Nankin Bantams

[cobra3073]

Updates:

Did my 2-week candles of the 11 remaining eggs in the incubator and found them all to still be viable and growing. The five most recently hatched eggs are almost fully developed while the remaining ones are a bit behind. I will candle them again on Day 17 before going into “lock down”, considering my last batch started hatching on Day 19.

The five “kindergartners” are thriving outside in the remodeled dog kennel. At a little over 3 weeks of age, two of them are showing some black coloring in their tail feathers. I am curious as to whether or not that possibly indicates they are cockerels? I will band them to track it.

As previously noted, I am also looking at what (if any) effect the age (days laid before placing in the incubator) of eggs has on the hatch rate and days required to hatch for our Nankins eggs. Based on the 10 day egg I had in the incubator being a “yolker” I am inclined to believe 9 day old Nankin eggs may be the “cut-off. Curious as to whether anyone else has made this observation?

~BT

 

[MROO]

Updates:

Did my 2-week candles of the 11 remaining eggs in the incubator and found them all to still be viable and growing. The five most recently hatched eggs are almost fully developed while the remaining ones are a bit behind. I will candle them again on Day 17 before going into “lock down”, considering my last batch started hatching on Day 19.

The five “kindergartners” are thriving outside in the remodeled dog kennel. At a little over 3 weeks of age, two of them are showing some black coloring in their tail feathers. I am curious as to whether or not that possibly indicates they are cockerels? I will band them to track it.

As previously noted, I am also looking at what (if any) effect the age (days laid before placing in the incubator) of eggs has on the hatch rate and days required to hatch for our Nankins eggs. Based on the 10 day egg I had in the incubator being a “yolker” I am inclined to believe 9 day old Nankin eggs may be the “cut-off. Curious as to whether anyone else has made this observation?

~BT

I'm inclined to agree with you on the older eggs. Ten days is a long time to go before incubation. The one time I filled my 'bator, I filled, by date, starting with the newest ones. Nothing over a week old survived at all, and my fertility/viability rate from 5-6 days was about 50/50. That may improve now that the weather is considerably warmer, but I'm not counting on it. My incubation fever is seriously curtailed by DD's teacher's husband. He nixed the chicken coop 'til summer, so the D'uccles came back home, {{Sigh.}} I was really counting on having that little coop open for youngsters, or maybe a breeding pair. Let me repeat myself: {{Sigh!}}
On a more positive note, the potential breeding pair I passed along to another 4H family has raised their first chick! The little pullet laid and set on a single egg ... and it hatched! I congratulated them on their 100% hatch rate. DD just rolled her eyes, but I thought it was funny! Regardless, I told the other young lady to let me know the next time her hen goes broody and I'll pass her some eggs. All I'll ask in return is a pullet from whatever she raises. Sortof like a puppy breeder getting "pick of litter."
I wish I could get as organized as you are with banding & monitoring chicks. I start on on the right track, but fall short in recording changes consistently. Maybe once he school year is through, I can get more pro-active with everything else that's supposed to be going on around here. Thank heavens for summers off!

 

[cobra3073]

The more I think about the “dated” eggs situation the more I am thinking that may be the problem with alleged low hatch rates I have seen reported by some hobbyists. I am speaking of “shipped” eggs. If the breeder only has a few hens the eggs are probably nearing the viability edge (as it relates to time) when you add in the mailing of the eggs.

Dawn (MROO), you REALLY have a LOT of “irons in the fire”, so I can appreciate your comments relative to recording changes of your individual babies. I also want you to know you have been (and continue to be) an OUTSTANDING advisor to me as I have embarked on this journey...You are deeply important appreciated!

~BT

 

[MROO]

Awwww... Thanks! The feelings are mutual! It's so nice to finally have a Nankin-buddy, especially one who has RC's!

Shipping seems to affect all breeds' eggs, but the Nankin eggs (and some of the other really little bantams) seem to fare worse than most. They're so small - and so round - that they just can't handle the shake-up.

I think I'm going to do one more 'bator run before quitting for the season. I've got six eggs that are only a day or two old, so I think we'll give the girls another day or two and start again. I shouldn't, but I'm gonna. I have no real space available, but I'm feeling stubborn!

