Illinois...

[cavemanrich]

I just think your chicken is REALLY BEAUTIFUL,,,,,,,,, regardless of her genes..
The short comb, if it stays that way is a winter benefit...

 

[Faraday40]

I just think your chicken is REALLY BEAUTIFUL,,,,,,,,, regardless of her genes..
The short comb, if it stays that way is a winter benefit...

Thank you. She's interesting to say the least.

DS really enjoyed his 1st hen (Firefighter). She was an egg machine, laying daily for 3 months in a row, taking 1 day off, & then another 2-3 months non-stop. Crazy bird didn't really molt until over 2 years old. Even then, she merely slowed down but continued to lay for about a month & a half ....then back to daily. She ended up with a terrible shell-gland issue at 3 yrs old. DS always wanted another white chicken, so I decided to keep one of the leghorns we hatched.

Fast forward to today & our pullet "Tillie" is a curious and personable little chicken. She's not skittish and, like you said, has a smaller comb. She can fly well but chooses to stay in the yard. A few times after sitting in a tree, she accidentally landed on the wrong side of the fence. When I saw her pacing back & forth I simply opened the gate & she came running back home. Lately, she's been trying to get into the tractor with the turkeys.
I have no idea why. When I lift up the tractor to release the turkeys, Tillie sometimes runs inside. Other times I find her sitting on top of their tractor. Tonight the turkeys sat on top of the coop for a while before going inside. Tillie flew up there to see what it was like. She was hatched in a preschool, adopted and raised by a broody, BFFs with a few orps, and always curiously getting herself into trouble. She's about 2 months older, much smaller, and sleeps in a different location than the turkeys. I just can't figure out her recent obsession with them. Perhaps she's acting weird & hopping the fence because she's getting closer to laying age.

 

[Faraday40]

Some pics from today:

The kids' 1st day at school. They ran home & went out back for some chicken hugs.

My 2 lav cockerels

Mr Wonderful..... just walking around looking wonderful

 

[chickendreams24]

Hi guys I got some pictures today of some of my spring chicks from @Faraday40 thanks again for selling me some silver laced.

And I got some pictures of my two calico turkeys.

Also you guys are never going to guess what I did! Lol okay you might guess. Anyway on my local Craigslist an older woman posted that she's downsizing her flock as chores are harder as she's aging. She had 7 three week old blue slate poults for sale 5$ each! So we cleaned up and everything and we went and looked. I had no plans to buy anything if her birds were not perfectly healthy looking.

Her place was amazing and she had 4-5 coops. None so large as ours but a couple good sized ones and a couple smaller ones. She has birds older than six(ducks and geese) turkeys that are 2-4 and chicks of a variety of ages. She also had a few juvenile guineas.

She got hit by raccoons this spring and lost over half her flock.

Her blue slate turkey hen jumped the fence and hasn't come back.

Anyway we bought them after I thoroughly looked them over. They're now in quarantine with our red rangers in the porch and doing well. Today I counted them for the first time having take her word on the number it turns out she gave us one free so we got 8 for 35$.

I didn't originally plan to buy them all but she wanted them to all go together. Guess we'll be eating turkey at some point lol.

So far I'm using this as an extension of my turkey experiment. I'm really enjoying the turkeys. Lol it was also nice to be able to meet her adult tom, Tom (a royal palm) and some of her hens. She had a couple bourbon reds that were stunning! Some Nargansett(please correct my spelling on that it doesn't look right), a couple bronze. She had already sold her blue slate tom as he occasionally took after her. Of course if any of his poults show that aggression they'll head for freezer camp.

Also question will the turkeys be okay with our dogs once they're grown? I'm not worried about the dogs hurting the birds just if the turkeys decided to attack my dogs.

Now for pictures. Some of them are not the best. It was hard to see my phone screen and the sun was so intense the screen was burning me.

I used the dog crate to keep them confined so I could try for the best pictures possible since I was doing it alone.

Here are the two white pullets(I do have a third white pullet we hatched out that it about their size but has a smaller comb. She may belong to Oopsie's sister but right now seems almost identical to these two.) Their legs are not as bright yellow as yours, which doesn't surprise me at all as they're not out free ranging yet. The second new tractor grow out coop is almost finished so hopefully this weekend. I didn't want to turn the juveniles out with the fox tracks we've been seeing. Excuse the poo on one of these girl's sides apparently she was under the roost at the wrong time lol. Both of these girls appear entirely white.
I have though about the being hybrid white egg layers as that would be fine by me. I've read they're generally calmer but the pure white color of these two makes me wonder.

(Now I must tell you all this story. Today at lunch DH2B saw me carry the first white pullet out he asked me what happened to her color and said she didn't look the same. I thought he was nuts! Lol I explained she had always been white and went inside to get some water. I came back out and DH2B- much to my surprise had taken out the larger turkey and put it in the crate with the white pullet. I stood on the porch staring when he walked up and explained to me that he figured out why that bird hadn't looked right to him. From across the yard he had thought the white pullet was the smaller turkey and gotten the other turkey so I could take picture of the turkeys together.

