@Kev do you know if true transylvanian neck (the white ones) are dominant white, silver or what?
I had to cull my aniela, the only white NN as she was sick and could not get well. I am very sad but I had no choice. I have her daughter emily who is red/buff with incomplete black tail and she has poor health too. I hope it is due to tapeworms only. I finally found the pills that kill tapeworms. it is for dogs, caniquantel plus. it contains praziquantel and fenbendazole. my 2 NNs and 2 marans don't have tapeworms in their droppings after I gave them the pill.
Sorry about Aniela. Fenbendazole is regularly used by peafowl people over here so that should work well. btw for worming and tapeworms you should try talking to peafowl breeders- peafowl are not as strong against parasites like chickens are so they are often regularly medicated/dewormed. They know what works and what does not.
As for white NN that is a hard one to answer as I don't know the typical genetics of birds on your side of the sea. Both dominant white or recessive white are equally possible. I can only offer if there are at least 10 chicks out of a white crossed to another color and none come out white, it most likely is a recessive white. If there was 5 or less chicks, it still could be either she is recessive white or was not pure for dominant white..
As for silver, the only way to tell was to breed her with a gold rooster(like a black and red rooster) and see what color the sons are. Just need one son to find out- if he is brown/red then she was not silver.. if he is black/yellowish or black/white then she was silver.
@Fire Ant Farm !!!!! Great to see you around those parts again! I was starting to think your unusual choice of livestock to farm had taken over or something..
Sorry to hear of the fox attack. Never a bad thing to be over prepared than under prepared for sure.
In my college years in Los Angeles, I saw more gray foxes and possums than my whole childhood out in a very rural area. btw the gray foxes really do climb very well- saw them trotting on top of walls, even on houses too. They;re more suburban than many realize.
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Handsome bird!
he's not wheaten though.. no duckwing triangle on his secondary flight feathers. He's a "leaky lavender"(same concept as a black chicken leaking gold on neck and saddles). Missing some of the genetics necessary for making him a solid color. Isn't the dilution effect so beautiful? Aren't you so tempted to cross him with buffs, legbars and......
the birds here are very nervous of turkey vultures, even though these will never hurt a live bird. Big wings and a nice soaring, tilting habit.
What REALLY sets them off are the white pelicans. They are HUGE and like to fly in formations. So beautiful and cool but oh man, the sky is falling to the chickens and peafowl!
good link! but I am not sure what bird I saw. similar to some eagles, hawks and some others in the photos. it was huge and you cannot see their size in the pics.
as for the wormers, there are no medicines to buy for the chickens. the only one that exists is levamisole. the other ones that are for horses, goats, etc. are pills for 50-600 kg animals, not suitable for chickens. there are some peafowls in greece but not so many that someone will bother to sell wormers for them. I spoke to the vet who takes care of the egg farms and he told me there were no medicines in greece.
good link! but I am not sure what bird I saw. similar to some eagles, hawks and some others in the photos. it was huge and you cannot see their size in the pics.
as for the wormers, there are no medicines to buy for the chickens. the only one that exists is levamisole. the other ones that are for horses, goats, etc. are pills for 50-600 kg animals, not suitable for chickens. there are some peafowls in greece but not so many that someone will bother to sell wormers for them. I spoke to the vet who takes care of the egg farms and he told me there were no medicines in greece.
I had a friend give me 3 NN/frizzle eggs, but my hen got her nest mixed up. The eggs went bad. So I got some store eggs (the farm is local) to give to the broody. They were fertile when opened, and are developing. I looked up the lady's number to ask about her chickens, and she said they have many chickens, but that rooster was a NN, and some of the hens too. So i may get NN after all!
Quote: Hawk pressure is pretty heavy in my yard, as I'm in a bit of a flyway - that's why all my groups have roosters to look after them, and all have an interwoven "net" of green surveyors tape over the paddocks as a deterrent - I realize that hawks can be accurate enough to "thread the needle" through some of the gaps, but it causes them to hesitate long enough for everyone to get under cover. I don't let little bitty ones out in the open unsupervised until they're pretty big for this very reason.
@Fire Ant Farm !!!!! Great to see you around those parts again! I was starting to think your unusual choice of livestock to farm had taken over or something..
Sorry to hear of the fox attack. Never a bad thing to be over prepared than under prepared for sure.
In my college years in Los Angeles, I saw more gray foxes and possums than my whole childhood out in a very rural area. btw the gray foxes really do climb very well- saw them trotting on top of walls, even on houses too. They;re more suburban than many realize.
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Thanks!!! I figured I might have my terminology wrong, but knew he had red coming through either way. Luane (sp?) at Eight Acres Farm sent him to me as a spare "lavender ameraucana", and I saw on her website that starting in 2017, she's starting to have lavender wheaten ameraucanas available, so I thought maybe he was an early one "by accident" (guess not). He's in with the following pullets who will stay with him: four cream legbars (fertile eggs), one black and three blue copper marans (also fertile eggs), and the olive egger (not often fertile - maybe he doesn't like her as much). The German New Hampshire girls are also with him, but they'll be moved out to be with Tank once I find new homes for the speckled sussex. The cream legbars are offspring of Lissa (and have very nice egg color), but I've had trouble with the original CLs and Avian Leukosis. Lissa is still doing fine, but I'm waiting until her daughters are well over one year old before I consider breeding with them. If they end up ill, I'm giving up on CLs and getting ameraucanas. I just realized today that they have fowl pox (looks to be the dry one), so they're all a little unhappy right now.
