Post Phoenix Pics Please

[onagadori]

Here is a pic of one of the pullets like I was describing. She clearly has rooster saddles and cockerel feathering..The second pic is a close up of her saddle feathers.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep I got my first trio of them from Faile on asnother site ( blue silvers and blue golds).
Would have swore they were young males, spurred saddled and all, even a good bit longer in the tail too.

And Toni's blacks I got are mostly spured hens. Love that long tailed black hen in the bucket on her website too, that tails longer than a lot of males get.

 

[onagadori]

yes.. I love that black one too..

 

[Soli]

Quote:
Oh! I'm sure glad you guys chimed in on this. I remember reading about Phoenix females that showed male type feathering to be good choices, but didn't know about spurs! Personally, I think the spurs are neat - just didn't think that other people would find it acceptable. I'm still learning and just trying to gather better stock to start with, so this is great to know.

Right now, I'm going to be keeping all the chicks I breed or hatch, at least until they are a year old, then selecting for feather growth - I don't think I'm experienced enough yet to select sooner. I know that with my current chickens, earlobe color is decent (not great) on my hens, and very mediocre on my rooster, so that's going to be a big thing I need to select for. Ideally, I'll be able to get a few more batches of shipped eggs in the early spring to give both the Phoenix and Sumatras a better jump start from what was available locally.

 

[FarmerGrant011]

Quote:
you should enter it inside the calender thingy!!!!!

 

[onagadori]

Quote:
Oh! I'm sure glad you guys chimed in on this. I remember reading about Phoenix females that showed male type feathering to be good choices, but didn't know about spurs! Personally, I think the spurs are neat - just didn't think that other people would find it acceptable. I'm still learning and just trying to gather better stock to start with, so this is great to know.

Right now, I'm going to be keeping all the chicks I breed or hatch, at least until they are a year old, then selecting for feather growth - I don't think I'm experienced enough yet to select sooner. I know that with my current chickens, earlobe color is decent (not great) on my hens, and very mediocre on my rooster, so that's going to be a big thing I need to select for. Ideally, I'll be able to get a few more batches of shipped eggs in the early spring to give both the Phoenix and Sumatras a better jump start from what was available locally.

Soli, Where did your current stock come from?

 

[Soli]

Quote:
I honestly don't know who they came from.

We have a big poultry auction every week here in Cookeville, TN. You see a little bit of everything with 100's of chickens each week. About 4 years ago I went with the intention of purchasing laying stock for my mother-in-law and maybe just a few chickens to free range around the farm and pick bugs.

I got the laying stock, but a pretty rooster with a longer tail than I'd ever seen before caught my eye. He looked shiny - well taken care of, and was calm given the situation he was in. I thought he was the prettiest rooster I'd ever seen - we raised laying hens my entire childhood and I was used to seeing that type, and I'd had a few Polish and Cochin as a young person, but never had seen a chicken as pretty as that rooster.

So, I bought him. No idea who he belonged to, there was no one near his cage when he was sold. Took a bit to figure out what he was (he's not perfect....his earlobes are not 100% white - has some red around the rim but is MOSTLY white), and then I kept an eye out for hens. Took about 2 more years to find the hens at the sale - they were sold as nearly mature pullets. The hens all seem to have better earlobes than him, but no idea of their feather genetics yet as the first batch I hatched this year are still only 3 months old or so. The hen with the spurs has a very slight golden cast to her hackle feathers whereas the other two hens are normal silver duckwing. All have the slate legs/single comb.

This year I got the first chicken coop built so that I could safely house breeding stock, and also bought an incubator (have two now). Have a multi-stall shed row being built in addition to the tall coop/run, so I can maintain different rooster/hen combinations of both Phoenix and Sumatra (if I ever get enough sumatra to get anywhere). I'm aiming for having a decent "starter set" of both breeds by next year. It's very likely that I'll replace everything I have with better quality stock as I can buy/hatch it over the next year or so, and then once I have a good genetic pool to work with I can go from there with only occasional additions for color/etc.

 

[onagadori]

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

haha,
even the best of us cant predict feathering til they do it, so keeping them a year is a great idea for you.

Yes the qualities we were talking about, obviously are good for showing, but who cares when they make the best offspring. Kinda one of those screwed up things in the poutry world when it comes to breeding verses show stock. These two go hand in hand for breeding the best show birds, but would DQ you in a ring. Dont really sound right does it.

 

[Moonlight Piano]

These are pics of my phoenix cockeral and my two hens oliver, olivia, and cheryl.
Let me know what you think.

The hens have just began to lay. They are all around 6 months old.