- Nov 14, 2010
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All of the chicks my chickens have hatched over the years are crossed from two or three breeds and it's just interesting to see what beautiful color and pattern combinations hatch on my farm. And last year we got one that was particularly interesting.
One of my older hens hatched two chicks last year. This hen came from a group of chicks whose breeds were not specified, so I can't be 100% sure, but she looks very much like a Buff Rock. In any case, she's entirely yellow except for black speckles on her tail, which aren't very noticeable.
The first of the two chicks she hatched was easy to figure out of the breed of. She looks exactly like a Buff Rock/Barred Rock cross and I have two roosters who are half Barred Rock and look far more like it than their other half. Mystery solved.
But the other chick, (well, a hen now) I'm not sure what to make of her.
So here she is. Her name is Walnut.
Here's a picture of her when she first hatched. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her when she dried off anymore because my computer with most of my pictures is broken. But she was very pretty, with a brown stripe on her head going down into a spot on her back, ringed with black. She had little black markings by her eyes too. And her feet were very feathery. Her mother doesn't have feathery feet, and our only rooster with feathery feet is our White Silkie, so I assumed this chick was half Silkie.
Here she is when she started growing adult feathers. The pictures are pretty bad quality, but basically she turned a combination of white and pale yellow with some darker yellow and black spots. Not looking so Silkie-like anymore, but still has feathery feet like our Silkie rooster and unlike any other of my roosters.
And here's what she looks like now. She's kind of camera-shy, and not too friendly is general, so it's hard getting good pictures of her. She likes to be around people, but she tends to act somewhat aggressive towards chickens and people she's familiar with. But this behavior's only been going on a couple months and it's often how my hens act before going broody, so maybe that's what she's thinking of. But then, she's always been obsessed with nesting for about as long as she's been laying eggs, so maybe it's just her nature. I don't know.
Anyway, she's a little ragged looking in this picture because it just rained and she spent a lot of the day out in it.
I took a closer picture of her feathers a couple days ago because they're very pretty.
It's hard for a camera to pick up on this detail, but her fluff feathers have almost a Silkie-like quality to them. They're softer and fluffier and thicker than the other chickens'.
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So I'm just trying to figure out what breed I've created here. She doesn't look much at all like a Silkie so surely my Silkie rooster couldn't have been the father, but those feathery legs are puzzling. No idea where those markings came from either, as they're unlike anything my chickens have. The only black on her mother is her tail, which looks like it's been flecked with pepper. Certainly nothing that could have turned into this in her daughter.
One of my older hens hatched two chicks last year. This hen came from a group of chicks whose breeds were not specified, so I can't be 100% sure, but she looks very much like a Buff Rock. In any case, she's entirely yellow except for black speckles on her tail, which aren't very noticeable.
The first of the two chicks she hatched was easy to figure out of the breed of. She looks exactly like a Buff Rock/Barred Rock cross and I have two roosters who are half Barred Rock and look far more like it than their other half. Mystery solved.
But the other chick, (well, a hen now) I'm not sure what to make of her.
So here she is. Her name is Walnut.
Here's a picture of her when she first hatched. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her when she dried off anymore because my computer with most of my pictures is broken. But she was very pretty, with a brown stripe on her head going down into a spot on her back, ringed with black. She had little black markings by her eyes too. And her feet were very feathery. Her mother doesn't have feathery feet, and our only rooster with feathery feet is our White Silkie, so I assumed this chick was half Silkie.
Here she is when she started growing adult feathers. The pictures are pretty bad quality, but basically she turned a combination of white and pale yellow with some darker yellow and black spots. Not looking so Silkie-like anymore, but still has feathery feet like our Silkie rooster and unlike any other of my roosters.
And here's what she looks like now. She's kind of camera-shy, and not too friendly is general, so it's hard getting good pictures of her. She likes to be around people, but she tends to act somewhat aggressive towards chickens and people she's familiar with. But this behavior's only been going on a couple months and it's often how my hens act before going broody, so maybe that's what she's thinking of. But then, she's always been obsessed with nesting for about as long as she's been laying eggs, so maybe it's just her nature. I don't know.
Anyway, she's a little ragged looking in this picture because it just rained and she spent a lot of the day out in it.
I took a closer picture of her feathers a couple days ago because they're very pretty.
It's hard for a camera to pick up on this detail, but her fluff feathers have almost a Silkie-like quality to them. They're softer and fluffier and thicker than the other chickens'.
-
So I'm just trying to figure out what breed I've created here. She doesn't look much at all like a Silkie so surely my Silkie rooster couldn't have been the father, but those feathery legs are puzzling. No idea where those markings came from either, as they're unlike anything my chickens have. The only black on her mother is her tail, which looks like it's been flecked with pepper. Certainly nothing that could have turned into this in her daughter.
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