INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Hello everyone! New member!

 

[Indyshent]

Picture day!

I picked up five white silkies last night to pal around with Lion-O. They're only 12 weeks old, but most are his size or bigger already. Supposed to be four pullets and one roo (seller threw him in for free), but I've got my doubts about a couple of the "pullets". The "confirmed roo" has a twisted single comb, no beard, no crest, but he does have pretty blue earlobes and does puff up sometimes with Lion-O.

Lion-O is a super odd color that I can't seem to find any information on. His hackles, saddles and tail are a blond color, but his body is mostly white. Similar to buff Orps, he has one or two tail feathers which are darker on the ends--kind of a light blue gray color. The blond color is lighter than buff. I must confess, I'm stumped on what caused this Colombian-like restriction of gold because I've yet to see an allele that restricted gold the way Colombian restricts black. He's not a Pyle because his wings lack color but his tail has it.

His comb seems to be closer to what Punnett (The PUNNETT!) described during his original chicken tests with Silkies! What he described in the originally imported Silkies from China was actually a duplex rose comb, which Lion-O has! That original comb type is pretty much extinct--to the point that the standards now call walnut combs. But *my* boy has the "trifid" original to the breed (neener, neener). So, he's a pretty poor quality Silkie (wattles too droopy, no beard, skin is too light, earlobes too pale, but I'm wondering if those are correlated phenotypes--if perhaps Silkies actually have white pigment on a dark background and the two added look blue) who appears to have what Punnett described as the original trifid comb and is a lovely blond to boot.

Had a turkey egg explode in the incubator, but the one next to it hatched! So stoked! Baby turkeys are pure joy! Poult looks bronze for the moment but not necessarily pure bronze as the redder areas look different. It's so tiny--as small as a day-old chicken!

We're finally getting around to replacing the roof on the run. Used to have plastic netting, but it degrades too quickly, and determined birds break through it.

Got some pictures of the broody OE and the babies. If you noticed some barred babies and happen to know that I couldn't have possibly bred those *Shhhh!* The autosexing recipe always calls for barring, and they were on sale at the RK in Shelbyville.

Most of the babies have an extended black or birchen base, except the pied (?) Leghorn half-breeds. White genes cover colors like love covers a multitude of sins, so you never quite know what those white silkies and Leghorns are wearing under their white lab coats. Leghorns apparently carry dominant white, which means heterozygous offspring have holey lab coats. So far, I've seen black, blue and black barred peeking through those holes. Silkies have recessive white, so I'm hoping to use them in test crosses with Lion-O (most, from what I understand, are partridge under their lab coats).

Tried to get some pretty pictures of Optimus Prime, Anna, Elsa and Bowie today, but they weren't terribly cooperative. Elsa is huge. She's probably as big as Optimus under that fluff. Here's Anna and Jake Jake

And here's the dogs Ursa and Sadie. Ursa has so far killed a hen, a female yellow golden pheasant and the one lavender chick, and today she got a hold of a silkie pullet.

 

[Faraday40]

View attachment 1122371 Picture day!

Your post had me laughing. (except for the part about Ursa, so sorry about that.)

I wish I knew a little more about chicken genetics. I have an orp hen (named Oopsie)that was supposed to be a mauve - but feathered in white. No big deal since I love her anyway & really enjoy her off-white feather color with a hint of yellow, basketball-shaped body, and her gorgeous dark eyes & gray shanks.

When Oopsie was hatched last year (from someone else's eggs), I had 1 black cuckoo that was male & the 3 mauves that all feathered in white & all turned out female. All 3 were terrific. I kept Oopsie partly out of curiosity & mostly because of her personality.