Here are some shots of the German New Hampshire boys, who are 7 months old, quiet, docile, and still living quite well with each other, and SO handsome. I love them. I'm planning to cross the GNHs with the Naked Necks - the GNH pullets I have lay VERY poorly so far at 7 months (I don't need lots of eggs, but I'll need eggs to hatch, for heavens' sake!). I think I'll gain egg production as well as naked necks in the cross. Aren't they handsome?! Can't you imagine how good they'd look with naked necks?! (I named them based on their leg band colors)
Boy Blue (Chunky Monkey the Splash Copper Marans in at the edge):
Joe Black (likes to talk to me when I'm doing chores):
Earl Grey (most promising for breeding - I wish I could have caught him full broadside - he's huge!)
I've been digging all day to put in a mini-orchard - I'm planting apple trees (varieties we can grow here with lower chill hours: Anna, Ein Shemer, and taking a chance with Fuji, Gala, and Yellow Delicious). I am SO SORE. Not near finished either (and I have a small huisache tree to take down and dig out, too) - I'll be starting again first thing in the AM. I need to go take some ibuprofen or naproxen or something, STAT...
Thanks!!! I figured I might have my terminology wrong, but knew he had red coming through either way. Luane (sp?) at Eight Acres Farm sent him to me as a spare "lavender ameraucana", and I saw on her website that starting in 2017, she's starting to have lavender wheaten ameraucanas available, so I thought maybe he was an early one "by accident" (guess not). He's in with the following pullets who will stay with him: four cream legbars (fertile eggs), one black and three blue copper marans (also fertile eggs), and the olive egger (not often fertile - maybe he doesn't like her as much).
He could be lav wheaten crossed with lavender, this would give a very similar coloring but to be honest, leaks are very common in project lavenders such as lav orps, amers..... It is tricky to get back to a consistent solid black after any sort of color outcross. You'll know once you get to hatching his chicks out of the legbars in particular- if this throws some non solid chicks that's proof he is not pure for black and probable explanation for color on his neck.
psst if Isabel strikes your fancy, that's a combo of buff and lavender. You could get there via him and NN like Puppy(awww) or the NH....
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Wow, handsome roosters! They certainly have the 'well bred' look about them. Can't wait to see the NN GNH crosses! Thanks for the pics.
Perhaps the pullets will prove to be better layers once they are fully mature. Some of the bigger/show birds are like that, probably side effect of being bred for looks rather than productivity. In my experience late layers can prove to be layers of huge eggs once they finally start going. If not... the NN blood will improve things.
Good luck with that orchard, so nice to grow and raise things right at home, eh?
Hawk pressure is pretty heavy in my yard, as I'm in a bit of a flyway - that's why all my groups have roosters to look after them, and all have an interwoven "net" of green surveyors tape over the paddocks as a deterrent - I realize that hawks can be accurate enough to "thread the needle" through some of the gaps, but it causes them to hesitate long enough for everyone to get under cover. I don't let little bitty ones out in the open unsupervised until they're pretty big for this very reason.
Thanks!!! I figured I might have my terminology wrong, but knew he had red coming through either way. Luane (sp?) at Eight Acres Farm sent him to me as a spare "lavender ameraucana", and I saw on her website that starting in 2017, she's starting to have lavender wheaten ameraucanas available, so I thought maybe he was an early one "by accident" (guess not). He's in with the following pullets who will stay with him: four cream legbars (fertile eggs), one black and three blue copper marans (also fertile eggs), and the olive egger (not often fertile - maybe he doesn't like her as much). The German New Hampshire girls are also with him, but they'll be moved out to be with Tank once I find new homes for the speckled sussex. The cream legbars are offspring of Lissa (and have very nice egg color), but I've had trouble with the original CLs and Avian Leukosis. Lissa is still doing fine, but I'm waiting until her daughters are well over one year old before I consider breeding with them. If they end up ill, I'm giving up on CLs and getting ameraucanas. I just realized today that they have fowl pox (looks to be the dry one), so they're all a little unhappy right now.
Here are some shots of the German New Hampshire boys, who are 7 months old, quiet, docile, and still living quite well with each other, and SO handsome. I love them. I'm planning to cross the GNHs with the Naked Necks - the GNH pullets I have lay VERY poorly so far at 7 months (I don't need lots of eggs, but I'll need eggs to hatch, for heavens' sake!). I think I'll gain egg production as well as naked necks in the cross. Aren't they handsome?! Can't you imagine how good they'd look with naked necks?! (I named them based on their leg band colors)
Boy Blue (Chunky Monkey the Splash Copper Marans in at the edge):
Joe Black (likes to talk to me when I'm doing chores):
Earl Grey (most promising for breeding - I wish I could have caught him full broadside - he's huge!)
I've been digging all day to put in a mini-orchard - I'm planting apple trees (varieties we can grow here with lower chill hours: Anna, Ein Shemer, and taking a chance with Fuji, Gala, and Yellow Delicious). I am SO SORE. Not near finished either (and I have a small huisache tree to take down and dig out, too) - I'll be starting again first thing in the AM. I need to go take some ibuprofen or naproxen or something, STAT...
First...WOW! Earl Grey especially is downright gorgeous!
Second....try fishing line above you pens to deter hawks. They can't see it and if they try to fly down and get tangled or touched by it, they completely freak out, panic and often times don't come back.
I just finished my first candling of the Dorking eggs. Nine out of eleven are fertile and developing nicely, and all three of my NN-crosses are also developing beautifully. I'm so excited!!!!
