Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[NanaK]

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How old now? Sorry don't remember.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

How old now? Sorry don't remember.

Almost 7 weeks. Another day or two to that milestone -they were born May 5 -7.

 

[NanaK]

Almost 7 weeks. Another day or two to that milestone -they were born May 5 -7.

The stance looks female to me but that comb is big for 7 weeks.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm terrible at sexing young birds, particularly mutts. Usually, when I'm done with the bird, I'll take it apart for the table. Theres either one ovary or two testes. Then I'm sure.

The legs seem sort of thick for a lady - but again, I have the genes of so many breeds present, even leg thickness isn't always reliable as an indicator.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm terrible at sexing young birds, particularly mutts. Usually, when I'm done with the bird, I'll take it apart for the table. Theres either one ovary or two testes. Then I'm sure.

The legs seem sort of thick for a lady - but again, I have the genes of so many breeds present, even leg thickness isn't always reliable as an indicator.

I get more and more grateful to have fallen for Australorps. They're easy to sex with early maturity.

Of course I'm inflicting Wyandottes on myself with the project birds.

For 7 weeks I *think* it looks male. But with a wide variety of genes and not being able to directly compare them ....

Any idea of his(?) ancestry to make any kind of guess about the recessives he(?) could be carrying?

 

[NatJ]

Honestly, I like MultiCam, as well. But if I keep changing my end goals, I w on't get anywhere

The pattern could still change as it gets older, so you might like it better or worse in a month or two.

Right now, it's reminding me of some birds I had with the mottling gene. They had black, dark brown, and bits of white, and were VERY well camouflaged. (Spangled Cornish Bantams, if you want to look up pictures. Similar to the "Jubilee" coloring in some other breeds.) But I don't think any of your original birds would have had the mottling gene, so your bird probably has something else going on genetically.

 

[3KillerBs]

In re: recessives, I was reading this book, Genetics of the Fowl a month or so ago. http://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=chla2837819#mode/2up

Naturally, I can't find the reference easily given that it's a .pdf of an old book with no helpful electronic table of contents or index, but I remember something where breeders who didn't yet understand the genetics of the trait they were trying to stabilize kept messing themselves up by culling birds without understanding that they were dealing with a trait that, like Blue, shows in the heterozygote condition only.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Any updates?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's Big Fatty's weight. Just a couple oz away from 1lbs. She's 4 weeks old.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Any updates?

Sadly not. Too much rain, then too danged hot. Had a tree fall on my electric fence, spent part of a day cleanign chainsaws, cutting it away. WAY too much time fixing the AC on the RV. Including at 1am. Wiring to the compressor is old and corroded, keeps failing, sparking, and consuming connectors. New (heavy duty) connectors and larger wire on order, should arrive this week. We are at around 38? hours w/o a failure from my last patch it together temporary repair, which is the longest its held in the last two weeks.

Oh, and my main egg buyer did disappear. Shorted me not only the value of 18 doz eggs, but also the value of the 16 dozen for the next week I had set aside for them, plus a number of plastic egg flats.

I need to cull hard, but haven't had the energy to face the heat after spending even short periods of time working on the house.