He had of course figured out his mistake but knew I wanted pictures of the turkeys anyway so he had left the big one out there. LOL

The turkey's tail isn't always to the side like that. These two turkeys are 3 months old now by my calculations.

Here are the two silver laced English Orpingtons I have. These two still don't seem to scream their gender to me. I think I would like to add more at some point for sure. I especially love the blue ones.

Below is a close up of the darker bird on the right. I am a bit worried about the darker one. It looks like possibly that juvenile has wry tail. I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

The lighter silver laced's photo was a little washed out by the sun.

Finally here is the second turkey that is a lot smaller than the first. I didn't get a close up of the face and snood but it seems quite small still. You may be able to zoom this photo and see it.

Oh no I almost forgot the new poult pictures! More to come later but here is a couple for now. The first photo is the smallest. It's tiny!!!

For comparison here is one of the biggest poults.

 

[chickendreams24]

Note these poults were not handled by the breeder at all that I know of. They are pretty sweet and I think will settle well. However they were hard to photograph because their heads were constantly looking around.

 

[Faraday40]

@chickendreams24
Thank you for the pics. Tillie's comb is getting a little darker each day. (Looks about the same color as yours in the photo) Still pink of course - but it used to be pale peach. Although we can't tell the exact Leghorn mix, at least we know for sure they're female.

The turkeys are looking good. I still think you're going to have a pair. Yours hatched 5-18 - so about 14 weeks. Does the smaller one still like to cuddle? My 3 here don't care to be held but at least they can walk back & forth to the coop & tractor unassisted. If they can do it by themselves, then I feel no need to stress them out by handling them. If I end up eating them, then I guess it's better for all involved. The 3 poults here hatched 6-21, so 9 weeks old. My gender guess at hatch was all 3 male. Our white one is slightly bigger & has a snood like your bigger poult. I still think our white poult is a male. His bald head turns all sorts of colors, he has a flap of skin under the neck that can turn red, & I even saw him strut. The browns....? DS thinks the browns are a pair (Which I certainly wouldn't mind), but I'm not seeing any clues either way.

BTW- Do you clip your turkey's wings? I haven't. Those slate poults sound great. What a lucky find! Since you have a decent amount to compare, take a look at their heads from above. Any seem more narrow/angular (female) or more squarish (male)? Mark your predictions & let us know if it works.

I like the looks of the darker laced orp so far. Both are nice, though. They both look male to me, but the lighter one I'm not 100% sure. If the tail is OK, I'd mate the darker one to the blue silver laced girl. They'd make very pretty babies!

 

[Faraday40]

Almost forgot:

Guess who trying to go broody?

Yes. Noodle (serama) laid only about 6 eggs. I've been trying to keep her out of the nest for a week now. Not sure if I'm going to let her keep going or take stronger actions against her broodiness.

Meanwhile, our Silkie & Penciled Rock have been sharing a nest. The 1st egg is pipped - a silkie x serama. The 1st chick of that mix was so stinking cute, so I took one of her eggs from the fridge & slipped it under her. The rest of the eggs are a few laced orps & 1 blue or black orp. I really don't want any of these chicks, but it was easier to just give in.

 

[Faraday40]

More chicken hugs:

 

[Faraday40]

I just ran out to the coop & grabbed a few turkey pics. Their faces changed colors from the flash. I guess I'd be upset too if someone flashed bright lights at me when I was trying to sleep. LOL

White one (royal palm?)
"He" has the largest snood & neck flap. A tiny bit larger than the other 2.

Brown #1

Brown#2

 

[Molpet]

Note these poults were not handled by the breeder at all that I know of. They are pretty sweet and I think will settle well. However they were hard to photograph because their heads were constantly looking around.

bug eyed babies
If they grow up used to dogs they should be ok... Mine don't bother the dog and still alert when a coyote shows up. .. some silly chicken hens go TOWARDS the coyotes, on the other side of the E poultry netting


well my poults are on the move. the last 2 years, they have made one flock come fall...
The 4 oldest (5/8 hatch) have moved themselves out of the coop they were in. How ever they would like to stay the night in the trees.. One night the 2 calico girls were too high to reach with the 8' downspout I have been using. I joined 2 ten' lengths of water pipe and could reach one and the other survived the night out of my reach. Wing clipping is in their future.
One of the 2 hatched 6/4 has moved also. They have moved into the big coop with the adults and poults hatched 5/26 and 6/20...
So with the turkeys and chickens , there is around 50 birds in a 8x 24' coop .. two hens and one chick in an 8x8...silly birds...
So I processed two 15wk olds that were in the bachelor pad...they were white cx mix dressed out just over 4lbs. Usually they are 5-6 lbs, definitely culls... I have 2 barred cx mix cockerels I am evaluating in there also. One from Thanksgiving and one 15 wks... The 15wk seems to be interested in my shoes too much..hasn't done anything yet... he keeps looking at them.
I moved 9 of the oldest cockerels from the big coop to the bachelor pad. They are getting along better than expected...So the best white cockerel is left in the big coop along with some too young to tell.