Jersey Giants thread for pictures and discussion

[YellowChicken]

Interesting. The only breed of white that I've found that is based on dominant white is the white leghorn. There are a few breeds of white whose genotypes were not tabled in the literature, so there could be others. One other oddity about the two chicks, was that they were much smaller. It will be interesting to watch as they mature, so I hope the breeder will post pix.

 

[Soaring Chicks]

Update on the eggs.
Still have 4 marked eggs and had two blood rings of the unmarked eggs so
I have 21 jg eggs and 4 bcm eggs that are doing great nice big veins and great movement.

 

[Mahonri]

Just got the first Black Jersey Giant I've ever owned. She is HUGE...not even 6 months and much larger than my SLW "Sally" that I hatched out of kathyinmo's eggs.

Q: When will she lay her first egg????

How many years will she lay???

When is the best time to "process" JG once laying days are almost done?

 

[Zootopia]

SIXTEEN acres???? WOOT! Soaring - CONGRATS...fingers remain crossed! Keep us posted!

Regarding the "off colored" white chicks we were discussing a page or so ago - I sent comments, pics, and links to a noted Giant breeder, and here is his reply (he has given permission for me to "reprint" here):


It’s not uncommon for White chicks to appear smoky gray. The best ones generally are. Whites that are yellow as chicks are not top quality color genetics. The reverse holds true for Blacks – the birds with better color genetics have a lot of cream colored markings as chicks.

I’ve seen this in White Cochins that were sports.... I’ve also seen it in “silver white” chicks that carry the gene that prevents brassiness. These chicks are not Splash anything – you can tell because of the smoky color and the head patterning. Splash would look very similar to the Blue chicks – only lighter.

Regarding dominant versus recessive, there are no Asiatic or American breeds that carry dominant White to my knowledge. So none of the Whites can carry a hidden Black color genetic.

Chicken genetics

are complicated.

 

[Soaring Chicks]

Just got the first Black Jersey Giant I've ever owned. She is HUGE...not even 6 months and much larger than my SLW "Sally" that I hatched out of kathyinmo's eggs.

Q: When will she lay her first egg????

How many years will she lay???

When is the best time to "process" JG once laying days are almost done?

I can answer the when she will lay but I have not had them long enough to know the rest. Jg's should start to lay around 32 weeks. Mine where around 8 months old a few where closer to 10 months old. They are worth the waiting. The pullet eggs where the size of med/lg hen eggs of other breeds. Hope you enjoy her and welcome to the thread!

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

I thought JG's were supposed to be nice! My JG hen jumped ON TOP OF my BO! Well, my Dorking hen I think actually tried mating with the BO. But my JG is always attacking my BO, and she's probably double or triple the weight than her. Gah! It's probably because she can't free range anymore, and she's getting mad at us...

 

[Wynette]

JGFolk - I really don't think chickens get "mad" at people. They may become confused or irritated, but "mad" is a human emotion. Maybe give them things to do? I put plastic milk crates and things such as that in their run when they cannot get out - large tree branches to hop on & peck bugs off of, even a pallet on the ground - gives them things to "play" with. Maybe try that?

I can't say as I've ever had a mean one, but I've only had them 3 years now. Hope your hen calms down! Talk about throwing your weight around!

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Okay yeah, we're going to get some brand new coops soon. Our Leghorn hens went stir crazy. They'd beat up the littlest one on the pecking order till she was all bloody and had to go huddle up on the roost. We thought that one had the A.I. but it was actually just her front part of her comb bitten off, then it bled down to the nose. The appeared to have chased her because she had the runs, a sign of stress, but the next 3 days she had no bloodiness or runny poops, because we put her in a separate cage. Then they started pecking on my show Leghorn, it was getting out of control... So that's when I just started throwing wild mustard in and kale from our garden. And then I used a forage cake, and yikes, the 8 chickens finished it in less than 24 hours...

 

[Zootopia]

Maybe the pecking order was changing up alittle since they went from free ranging to being penned. I did notice when we moved the girls who were free ranging into breeding pens they ruffled a few feathers. Nobody drew blood, but there was alot of squawking in one of the Maran pens. They have plenty of room to get away from each other tho, and the roos were kept busy playing referee.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

This was just a month ago when they attacked each other. When the bobcat incident happened we kept them locked up since October 2011

I dangle broccoli from their cage.

Maybe the pecking order was changing up alittle since they went from free ranging to being penned. I did notice when we moved the girls who were free ranging into breeding pens they ruffled a few feathers. Nobody drew blood, but there was alot of squawking in one of the Maran pens. They have plenty of room to get away from each other tho, and the roos were kept busy playing referee.