Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[U_Stormcrow]

a bit of Chaos - I have one CornishX hen, now above 36 weeks, who free ranges with the rest of the flock. Typical except for unusual age, no picture. Current weight, 11.3#

Pro: Extreme Growth rate. Very Large size. Single comb, clean shanks.

Con: Medium eggs, unsuitable as free ranger. No coloration or markings. High likelihood growth rates will not be passed to progeny, though size will like be. Not bred for longevity. "Stupid".

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Current Status:

Phase 1 (Winter 2020) - allow RUG unrestricted mating with the whole flock. Incubate and raise chicks throughout winter and spring, extending into early summer. Construct new nesting boxes and retrain or segregate existing hens to better identify "breed" of mother. Current efforts to discern "brown" are unreliable.

Desired Outcome: Several representatives of RUG x each of the available options, Pattern 1-2, and Tint 1-3, plus "Chaos".

[Pictured: Thing One thru Thing Four, hatched 12/8. Mothers unknown. Weights 1.4 oz, 1.4 oz, 2.2 oz, 1.3 oz, respectively.]

Evaluate and note weights at week 8, 12, add laying activity at weeks 16, 20, 24. Take Reference Photos. Cull any not laying by week 24, except "x Brahma" (30 weeks), excess or clearly inadequate males. Use existing excess fencing to construct additional runs and segregated coops.

Phase 2 (anticipated) consider Phase One outcomes and genders, evaluate possibilities of Crossing Phase One Patterns with Phase One Tints [6 Possibilities]. Are there any Phase One Chaos chicks to work with? What does that even look like??

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Phase 1 Progress, 12 more in incubation. This gives some sense of the range of browns I'm dealing with. Any tan or cream is an acceptable end goal. (Like the "D1 Rainbow" in front, the two lighter eggs at left edge, one at right edge, or lightest two in back).

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Pattern 2 is the Silver Laced Wyandotte, again, I have five hatchery-quality birds, nearly identical. Hens are 3.1# give or take, at an age of 17 weeks.

View attachment 2443690

Pro: Near desired size, fast growing, active free rangers, good pattern*. Moderately early egg laying, clean yellow shanks.

Con: Pea Comb, mine tend towards smaller, darker eggs, though they had just started laying as winter hit and the days grew short, spring may alter this somewhat. Brahma penciling is superior to SLW markings for camouflage, but this is acceptable. Large white patches at neck not desired.

Wyandottes have rose combs.

Good luck! Sounds like an interesting project.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wyandottes have rose combs.

Good luck! Sounds like an interesting project.

I think I mentioned "hatchery quality". Hoovers, by way of TSC, is not where you go for Standard of Perfection.

and thank you. I'd be happier with a Rose Comb actually, so they could bleed heat more efficiently during my summers. If the end result settles there, I would, in no way, complain.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I think I mentioned "hatchery quality". Hoovers, by way of TSC, is not where you go for Standard of Perfection.

and thank you. I'd be happier with a Rose Comb actually, so they could bleed heat more efficiently during my summers. If the end result settles there, I would, in no way, complain.

Hatchery quality or not, wyandottes don’t carry the genetics for pea combs. Though hatchery wyandottes can turn up with single combs. Rose combs in pullets often look flat until they reach POL.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

OK two weeks after hatch, Things 1-4 weigh: 5.6, 5.7, 11.4, 6.1 oz So Thing Four, in spite of his/her lesser birth weight, is putting on weight faster (and visually appears more compact) than Things One and Two, but has no visible patterning at present, being basically black and grey (blue), with dark shanks. Thing Three, heaviest at birth, and mostly buff with a few splotches, has put on weights at something much closer to CornishX speeds than the typical. If I get similar breeding out of the next few incubations, and any useful patterning at all, these will be my preferred F1 pairings.

@RoostersAreAwesome I'm not here to argue with you. I have some sense of the POC. I am, however, telling you that these birds came from TSC, which in my region means Hoover Hatchery. All five of my birds are essentially identical, but for variations in the amount of melanin - one is darker, one is lighter, and three are photocopies. All are 19 weeks, about 4.3#, and as of a few seconds ago, look like this (apologies she wouldn't hold still, makes it look like she has more comb than she does):

Just as they show on their website (look at the female in the foreground) - though mine are even less pronounced:

as I said, "Hatchery Quality". There is no rose to that comb, sadly. Again, 19 weeks, and laying. I don't expect that they will suddenly poof out a comb not yet evident. What they do have is, in many cases, similar to the bumps on my Brahma's beaks.

If my Hoover's so called SLW are somehow rrPp (likely) or rrPP instead of RRpp or Rrpp (as expected). I am in no way surprised. Add another generation or two of random crosses, and Hoover's flock pf "SLW" suddenly look like this:

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

OK two weeks after hatch, Things 1-4 weigh: 5.6, 5.7, 11.4, 6.1 oz So Thing Four, in spite of his lesser birth weight, is putting on weight faster (and visually appears more compact) than Things One and Two, but has no visible patterning at present, being basically black and grey (blue), with dark shanks. Thing Three, heaviest at birth, and mostly buff with a few splotches, has put on weights at something much closer to CornishX speeds than the typical. If I get similar breeding out of the next few incubations, and any useful patterning at all, these will be my preferred F1 pairings.

@RoostersAreAwesome I'm not here to argue with you. I have some sense of the POC. I am, however, telling you that these birds came from TSC, which in my region means Hoover Hatchery. All five of my birds are essentially identical, but for variations in the amount of melanin - one is darker, one is lighter, and three are photocopies. All are 19 weeks, about 4.3#, and as of a few seconds ago, look like this:

View attachment 2462487

Just as they show on their website (look at the female in the foreground) - though mine are even less pronounced:

View attachment 2462450

as I said, "Hatchery Quality". There is no rose to that comb, sadly. Again, 19 weeks, and laying. I don't expect that they will suddenly poof out a comb not yet evident. What they do have is, in many cases, similar to the bumps on my Brahma's beaks.

If my Hoover's so called SLW are somehow rrPp (likely) or rrPP instead of RRpp or Rrpp (as expected). I am in no way surprised. Add another generation or two of random crosses, and Hoover's flock pf "SLW" suddenly look like this:

View attachment 2462492

I’m not trying to argue either. Just pointing out my observances. That pullet’s comb is a rose comb, as are the combs of the wyandottes in that hatchery picture. I highly doubt the pea comb gene got into the breeding stock of that hatchery, however low quality they may be. The single comb gene is only in there because it always has been, even in show quality wyandottes, due to the fertility issues of birds with two copies of the rose comb gene. Genes have to come from somewhere.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I’m not trying to argue either. Just pointing out my observances. That pullet’s comb is a rose comb, as are the combs of the wyandottes in that hatchery picture. I highly doubt the pea comb gene got into the breeding stock of that hatchery, however low quality they may be. The single comb gene is only in there because it always has been, even in show quality wyandottes, due to the fertility issues of birds with two copies of the rose comb gene. Genes have to come from somewhere.

I'm still learning, freely admit. Do hen's "rose" combs look like three rows of dots, like the pea comb of my dark brahma, with only the center row in any way "pronounced" at less than 1/8" in height? The male in the hatchery picture is what I expect of a "rose comb", loosely, a walnut with points.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's a rose comb.