Lavender Crele

[Miami Leghorn]

Really looking forward to watching these chicks grow out. Miami Leghorns -- your environments are so clean, and your waterers too. You should see mine (not)!!!

It's a habit and routine that I know too well...when raising parrots everything has to be clean and dry.. we just carry the habit over to the chickens... last night my wife and I spent a good hour and a half dealing with poopy butt... we had chicks cleaned, blow dried nice and toasty back in the brooder for a night's rest.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

One hen was showing some wear and tear on her back. I decided to despur "Handsome Dude" -
View attachment 2161658
First time he was despurred, I believe. He was in someone else's care for about 9-12 months. He behaved like a perfect gentleman, only squawked once when I was causing him pain in my process.
So while being handled, it's a good time to deworm. I use Cydectin pour on for cattle and put 1-drop per pound of bird on that bald spot where the wing attaches to the body. That spot has no feathers to interfere.

So, I weighed him, and the hens, and subsequently the juvenile boys.
He weighed in at 7-pounds exactly.
One female was 5-pounds exactly and one was about 4 pounds 6 ounces.

The juvie boys were 3 pounds 2oz, two of them right on 3 pounds and one smaller coming in at about 2 pounds and a half.
Not only are the boys getting better at crowing, their 'red' is beginning to show up in their plumage.
View attachment 2161683
You can see the colors on this cockerel's back.
View attachment 2161699
The above shot shows the juvie's full range of colors. A phone shot --and my arm wasn't quite long enough to get beak to tip-of-tail in he shot.
One thing I like that is really a selection factor for me in both males and females is a contrast where the body color and the hackle color are different shades.
This close up shows a bit more of what I mean.
View attachment 2161711
Maybe it's the way the barring expresses on the neck hackles, or maybe there really is a lighter shade in the neck hackles than the feathering on this little guy's body. It's more definite in some of the females. I'll work on getting some of those pics later.
So while despurring and deworming - I found some feather mites on the rear of the rooster. So everyone who's been wormed has had their butt dusted with DE, and their coop cleaned and they should be OK. The juvie girls are in a different pen -- and that is something on the TO do list. It really is insect season in South East TX. Everything is out in swarms now. Ticks, mosquitos, ants - I've got ants in the dog biscuits - ugh! -- You name it they are starting to do their creepy crawly stuff, and -- this is just the beginning of 'bug season' here. This is when It would be nice to have a chicken wrangler to assist with getting good picts.

Great post,
Very informative now I know what the spurs have to look like when they're off..yep bug season here is in full force the little chicks inside the brooder are having a field day going after each other's catch...

My cockerels are starting to exibit same color on their back.I'll post some pics later.

 

[ChicKat]

Why oh why do the females get neglected? LOL -- this set of 6 juvies has been a real dream to take care of - they integrated so smoothly, the easiest -- possibly because of their young age at the time of combining the two with the four.

It isn't possible for the camera to catch the true colors. One thing I want to select for is a differentiation between the body and the neck hackles. It sort of shows here on this pullet. In real life there is a warm tone to the neck feathering. You can also see the light salmon on the breast.

There are two in this pen that hatched Feb. 19 and four that hatched March 12. If I don't hurry up and legband them, I probably will have real difficulty telling them apart. The red combs and wattles will be my only tell.

The above shot shows the light salmon. It is a really delicate coloration. She's flopped down trying hard to cool off. The 'feels like' temperature is 99-degrees -- but it somehow felt even hotter in that pen. All of these chickens are panting today and holding out their wings.

So for me, the crouching chicken bottom left, and maybe the one behind her would be selected to breed, and the chicken on the right wouldn't, based on plumage. (see how she is holding her wings out to be cooler?)--- It can also be a factor of the light and the angle of the light on this plumage because of the reflective/refractive quality.

Here are 5 of the 6 in this pen. I constructed that PVC partition to allow the smaller ones their own pen with no harassment from the adults. Probably as the heat increases I will need to open the partition, because I think it's cooler on the other side. More in the shade of a tree.
These chickens are both the younger and older, and I have a hard time telling which is which. That would be a good thing for a flock to look like cookie-cutter chickens --- they are very much the same.

And here are their brothers today.

