Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Kev]

OK, guys. Weighing info to share.

First, yesterday I weighed and banded the S&Gs yesterday. HIGHLY variable weights (I'm thinking maybe because of the rocky start they had). They were mostly between 4-5.5 oz, but a couple that were frighteningly small (they look well, if little), and one boy who is exactly as big as the biggest of the TankxGNH group was at the same age. He's also been the friendly one and likes to run up to me in the brooder. His name is 57 (for now).

Here is the table of weights (with Tank as comparison). I was worried that the weight was a mistake (since it was so much more than the others), so I weighed him again today (since he kept coming up to me), and today he's 7.48oz, so it wasn't a mistake. (Also goes to show the importance of weighing on the right day if you're going to make decisions based on small differences between hatch groups...)



Here's the big friendly boy:






It appeals to me to think about keeping a big boy that's NOT related to Tank. (More variety in the genetics of the bigguns.)

Next, I weighed the TankxGNH group today - in their coop for the first time. I think it was on this thread that we were talking about trouble weighing - I got this hanging scale and I LOVE it. It tares, it locks the weight, wasn't expensive. I need a better container though - the bucket had them squirming a lot.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014R09SU6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's the data (no photos, but they sorta look the same as before, only a little bigger).

I have started including Snape on these charts, because we are approaching the age where Snape overtook Tank, and I like to keep both comparisons in mind. (It also reminds me that different breeds or mixes may have a different shaped growth curve.) Tank is blue, Snape is green.





They continue to be super sweet - was not hard to get them to weigh. They all wanted to be picked up (though the bucket was another matter).

- Ant Farm

I do love how you keep track and show everything! It is a beautiful thing.

Does 57 feel bulky- extra meaty? He seems to be showing a broiler type build in that picture. He seems the way the freedom rangers all looked around that age- all bulked up and they were just meaty all over already. The freedoms also were in a very wide range of weights. Too bad I was not weighing and keeping records on these.. They were also exceptionally calm, not easily frightened and tame. the only aggression related issue were some of the cockerels became intolerant of others to the point separation was necessary.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I think time will tell - only one data point so far, and if they will catch up they have more to do. Big boy is indeed a brick. And all relatively calm (though they didn't want to be caught to be banded). Especially compared to the Aloha NNs - bless their little hearts, but every time I walk by the brooder, you'd think a shark went by.

I have an empty brooder right now (since the TankxGNH group is outside), and there are 26 chicks in the 6x3 brooder. Although they are smaller, they just need more room overall, so I'm going to try to split off half of them in to the second brooder. I might wait and see if I can do it when I feel batter about their sexes, and split boys and girls.

Oh, and just a word about the non-NNs in the hatches - Goodwin's kids turned out looking nice and interesting, and I have a number of pullets int here, several of them extremely friendly.

Goodwin x Blue or Black copper maran - this pullet adores me (please excused the frazzled looking human):


Goodwin x Blue copper maran:

There are also two black cockerels in this group, nice looking, one is pretty large. I wish I had the room and the energy to keep all the cockerels I want to...

And Goodwin x Arbequina (the OE with the splash marans, wheaten ameraucana, plus welsummer background) - this is all of them except one who hates being weighed and photographed (got weighted in a box this time around). All but the blue look to be pullets. So interesting looking!









I love my birds!

- Ant Farm

 

[eldonrgv]

So I went to Tractor Supply for some feed, as I entered I could hear at a distance all this peeping going on....Baby Chicks had arrived!!!! This little bugers were actually telling me "Take Us Home", I swear I actually heard them....lol...that's what I told my wife. So got me all 35 of them.

20 days ago I bought this cuties. How long do I have to wait to sex them? Out of the 35, which I still have, I count 10 females due to their large tails and the remaining 25 all males because of their tiny pin tails. Is this a safe sexing way on Turkens? Or do I wait another month or so to see more details on their gender?

 

[RastaRooster]

Any breeders in Northern California?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

So I went to Tractor Supply for some feed, as I entered I could hear at a distance all this peeping going on....Baby Chicks had arrived!!!! This little bugers were actually telling me "Take Us Home", I swear I actually heard them....lol...that's what I told my wife. So got me all 35 of them.

20 days ago I bought this cuties. How long do I have to wait to sex them? Out of the 35, which I still have, I count 10 females due to their large tails and the remaining 25 all males because of their tiny pin tails. Is this a safe sexing way on Turkens? Or do I wait another month or so to see more details on their gender?

