Project Chicken Project

[varidgerunner]

See a lot of project chickens on here. Blue egg Naked Necks for instance. Seems like everybody wants to add a gene here and there. Lots of fun. So I though, why not a project chicken to end all project chickens. Here are the parameters.

First, what is a chicken without the fibro-melanistic gene, who wants boring white meat and red organs? Might use silkie genetics instead of Cemani for price considerations. A little splash of dorking, in case the silkie toes don't stick. Plus, if it has dorking you can call it "heritage" if you are building a breed it needs a foundation with lots of toes. Preferably with feathered feet to keep all of the extra toes warm. Cool it off a little by adding some naked neck. It simply must lay olive eggs, so a little marans, a little aracauna, hopefully retaining the muffs. Would be preferable to be a longtail, so maybe some phoenix or maybe some cubalaya, preferably a multispurred line of cubalaya, or maybe Sumatra. Longcrower genes would be great, but they are hard to come by. It would also be nice if it had a shamo size and build, that would be striking.

So I'm looking for a longtailed, naked necked, multi-spurred, fibro-melanistic, olive egger with five toes, feather legs, muffs and an upright stance. Of large stature and preferably with a good long crow. I'm picturing a walnut comb but we could offer a crested variety as well. Should only take fifty years or so to develop. If greenfire is still in business they will beat our door down looking for breeding stock.

Does anyone happen to know if you can retain the black meat and organs but have the feathers come in red pyle? I've always fancied the red pyle color pattern.

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't have any fm w/ red pyle, but don't think it would be impossible.

Here are some colors I have hatched w/ fm



































I still have most of these, but not all. I mostly have versions of mottled, birchen and the white w/ red / brown / black patterning.

 

[varidgerunner]

Like the naked one. You have some cool color combos. Chickens should not all look identical, the joy of having them is looking at the array of colors like a painter's palate. If all of your chickens look the same, you need more pens and more breeds.

 

[Kassaundra]

I have wanted to add some of the genetics from those birds you are talking about, to get that bada^^ look, but have been afraid of the chicken aggression issues.

I had quite a bit more variety before a big preditor flock loss incident a couple of years ago, really "bottle necked" my genetic pool.

 

[varidgerunner]

It is hard to break past the idea that all of your chickens can't stay in one big coop, but once you do it, it's not too bad. I find it easier to move a five by five dome pen with a hen and chicks in it easier than shoveling out a coop or moving a large tractor. You could do what you wanted with one rooster, they are pretty easy to get along with, you might like him. The aggression seen in hens is usually curbed in the first generation of an outcross. It only applies to hens that are not raised together and have not been separated. If they go broody, that separates them and as their maternal instincts kick in, they can never get along . This is only in some strains of oriental game. The males are absolutely no different than any other breed, when they come of age, and have hens, they will clash with other males at some point. The difference is that once they start, they won't stop.

You could get some of the same looks from the cubalaya, it appears that they get along pretty well. It's a good bet that most of the oriental games that hatcheries offer are a little watered down as well, if nothing else to get more eggs out of them. You already are influenced a little by the oriental gamefowl type birds in your naked necks. If you go back far enough they have Madagascar game in them, and that is not very far removed from Ga Noi. Every once in a while you will see a naked neck that has just a hint of "that look" in his brow line.