This year, Oopsie produced the prettiest blue orp I've ever seen. (probably from mating with my lav orp). That blue pullet is bigger & rounder than mama! The Blue just started laying this week - just shy of 6 months.) Oopsie had a few black chicks as well, but those were sold at hatch, so I do not know the genders. Oopsie also produced several chicks with Brick - my double barred Choc cuckoo orp. All 5 of those chicks looked mauve cuckoo at hatch but feathered in white - just like Oopsie. No barring can be seen because they're all off-white. What's even more strange is that all 5 grew to be pullets. I believe it's coincidence that all 5 are female or could there be something in that white gene?

 

[Indyshent]

Only one way to find out..... Test crossing! Huzzah for chicken math in the name of science!

You'd have to figure the genetics behind mauve, then stick recessive white on the bird in the calculator (try the kippenjungle site http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm#kipkleurEN ), then do some "test crossing" with the calculator to see if you get the results with the program that you actually got. I suspect she has recessive white or a bunch of similar alleles as she popped up as a sport. It's also possible that she may have a new or poorly studied allele.
The color changing is particularly fascinating

 

[Finnie]

I had put on my pants backwards. I wish I had noticed that BEFORE meeting the other moms & new teacher!

Oh that's funny!

I always missed my kids too when they went back to school. I cried the first day of school when it was the year my oldest was off to college and my youngest started first grade. They are 12 years apart, and that was the first time I had no kids at home any more. (Not counting kindergarten, which was only half days alone.) This year my youngest is a sophomore in college. I'm used to being alone now. But I am supposed to be finding a job.

That tom is beautiful! He looks similar to my Blue Red Bronze, but I think he must have something more going on, huh?

 

[JanetMarie]

@JanetMarie
Wonderful on the new friendship! How is his chicken buddy doing with that?

His buddy has another cockerel friend, because I put the two chicks in with the gosling right after hatch.

The two cockerel friends hang out together, and they have been getting to know the other pullets and cockerels their own age, since they are all together in a large area.

They still hang out with Wilbur sometimes, and sometimes the two cockerels and two geese hang out together.

 

[kanina]

Hello everyone! New member!

Where abouts are you from and what are you raising?

 

[Indyshent]

Oh that's funny! View attachment 1122774

I always missed my kids too when they went back to school. I cried the first day of school when it was the year my oldest was off to college and my youngest started first grade. They are 12 years apart, and that was the first time I had no kids at home any more. (Not counting kindergarten, which was only half days alone.) This year my youngest is a sophomore in college. I'm used to being alone now. But I am supposed to be finding a job.


That tom is beautiful! He looks similar to my Blue Red Bronze, but I think he must have something more going on, huh?

He's a red slate, which is bronze base plus one blue gene (blue is the same in both turkeys and chickens). Not sure what color Penny is yet. Looks kind of like a silver auburn, probably has a Narragansett gene too

 

[kanina]

We mixed the kids in with the adults yesterday. Tried something with the cattle fence but they don't seem to understand they can go back in there while the hens can't. Silly chooks. Hoping for a successful pairing today. Kronus seems to be trying to protect them but he's more than twice their size and intimidates him. Let me see if I can find some updated pictures.

The Silkies still don't have names. I can't find anything I LOVE. DH keeps pushing for Laverne and Shirley, I'm not feeling it.

Need a spot of advice. We're going out of town for a total of 4 days. Do I want to leave enough food out for four days or more days or?? I'm not sure how to deal with it. I go out and feed them twice a day currently and toss their food in. Its never been something we've had to deal with before.

On the topic of food though, we went back to grower because of the young ones and my hens are laying significantly better than they were on layer this summer. Should I keep them on grower with their available/optional calcium (ground shells) or update them back to layer once everyone is laying?

 

[kanina]

Above and below are Kronus, about 4 months between the photos. IDK what he's doing in the bottom photo, DH took it Saturday while I was out of town. He's such a good rooster, I'm absolutely amazed with him after the terrible time we had with Max.

So this is DH and his favorite Silkie. He was so anti-chickens and now he's out there with them more than I am some days and for someone who hates having his photo taken, he sure loves chicken selfies.

Here they are spying on the elders.

She's just so majestic!