Heel low:
Grrrr...where the
hockey sticks is the dancy chook and flappy chook in the normal drop down menu fur emoticons on BYC....Grrrr had to steal them from my mangled sig file.... GRRRRR
Tara I think you , Rick and the girls are making the very best of your situation. Of course my only criticism is I notice you eat a lot of veggies but, not any lunch or dinners of ice cream straight out of the cartoon with a good digging spoon.
But I like you all immensely , anyway. PS no birch bark for me, too many loose teeth (also why ice cream makes a great meal). And I love your narration of the photos.
Thank you DD...
Eat yer veg...even the girl dogs get veg. Romaine (the stems are fav), cooked and fridge cold carrots (great for teething relief!), peas (frozen ones go in dish if I made a soup broth and it is too hot / fresh peas I plant jest for the dawgs to pick off the plants...make them feel like they are being naughty!), spinach, etc. EAT YER VEG!
Veg then ice cream.
Tried out a new pool (have to find some place to go in Sep & Oct as the current pool is shut down for renos. I did four laps fast pace and three half laps of butterfly (only tried two half laps thus far!). I don't need a rest between laps for 8 and up to 10 laps now. End of April, I was stopping after first one or two laps...so I am indeed bumping up the cardio and stamina. I may live longer now...longer to be a pain to more persons!
Course after the swim, off to DQ for small cone for girls and banana splits for Rick and I...yup, sure hope that speedy work out UPPPED MY metabolism because we SLAMMED my efforts by having those treats...you only live once, eh. And we plan on living WELL...
Hey, Tara!
BB2K and I have been puzzling about this for a few weeks, and I figured if anyone I knew could tell me what's going on, it would be you. Can you tell me, what color/pattern is this chicken?
View attachment 1018569
(Yeah, I know, he's a mess - he was just literally
in the feed pan before I pulled him out to take the picture).
A little background - he's a Serama, and I know there's a little bit of everything as far as color genes going on in that breed. This is the first time we've seen anything like this in the Seramas, and there are two like this. I know it's not Splash; we have no blue Seramas. Besides, I've had Splash in both Silkies and Cochins, and this doesn't look like they did, at any stage.
His chick fluff was pale yellow; I thought perhaps he was going to be completely white (which would also be a first for these birds). The other bird with this pattern has more black spots than he has; she also had a few black spots when in her chick fuzz, too.
Can you enlighten us? We're stumped!
Hey Bun Buns...
Recessive white perhaps? You need more than one kind of white gene to make a chicken exhibition white plumage--recessive white and dominant white are good starters on a
pure as the driven snows white. Plus things like the bird being black (eumelanin) under the white instead of red (phaeomelanin) is best (slow red leaks more than faster black pigment does) plus Silver instead of gold, double dose of lavender, blue dilution....Barring/Cuckoo and mottling double dose; these are all ways to make a bird whiter (no pigment = white).
In chicks, I don't prefer a yellow white...I want a blue white. More likely end with an exhibition white.
Booted Bantams - yellow chick in right top corner will not be as WHITE
as the BLUE toned one on the bottom right corner
My Booteds come in light and dark skins and mixtures (pintos) of either
For whitest birds...I want blue, not yellow.
Day old Bantam Chantecler project chicks - F3's
Female on bottom (redder), Male on top
Some round about rooles on white...
Red Pyle male (with also with one dose blue dilution)
Dominant white will be expressed as pyle, in red or blue or black...one dose leaves you with a pattern like these and nope, like blue dilution, pyle (or pile) pattern does not breed true. Heterozygous for dominant white.
Red Pyle female - she also hints at blue dilution as she is kinda bluey in areas
Blue dilution is GREAT for making self white chooks
The male gender expresses more white, he'll be whiter than a female of exactly the same genetics (think bro and sis, eh).
That photo above of the two day old chicks...same natural hatched chicks in winter...now same birds in summer
It is vividly evident...pullet is redder and cockerel is whiter.
It took me twelve long years and many, many, MANY chicks and grow outs to end up with this one... ONE HEN!!!! Celebrations begin NOW!
F4 - White white WHITE...did I say WHITE Hen??? 
Brother Wilfrid, creator of the Chantecler...he had this same Columbian
pattern show up in his creations...he went with a Columbian cockerel to set
the white in his new Chantecler breed
That man was a genius before his time
Already knew black base better than red base
No pinky or orange birds...thanks! 
What did I just write...better to start with a black based bird than a red one...
F3 - Cute as a button but NOT a white candidate
Fine for Self Buff though! You gotta take what you are given, eh.
Lemons - set up a lemonade stand!!!
As with anything like breeding programs...plan and hope, do your best but go with the flow and take what you get. You may be looking over something given to you to accentuate if you get yourself bound and determined to have your own way or ELSE. I try, and try hard but am not foolish enough not to step back and go, so what is the good points I am overlooking with my tunnel vision to a wanted end.
Red Pyle Chants!
Years ago, I was told I should not go forward on these not Partridge and not self-Buffs, but I flipped them the bird on killing them and used them to make some pretty fabulous basis for self-White in the Bantams. I saw past Red Pyle and grabbed the dominant white, which I did not have here in any other breeds. Grab it, embrace it and make the Higgins White Doves...both rec and dom white amongst everything wanted as white enhancers past I don't have any lavender here nor do I want that nasty short feather, feather stopper gene!
Accept the goodness gifts that appear when doing breeding projects and yes, do as you are doing, ask questions and research to understand it better.
Is the Serama recognized as a breed now? I am not up and up on that chicken biz much having sunk into my own happy joy world more often than naught.
Remember...any breed (shape) may be any variety (colour pattern).
What a lovely blessing to mess about with now...good show!
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
