Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Adorkable]

I have a few showgirls, but this morning I picked up my very first Turkens from the post office. They're super cute

I got 2 NN pullets & they are in with 4 Rhode Island Red pullets. Not sure what color they'll end up being but the lighter colored one seems like it may turn out either white of buff? I'll get better pics once they've settled in and I put them on shavings. Probably in a couple of days.




Can't wait to watch 'em grow

 

[Kassaundra]

Good luck with raising those crosses. btw if the roo breeds the hens normally they will be able to breed the crosses just fine.. mine did.

I found them easy to raise in cooler weather but once they reach sexual maturity, heat suddenly becomes a big problem for them- and mine wasn;t even the huge monster line.

Yes Stripy butt is able to mount and mate w/ my normal (on the small side) sized hens, I was concerned he may not be able to do the deed successfully w/ bigger girls. The heat is going to be my biggest problem w/ these cross girls. If they don't make it through this summer I'll look for some chicks this fall, that will put my plans back about 6 months, but keeping the long vision it isn't so bad.

 

[DesertChic]

I have a few showgirls, but this morning I picked up my very first Turkens from the post office. They're super cute

I got 2 NN pullets & they are in with 4 Rhode Island Red pullets. Not sure what color they'll end up being but the lighter colored one seems like it may turn out either white of buff? I'll get better pics once they've settled in and I put them on shavings. Probably in a couple of days.




Can't wait to watch 'em grow

NN chicks are just the cutest! Watching how they feather out is the best part. And they'll probably feather out much sooner than your fully feathered chicks.

 

[Kev]

Yes Stripy butt is able to mount and mate w/ my normal (on the small side) sized hens, I was concerned he may not be able to do the deed successfully w/ bigger girls. The heat is going to be my biggest problem w/ these cross girls. If they don't make it through this summer I'll look for some chicks this fall, that will put my plans back about 6 months, but keeping the long vision it isn't so bad.

He should manage... the smallest scaleless roo is pretty small but he covers hens much bigger than him with very high fertility.

The roo I used over the cross pullet is basically 'standard size'. Funny how it is kind of hard to gauge what size they would look if covered with feathers.. he's solidly built, not tiny but hard to tell if he would be considered large or normal sized, like a wyandotte.

The freedom ranger chicks were easy to raise through the summer, they only really had problems once they were sexually mature. I'd think your girls should do allright through this summer but prob good idea to hatch their eggs "asap".

I found it interesting how the freedom rangers had massive thighs and legs, nice breasts.. while the cx had massive breasts, rather wimpy thighs/legs.

 

[Kassaundra]

He should manage... the smallest scaleless roo is pretty small but he covers hens much bigger than him with very high fertility.

The roo I used over the cross pullet is basically 'standard size'. Funny how it is kind of hard to gauge what size they would look if covered with feathers.. he's solidly built, not tiny but hard to tell if he would be considered large or normal sized, like a wyandotte.

The freedom ranger chicks were easy to raise through the summer, they only really had problems once they were sexually mature. I'd think your girls should do allright through this summer but prob good idea to hatch their eggs "asap".

I found it interesting how the freedom rangers had massive thighs and legs, nice breasts.. while the cx had massive breasts, rather wimpy thighs/legs.

Oh I do plan to start hatching those eggs asap. I have read where others have had problems hatching cross eggs (low fertility, high double yolkers, not a long lay time before death, etc...) I'm hoping to eventually keep a large naked male and 3 large female carriers as my base quad, and eating the rest. It will be easier to keep fewer nakeds through the winter, easier if the male is the naked, and all offspring will either be carriers or naked. That is the grand plan anyway.

If this works, I'm likely going to adjust my "layer" flock to concentrate on FM, I like the mottled well enough but my true love is in FM, and honestly I don't have the space, time or set up to split my resources between fm and mottled.

 

[Beer can]

NN chicks are just the cutest! Watching how they feather out is the best part. And they'll probably feather out much sooner than your fully feathered chicks. 

I think mine were fully feathered by 2-3 weeks. My giants at five weeks still only have wing feathers. The nakeds are a four-five days older but the two are about even in size. The nakeds are sure giving the giants a workout, I've never seen such rambunctious birds, I've noticed recently the giants are trying to keep up and mimic the actions of the nakeds, flying back and forth and chest butting, those nakeds really move.
I've got them in a four by eight by four foot tall brooder box in the garage and open it up to a outside run when I'm home. Last couple days I've opened the garage and caught a few roosting on the four foot plywood Lol. I might get them all in their own coop this weekend, the nakeds are ready, just not sure about the giants and silkie giant crosses (still been getting down in the 40s at night) and I want to keep them together for now.
Glad we don't have to deal with the heat you all do. We had mid 90s a few weeks ago, then by that weekend I was mowing the lawn in a winter coat and hat wondering if it was going to snow. We can get high 90s in the summer but usually only a couple weeks of it, 80s is the norm and that's only for maybe three months, 80s feels too hot to me. I'll be finding out this winter if they are as cold hardy as they say.