In my experience, I can start telling the sex of NNs around 2-3 weeks by their comb. Rarely a question after 4 weeks (unless not straight combed).

You could post some photos here - we love guessing gender, and there's lots of accumulated experience here...

- Ant Farm

 

[chickengr]

20 days ago I bought this cuties. How long do I have to wait to sex them? Out of the 35, which I still have, I count 10 females due to their large tails and the remaining 25 all males because of their tiny pin tails. Is this a safe sexing way on Turkens? Or do I wait another month or so to see more details on their gender?

some can develop tails late. watch their combs.

 

[DesertChic]

Ahhh nooo what is it with cornish not breeding properly this spring?! completely understand not wanting to mess with the cornish.. I would not even pick up the cx when it got warm either.. but if you do try to arrange something, try the broadest shouldered hens. the cx roo was not able to breed narrow hens at all....

the cx pullet was not a good layer at all.. seems Kass says the same(unless they;ve gotten better?) but as soon as she lays... save and incubate those eggs! toss eggs already in the incubator if you have to.. trust me on this.

I suspect both may be the same main color or share many color/pattern traits at least, except for beautiful(I love her patterns and color!) Muffin having mottle and blue and Zazzle having barring.

I'd guess the chicks to grow up mostly like Zazzle, with and without the barring(both sexes). Throw blue in the mix for some blue buff barreds, blue tail buffs. No mottles, unless he is a secret mottle carrier.

the blue leg shows she has white skin. At least half of the chicks will grow to have white legs(on barreds) or blue(non barred). Have to say she is fairly unusual in having very dark legs for a mottle(it likes to make the leg spotty too).. any chance she is fibro?

My DC, Tucker, FINALLY has a hen willing to submit to him. He's been mating her like crazy all day while big boy Tubbs stands there watching with envy, occasionally trying to take a turn but with zero success. And yes, the hen that accepted him is 50% NN (a NN/Bielefelder mix). Unfortunately she's also bred very regularly by my eldest NN rooster, Heisenberg, so unless I isolate them I won't be able to guarantee on daddy over the other.

@Kev - Question for you regarding the mottled hen, just to make sure I've got this straight. Her offspring, even if they don't display it, will carry the mottling gene, right? So.....I could potentially breed her son back to her and maybe get the mottling to appear again? (Yes...I'm seriously considering taking on yet another project.)

 

[Phill98]

My DC, Tucker, FINALLY has a hen willing to submit to him. He's been mating her like crazy all day while big boy Tubbs stands there watching with envy, occasionally trying to take a turn but with zero success. And yes, the hen that accepted him is 50% NN (a NN/Bielefelder mix). Unfortunately she's also bred very regularly by my eldest NN rooster, Heisenberg, so unless I isolate them I won't be able to guarantee on daddy over the other.

@Kev
 - Question for you regarding the mottled hen, just to make sure I've got this straight. Her offspring, even if they don't display it, will carry the mottling gene, right? So.....I could potentially breed her son back to her and maybe get the mottling to appear again? (Yes...I'm seriously considering taking on yet another project.)

All of her offspring would be carriers, because she has both mottling genes-if she dodn't have both genes she probably wouldn't show this many spots. If bred with her son, half of the chicks would be mottled.

How old is she? I have a hen that was all black before her first moult. She obviously carties mottled now, she has white specks all over her.

 

[DesertChic]

All of her offspring would be carriers, because she has both mottling genes-if she dodn't have both genes she probably wouldn't show this many spots. If bred with her son, half of the chicks would be mottled.

How old is she? I have a hen that was all black before her first moult. She obviously carties mottled now, she has white specks all over her.

Awesome! And thank you! I was hoping I was on the mark with this. She'll be two years old in June and has been laying like crazy for the past several weeks. I've had difficulties hatching her eggs in the past, but I think it's because she was never receptive to any of the roosters that mated (raped) her. But with Zazzle, she took one look at him and squatted right in front him. He didn't have to initiate a thing. I'm really hoping that's a good sign.

 

[Phill98]

Awesome! And thank you! I was hoping I was on the mark with this. She'll be two years old in June and has been laying like crazy for the past several weeks. I've had difficulties hatching her eggs in the past, but I think it's because she was never receptive to any of the roosters that mated (raped) her. But with Zazzle, she took one look at him and squatted right in front him. He didn't have to initiate a thing. I'm really hoping that's a good sign. 

Was she looking mottled in her first year too?