Haha! He was the only roo I had for a while for the showgirl project and so nice in type so I took his 'abuse' with no correction than trying to aim his head away from any bodily parts...... lol
I think it's because of the fuzziness that makes people give them way too much leeway in culling and excusing bad behavior. A standard sized, non fuzzy roo that attacks people is a mean rooster... a silkie doing the exact same thing is "very protective of his girls".... and good forbid you even suggest chopping his head off and making soup. Which brings to another problem- most people over here won't eat them because of their colored meat. It's delicious! geeze.
I confess I haven't actually eaten the Silkie meat....yet. My two former cockerels are in the freezer right now, soon to be joined by Skittles, the last pure Silkie I hatched. He's not as bad as his father and uncle were, but with so many cockerels on the property that I'm far more interested in working with I'm having a hard time convincing myself to keep him around...no matter how cute he may be.
OK, so, for better or for worse, I have decided not to weigh this week. Too stressful for them with the leg band change and then new roaming outside the tractor. (I welcome suggestions for weighing birds accurately once they get this big.)
But with them ranging outside, I'm getting a much better look at each bird, including watching them "be themselves" with more room. Unfortunately, I like all the cockerels. Forced to pick, I'd still like to keep 6 out of 7 of them. NOT practical. So I will keep watching them closely. In the meanwhile, I may have been mistaken about Tank being the top of the pecking order - at a minimum, there are two other cockerels in the running, the slate legged boy and the rose-combed black one (and they may even be gaining on Tank in size as well). I'm just going to keep watching them as long as I can before I have to make a decision. I like them all - so unique, each one!!!
More photos, of birds I didn't get good photos of yesterday, mostly the other cockerels and Puppy. Oh, and I also named all the NN girls today - didn't set out to do it, but it just happened after watching them for so long, and I knew I was keeping them for long haul. Puppy, Sweetie, Buffy (the third smaller buff pullet), Trinity (all black pullet), Switch (small black-downed pullet with red accents), and Mystique (partridge pullet - got the name for her hairdo...).
Here is the boy that I think may be vying for Tank's position at top of the pecking order. I witnessed one exchange between him and Tank where Tank backed down. He even stared down the big rose-combed black cockerel (who is the other one I was thinking might be vying for top spot). Mostly, this boy spent his time today walking around looking for other cockerels to put in their place. (Though he wasn't all that obnoxious/violent about it.)
Here's one of the smaller boys, buff-looking, NN phenotype. Super friendly ever since he was little bitty:
Here's one of the boys who started black-downed. He has turned out so pretty - and today, he decided that I was his best friend...
And here's Puppy, friendly as ever.
Switch and Trinity were also cuddly today, as was Sweetie - I just didn't get photos, too busy cuddling.
I confess I haven't actually eaten the Silkie meat....yet. My two former cockerels are in the freezer right now, soon to be joined by Skittles, the last pure Silkie I hatched. He's not as bad as his father and uncle were, but with so many cockerels on the property that I'm far more interested in working with I'm having a hard time convincing myself to keep him around...no matter how cute he may be.
Try it at least once w/ mild seasoning. I think the meat has a sweet, delicate flavor that gets lost w/ heavy seasoning. Some people like to make it w/ thick or dark sauces to camaflauge the color but then it's "just chicken"
Try it at least once w/ mild seasoning. I think the meat has a sweet, delicate flavor that gets lost w/ heavy seasoning. Some people like to make it w/ thick or dark sauces to camaflauge the color but then it's "just chicken"
OK, so, for better or for worse, I have decided not to weigh this week. Too stressful for them with the leg band change and then new roaming outside the tractor. (I welcome suggestions for weighing birds accurately once they get this big.)
But with them ranging outside, I'm getting a much better look at each bird, including watching them "be themselves" with more room. Unfortunately, I like all the cockerels. Forced to pick, I'd still like to keep 6 out of 7 of them. NOT practical. So I will keep watching them closely. In the meanwhile, I may have been mistaken about Tank being the top of the pecking order - at a minimum, there are two other cockerels in the running, the slate legged boy and the rose-combed black one (and they may even be gaining on Tank in size as well). I'm just going to keep watching them as long as I can before I have to make a decision. I like them all - so unique, each one!!!
More photos, of birds I didn't get good photos of yesterday, mostly the other cockerels and Puppy. Oh, and I also named all the NN girls today - didn't set out to do it, but it just happened after watching them for so long, and I knew I was keeping them for long haul. Puppy, Sweetie, Buffy (the third smaller buff pullet), Trinity (all black pullet), Switch (small black-downed pullet with red accents), and Mystique (partridge pullet - got the name for her hairdo...).
Here is the boy that I think may be vying for Tank's position at top of the pecking order. I witnessed one exchange between him and Tank where Tank backed down. He even stared down the big rose-combed black cockerel (who is the other one I was thinking might be vying for top spot). Mostly, this boy spent his time today walking around looking for other cockerels to put in their place. (Though he wasn't all that obnoxious/violent about it.)
Here's one of the smaller boys, buff-looking, NN phenotype. Super friendly ever since he was little bitty:
Here's one of the boys who started black-downed. He has turned out so pretty - and today, he decided that I was his best friend...
And here's Puppy, friendly as ever.
Switch and Trinity were also cuddly today, as was Sweetie - I just didn't get photos, too busy cuddling.
Haha I know right! It's worse here- no summer monsoon rains, so it's bone dry and brown for most of the year... Seeing green background in summer pictures just feels so wrong to me lol
Try it at least once w/ mild seasoning. I think the meat has a sweet, delicate flavor that gets lost w/ heavy seasoning. Some people like to make it w/ thick or dark sauces to camaflauge the color but then it's "just chicken"
Never thought of it, but you are exactly right on this. It really does cover up a bit of the sweeter taste in the Japanese and yellow curry dinners. The sweet taste is so much move evident in the way I grill them- minimal seasoning and no heavy sauces...
Charming post and great pictures! I just finally realized you have numbered ties? Where did you get them? I've had to use method like: line one, black ties on left leg, line 2, black on right leg, repeat with blue or yellow. This doesn't give a chance for individual bird ID however I usually hatch multiples then cull at suitable ages.....
That boy's color is a very typical result of either solid black crossed with anything colored or black being present in a mixed color flock. If you like this color, breed him as it;s a dominant color to get more.
Same thing with rose comb- if you like it, breed him to spread it around.
Blue legs on the potential top roo is due to him lacking the sex linked dominant gene called Id- Inhibitor of Dermal pigment. Breeding him with yellow/white legged hens will give you sex linking- daughters with green or blue legs, and yellow/white legged sons.
Your birds are showing a temperament I prefer.... cockerels settling rank mostly by simple posturing.. maybe a 'I meant this' peck or two, nothing more...
Mystique is a great name, for her hairdo and her partridge barring could be her morphing scales...
I'm not good at familial relationships, but lets see if we can figure it out. Kev's sc birds are 1/2 siblings (from different egg batches) to Rudy, so his birds offspring would be Rudy's nieces and nephews???? right????
There were no naked chicks out of the eggs direct from you.. the first nakeds were out of those bred together. That makes Dilo, Golem and Ivar something like Rudy's grand nephews and nieces? (that's them in the avatar)
btw Rudy also has two great-great-great nephews out of this year's batches... One of them is father to Skink's chicks.... making them great-great-great-great nephew/nieces....