 

[Kev]

Oh I do plan to start hatching those eggs asap. I have read where others have had problems hatching cross eggs (low fertility, high double yolkers, not a long lay time before death, etc...) I'm hoping to eventually keep a large naked male and 3 large female carriers as my base quad, and eating the rest. It will be easier to keep fewer nakeds through the winter, easier if the male is the naked, and all offspring will either be carriers or naked. That is the grand plan anyway.

If this works, I'm likely going to adjust my "layer" flock to concentrate on FM, I like the mottled well enough but my true love is in FM, and honestly I don't have the space, time or set up to split my resources between fm and mottled.

Yeah that seems like a good plan- overwintered with mostly naked males and carrier females and that worked out very well.

I was lucky the cross male was able to breed naturally and turned out extremely fertile- actually a majority of my cx cross chicks were parented by him- the hen only laid very few eggs. Have to say he was able to only breed the larger hens, he could not breed anything smaller than standard size- he could not breed say, a leghorn hen type.

Sigh.... am dealing with similar issues... need to limit the flock size.. could use downsizing but so hard to decide what to let go and what to continue. The only way I could downsize at this point is to completely drop a line or two. It is hard to let a project go after having worked on it for a couple generations without yet reaching the goal.

were you aware mottle negatively affects FM expression? Just like how Id and barring is doing with some of my current chicks(recent 'paint' chick pics) I do hope to breed those in a way to ditch the barring and Id(makes legs clear white or yellow). It'd be nice to see big meaty FM

 

[chickengr]

It is genetic so a broody raised would still end up way big and most don;t live much longer past 2 years.

Both of the cornish x parents(got a cockerel and a pullet to reach sexual maturity this spring) have been killed off by 90-100 degree heat wave a couple months ago.. sad.

Dominant white(as in a solid white bird) crossed with black tail white would give you solid whites, maybe some with black random spots.

However if you cross roo with ISA coloring with a black tail white hen that is sex linked mating- the white on black tail whites is due to sex linked silver.. the cockerels would start out very white and the pullets would be buff/reddish and grow out into the ISA color.

Crossing ISA with a black would give you cream chicks, some with random black spots (and half of the chicks would be black as ISA are not pure for dominant white..) however a lot of them will grow up to have a buff wash over them and the cockerels would grow a dark red patch on their wings. If paint is your goal cross them again with a solid black to get rid of the buff wash.

in my area people keep cornish x till may only. they cannot survive the heat.

 

[chickengr]

Haha when my flock was free range, when the ground was too hot to the touch the lighter weight chickens would actually try to fly from shade to shade.. the heavy ones had to just run for it. Their pens are completely covered, some with solid roofs, some partly solid roof with shade cloth covering the rest. Too hot for most of the year to have sunny runs for them.

Your girls are partridges aka dark browns..

thank you. I have BCM and buff orpington males. what colours can I get from their crosses? I also have a mostly red araucana boy but I don't want to breed these girls with him. I plan to cross him with a salmon faverolles. what colour would I get, this is a cockerel:



btw, I made another shade for my chickens.

 

[Kassaundra]

Yeah that seems like a good plan- overwintered with mostly naked males and carrier females and that worked out very well.

I was lucky the cross male was able to breed naturally and turned out extremely fertile- actually a majority of my cx cross chicks were parented by him- the hen only laid very few eggs. Have to say he was able to only breed the larger hens, he could not breed anything smaller than standard size- he could not breed say, a leghorn hen type.

Sigh.... am dealing with similar issues... need to limit the flock size.. could use downsizing but so hard to decide what to let go and what to continue. The only way I could downsize at this point is to completely drop a line or two. It is hard to let a project go after having worked on it for a couple generations without yet reaching the goal.

were you aware mottle negatively affects FM expression? Just like how Id and barring is doing with some of my current chicks(recent 'paint' chick pics) I do hope to breed those in a way to ditch the barring and Id(makes legs clear white or yellow). It'd be nice to see big meaty FM

I wasn't until you said something some time back, which made me think I really can't pursue both and get nice results, and if I have to eliminate one it would be mottled for sure.