Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Kassaundra]

No don't feel like a dweeb at all, I have the benefit of looking at totally naked chicks at hatch and while growing.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Also another question about the amount of feathers a NN should have. My NN roosters look more like RIR without neck feathers. I was hoping they would have less feathers than that. Are there different breeds of them with less feathers?

As others have said, looks from his neck like he's homozygous NN. He has the same appearance of my Tank. Check for the bare patches like others have said. If you pick him up, even if he doesn't let you twist and turn him around, your hands will come into contact with a lot of bare skin in your hands in between the feathers, which will tell you...

Ok, Y'all. I have two posts I'm going to out together... first:

I'm gonna throw this out there... I am a terrible hatcher. However... some people just love to hatch. Anybody that wants to hatch (please... standard size or XL's only...) but doesn't have room for growing I will take them and happily pay shipping.

Hubby bought my coop for Christmas!! Will be delivered in 4-6 weeks. I'll have plenty of room!


Second: I have a question and a giggle for you. Last spring Mothergoose sent me some hatching eggs on a trade. I am afraid I am A terrible hatcher... (see part A). So, we only got one little rooster. His name was Peep at first, but he eventually become Pete. Now he is crowing fairly strong, and learning to take care of his (2) hens. So... my 18mo old grandbaby is a total corker. His favorite thing in the world is swinging sticks... at everything, everyone, or nothing, or Noone. A couple of weeks ago Pete was escorting me to the feed room and decided my ankles needed "attention". Yep... he flogged me. The first time he hit me I didn't register what he'd done, as he had NEVER EVER offered any behavior like that before. But, a couple of minutes later he came at me again. This time I saw him and bounced him off my foot. (Not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to launch him back off me). He fluffed up and went to eating with his girls. He has done that to each of the grown-ups ONCE and with the same response. Hasn't offered a second time. Fast forward to this past Monday. The munchkin was swinging his stick... closer amd closer to the hens... I had made several redirection and specifically told him that Pete didn't like people bothering the biddies. Said munchkin is stubborn... pretty soon sure enough, here comes Pete. He did NOT scratch, flap, spur, etc... cause any injury. However, he hit the stubborn munchkin in the chest with his chest, knocked him down. I went to the ruckus and "launched" Pete off the stubborn munchkin, picked Stubborn Munchkin up and chased Pete around the yard until he got tired and went in the roost.

Here is the giggle... I now had Pete all fluffed in the pen, dejected for being scolded for protecting his ladies and stubborn munchkin mad because he was now not willing to get close to the pen to swing his stick. He stood about 25 feet away jabbering at Pete around his Paci and I am pretty sure if he could talk he would have been repeating his Paw's construction language. For those about to say "kill the mean Rooster"... don't worry, if he is indeed mean I'll have to stand in line behind Stubborn Munchkin's Mama and Paw. However, at this point I am inclined to believe that Pete is A. A young Roo learning his job, and B. Stubborn Munchkin needed to understand the Rooster should be respected. Pete has not bothered anyone since then, and has been given every opportunity to act up. Stubborn Munchkin does not venture close to the hens with his stick... I'll update if the saga continues. Now the question(s)... in hindsight, do you think our Pete is mean, or just a teenager learning his role? And... did I handle the situation ok?

I'd say rooster was justified, and could have done a lot more damage if he wanted to. I'd give him a pass, but would ensure no more stick swinging or other taunting behavior, so the rooster doesn't end up learning to attack little humans. I stop handling/cuddling even my most sweet roos after they start taking their protector role seriously...

Electro was supposed to be Electra but he's a roo, it turns out. He gets his coloring from grandad, a Silver Laced Wyandotte. He is the biggest and the first of 4 cockrels of various breeds to begin mounting and crowing at 3-1/2 months. He has a deep resonant crow.

Stunning!!!!!

That's funny. Even though Pete was hand raised, when we put him outside he began to lose his desire for interaction. He will come close and eat, and doesn't shy away, but I can't just walk up to him.

Yup. He's a grown up protector now.

In other news (I can't recall if I posted earlier about this here or in the Breeding for Production thread) - Tank and his girls were let out of their coop this afternoon after being "cooped" up for 2 weeks. They did fine, he seems to have bonded with them, and he led the way back into the coop when it was time for bed, with them following him immediately. There was a little roost-jockeying before bed, but nothing major, and they went to bed quietly. Many thanks for the advice, all...

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

Yay, Ant Farm running smooth now!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Yay, Ant Farm running smooth now!

Thanks again for the reassurance and advice. It was a relief to see things go smoothly with them this evening...

I am Soooooo ready to hatch form them! When they ever start laying, of course! (Only one or maybe two laying right now - all of the pullets that age got arrested but he fowl pox they had, so that may be part of the deal)

 

[Kev]

Don't feel like a dweeb. I've never seen that on my chicks either and would've done the same thing you did. Yet one more reason I love this thread and the people on it...full of sage advice and tons of info and always willing to help.

Right, don't be feeling al dweebed up, okay?

Naked neck shows some things in plain sight what is normal but usually invisible in non-NN chicks.

Fibro on light(pinkish or yellowish) and thin skinned skin NN(usually on non black feather chicks like buff, etc) can create eerie x-ray looks, such as the black skull, neck bones, bands on trachea and sometimes bits of the joints showing through the skin. It doesn't last for very long, the skin thickens/becomes more opaque as they mature. You'd probably never notice that unless they were butchered really young.

Another good one is how pea comb affects the body skin, even on day olds- the naked pattern is different, especially around the face, between the comb and beak. There is no visual difference on the fuzz between pea and single comb on non NN chicks as far as I know.

 

[Kev]

Wow he is crazy beautiful and welcome.

 

[DesertChic]

Thanks again for the reassurance and advice. It was a relief to see things go smoothly with them this evening...

I am Soooooo ready to hatch form them! When they ever start laying, of course! (Only one or maybe two laying right now - all of the pullets that age got arrested but he fowl pox they had, so that may be part of the deal)

I just traumatized my husband and son by showing them the two dozen eggs from my NNs that I'm about to put in the incubator. I want to check to see if the "meat breeders" I selected from my two flocks actually pan out. Otherwise, I may have some butchering ahead of me. It's all part of the plan, but all they see is 75 chickens now and possibly another 2 dozen in the incubator.

 

[Kev]

I just traumatized my husband and son by showing them the two dozen eggs from my NNs that I'm about to put in the incubator. I want to check to see if the "meat breeders" I selected from my two flocks actually pan out. Otherwise, I may have some butchering ahead of me. It's all part of the plan, but all they see is 75 chickens now and possibly another 2 dozen in the incubator.

Bit sensitive aren't they? Two dozen... just two dozen? that's not even half of a drop in a bucket.... Silly, they are......

p.s. weighed two cockerels today- 11 and 13 pounds, a bit pleased at that.

 

[Pensmaster]

He does have less body feathers, but it doesn't look like it just looking at them.  If you pick him up and look down each side of his back you will see bare tracts covered by nearby feathers, but not growing any.

Thanks. I did check on the neck feathers. . He's down to one and his brother has two maybe three. No attempt to pick either up yet. Stirs up too much dust.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:

When I was talking to my mother on the phone about the spring plans (including how excited I am to evaluate the S&G chicks), she paused and said, "we're worried about you..."

Bit sensitive aren't they? Two dozen... just two dozen? that's not even half of a drop in a bucket.... Silly, they are......

p.s. weighed two cockerels today- 11 and 13 pounds, a bit pleased at that.

Wow! What age/background?

- Ant Farm