Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Fire Ant Farm]

These are lovely!

- Ant Farm

 

[chickengr]

These are lovely!

- Ant Farm

x2

ran out of ovations for today, lol.

 

[chickengr]

Chickengr what breeds did you use to get this size hen? Can it be duplicated I guess is my question

I got her as a 4 wk old chick. but all of them have blood from greek barnyard chickens that lay a lot of eggs and can be about 5-6 kg. they are not a breed though as they can be any colour, size, etc.

 

[Kev]

Thanks Kev. I've dropped in just to see if I can find a decent egg layer with early meat possibilities. I've hatched some Altsteirer and unknown to me apparently some SFH on the NY HAL. I just don't know if either of them are as good as the NN. Do the NN with the lack of feather put their energy into meat production?

The Altsteirer is supposed to be a good dual purpose bird. Not as big as NN which I'm ok with if they really lay as well as they say they should. There just three of us here now so a large chicken isn't necessary. I do like butchering at three to four months for best results. My project birds give good meat just not eggs.

Studies by the broiler industry involving NN introduced into broiler stock seem to say NN birds have more meat yield than their non NN relatives and control outgroups. The difference is more apparent in hot climates- a lot of the studies I came across were for broilers in hot desert areas where there was either high losses or special measures having to be taken for their survival and the study was to check if NN gave any advantage.

The NN continued to eat because they were able to stay cooler(they took internal temperatures) and less stressed than the non NN so they were able to gain more weight.

The difference was not so great in cool/cold-ish set up however if I understood them right, even while the NN did not grow faster/bigger, they still had more meat yield per live weight. Seemed like the NN gene had a side effect of making more meat on the birds. Don't hold me to this.. those are not exactly the easiest reads and my eyes get crossed reading them for too long... the stilted language does not help much.

I have to remember all these studies were done with broiler type stock so those NN are not like 'our' NN though.. I see a lot of variation in my birds but it is due to a lot of mixing and separate lines with different selection... it does seem the NN ones are generally heavier feeling than the non NN but that's without being able to give comparable weights on them though.

I definitely see a huge benefit to the NN as the summertimes get to 110-120F, which kills the heavier or meat bred breeds here.. I tested for it by introducing NN into unfortunately proven heat-sensitive breed and there was a big improvement in heat tolerance.

Besides the broiler stock studies, free range NN are very popular table chicken in France along the Bresse.

 

[Kev]

thank you.

he is pure araucana so must be pure for pea comb. I have an araucana/silkie cross and she has a tail (her dad was araucana). but pea comb would be a sign.

for how long can my pullet be fertile from 1 mating? I don't have incubator and it seems my muscovie duck stopped laying without becoming broody (I wanted to use her to hatch chicks).

the bigger chick has a 5kg mom and the smallers mom is 3 kg.

the base of bigger chick's feathers is blue and it is getting more dark feathers all over the body. it is wattles and feet that make me think it is a boy. although it's mom had big feet and wattles as a chick. it seems I have to be patient with this mystery chick. every morning I think it is a pullet and by the end of the day I think it is a cockerel, lol.

2 weeks is the usual answer from a single mating. It can be up to three weeks, or maybe one week-ish if there's another rooster(s) actively breeding her after the single mating. The sperm get in competition and the older sperm can get pushed out... but they can still be tricky little things..

Oh that explains the chick size difference! If the bigger one is a boy, what would you plan to do with it?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Kev , guess what, guess what, guess what?!?! I also have Lavender Ameraucanas coming this spring!!!! (Found out they were available and I could add to my order.)

Now I just need to remember what you said about using these in crosses for interesting coloring in my NN...

 

[Kev]

I bet that it may just be that the "slow decline" in hatchery stock is later coming for NNs than the other breeds. But there were still nice weights and body types in my birds. Snape is maturing so nicely. He is appropriately protective of the girls, getting better with his "technique" (though he still has some learning to do), and really is a big broad beast. They still prefer to sleep in a pig pile rather than roost, and he's so much bigger, the girls all burrow under him and he keeps them warm like a broody would. His rose comb is a bit of a lopsided mess of a thing, like he's wearing a hat slightly cocked to one side - good thing I don't care!

Yeah probably... I hear the same about white Rocks generally being a little meatier than the other Rock colors.

I just thought of something... does the increasing urbanization and more people regarding chickens as backyard pets and/or largely for fresh eggs and a higher(?) reluctance for butchering their own birds help the lean towards egg production type?

The other thing it may be natural drift if the breeders aren't selecting the birds so much as hatching whatever eggs show up for collection... better layers are going to leave more offspring and so on... similar to the drift from better quality color patterns in the "patterned" breeds(laced wyandottes etc).


Quote:
Oh I get you.. now and then I get tempted and start thinking about the S&G birds! sigh...

My fault?? Why, thank you for the grand compliment...

None of the genes for lacing is sex linked so it really does not matter which parent is laced. Tank/Apoc x laced or laced over Sweetie, Puppy etc but if it were me, I probably would give a preference to laced over Mystique as all other of your NN besides Snape are based on wheaten. Wheaten has a effect on reducing the black patterning on the breasts, which causes birds with good complete lacing on their backs and wings but can be more like half moons or 'spangles' on their breasts.

It's still possible to get good lacing all over even using Tank or Sweetie, as the wyandottes will introduce partridge into them and if you want good lacing all over, keep the partridge patterned chicks and cull out the wheaten chicks and you will get there pretty fast.

Snape can be a good candidate, despite him being black. If he;s pure for black, his chicks over a blrw will be all blacks/blues like him.. but they will all be carriers for partridge. In the second generation it will be pretty easy to figure out the culls for a laced project- all of the black chicks are immediate culls..

 

[Kev]

@Kev , guess what, guess what, guess what?!?! I also have Lavender Ameraucanas coming this spring!!!! (Found out they were available and I could add to my order.)

Now I just need to remember what you said about using these in crosses for interesting coloring in my NN...

Yeah!!!!! I'm looking forward to your flock's progress even more so!

You could end up with Isabel NN. Isabel is just a buff colored bird with lavender added, which makes them even softer in color.

If it gets into your laced line, that's going to throw crazy colors... lavender interacting with blue, the various reds(the R part of blr), the various patternings...

I just realized... you don't seem to have any silver in your whole flock including the upcoming chicks? black and white birds? Not a fan?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Yeah!!!!! I'm looking forward to your flock's progress even more so!

You could end up with Isabel NN. Isabel is just a buff colored bird with lavender added, which makes them even softer in color.

If it gets into your laced line, that's going to throw crazy colors... lavender interacting with blue, the various reds(the R part of blr), the various patternings...

I just realized... you don't seem to have any silver in your whole flock including the upcoming chicks? black and white birds? Not a fan?

Isabel NNs!!!!! I love it!!!!! So excited...

I hadn't noticed that I was missing black and white until you pointed it out... (Maybe I'll need to get some!) I have cream leg bars - don't they have silver (or am I just way to tired to still be typing tonight...)?

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

Isabel NNs!!!!! I love it!!!!! So excited...

I hadn't noticed that I was missing black and white until you pointed it out... (Maybe I'll need to get some!) I have cream leg bars - don't they have silver (or am I just way to tired to still be typing tonight...)?

- Ant Farm

No silver in cream legbars.

There's a chance silver may be lurking in the lav amers. There's no real way to tell if a black chicken is gold or silver without test breeding. I have no idea if there's a higher chance of gold or silver in those but its possible to make a guess by asking what color do the leaky birds show.