Java Thread

[Chickielady]

My Java friend responded to the questions, he has raised and shown Java his entire life, and is one the oldest and best known breeders, he says of the Eng hen shown on the previous page: Her eye color os too light and usually this means there is a mottled Java genes lurking in her.
This is also true with any black Java that has lighter brown eyes especially if it is lines in orange or reddish.
The eye needs to be as dark as possible, dark chocolate to brown almost black is best.
As for the feet, mine have willow top and bottoms and I asked if these will darken with age and he said sometimes the legs can turn more slate with age , and sometimes the feet yellow a bit on the soles, sometimes not and these birds must be culled.
They must have yellow soles, sometimes it is just a dot in the center, but ideally they should have all yellow on the bottoms as if they walked in yellow paint.
Javachick's yellow soles look good, and my cocokeral and pullet from haTHOR have almost black eyes, but still willow feet bottoms, so hopefully the yellow sole grows into the foot.
Eng: what color feet do yours have, do you have mottled and blacks penned together ?
Have you ever gotten a mottled chick from your black hens ?
I like mottled Java, but the blacks that are SQ and to SOP must have dark eyes.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
So is his shanks willow with a tinge of slate ?

 

[TACEYPERKINS]

Yes javachick you are correct. Willow is described as a dark greenish color. The legs of your rooster do look willow to me.

 

[haTHOR]

my birds all have the slate, very very slate, legs so i am hoping their offspring legs will turn darker for you robin. my roo has the marigold feet bottoms and my girls all have some yellow---from about half to full.

i am also wondering if the foot color will yellow as the chicks age...i am frustrated that of my six only two have yellow now. coming from mom and dad with yellow, it seems unfair (ha! i know how absurd that is) to not have all yellow-footed chicks!

with the eyes, i too agree that the dark, deep chocolate (i.e a dark chocolate candy bar) brown is optimal--and most beautiful in my opinion.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Monte Bowen, and I speak about daily.
I am getting alot of hatching eggs from him as well and have the luxury of picking his brain on all sorts of topics from type and color to breeding tips.
He is, what Robert Blosl and others call, the JavaKing.
I am humbled and feel so luck!
Outside of his tips, he is a very positive and encouraging person.
I have pestered him with questions and he always answers.
He is a wonderful person and has legendary Java.
He has told me, that birds born with willow shanks CAN change color.
But a willow leg with slate shadows is OK too.
Of course the darker the better.
Same with the eyes.
On that note, I think if I found my flock had really light brown eyes, I would get some mottled and go that way rather than trying to breed the mottled gene out...and having to cull those beautiful birds...so many many people would LOVE to have mottled Javas...but that is my opinion, and if I had the energy and money I would have them too.
I love the hen a few pages back in the chicken tractor, and Engteacher's brown eyed girl looks like a very sweet hen.

Maybe a Mottled Cock would urge the mottled gene to come forward and mottled chicks would result ?

 

[Chickielady]

And how are haTHOR's chicks doing and YIPPEE it is almost spring and I am so very ready for spring !!

 

[Engteacher]

Quote:
My Javas have yellow feet - not quite as gold as the picture above. I got these birds as day-old chicks from Duane Urch, who also breeds mottled Javas. I doubt that they would have been housed together, though. As chicks they had quite a bit of yellow in them, and as they fledged some retained a touch of white on the tips of a wing feather or two until their final adult feathering came in. None of them have any white at all now. A few have grayish/green legs, which I assume is "willow" color, but the rest are definitely "slate". The two roosters have medium brown eyes with a bit of red or amber to it. They were the first to mature and had nice combs, so we chose them to keep and processed the other three roosters.

We have 12 hens and I notice a variation in size. Some are quite large while others are more petit. Most have the nice curve to the beak that it mentions in the APA standards. We need to know what's what so we can make the best choice for the Fair. Last year, our judge had never seen a Java and had to look it up in his book. They are so rare, I want to be sure that as we butcher our surplus roos for the dinner table, we keep the ones most true to the breed.

 

[Chickielady]

OK this for you Engteacher, the best I can do at the moment, I sent you a PM...
The APA SOP Java pages:

Cruddy scans, but hope to help~

 

[bigzio]

Morning All...thanks for all the pics. Without being to critical, it also states in the standard that the comb should be moderately small, stright and upright; firm on head; lower in front; evenly serrated; having 5 well-defined points; fine in texture.

My pullets also vary in size. Being a critical breed there is plenty of improving and tweeking to be done in my opinion. That's what makes this breed so much fun. My pullets are the friendliest, sweetest birds.

While I had 11 cockerals last Spring, I ended up culling the one I was planning on keeping. He was a real manhater and that's not part of the program here. I'm gonna try to keep more this year and allow them to develop longer before culling. ~ bigzio

 

[Chickielady]

Post pictures please so we can all see ??

Thanks all !