INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo - I read your post about sexlinks, and can't find it! But I feel you pain. I am so sorry about your girl- How is she? I am in the same place right now. One of my very first birds - a sexlink -Rhonda, I am pretty sure has cancer. We dealt with this 1 1/2 years ago with one of my EE's and the symptoms are the same. I just can't afford the vet bill to confirm right now. It is so hard to decide when to cull. But I am pretty sure we are there now. She has been doing pretty well in the mild mannered bantam pen, but her comb has gotten significantly paler this week. Her tummy more swollen, her breastbone more protruding. She is spending more time off alone not doing anything - before the past couple days she was still interacting with her new friends a lot and acting pretty normal. She is no longer jumping on the windowsill to visit.

DH will have to do it while DD and I are gone. I need to make sure our neighbors get to say goodbye first, they are quite attached to her too. Sigh.

I too said Sexlinks never again after learning more about them. But I did end up with a chick last year. A neighbor over bought after our new code went into affect. I knew Cinnamon would have a good home here- where would she end up if I didn't take her and her two Buff Orp "sisters" Buffy and Nugget? She has been a good measuring stick as Rhonda's illness had progressed. I know her life may not be long, but it will be happy and a bit spoiled here.

I like the production and huge eggs of sexlinks. (Cinnamon Queen, comet, production red and several other names) but every one I've had has a short life span. Most often, its prolapse or being egg bound. Never had one live past 3 years old.They do not seem to free range well compared to a heritage breed either. I'm so sorry her health is failing.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo  - I read your post about sexlinks, and can't find it!  But I feel you pain. I am so sorry about your girl- How is she? I am in the same place right now. One of my very first birds - a sexlink -Rhonda, I am pretty sure has cancer.  We dealt with this 1 1/2 years ago with one of my EE's and the symptoms are the same. I just can't afford the vet bill to confirm right now.  It is so hard to decide when to cull.  But I am pretty sure we are there now. She has been doing pretty well in the mild mannered bantam pen, but her comb has gotten significantly paler this week.  Her tummy more swollen, her breastbone more protruding. She is spending more time off alone not doing anything - before the past couple days she was still interacting with her new friends a lot and acting pretty normal. She is no longer jumping on the windowsill to visit. DH will have to do it while DD and I are gone.  I need to make sure our neighbors get to say goodbye first, they are quite attached to her too.  Sigh.

I too said Sexlinks never again after learning more about them.  But I did end up with a chick last year. A neighbor over bought after our new code went into affect. I knew Cinnamon would have a good home here- where would she end up if I didn't take her and her two Buff Orp "sisters" Buffy and Nugget? She has been a good measuring stick as Rhonda's illness had progressed.  I know her life may not be long, but it will be happy and a bit spoiled here. 

So sorry to hear about Rhonda. Skua is still going back and forth between good days and bad days. Her bad days are pretty bad, sitting hunched with her eyes closed and her comb and wattles pale. She's also been having issues with diarrhea and I've had to clean her vent off pretty frequently because of it. Still, tonight she was out foraging later than the rest of the flock, something she hasn't done in a long time, and she's been a bit perkier lately. I think the gorgeous weather has been keeping her spirits up, to be honest. Maybe she has more time left than I initially thought, though.

I also wish you a lot of luck with Cinnamon. I agree, I would have had a hard time leaving her all on her own and taking her sisters. It's something that you're at least aware of to keep an eye on. I've found that most of mine have started having these issues at 2-3 years old, though Skua made it past that age and will be 7 should she make it to April. When I started to realize that this was a common problem with the red sexlinks, I came to the same conclusion, that my remaining ones may not have a long life, but it can at least be a happy one. Skua is my last one and will probably be the last I own, but of course I leave open the possibility of something happening, too.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, so awhile back I posted an ad about "British tailed Araucana". Turns out, they really were British tailed Araucana, and British tailed Araucana are a pretty different looking breed. They're supposed to have tails and small crests. Having tails and no ear tufts would make them much easier to breed than regular Araucana, which have the double-lethal tufts and problems mating.

Barnevelder, Ayam Cemani, Ameraucana, British tailed Araucana hatching eggs
BT Araucana roo

Actually, if you're referring to the ones you posted in January, they were not British Araucanas. Yes, they had tails, crests, and beards, but the proportions were all off. It takes more than a crest and a tail to make a British Araucana, just like it takes more than a beard and blue eggs to make a true Ameraucana! They were the wrong body type, had much too large of crests, and their feather coloration was not true to any of the colors British Araucanas come in. Being that the person said in that ad that they were 'Araucana mixes', I would bet they were Buff Polish x Easter-eggers. I didn't save any of the pictures, but I'm pretty sure I saw someone post them somewhere else around that time, so I can try to find them so that you can see.

I also hate to say it, but neither of the British Araucana ads you posted here have British Araucanas in them either. The first MIGHT have true British Araucanas, but unless I'm misinterpreting it, it says in the ad that the father is the bird pictured, which looks like a poor quality Blue Double Laced Barnevelder (or maybe even some kind of BLR Wyandotte mix, for that matter...). So the mothers might be actual British Araucanas, but the chicks that hatch would not be. Without any pictures, it's impossible to say.

The second one with the rooster is more similar to British Araucanas than the ones posted in January, but is also not true to the breed. I'm actually quite sad that people have begun misrepresenting them, too, in the U.S.! I had heard that a hand full of farms had imported them, so I imagine it's just like any other rare breed--someone's trying to make a buck on the new, shiny fad breed. The bird in that ad is clean faced, which is incorrect for British Araucana, and is also not the correct color for any of the varieties of British Araucana. If he is a true British Araucana, he's mixed color and very poor quality...

