Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[chickengr]

That's a cockerel. I primarily raise English Orpingtons, they are very slow to mature and can be difficult to sex. I occasionally have cockerels fool me into escaping freezer camp for months! Not all full grown Orpington cocks have large combs nor wattles, my Gold Laced boys all have smaller combs and wattles and are often mistaken for very large hens by visitors.

thank you. I do prefer to have another boy as long as it is a normal bird. would it be too cruel if I cross him with rumpless araucanas which are smaller than him?

 

[chickengr]

At this stage, 4 more weeks is an eternity and your 'favorite' can change a thousand times.

I agree. some of your he still look like she to me. I would definitively wait.

 

[chickengr]

A new layer. First pullet egg from May 28th hatch.

30 weeks and 5 days. That seems like a little extra time than most, but I guess the shorter days extended their time to lay. Only 6. More pullets from this batch to start laying now.

congrats!
my girl is about six week older than yours and she started to lay in september. but she has some leghorn blood. her eggs have exactly the same shape like the one in the pic but is tinted, almost white.

 

[Kev]

Taking a break from breaking dozens of cookies with my son and thought I'd share some of my most recent favorite photos of my 12-week old "babies". I'm not sure there will be many more photo sessions as they're becoming increasingly resistant to be photographed, and heavy to hold on one hand as I usually do. I'll start with the boys.


This is Blaze. I've already selected him as a cull, but he's a pretty bird.



Chance - a possible cull, but I'm still watching him.

I love how you and Fire Ant Farm post pictures with comments like that. If I may.. what makes Blaze a cull? He looks rather good in type in that picture.

Is Dutch a splash or dominant white carrier? I was a little surprised to see a white tailed bird in the group.


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Do you feel around on their breasts and legs to see where all the weight is? Fire was great in pointing out a NN cull boy that weighed the most.. but was simply tall and skinny... not a good type for meat. I have seen this many times, an impressive looking bird... not so impressive when picked up and handled.. with another "smaller bird" being shockingly heavy and meaty all over.


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Oh I hate this kind of variation on chicken math.. not exactly what one wants but oh so sweet. Sigh...

I would caution a little bit by not relying too much on type=egg production. Rely much stronger on whether his mother(and father once you have several generations) was an excellent layer. If she was not an exceptional layer, then working on a "layer body type" is not going to result in increase of egg production. Commerical leghorns are skinny only because they also selected for high feed efficiency along egg production. But you can make a skinny hen that only lays 10 eggs per year....
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Yep wait and see, hellbender is very right in saying a lot can change in few weeks.

 

[Kev]

Okay, and now for the girls. This won't take long. There are only two of them since I culled little Weezie.

Fezz - She just doesn't like me. I'm used to NNs being so friendly, but every time while the others come running TO me she runs away. Still, she's got decent weight and is very healthy.



Princess - the complete opposite of Fezz. She's sweet, social and confident. I'm posting two photos of her because she was very determined to snuggle on my shoulder instead of being photographed and I didn't really get a single good shot of her.




Luckily I also have the two NN girls from the Fast Five and they are not only lovely, but a full 5 ounces larger than either of these two girls....and they like me.

Aww so sweet, wish I werent so allergic... I do agree wild birds are annoying....

 

[Kev]

A new layer. First pullet egg from May 28th hatch.

30 weeks and 5 days. That seems like a little extra time than most, but I guess the shorter days extended their time to lay. Only 6. More pullets from this batch to start laying now.

congrats! yes pullets hatched later in the year can take much longer to start laying. Egg production pullet chicks can sell out extremely fast for early in the year hatches for this reason... also for to egg production to continue when the adult hens are molting in the fall, the pullets are laying through this time.

 

[DesertChic]

I love how you and Fire Ant Farm post pictures with comments like that. If I may.. what makes Blaze a cull? He looks rather good in type in that picture.
I chose him as a cull because in spite of how good he looks in this photo, he's more feather than muscle and very small. He's a full 9 ounces lighter than Ozzy with almost no breast development.

Is Dutch a splash or dominant white carrier? I was a little surprised to see a white tailed bird in the group.
Beats the heck outta me. His mother was the same one who resulted in all the barring in the others, and his father was Goldie, who was my buff cockerel that I culled. I'm very surprised by all the white, and very fond of it, which is why I can't quite bring myself to add him to the cull list yet.



Do you feel around on their breasts and legs to see where all the weight is? Always....legs too. Fire was great in pointing out a NN cull boy that weighed the most.. but was simply tall and skinny... not a good type for meat. I have seen this many times, an impressive looking bird... not so impressive when picked up and handled.. with another "smaller bird" being shockingly heavy and meaty all over. Ozzy is super densely muscled with a well developed breast and meaty thighs. His body shape almost perfectly mimics his father's, as does his rate of development.



Oh I hate this kind of variation on chicken math.. not exactly what one wants but oh so sweet. Sigh...

I would caution a little bit by not relying too much on type=egg production. Rely much stronger on whether his mother(and father once you have several generations) was an excellent layer. If she was not an exceptional layer, then working on a "layer body type" is not going to result in increase of egg production. Commerical leghorns are skinny only because they also selected for high feed efficiency along egg production. But you can make a skinny hen that only lays 10 eggs per year....
I honestly can't say for sure what kind of layer his father came from, but his mother is my best Australorp layer. Even during heavy molt she's giving me five jumbo eggs per week and previously laid for 47 days straight. I realize I'm making some assumptions here, but I'm willing to at least experiment with this theory for my egg flock.

Yep wait and see, hellbender is very right in saying a lot can change in few weeks.

Okay...I'm adding my responses within your post above for clarity, with the exception of the last comment, which I'll respond to here. I'm definitely waiting until they're 16+ weeks of age until making the first culls. Until then....I'm just enjoying watching them grow and change. I think I'll have to relocate the girls pretty soon though. Those poor things are heavily outnumbered and the boys are beginning to notice them.

 

[Kev]

Thanks for the insights into your reasons to cull and keep.

I would say that you are spot on about Pepper possibly being a great candidate for a layer line- his mother sounds fantastic. If you're up for line breeding, that boy and his mother would be great starting point.

 

[ChuskaMtns]

thank you. I do prefer to have another boy as long as it is a normal bird. would it be too cruel if I cross him with rumpless araucanas which are smaller than him?

No, I don't think that's cruel. I have a huge Chocolate boy in with my light splash AM girls and he's more than double their size. I run all my chickens in at least 1/4 acre areas and like having a good cock bird to watch over the hens and pullets, these are my one of my egg eating groups rather than breeders.

 

[Kassaundra]

Some baby and moma pics from today. They are about 2.5 weeks I believe. They survived the flooding rain and freezing cold like champs. It has been 30's day temps and 20's night.