On a tangential note, I SO want to expand beyond the Nannies, but I simply have no space. Herman, our BS Silkie, is currently wooing two young standards - my two kindergarten dropouts. Neither is laying yet, despite being huge, but I'm sure we'd get some interesting little ones, if they were. One of the "babies" is a production red - not too big, not too small. The other, however, does not appear to be a Black Australorp, as promised. I think we have ourselves a Jersey Giant! You should see her next to little Pippin, my littlest Nankin cockerel (yes ... another boy...) who is actually a week older. She positively dwarfs him. In fact, she dwarfs Herman ... and for a Silkie, Herman's a BIG boy! I'd love to see what their crosses would look like, but I won't.
I seem to be doing this a lot, lately, but ... {{Sigh!}}

 

[MrsFewtreezy]

I’m so glad to have found this forum!

I have 15 Nankin chicks from Purely Poultry. I had my doubts / questions before I ordered, but I wanted to start on Nankins as soon as possible, so I figured they would be “Nankin breed” even if they weren’t show / to standard, and perhaps I could go from there. When I finally found a Facebook group, I was told they would probably be pretty far off the mark... so that scared me a bit. But, this is where we are!

None of my chicks have cross beak, and all of them look really healthy now at nearly 5 weeks. I have one that is a “runt” with white-ish feathers (“Sweetie” - the only one with a name so far!), but all the other coloring looks appropriate as far as I can tell! I have very little idea on Roos/Hens, except maybe a few that look like they have darker combs? I have 8/7 Rose/Simple Comb. I’d love input if anyone has any ideas.

My Nankins are in a run as a brooder with Langshan Chicks of the same age. The Langshans are giants relative to the Nankins, but everyone is getting along really well and doesn’t seem to be aggressive or competing for food/water. We’re with them every day and will have the option to separate them when it’s time for the coop (under construction at the moment).

Anyway - I would love thoughts on genders of our chicks, and also anything to look out for as far as breed standard. This is our first go with Chickens and we are so in love! Their personalities are amazing. Here is one picture, but I’ll post some more in a subsequent post!

- E

 

[MrsFewtreezy]

Any thoughts on gender? 5 weeks .

 

[ColtHandorf]

You have a lot of pullets it looks like, so that's good.

 

[cobra3073]

E - Welcome aboard!

I agree with “ColHandorf” as it appears you may have quite a few pullets but it is still a bit early (in my opinion) to be sure.

Considering the age of your Nankins, I offer the following generic observations as it relates to the COLOR of both males and females:

Comb, face, wattles and ear lobes should be BRIGHT RED

Eyes should be REDDISH BAY

Beak should be HORN, shading darker on upper mandible

Shanks and Toes should be BLUISH SLATE, with PINK STRIPE on outer side of shank

Undercover should be LIGHT GOLDEN CHESTNUT

The above is as identified in the “American Bantam Association Bantam Standard, Thirteen Revised Edition”, 2014.

That having been said, I must admit I am not into the shows but am going to try to breed to the “Standard” as close as I can.

I hope you will continue to post up with pictures of your Purely Poultry acquired Nankins as they develop as I have been impressed with the picture of the cock they show in their advertisements.

Again, Welcome aboard!

BT

 

[MROO]

Hello! And Welcome! It's still a bit early to tell, but so far, so good. If I had to "guess," today, I see two, maybe three cockerels - the ones with the most red n their combs. The rest could still go either way, but the longer those combs stay small and yellow, the more likely they are to be pullets. Try posting pics again in a few weeks. The magic number seems to be about eight (weeks.) That's when the differences begin to get more pronounced, making the genders a little clearer.
So far, your babies look good. Their tails look nice and dark, not the slate gray some birds show. Any white in the plumage or earlobes is a fault, so those birds should not be used in a breeding program, if at all possible.
And yup, it's funny to watch bantam babies grow up with larger fowl. We have what was supposed to be a black Australorp in with my youngest Nankin cockerel ... but she's not growing like an Aussie. She's most likely a Jersey Moose ... er ... I mean Jersey Giant. Either way, she sure is a big'un next to her little "older" brother!

 

[cobra3073]