Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[flower]

I can believe it! My Silkie cockerel, Gingy, would just run full force into the bottom of my husbands foot over and over again and if he reached down to push him away, Gingy would try to latch on to his flesh. He bit me really hard one time, but let glow as soon as he realized I was strangling him.

I then carried him around by his feet for nearly twenty minutes until he learned to run in the other direction whenever I came around.

I think Silkie cockerels have a Napolean complex. Just my opinion....

Only limited experience with Silkie Roosters has been varied but the last one that I had in my flock has led me to not want any additional Silkie Roos. He came from good stock and was quite handsome but when he changed from cockerel to cock he turned very aggressive toward the flock. He insisted on mounting a timid male Polish. Both were culled. My first Silkie mixed in very well with the flock.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

No Bowtie! This one will give you the most naked necked babies. All if his should be some kind of naked necked regardless of the hens he's bred to.

That's a good point - it's something I'm looking at as I decide. But I have two (Dozer and Apoc) that are Nn but impressive, and Bane is impressively big even if he is scary. I'll continue to watch, and hope the decision gets easier...

- Ant Farm

edit: I think Neo is so low in the order because he's more focused on cuddling with me. He sat in my lap for half an hour, and lingered near me much of the time.

 

[Kev]

Personally I would not be afraid of using Nn especially if it is the better bird overall. I do understand though... it is annoying to get nn chicks but if most of the NN/Nn batch turn out well then that's pleasing and more important than concentrating on a single trait. But then I do recognize, if all the birds were NN then you can concentrate on the other things... Hmm!

The REALLY hard part is when there's a Nn better than a NN..... but not that by much.. lol Or a Nn pullet has started laying earlier or is laying bigger eggs than a NN... sigh. It's extremely easy choice though if it happens the other way around.

are the girls mostly Nn or NN?

 

[draye]

That's a good point - it's something I'm looking at as I decide. But I have two (Dozer and Apoc) that are Nn but impressive, and Bane is impressively big even if he is scary. I'll continue to watch, and hope the decision gets easier...

- Ant Farm 

edit: I think Neo is so low in the order because he's more focused on cuddling with me. He sat in my lap for half an hour, and lingered near me much of the time. 

I do the same. I've picked color over the now tie before. But lately I'm more focused on the no to little feathers on the neck area.

I have one from the Mottled group right now that I'm focusing on because he has no feathers since hatch. He has very little mottling but should pass it on ( the mottle gene) to at least half of his chicks. But even with no mottling he will make a great sire of NN's he has quite a bit of size on him also.

Edit: don't know what happened to the quote, but I think you can see the separation of tge quote and my post.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

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...

VERY useful information - thanks!!!

I got the colored numbered zip ties from Stromberg's - you have to tell them that you want them numbers 1-25 if you order 25, otherwise it's random. Colors are blue, green, pink, yellow, and red (which I didn't use). I got a set of each, so that I could best track which leg bands needed to be changed out as they grew. Pretty cheap. I've liked them a lot - VERY useful until they developed more distinctive feathering.

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Personally I would not be afraid of using Nn especially if it is the better bird overall. I do understand though... it is annoying to get nn chicks but if most of the NN/Nn batch turn out well then that's pleasing and more important than concentrating on a single trait. But then I do recognize, if all the birds were NN then you can concentrate on the other things... Hmm!

The REALLY hard part is when there's a Nn better than a NN..... but not that by much.. lol Or a Nn pullet has started laying earlier or is laying bigger eggs than a NN... sigh. It's extremely easy choice though if it happens the other way around.

are the girls mostly Nn or NN?

Yeah, decisions, decisions. I wish I could keep 6 cockerels, but I'd feel sorry for the 6 pullets!!!

