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dheltzel said:
It's the "moving and sorting" chickens time of the year!
I took the day off and am making progress. I love how some of this year's growouts are looking!
The "lavender" breeds are all looking great:
Opal Legbars (blue eggs)
Isabel Welbars (dark brown)
Jade Welbars (dark green eggs, lavender and gold)
Marans
Cochin bantams
even Muscovy ducks!!

Very excited about the flock of colored sebastopols also. I acquired a buff gander to lead my flock of 3 colorful ladies. Buff is sexlinked in geese, so every female gosling will be buff, hopefully a few will be buff saddlebacks.
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I'd love to see a picture of a Jade Welbar. Nothing comes up if one googles.
 
feliciadawn said:
I'd love to see a picture of a Jade Welbar. Nothing comes up if one googles.
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http://welbars.com/index.php/welbars/isabel-welbar/
These are the F5 birds on that page. I am now raising up the F6 generation. They hatched from eggs that were dark green, but the blue egg gene is not homozygous in every bird.
Once they start laying, I intend to send blood samples for genetic testing and hope to get a pen of pure Isabel Welbars (no blue egg genes, lay dark egg like the Welbars they came from) and a pen that looks the same, but lay dark green eggs and are homozygous for the blue egg gene. I need a way to differentiate them from the other lines, so I decided to call them "Jade Welbars" to indicate the egg color. I also have a few birds that are gold like a normal Welbar, but are siblings of the Isabels. If any of them test homozygous for the blue egg gene, they can go into the same pen and any gold (non-isabel) chicks will also be Jades, and so I can keep both colors in a single pen.
 
Seaslug said:
You may need to have an open house one day! I am so curious about your chickens and am thinking that any coop and run additions I make will be for dheltzel chicks.
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Thanks for the good thoughts! I often have friends come by to get a tour of the farm. Winter is a harsh time at the farm and everything looks rather drab now, but the birds are flourishing even if the garden is dead and gone.
 
dheltzel said:
http://welbars.com/index.php/welbars/isabel-welbar/
These are the F5 birds on that page. I am now raising up the F6 generation. They hatched from eggs that were dark green, but the blue egg gene is not homozygous in every bird.
Once they start laying, I intend to send blood samples for genetic testing and hope to get a pen of pure Isabel Welbars (no blue egg genes, lay dark egg like the Welbars they came from) and a pen that looks the same, but lay dark green eggs and are homozygous for the blue egg gene. I need a way to differentiate them from the other lines, so I decided to call them "Jade Welbars" to indicate the egg color. I also have a few birds that are gold like a normal Welbar, but are siblings of the Isabels. If any of them test homozygous for the blue egg gene, they can go into the same pen and any gold (non-isabel) chicks will also be Jades, and so I can keep both colors in a single pen.
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So cool. Putting them on my wishlist.
 
Still sorting birds into breeding pens. Yesterday I put 2 Opal Legbar hens with a Rose Comb Brown Leghorn cockerel. The progeny will all look like brown leghorns with small crests, and lay blue eggs. The F2 generation will produce a lot of interesting combinations that will vary by:
  • Crests - large, small or missing entirely
  • Egg color - blue or white
  • Barring
  • Lavender
  • Rose combs vs single combs

Eventually, I expect to make these new lines from this initial cross:
  • Single Comb Isabel Leghorns (new line, unrelated to the existing lines)
  • Rose Comb Isabel Leghorns (entirely new to the hobby, more winter hardy)
  • Rosecomb Cream Legbars (entirely new to the hobby, more winter hardy)
  • Rosecomb Opal Legbars (entirely new to the hobby, more winter hardy)
 
Lost our daughter's gold welbar to a hawk the other month (just a burst of feathers left) so we'll probably be making a pottstown poultry visit in the spring too.
Two weeks later the Cream legbar managed to cram herself under a bush to hide from a second attack while the opal legbar got a hit in and the larger lavendar americauna ran off :rolleyes:
 
Seaslug said:
Planning some run and coop improvements in the hope of purchasing just a few birds from you spring 2025. Usually do additions every other year, but... the hackle birds & cream legbars have been on my "wanted" list for some time.
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For people that can have a rooster, and have a pen that is well protected from predators, a genetic hackle rooster and a group of legbars would be a pretty, and productive flock.
The hackles are smaller than other breeds, and the roosters are very docile and unassuming. I think they know they are "just for pretty".
 
Sorting Marans breeders today and turned on the lights for the first time (6 AM to 4 PM). Looks like I will have 4 pens of Marans, each with 4 to 7 hens. That sounds like a lot, but for most of the season, Marans chicks will be oversold and I will have a waiting list, especially for breeders looking for certain genetics.

Starting to get more eggs each day. I think I will wait until the 6th to set the first eggs of 2025.
 

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