Nankin Discussion Thread

[saladin]

Just being funny rio. lol.

 

[RioLindoAz]

Yesterday, I set a tarp over the run because the weather man said there was going to be rain today. I had to think twice about doing it though, as it hardly rains here (Southern Arizona). I sure am glad I did! Its raining pretty hard out and the chicks are fast asleep under the infrared heat light.

 

[sunket77]

so glad I found this thread! It has been very helpful. My son was given a trio (I say trio but I mean a hen and two cocks, they gave us a hen after giving us 3 young cocks by mistake) by a fellow 4H member. We just love the breed and everything about them. We have had them nearly a year and have had horrible luck hatching any! I am afraid my incubating attempts have been very poor with very low hatch rates. Finally in the last few months I had some broody hens BUT our little nankin hen was MOLTING!! BUT low and behold she started laying just when I had a production red hen go broody. I put 6 nankin eggs under her and she was doing great UNTIL they started to hatch then the nutty hen started pecking at the eggs! I didn't realize what had happened until I saw two dead chicks in front of her.

So I heated up my bator and decided to take the others before they had the same fate.... MIRACULOUSLY when I went to move the eggs one did hatch and had made it and was all fluffed out. Only one egg hatched in the bator after that. SO we finally have two little chicks FINALLY!

Sorry for the tangent but it's been a bumpy road!

On to my question!! ha! Our hen has some dark feather ticking, what is the best way to breed that out? (that is when we have better hatch rates!) Oh and we have one RC roo and one SC roo and the hen is RC so we are breeding both for now, our two chicks are one of each.

BTW... they are great for showmanship, my son used one of the roos for his showmanship and the bird was really easy to handle and did very well....although very vocal...crowed through the whole thing! lol!

 

[saladin]

Where is the feather ticking located: in the hackle?

 

[RioLindoAz]

Is it ethical to cull birds with feather ticking in the hackle?

 

[saladin]

Better bet your bottom dollar it is!

 

[saladin]

Just remember when culling: Type always, ALWAYS comes first.

Simply put: cull for type before color. In the past, with Cubalayas, I've keep some pretty crappy looking hens (color-wise), but their TYPE was excellent.

You've got to build the barn before you paint it.

 

[sunket77]

Seeing as how she is my only hen I can not cull her. Her ticking is mostly all the way from her head to tail but she actully looks better after her molt. The friend that gave her to me has a hen from the same stock that lost her ticking completly after her 3rd molt. Not saying we wouldn't want to breed the trait out but we have to start somewhere. I am just prying we got some hens from our two new ones! But as saladin said her TYPE is very good, good body shape, great leg color, eyes and beak and size. I think color can be such a fickle thing b/c a bird can go from perfect to having dq's in one molt. We also breed black japanese bantams, after molting, my sons blue ribbon winning roo grew in two tail feathers with white tips.

 

[RioLindoAz]

Quote:
I hope you're able to have a good hatch this Spring. Consider purchasing more birds!


Quote:
Gotcha. That pretty much put it into perspective. I always thought it was things such as plumage color, leg color, etc. that mattered the most.

I still have trouble comprehending what type is, though.
Would a "typy" Nankin be nice and slender, like most OEGs, or more fluffy and toned?

 

[Lapetitechickens]

I'm so glad to see this thread

We have decided that Nankins is one of the breeds that we want to work with, our other breed is Serama's.

I have been trying to find information about them and either I'm not looking in the correct places or there just isn't alot out there.

We live in central WI., we snow & -0 F temps. Our coops are insulated, in the summer we get a few upper 80's F but nothing like the southern states. I guess my question is would Nankins live happily in our neck of the woods?

Also if anyone could point me in the right direction to learn more about this breed it would be great. We've been to the ALBC site.


Thanks for any helpful info.