of blue salmon, white, and salmon. It is from these that I hatch my replacement layers and brood them through winter (Dec/Jan) and then let them out on grass in spring (Feb/March). At 4-5 months I can cull meat birds and then sell pullets as they begin laying and add any worth while birds to the 'general population' flock. It is after a summer of laying and growing into mature birds that I am then able to select who I will over winter and from the 2 year old birds who will go into the breeding pens in the fall. It is the system I have used for the past few years and seems to be working in that my Blue Salmons are very blue salmon, Salmons are correct (still woring out dark beard feathers in a few birds) and my whites were able to breed what appear to be true whites that are not showing color at one year. I think by next year I will be able to keep separate flocks of each if I choose... Always something new to do tat requires more housing, etc. as I also will not keep caged birds. Part of what I do is provide organic free range eggs for eating... and if you folks think hatching egg folks are a picky bunch you would laugh at these people who ask for a copy of the label to read the ingredients on the chicken feed bags, LOL! gotta love them!