Their welded-wire run is 4'x6.5' -(not including the housing pod)- So technically they all have about 6 sq ft of run space each... leaving room for feeder and waterer. They are doing well -- but these little pods are probably at capacity with an adult trio -- or maybe 2 roosters at most, better just one I guess. So I need to take action for them pretty soon.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

beautiful birds

 

[ChicKat]

At last, the pullets are wormed. (seems like a long time after the males -- 2-weeks have gone past)

The 6 juvie girls weighed in at
one of them 3# Two of them 2.5# and the remaining three at 2#. They are all hale and hearty.
Back from weighing the boys:

The juvie boys were 3 pounds 2oz, two of them right on 3 pounds and one smaller coming in at about 2 pounds and a half.

One interesting note on the females... two are about 3-weeks older than the other 4. So One of the 2 1/2 and the 3 pounder would be expected to be from the first hatch of these pullets. All the 2 pounders of course from the second hath, but the other 2 1/2 pounder is on her way to being a big chicken.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thought I'd better post something so I can get alerts.
Yes not much going on here with mine. They are total slackers. I've gotten two eggs this year. One was cracked and the other was a quitter in the incubator.
Not sure whats up with them I'm even to the point that I'm wondering if they may be eating them. IDK. I'm gonna try changing food. Making a roll away nest box and whatever else to see if things change.
I'd like to hatch at least a few or if not hope this rooster stays around till next year.
I do have a few plans besides hoping to continue this line but those plans involve chicks I'll hopefully be getting in the next couple months so it'll be spring before they'll be laying.
Anyways glad to see this thread and excited to see some little ones and watch them grow.
@ChicKat.... So gonna hatch anymore this season?

 

[ChicKat]

@ChicKat.... So gonna hatch anymore this season?

Done hatching for now. It would kind of be more-of-the-same.... and I have too many now. LOL. You know how easy that can be.
Thinking of the Macro-level (big picture) the proj. is done. All lavs, all autosexing from my hatches here. Miami had one that I couldn't tell right away, but it may not have been fluffed up yet, and the camera angle -- yadda, yadda. However it wasn't long until he could tell me for certain which gender the baby was. Less than 24-hrs.

Next steps....
So, once you have achieved the end=point....what do you do?
You go to the Micro-level (tiny details) -- and you work on general improvements. Better combs, better tails, better egg-laying schedule. (Sadly mine here the same age as Iris are doing fine... Well, except this morning one left her egg in the run and not the nesting box, the little scamp.) So general chicken improvement can go on forever, -- but the main criteria are solid.

Egg eaters. Hope not. Seems that there could be a sign, egg on their face, or yolk on the bedding in the nesting box. I wonder what terror (at a chicken level) and trauma they endured in shipment. Remember they were a day late -- and seemed 'lost in the mail' for that day. Did time in a non-pressurized cargo-hold bust their egg mechanism - Did getting stuck in a sorting facility and bumping against a conveyor blow their mind and they are non-functioning, or are they just being coy. They have had a chance to come through and recover. Sorry they are being slackers.

 

[ChicKat]

Who will stay, who will not? What if my roo had a heart attack, which little guy would follow in his foot steps? Which one is best? Who has the longest back, best comb? Which one has the best tail-angle? Who will grow up to have a disposition as good as his sire? Which guy has the hidden potential to produce good egg-layers in his daughters?
Fortunately, there differences should be pretty small, because these boys all have the same father -- So picking anyone as a replacement should give nearly equal results...... right?

 

[Miami Leghorn]

Here are my two young bucks.I have two more roos..one in the brooder and another hanging with his sister somewhere else.I see the color emerging on their saddles...

 

[ChicKat]

Nice pictures Miami Leghorns! I betcha they look a lot different now since nearly a month has past since those shots.

As for here: This picture was taken in the dark with a flash.
Hot weather now that it's summer, There are 6 pullets in this coop.
Time to find a way to get some more space for them.

The two oldest will be 5-months on 7/19. Time sure has gone by fast.

Two of the cockerels. About a month older than Miami Legorn's I think. It's that age when they seem to be all legs. One in the other Eglu started to show what I considered some aggressive tendencies, so he went to freezer camp. His roommate/brother has the place all to himself. May be an opportunity to move out one of the pullets to make a pair.