The British Araucana Club has the standard for the breed, including the accepted varieties, on its website, as well as plenty of pictures of true British Araucanas in their two galleries. Something I thought was interesting, which I didn't know until discovering this site some time ago during research on the differences between these guys and the other Araucana breeds, is that they also accept rumpless and tufted Araucanas--but their tufted Araucanas also have beards, unlike the U.S. Araucanas.

No offense meant, of course! It's just a subject I'm quite passionate about...

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A little something for some smiles... Have I mentioned lately that I'm in love with these little Silkied Cochin bantam babies?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hanging in there so far, i still kept 10 chickens! We have 3 OEG standard. 2 Dark Cornish the rest are RIR.
Dads able to walk 100 feet without his oxygen today. Just saying guys enjoy the time you have with your parents.
I knew so much from my grandparents keeping birds.There is so much we lose if we don't ask. Don't be ashamed to speak up, learn from who you know.

 

[Faraday40]

A little something for some smiles... Have I mentioned lately that I'm in love with these little Silkied Cochin bantam babies?

I think I may be in love too! That 2nd pic reminds me of a Dorking you posted a while back. (She'he has the same "chicken therapist" look.)

 

[ndbeck63]

Hello! Does anyone have a source for Isabel Orpingtons? I am willing to pick up or ship.

Thank you!

 

[ellymayRans]

Any OEGB, japanese or dutch bantam or frizzle breeders on here 

I breed black bantam frizzled Cochins. I have a black frizzled cross (olive egger/Cochin) that lays blue eggs and working with a promising sizzle (Silkie/frizzled Cochin cross) that I will be breeding back to a partridge Silkie roo this spring. She's turned out beautiful.

I do have a pair of "culls" resulting from the sizzle project from last year. They just didn't get the blue Silkie skin. They are tiny.

Frizzled roo and smooth hen. I have been meaning to post them here before I put them on CL.
Just haven't had the time and I've not been super happy with the pics I've gotten.

Roo

hen

 

[Indyshent]

Actually, if you're referring to the ones you posted in January, they were not British Araucanas. Yes, they had tails, crests, and beards, but the proportions were all off. It takes more than a crest and a tail to make a British Araucana, just like it takes more than a beard and blue eggs to make a true Ameraucana! They were the wrong body type, had much too large of crests, and their feather coloration was not true to any of the colors British Araucanas come in. Being that the person said in that ad that they were 'Araucana mixes', I would bet they were Buff Polish x Easter-eggers. I didn't save any of the pictures, but I'm pretty sure I saw someone post them somewhere else around that time, so I can try to find them so that you can see.

I also hate to say it, but neither of the British Araucana ads you posted here have British Araucanas in them either. The first MIGHT have true British Araucanas, but unless I'm misinterpreting it, it says in the ad that the father is the bird pictured, which looks like a poor quality Blue Double Laced Barnevelder (or maybe even some kind of BLR Wyandotte mix, for that matter...). So the mothers might be actual British Araucanas, but the chicks that hatch would not be. Without any pictures, it's impossible to say.

The second one with the rooster is more similar to British Araucanas than the ones posted in January, but is also not true to the breed. I'm actually quite sad that people have begun misrepresenting them, too, in the U.S.! I had heard that a hand full of farms had imported them, so I imagine it's just like any other rare breed--someone's trying to make a buck on the new, shiny fad breed. The bird in that ad is clean faced, which is incorrect for British Araucana, and is also not the correct color for any of the varieties of British Araucana. If he is a true British Araucana, he's mixed color and very poor quality...

The British Araucana Club has the standard for the breed, including the accepted varieties, on its website, as well as plenty of pictures of true British Araucanas in their two galleries. Something I thought was interesting, which I didn't know until discovering this site some time ago during research on the differences between these guys and the other Araucana breeds, is that they also accept rumpless and tufted Araucanas--but their tufted Araucanas also have beards, unlike the U.S. Araucanas.

No offense meant, of course!

It's just a subject I'm quite passionate about...

The Barnevelder is a Barnevelder and is seen in an ad which is plainly for Barnevelders that mentions the seller also has BT Araucanas. A specimen can be a poor quality specimen and, nevertheless, be a specimen of a given breed. The two in the oldest BT ads (for two roosters) were mixes and identified as such in at least one posting of that ad. Sometimes muffs and beards get pulled out, sometimes birds were heterozygous and produce clean-faced sports. $15 is not exactly what Greenfire Farms would be selling said imports for, so I'll assume said birds are mixes or poor quality or the seller is just desperate to get rid of a bird. He may be an F# outcross for the intent of improving this or that trait in the breed, which kind of has a tiny gene pool in the States (ie, prone to inbreeding and poor specimens being reserved for breeding in a program just to churn out more chicks), and either of these easy explanations can pretty well apply to said birds in all photos. To improve crests and/or beards, Polish or CCL might very well be used.

Not all people prefer Silkies or Polish with beards either, so I figure it's largely up to breeders. I don't prefer bearded birds, and I'm not showing this unshowable breed anyway, so the presence of said birds on craigslist for under $20 certainly isn't going to offend me. I'm far more offended by people who want $100 for PQ (at best) Serama hatchlings and that kind of crazy crap. Or game breeders with crummy looking birds for sale at exorbitant prices. Or hoarders. Or neglect.

 

[ellymayRans]

A few pics of the Mille Fleur Cochin trio.
They need some work. I'd like to see more black on the hens and more white on the roo. Hoping this trio will compliment each other. Roo is from a different line.

The girls.

Then my black Cochin crew. The frizzled girl in the back right is the blue egg layer.
I have a pullet now with them. Hatched with a group when hatching the now infamous "frizzled duo" mother2hens has been showing off!

Now this little guy from the same batch has a floppy comb which I've never gotten before now.
I don't think he'll ever grow into that!!!

So that's a small part of the clan here!