Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[DesertChic]

Bad news, folks. Do you remember Mystique, the gorgeous partridge NN, large good body, some Fm-ish traits? Was certain I would breed her. And Trinity, the other bigger NN girl, all black, NN phenotype? Her too. The two I was certain to want to breed.




Well, as I was trying to nail down the egg eater earlier (problem fixed now), I noted that SOMEONE is laying a lot of these (below), and I'm afraid it's got to be either Mystique or Trinity (I think it's Mystique). Not good for breeding plans...

Anyone ever try that food coloring on the vent thing to tell who's laying what? I need to know for sure, and it's rare that I can just hang out and watch all 7 girls go in and out of the nest boxes during the day (even on a weekend).

- Ant Farm

Do you track egg weights? I've found this VERY helpful, especially when they first start laying. Not only has it helped me determine when the eggs are sizable enough to ensure a good hatch rate, but noticing a sudden increase in egg weight, not just size, has helped clue me in to the probability of a double-yolker so I don't need to candle every single egg. @hellbender hit the nail on the head with this one....DYs are not uncommon in pullets that have just started laying. Most of my DY girls have leveled out after about 2-3 months of consistent laying. Now their jumbo eggs typically have one massive silver dollar sized yolk instead.

 

[oegbantams3]

 

[oegbantams3]

anybody located around the 559 area?

 

[oegbantams3]

and the babies are on their way

 

[chickengr]

some posts got deleted? how does it work?

@hellbender I do appreciate your knowledge and your experience. and I think your avatar is great!

 

[DesertChic]

Woohoo! My NN pullets are Olive Eggers!

 

[Kev]

That's a nice egg, congrats!

 

[chickengr]

Woohoo! My NN pullets are Olive Eggers!

congrats!

I am jealous again!

 

[Pensmaster]

Hi everyone
The feed store I get my feed from will have NN around Easter which will coincide with the hatch for the Easter HAL.
They get their chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery. Are these still good birds to get?
If so which should I pick from? I.e. Largest, least amount of feathers etc. bow tie no bow tie?

 

[Kev]

Hi everyone
The feed store I get my feed from will have NN around Easter which will coincide with the hatch for the Easter HAL.
They get their chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery. Are these still good birds to get?
If so which should I pick from? I.e. Largest, least amount of feathers etc. bow tie no bow tie?

As for McM stock, I have no idea of the quality of their current stock. My very first one came from them and she turned out to be a huge hen, excellent layer. However that was 25 years ago or so. The second batch from them maybe 5 years after her did not turn out as huge, they still were good sized and were good layers. I forgot to ask at the feed store today where the chicks came from, the ones I picked up last fall were surprisingly small(to me, still havent weighed them yet) but they seem to be good layers. (purely a guess, due to location, I doubt the chicks come from McM)

If the chicks are straight run, get a mix of big/heavy and not so big/heavy as there might be a chance the bigger ones are males, although there often are some girls that are good bit heavier than the others.

Get a mix of bowties also.. some prefer the big bowtie look, others are all about the tiny/no bowties. Almost assuredly, there will be a bunch of ;nicest looking' chicks with big bowties.. it is up to you to pass them over or give them a try.

Chances are very good you will see an extremely high number of big bowties. If there are only 10 chicks, it can be they're all big bowties...

If you happen to see no bowtie chick, grab it. Those are kinda rare and there is somewhat a demand for these from people who breed NN... most of the time I don't see a single case of this in the feed store chicks, however I did get a few in last fall's group.