Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I bet you can a little bit even though it’s not bred for the trait.

This is sort of my inclination as well, especially since this chick, based on the breeds that are autosexing when Crele, looks strongly masculine and has a very prominent head spot...

This little one is also starting to get on my nerves with the beak pecking. The Chocolate Mottleds are bloodied now from the pecking. I have never had this happen in all my years raising chicks up and I can't find any info on what the cause is or how to stop it other than separating the chicks. This is the worse of the two, the youngest. She's also so sleepy because the Crele baby won't let them rest and just keeps pecking and pecking.

Since I have the silkied Cochins in the big brooder with the other EcoGlow, I have no other heaters to set up a third brooder to separate the Crele. So, I improvised.

I've made a couple adjustments since I took this picture, namely rounding the box out so it takes up less of the other chicks' space, and adding some little slots so that they can see each other without pecking. Here's hoping this does the trick and those Chocolate Mottled babies can finally get rested and have their poor beaks heal.

 

[ronott1]

I bet you can a little bit even though it’s not bred for the trait.

with 70% accuracy, it is a fun thing to do but you can't rely on it for selling pullets to someone.

 

[ronott1]

These are the autosexing breeds:

Amrock, Ancobar, Barnebar, Bielefelder Kennhuhn, Brockbar, Brussbar, Buffbar, Cambar, Cobar, Cream Legbar, Dorbar, Gold Legbar, Hambar, Niederrheiner, Norske Jaerhon, Oklabar, Polbar, Rhodebar, Welbar, Whealbar, and Wybar.

There is no such thing as autosexing crele color of a breed. They can be somewhat auto sexing or maybe semi autosexing though and it is fun! but can't be relied upon.

I have run into this myself with crele penedesenca chickens. Two that were supposed to be pullets were cockerels in a hatch.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

So, that's kind of where I'm confused... I thought part of those autosexing breeds were genetically Crele or variants of Crele, like the Legbars and Bielefelders.

I'm not a genetics guru, definitely not confident enough to jump into the genetics forum and start answering questions or anything, but I have done a lot of reading on sites like Scratch Cradle, and one of the things they discuss there specifically is what makes an autosexing breed. The ingredients are a coloration whose chick down is not black, white, or light-colored, plus barring... which is what Crele is. It works with this combination because barring lightens non-black chick down slightly with one copy, and significantly with two copies. Since males can carry either one or two copies of barring, there can be some males that look like females, which is why just any Crele breed that hasn't been selected for the trait isn't super reliably autosexing. BUT, females cannot carry two barring genes, so they simply can't be as light as males can. So it stands to reason that a very light chick like my Orp would have to be male, right?

I don't know, it's confusing me and I'm just not confident in drawing from my internal knowledge base. Either way, I will continue to refer to the little hooligan either neutrally or as a female until it's confirmed which sex they are, just like with the rest of the babies.

 

[ronott1]

So, that's kind of where I'm confused... I thought part of those autosexing breeds were genetically Crele or variants of Crele, like the Legbars and Bielefelders.

I'm not a genetics guru, definitely not confident enough to jump into the genetics forum and start answering questions or anything, but I have done a lot of reading on sites like Scratch Cradle, and one of the things they discuss there specifically is what makes an autosexing breed. The ingredients are a coloration whose chick down is not black, white, or light-colored, plus barring... which is what Crele is. It works with this combination because barring lightens non-black chick down slightly with one copy, and significantly with two copies. Since males can carry either one or two copies of barring, there can be some males that look like females, which is why just any Crele breed that hasn't been selected for the trait isn't super reliably autosexing. BUT, females cannot carry two barring genes, so they simply can't be as light as males can. So it stands to reason that a very light chick like my Orp would have to be male, right?

I don't know, it's confusing me and I'm just not confident in drawing from my internal knowledge base. Either way, I will continue to refer to the little hooligan either neutrally or as a female until it's confirmed which sex they are, just like with the rest of the babies.

It is very confusing but I have read about the crosses that go into making an auto sexing breed. It is not easy and involves a lot of crosses, many years and barring and other factors that have to be selected for. A lot of people want to think that things like crele coloring will make them sexable but it is not the case. That is why they are in the 70% accurate range.

Have you looked into ghost barring?

The guy that made most of those autosexing breeds was a genius!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I haven't really looked deep into ghost barring, but I do know basically what it is. Barring on white, right? If I was more into making my own colors with chickens and going beyond just already established breeds and varieties, I probably would delve more into the weird stuff like that.


Although now that we're talking about autosexing breeds, how cute would a silkied, bearded, bantam version of a Cream Legbar be?! I'd bet autosexing bantams would be a gold mine for selling to backyard flocks, too, as long as one had an out for all the extra cockerels!

