Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Phill98]

The main gene making them that color is called Columbian in english, Co in genetic notation.  it is Very Dominant. What it does is mostly clear the body of the black pigments.. restricting it to the neck, wing tips and tail.

It has the strongest effect on wheaten, which is what your chicks are- light cream colored chicks. But many breeds have Co- RIR, light and buff brahmas, etc..  any mixes with these will strongly be colored like these as a result.

Try for birds with more black on body or more stripes as chicks to 'escape' Co.. 

But genetics is funny, Co is really important in some amazing patterns like lacing like on sebrights etc.

I don't know, but I think that I won't get wheaten ones. I don't like the colour and the other reason is that most of them have feathered feet and I don't like that.

 

[Kev]

Genetics is weird..
I want to ask you something. How many chickens do you have? And your broodies are great moms I see, ours are terrible this year. First hatched 8 out of 15 eggs, but she broke two eggs and the rest she killed while they were hatching. One egg was empty. Another one had also 15 eggs and she broke 6 eggs. Eggs weren't grandma's and only three chicks hatched. And the broody threw one out of nest and was picking the other two. So we are kepping all 11of them in a brooder. The one that is sitting one week now, also had 15 eggs and she broke 2 already. We are freaking out because of them.

Only 52 chickens.. no idea how many chicks.. probably in the 150ish range.

Yeah I said only 52.... for many years I always had more than 300 chickens, not counting the babies. And 100+ peafowl on top of that(only have two peafowl right now). So 52 seems very few to me... ha!

It is the peafowl that helped me figure out and pick good setters and how to use broody hens to their best. Peafowl eggs are very difficult to hatch well in incubators... they hatch out far, far better under peahens or hens. Part of the reason I had so many chickens before.. needed to maintain a number of setting hens to hatch the peafowl eggs.. which require 26 days to hatch.. so, try to imagine how many broody hens are necessary for the entire peafowl breeding season, ugh.... On the other hand, I was quite successful at producing hundreds of peachicks every year and they did sell for good money.

A couple things to help with successful hen incubation:

Plenty of room in nest box, but not too big. If the nest is very big, it is possible the hen may try to shift positions within and sometimes eggs get lost/chilled in the process.

It helps a lot to have nests that are identical and preferably easily move-able. I use covered cat litter boxes, most of them are solid blue. I just pick up the whole box with the hen still inside.. no problem.

Isolate a broody hen, completely. Letting other hens have access to her nest is asking for trouble- a lot of eggs get broken this way.

I had rows of cages and small pens expressly for the purpose of isolating broody hens. Only one per section. If this is not possible, I would have gone with something similar to a stack or row of brooders against a wall, except adult chicken-sized, with enough space for the nest and for the hen to exit the nest for a bathroom break. Like rabbit cages if that makes sense? The hens above were both moved to an empty pen. They would have hatched less chicks if I left them with other hens that were still laying.

Make sure they are healthy, free of mites and lice. Dust or medicate if they are present.

Use nest materials that hold shape well. Especially material the hen is able to arrange around her to make a close fitting cup. I use fresh straw or tall stemmy weeds from around the yard. IMO shavings is terrible for this purpose. I think this really makes a difference in how many eggs a hen can successfully incubate.

IF an isolated hen still breaks eggs.. she may simply be 'heavy footed'.. give less eggs in case the hen is not really heavy footed but likes to clamp down and squeeze the eggs together too hard.. these hens do better with fewer eggs than the maximum possible. Sometimes you can tell these hens by if they forcefully press down and make it difficult for you to reach under.. the best ones don't do this- very easy to reach under and pull out an egg without any fuss. The two black hens in the pictures are like this so I gave them honestly, too many eggs but they pulled it off. With a 'clamp down hen' I would have given the same size only maybe 10 eggs maximum.

The other possibilty to consider for broken eggs- were the eggs too thin shelled? Too different sizes mixed in same nest? A small egg in a batch of big eggs will lead to broken eggs.. it is like they 'poke' in the other eggs when the hen rolls then rocks on them before settling down.. best if they are the same size and shape. You can still hatch thin shelled eggs as long as they are not abnormally thin by letting the hen sit on far fewer of them.

 

[Kev]

OMG she was amaizing! She is so cutie.

Beautiful chicken, and sorry for the losses.

If you;d like to know the genetics behind that color- it is dominant white on a mostly reddish chicken. The dominant white has a strong effect on black pigments but only a weak effect on the red/gold pigments. If she did not have the dominant white, she would have been a shade darker of red with a black tail with black patterning on her back.

Another way to visualize how dominant white works is comparing buff laced(chamois) with gold laced (sebright, polish).. the only difference between them is the buff/chamois has dominant white.

 

[Phill98]

Only 52 chickens..  no idea how many chicks.. probably in the 150ish range.

Yeah I said only 52....  for many years I always had more than 300 chickens, not counting the babies. And 100+ peafowl on top of that(only have two peafowl right now).  So 52 seems very few to me...  ha!