Pullets:

Trinity (all black) - NN
Switch (smallest pullet, black with evolving slight partridge-ish accents, and REALLY yellow skin - see photo below) - NN
Sweetie (buff, a few black accents, most friendly, sleeps on my lap) - NN
Puppy (buff, more black accents) - Nn
Buffy (buff, no black accents, small) - Nn
Mystique (partridge, biggest pullet) - Nn

Switch was cuddly today and I got a close look at some interesting accents on her feather tips:



(This whole feather color thing is so fascinating! Especially when it's so unpredictable like it has been with this batch of NNs...)

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

That is good to know! Only Tugboat is feathering out so slowly, so he might very well have that going on. Lots of fun genes in this lot. I didn't know they were related to yours, so also good to know! Pork must be related to the famous Rudy then haha



The leader is the pointy part off the back, that not all rose combs have:


Or at least I think it is? That is how I've seen it used. I'm interested in rosecomb bantams and saw it being used that way. They seem like a hard breed to get in to.

Werewolf is MASSIVE. It is nice to know the size passes down so well. I hope Marshmallow turns out to be a good mom! My incubator fits so few eggs and my husband can only get so mad if I'm hatching babies for the hen's health

Gotta get 'em off those nests somehow and I don't have a broody breaker. I do have a 8 x 10 coop and 24 x 14 chicken run with 11 chickens to use it right now. It's like an empty palace. I can fence off an area for broody mommas I'm sure.

I'll go with that picture as to what a leader is! Personally I do not like leaders and sort of select against it.. other things selected for are smoother(less or no spikes in the middle) and comb that follows the head line. I just cannot stand combs with the leader part shooting off into the sky.

Trying to remember how much the leader expresses itself on very young chicks... I think you can make a rough guess as I can remember chicks with obvious leader bumps grew bigger combs with way long leaders and chicks with not very obvious leader bump growing very short or short/medium leaders.

Clever way to break a broody... heh heh!

to give an idea of the differences between the lines.. all birds in picture are from separate 'lines' of scaleless projects and all are same day hatch... I can't remember exactly how old they are in this picture.

 

[draye]

Some reason this wont let me exit. I wasn't trying to post. So I have to type something to get out. Ha.

 

[DesertChic]

edit: I think Neo is so low in the order because he's more focused on cuddling with me. He sat in my lap for half an hour, and lingered near me much of the time.

I've noticed this with some of my cockerels as well. I suspect that the additional human cuddling is more indicative of them already being lower on the pecking order than being a cause of it, but I can't be sure. My favorite Bielefelder cockerel, Bosch, bonded with me at hatch and has always been one of my most affectionate and snuggly chickens, but he's also lower in the pecking order than most of my other cockerels. When he finally formed his own small harem I was practically cheering for him because I thought he would never have his own girls, but he protects and caters to his favorites while still remaining exceptionally affectionate with me.

The REALLY hard part is when there's a Nn better than a NN..... but not that by much.. lol Or a Nn pullet has started laying earlier or is laying bigger eggs than a NN... sigh. It's extremely easy choice though if it happens the other way around.

I suspect this is going to be my problem very soon. My NN / Australorp chick I think is turning out to be a cockerel, and I like it so much more than Ozzy right now. I didn't see that coming....and I know it's going to make my decision regarding which is a cull that much harder to make.

 

[HTChick]

So my assorted order from McMurray is 5 weeks now. It included two turkens. Last Friday I moved them outside to their welded wire chicken yard. Using an igloo dog house with the red light in it for a temporary coop. Although they were a bit shocked at first (it is cool here now), they seemed to adjust well. However, after having no problem at all with pecking I found my turkens today being pecked mostly at the top of their shoulders where the feather line starts. The two that I think are white leghorns were the ones I I saw pecking. So I brought the two back inside to my brooder that I haven't taken down. They do not seem to be pecking each other. I think they are either a hen and a roo or two roos (mostly due to rooster posturing). I will keep them separated until healed up though I am now concerned how they will do when put back. Anyone with mixed flocks have opinions? Giving them some boiled egg for extra protein, anything else to do for the wounds? They are not actively bleeding, look more like bruising plus missing feathers.