 

[Amer]

These are the autosexing breeds:

Amrock, Ancobar, Barnebar, Bielefelder Kennhuhn, Brockbar, Brussbar, Buffbar, Cambar, Cobar, Cream Legbar, Dorbar, Gold Legbar, Hambar, Niederrheiner, Norske Jaerhon, Oklabar, Polbar, Rhodebar, Welbar, Whealbar, and Wybar.

There is no such thing as autosexing crele color of a breed. They can be somewhat auto sexing or maybe semi autosexing though and it is fun! but can't be relied upon.

I have run into this myself with crele penedesenca chickens. Two that were supposed to be pullets were cockerels in a hatch.

So, that's kind of where I'm confused... I thought part of those autosexing breeds were genetically Crele or variants of Crele, like the Legbars and Bielefelders.

I'm not a genetics guru, definitely not confident enough to jump into the genetics forum and start answering questions or anything, but I have done a lot of reading on sites like Scratch Cradle, and one of the things they discuss there specifically is what makes an autosexing breed. The ingredients are a coloration whose chick down is not black, white, or light-colored, plus barring... which is what Crele is. It works with this combination because barring lightens non-black chick down slightly with one copy, and significantly with two copies. Since males can carry either one or two copies of barring, there can be some males that look like females, which is why just any Crele breed that hasn't been selected for the trait isn't super reliably autosexing. BUT, females cannot carry two barring genes, so they simply can't be as light as males can. So it stands to reason that a very light chick like my Orp would have to be male, right?

I don't know, it's confusing me and I'm just not confident in drawing from my internal knowledge base. Either way, I will continue to refer to the little hooligan either neutrally or as a female until it's confirmed which sex they are, just like with the rest of the babies.

^^^
Gold crele Legbars and Bielefelders are crele. Crele is what makes them autosexing, the barring and wild type together. There are many autosexing breeds that aren’t crele, of course, but cream Legbars are also crele, plus the cream gene, Welbars are crele, I don’t know what else. They are only autosexing because they were bred for sexual dimorphism, not because they have a specific gene crele Orpingtons don’t.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Random thought of the morning: I just noticed how gorgeous these Chocolate Mottleds' eyes are and I can hardly stand it!! I know it's probably a pretty normal eye color for lighter-toned chicks, but I'm used to chick eyes being more of a stone gray rather than blue-gray like these little ones!

They're currently a lot perkier than they were before, which I'm not sure if I should attribute to the Crele being separated for most of the past 24 hours, or them just being far enough past hatching to have better motor control now. Their beaks are certainly looking less red and irritated now, though, especially the purple banded baby (the first picture above)!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Happy Birthday!!!

Or, happy BIRDday, if you will.

It's Amaretto, Armada, Gluttony, Peanut Butter, Rosey, Feldon, Louis, Sumi, and Troll's hatchday (belated by one day for part of them, but close enough), so we had a chicken birthday party! Here are this year's cakes I used watermelon, cucumber, bell pepper, and a tiny bit of yogurt as always, plus zucchini, some of their feed pellets and a little scratch grains this time around. Two things I think worked out better this year than previous years are, first, the pellets! They bulked out the watermelon because they soaked up the juice, and the girls went nuts because they love soaked pellets. And second, zucchini! I actually think the girls might prefer zucchini to cucumber based on how they ate their cakes this year.

Some mini cakes for all the pens, too, of course!

I let Peanut Butter, Armada, and Amaretto at their cakes first. They were... unsure.

Then they realized it was food!

Yum!

Gluttony would have joined her sisters as well, but of course, she's in the broody buster! Here she is with her biological mother, Abra, eating their mini cake.

I showed Louis their mini cake before setting it in their pen. He puffed out to intimidate this new threat, of course.

Not to worry, Louis, Feldon, and Troll quickly surrounded that dangerous cake!

...Oh, wait, that's just food.

Vega and Altair were unsure about the cake for their pen, but birthday girl Sumi charged right through them and started to eat!

...And then she turned around and gave me this look like she wasn't satisfied with my offering.

Rosey, Buzz, and Russell got their cake, but Russ took over and hogged it until I made him share

And it wasn't just the birthday birds and their roommates who got a little something today Here's Gus calling the girls over because, gasp, he found a mini cake all on his own!

The girls were... not so sure about this thing, though

The OEGB cockerels were the same. Bunch of chickens!

Meanwhile, back at the main cakes, I let the flock loose once the birthday girls had had their share, and they went bonkers as always! Peanut Butter was not going to be intimidated away from HER birthday cake, though Love that sassy girl!

The cakes are nothing but a few millimeters of watermelon rind now, but I think the birds had fun for their once a year hatchday party. Here's one last picture of Peanut Butter, looking lovely as always, even though her wattles have yogurt on them and her chest is soaked with watermelon juice.

 

[Amer]

Gluttony

What kind of a name is that?

Btw, your OEGB are beautiful, and so are your gorgeous silkied Cochins.