Red Partridge Orpington informational hatch thread

[Caitiemc88]

So I thought I’d update. These two are actually both looking like pullets. From what I’ve read partridge generally have black chest feathers at this stage if they are male. I will let you know if anything changes.

I’m also a little disappointed in their shank color they aren’t white but slate. I will have to get a male with good white legs hopefully I can breed this out.

 

[K0k0shka]

At least the brooder is in the house, so you'll hear if there's an 'incident'.
Also it'll get packed with poop that will be very hard to clean out.
Sorry to be a debidowner, my 'trouble tracker' has been triggered.

Haha no need to apologize. It’s good to point out possible problems. I have that tendency too, when giving feedback to my underlings at work, to look for and focus on the flaws. Though I do try to mention the good things, too I’ll definitely hear it if anything happens. So far poops have been easy to roll off of it. Until somebody drops a cecal on it I guess

 

[K0k0shka]

So I thought I’d update. These two are actually both looking like pullets. From what I’ve read partridge generally have black chest feathers at this stage if they are male. I will let you know if anything changes.

I’m also a little disappointed in their shank color they aren’t white but slate. I will have to get a male with good white legs hopefully I can breed this out.

Yay, that’s great! And very helpful, thank you! I would love to see updates. I’ll go find some pictures of my partridge boy from last year and see at what point he developed the black breast. He changed colors and patterns a lot.

 

[K0k0shka]

So I thought I’d update. These two are actually both looking like pullets. From what I’ve read partridge generally have black chest feathers at this stage if they are male. I will let you know if anything changes.

I’m also a little disappointed in their shank color they aren’t white but slate. I will have to get a male with good white legs hopefully I can breed this out.

Your chicks are giving me so much hope! I have quite a few with the black wing feathers and was starting to despair, but if yours with the black wing feathers can still turn out so uniformly patterned and female-looking, then maybe there's hope. I'm guessing because Jeff has been mixing in other colors, the pattern is probably not developing consistently and throwing false signs... like the black wing feathers...

I found some pictures from last year, and it seems that the breast took quite a while to turn black. The neck did first, and looks to be a more reliable marker.

Here's my boy at 3 weeks, showing some black feathers but not as much black as on some of my chicks right now (or yours from the earlier photo):

At 4 weeks, the breast is coming in patterned, but you can see that the neck is starting to turn black, and the back is looking darker, too:

At 5 weeks, the breast is getting its first splash of black:

At 6 weeks, the breast's splash of black is growing, and the neck, tail and pants are already looking very black and break up the pattern:

In some lines, full grown females do have black tails, but not in the ones in the photos on the Papa's Poultry website. Or at least not much anyway. And the neck and pants definitely don't have black on them. So I'll be watching out for that black neck, because the neck feathers did seem to come in black from the start, not like the breast which started out patterned but turned black later, and even then, took until near maturity to turn completely black.

Here he is at 10 weeks, with the breast still more splotchy than black, but the head and neck are completely black:

He didn't end up with a black head and neck when full grown, interestingly. They eventually turned orange. Here he is at 7 months old:

Given that neither the males nor the females have black heads and necks when mature, though, I don't know how much the adolescent black head/neck on my boy is indicative of his boyhood... I only had him of that color, and I can't for the life of me find pictures of adolescent partridge orps online, so I actually have no idea if the neck is a good early sign or not....

 

[K0k0shka]

P.S. @Caitiemc88 it's very interesting that yours have black legs... Partridge orps are not supposed to have black legs. I wonder if they have some black orp in them.

 

[Caitiemc88]

P.S. @Caitiemc88 it's very interesting that yours have black legs... Partridge orps are not supposed to have black legs. I wonder if they have some black orp in them.

I’ve seen it before, they are slate in color only one allele off white legs it’s recessive for can hide for generations. I’m sure I can breed it out but frustrated that I have to, haha.

 

[K0k0shka]

I’ve seen it before, they are slate in color only one allele off white legs it’s recessive for can hide for generations. I’m sure I can breed it out but frustrated that I have to, haha.

Haha yeah, that's what I mean, it could end up there but shouldn't. I really don't care though, they can have rainbow legs - as long as I get at least two females

 

[K0k0shka]

3 week photo update!

Everybody together:

Pooh is giving me very strong girl vibes. She is by far the most feathered out of the bunch (first to hatch, too, but only by a few hours), and her feathers are coming in evenly patterned:

Lemonade is looking very male to me, mostly because of the comb, the thick legs, and he’s very dense and heavy compared to the other chicks. I had a cannon ball like that last year, he ended up male and got huge:

Blinky has gotten a lot more patterning on his wings (used to have the least) but has the biggest comb and wattles with the most color on them, so he’s probably a lost cause:

The Pretty One has a smaller comb than Lemonade or Blinky so there’s still hope, but the feather pattern is throwing me off. Still a lot of black, though that doesn’t seem to be such a strong indicator with the chicks being so mixed already, so who knows:

The Baby also has a small comb, but is the smallest chick overall so maybe it just hasn’t developed yet. It, too, has more patterning on its wings now, and I just noticed that its legs are a different color than the other chicks’ - not quite as dark as slate, but something between pink and slate. Reminds me of the cousins’ feet

Here are some closer-up head shots to show the combs:

Pooh:

Lemonade:

Blinky:

The Pretty One:

The Baby:

Any guesses?

 

[Tervish]

Great pictures!

I agree about Blinky but no guesses as to the rest. One of my Wyandotte chicks last year had much bigger/redder comb and wattles than the rest, and I was so sure it was a roo. Instead Wyatt (Wyette?) is a bossy noisy hen. So, don't count your roosters until they crow?

ETA: Wyatt at 3.5 weeks

 

[K0k0shka]

Great pictures!

I agree about Blinky but no guesses as to the rest. One of my Wyandotte chicks last year had much bigger/redder comb and wattles than the rest, and I was so sure it was a roo. Instead Wyatt (Wyette?) is a bossy noisy hen. So, don't count your roosters until they crow?

ETA: Wyatt at 3.5 weeks

Cute! That sure is a lot of color... Alright, maybe there is still hope then