It is the peafowl that helped me figure out and pick good setters and how to use broody hens to their best.  Peafowl eggs are very difficult to hatch well in incubators... they hatch out far, far better under peahens or hens. Part of the reason I had so many chickens before.. needed to maintain a number of setting hens to hatch the peafowl eggs.. which require 26 days to hatch.. so, try to imagine how many broody hens are necessary for the entire peafowl breeding season, ugh....   On the other hand, I was quite successful at producing hundreds of peachicks every year and they did sell for good money.

A couple things to help with successful hen incubation:

Plenty of room in nest box, but not too big. If the nest is very big, it is possible the hen may try to shift positions within and sometimes eggs get lost/chilled in the process. 

It helps a lot to have nests that are identical and preferably easily move-able.  I use covered cat litter boxes, most of them are solid blue. I just pick up the whole box with the hen still inside.. no problem.

Isolate a broody hen, completely. Letting other hens have access to her nest is asking for trouble- a lot of eggs get broken this way.

I had rows of cages and small pens expressly for the purpose of isolating broody hens. Only one per section. If this is not possible, I would have gone with something similar to a stack or row of brooders against a wall, except adult chicken-sized, with enough space for the nest and for the hen to exit the nest for a bathroom break. Like rabbit cages if that makes sense? The hens above were both moved to an empty pen.  They would have hatched less chicks if I left them with other hens that were still laying.

Make sure they are healthy, free of mites and lice. Dust or medicate if they are present.

Use nest materials that hold shape well. Especially material the hen is able to arrange around her to make a close fitting cup. I use fresh straw or tall stemmy weeds from around the yard.   IMO shavings is terrible for this purpose.  I think this really makes a difference in how many eggs a hen can successfully incubate.

IF an isolated hen still breaks eggs.. she may simply be 'heavy footed'.. give less eggs in case the hen is not really heavy footed but likes to clamp down and squeeze the eggs together too hard.. these hens do better with fewer eggs than the maximum possible.  Sometimes you can tell these hens by if they forcefully press down and make it difficult for you to reach under.. the best ones don't do this- very easy to reach under and pull out an egg without any fuss.  The two black hens in the pictures are like this so I gave them honestly, too many eggs but they pulled it off.  With a 'clamp down hen' I would have given the same size only maybe 10 eggs maximum.

The other possibilty to consider for broken eggs- were the eggs too thin shelled? Too different sizes mixed in same nest? A small egg in a batch of big eggs will lead to broken eggs.. it is like they 'poke' in the other eggs when the hen rolls then rocks on them before settling down.. best if they are the same size and shape.  You can still hatch thin shelled eggs as long as they are not abnormally thin by letting the hen sit on far fewer of them.

I really don't know. Everything is the same like you said.. Separate pen, straw, nice sized nest and place to take a brake, not many eggs, same sized eggs. Only thing that can be is too thin shell or a broody that pushes eggs too hard. I was at my grandma's today and she said that the broody broke another three eggs.So now she has 10 or 11.

 

[Phill98]

Beautiful chicken, and sorry for the losses.

If you;d like to know the genetics behind that color- it is dominant white on a mostly reddish chicken.  The dominant white has a strong effect on black pigments but only a weak effect on the red/gold pigments.  If she did not have the dominant white, she would have been a shade darker of red with a black tail with black patterning on her back. 

Another way to visualize how dominant white works is comparing buff laced(chamois) with gold laced (sebright, polish).. the only difference between them is the buff/chamois has dominant white.

How can I know that hen or a rooster has a dominant white?

 

[Pyxis]

Here's my newest addition, hatched yesterday, a barred NN OE cockerel. He may also be frizzle, I'll know once he starts getting feathers. I am calling him Squeak.

 

[tlee1956]

Could you post pictures if these spots? That would sure help.

[/IMG]

 

[tlee1956]

[/IMG]

Are those peck marks?

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: If you know the breeding behind the hen or rooster, you can make a good guess. Dominant white is common in White leghorns, Rhode Island whites, and others. If you breed one of these to another colored chicken, the chicks will predominantly be white. (Assuming the parents are homozygous for white).

Recessive white is common in White plymouth rocks, orpingtons, and others. They have to have two of the white genes to be white. When I crossed my white rock to my turken, all the babies hatched black. That is how I knew she was recessive white. If the all the chicks had been white, I could assume the parent was dominant white.

Hope this helps!

 

[ochochicas]

If you;d like to know the genetics behind that color- it is dominant white on a mostly reddish chicken. The dominant white has a strong effect on black pigments but only a weak effect on the red/gold pigments. If she did not have the dominant white, she would have been a shade darker of red with a black tail with black patterning on her back.

Another way to visualize how dominant white works is comparing buff laced(chamois) with gold laced (sebright, polish).. the only difference between them is the buff/chamois has dominant white.

Good to know. I actually crossed the son of my former rooster (who is mostly the same color) with my rhode island red hen. Since there is no dominant white in there, perhaps the chicks will a darker red with black tail. The chicks just hatched yesterday. I think there are five of them. I was going to sell them, but now you've convinced me to keep the ALL just to see what color they turn out to be. You are such an enabler!

Seriously though, 52 chickens sounds like the perfect number. DH said we could have 56, so it has been approved. Looks like I get as many chicks as I want.

None of this hatch are turkens though. My turken pullets are getting big and sure are cute. They are almost ready to go in the coop. I'll have to get better pics of them.