fuzzi's Chicken Journal

fuzzi · May 15, 2023

"Purple"

What do you think? Boy?

fuzzi · May 15, 2023

NanaK said:
I think boys are lighter but I've not had a barred breed other than Cream Legbars (autosexing). So I would check the breed or gender forum to be sure.

They are 4 weeks right? Are the lighter one's combs starting to thicken or color up? I can't tell comb size and color in the photos.

I posted pictures there:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dominique-bantam-boy-or-girl.1580085/

fuzzi · May 17, 2023

Good News!

I have been emailing animal rescues around the state, and one has accepted any and all cockerels I want to donate! But...they're a 4 hour drive away... :th

I also got a nice reply back from the judge/breeder in Florida, with some suggestions for how to choose which boy(s) to keep. I'm to avoid keeping any cockerel with "stippling" in its feathers. The white spots should be clean, without any bleeding from the adjoining black area.

It would be better to keep the cockerels until they had their adult plumage but I'm afraid they'd start harassing their sisters, and fighting with each other. Right now there's only a little hackle-raising, the chest-bumping is not happening anymore. I hate to think of what it'll look like once the boys get REALLY interested in the girls.

And I really do not want to have to build a bachelor pad...

fuzzi · May 17, 2023

Dominiques today... after I put a couple grape halves inside their pen.

fuzzi · May 17, 2023

fuzzi said:
I also got a nice reply back from the judge/breeder in Florida, with some suggestions for how to choose which boy(s) to keep.

From the breeder's emails:

As far as coloring Sussex ground color should be a very dark mahogany.
Chick feathers are a bit difficult as they don't show what they will look like as an adult....male Sussex chicks usually have a ton of white chick feathers...I do see stippling which is the stipes that run across the feathers that is something you ABSOLUTELY do NOT want. It is a trait that should always be watched as if it gets into your line...it can ruin the color of your flock.

.once stippling gets in....it's hard to get rid of... actually most hatchery Sussex are Stippled...from a distance the Sussex look really nice..then one they are close you realize they are almost Always all stippled. If you have even seen a Spangled Old English at a quick glance color wise they look alot like the Sussex except Spangled Old English are supposed to be stippled. Speckled is not. So right now as chicks I would look for depth of body , slight back slope, dark mahogany ground color and crispness of white in the speckling...you don't want the black bar bleeding into the white.
With males I try to not keep the males that have too much black in the breast. Try and sort for good speckling in the breast. Also try to look for birds that carry their speckling all the way down to the tiny feathers that end before their leg. Look under the wings for speckling that lines up in rows. Also look for a bird with as good as a black V shape bar as you can get. Never keep a bird that only has one desirable trait...You may have a male with a horrible comb...but he has good depth of body , slope and color...he stays over the perfect combed male that lacks deep body and decent color. Always remember "TYPE" FIRST
Type means silhouette. Keep in mind this saying is true.
You have to "build the barn" before you Paint it.
Keep the best typed birds...color can be improved later.

fuzzi · May 18, 2023

I needed to find a better way to let the Dominiques have more freedom without tossing them to the ~~wolves~~ Sussex.

The Sussex destroyed the cardboard barrier I'd created, so I needed to come up with something stronger to replace it.

I opened the crate door and blocked it with cement blocks. Bricks were placed to make the openings too small for the Sussex.

I zip-tied a flat scrap of hardware cloth to the crate top, draped it across the top of the door opening and partly down the front. Then I blocked the opening on top of the blocks with another small roll of hardware cloth. It's jammed in tightly.

I hooked a spare panel from the crate onto the open door and over to the coop wall. This created an area for the chicks to traverse from the open door (they wriggle underneath it!) to behind the crate. There's an opening through the cement blocks on the left similar to the one in the open door, see photo below:

But there still was a gauntlet the Dominiques had to run where the Sussex could peck through the wire, so I added a board to create more of a barrier between the Sussex and the little ones.