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Ruth - - - How old is your hen pictured in post # 4101 ?
My girls have HUGE combs compared to yours. Does "SIZE" matter or do we just worry about the number of points ? ? ?
These female look to be very young pullets. With these wade jeane birds the back part of the comb will turn side ways when in full laying mode.
They were young, six months, when these pictures were taken. The one in the close up has lots of tiny points but others have less and have combs that look like the males (5 points) - now that they are grown, some do have combs that sort of flop/fold over a little, and yes, their combs are much bigger now. That's why I said they had all sorts of combs. So now I have something else to select for when I put them in individual (one-on-one) breeding pens this Spring. Right now, everyone is getting free range of the farm through winter. I don't like keeping them in pens if they aren't laying and are molting and it's freezing and I'm not selling eggs or hatching chicks. They get to run around and get fat and happy. All the pens/coops are left open and all the different breeds and birds just go back to whichever pen they choose and I close them up at night. Those that choose to sleep outside, in the bushes, under the carport, with the dogs, are left alone. Our 5 big LGDs do a great job of taking care of them.
And Don, I don't think it was my hens that you saw that had pinched tails or brown fluff. I posted one picture of a hen in run mode and you said she had a "fan tail" but I don't recall any pics posted where you said anything about brown fluff (but I could be wrong - too much to keep up with). I remember you saying that about someone's hen and when that "attribute" was first posted, I ran out to look at "vent fluff" but mine are black, same as their undercoat.
Thanks Walt - I do have several other, older males (the parent stock of this flock) and some have really high tails and some don't - there's a lot of variety in my flock so I'll be able to pick and choose when I pair them up in hopes of correcting some of the faults.
I appreciate everyone's comments. I've learned more than I ever thought I would ever know about chickens. With everyone posting pics and commenting and each other's birds, I've found I can really get an understanding of what to look for and what to breed out. A picture really is worth a thousand words because, for me, it puts it in a way my brain can understand whereas I can read a list and it just doesn't gel.
