Selecting Mutts To Create the Perfect Flock

[Ruthster55]

Here are my goals with the general egg-laying flock:

First, I want broody hens that set eggs and then brood them. This is because mail-order chicks aren't a thing where I live, although local breeders do exist.

Second, I love the following appearance traits: Black, Blue, and Toppy (because it's so cute). Third, I like having eggs of different colors.

Here a couple of pictures of Silly Rooster, who was our former flock rooster that fathered a large number of the chickens in our current flock. Even though he was just a mutt, he had some really neat traits that included a partial blue color. (If you would rather that I call the color gray, just say so)!

During the second half of 2019, we improved the security of the chicken run.

Back during late February and early March, there was a gap between the chicken yard and the wall of the dirt-floor building that can be seen behind the tropical plant in the pictures. I noticed that a hen was sometimes hanging out in the building, but wasn't really paying much attention to what she was up to. I just thought they were playing around.

We had not had chicks hatch for several years.
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[Ruthster55]

Since March 18th until now, there has almost always been one hen broody in the flock. They haven't gone broody in large numbers at any one time, and they have always gone broody on eggs. Therefore, the broodiness in this flock has been productive. We have rarely had to break a broody hen, although we did it a couple times recently.

On April 10th, these chicks hatched! There were 7 chicks. I had to rush out and get proper chick starter after these pics were taken. Now, I always keep chick starter on hand.

I don't know of anyone anywhere nearby who breeds Blue Copper Marans. The rooster was sold to me for a very reasonable price (around 10 dollars) that leads me to guess that he was a mutt. I just bought him last year at a market because I thought he was cute.

Prices are pretty high here for Brahmas and for Game birds, and there aren't even any Brahmas to be had under a 12 hour drive away (even though I would love to have some Brahmas). I believe an actual Blue Copper Marans would be rather expensive! The common types of chickens in this local area are Games, giant Naked Necks, Cornish Cross for eating, and mutts.

Also, the egg color of the progeny does not suggest a Marans father. This hen is a blue egg layer. One of her daughters lays a light green egg that I'll show in a later post. I'm thrilled about having green eggs, but I think they would be a lot darker if a Marans were the father. Thus, mutt....
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[Ruthster55]

On June 9th, three chicks hatched.
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On June 30th, the first chick to hatch was the gray pullet in the picture.
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[Ruthster55]

Saturday, July 18th was a bright and sunny day. I heard several chicks peeping from one of the old nest boxes where a hen had been broody. I let them stay in the nest box for a little while to make sure all the eggs hatched. Then, at one point, the mama hen left the nest and wanted her little ones to follow her. That wasn't easily possible, because the nest box is around 5 feet off the ground. I transferred the hen and chicks to a cage that was set up for the purpose. Because they were active and often went under the hen to get warm, I had trouble counting all of the chicks. It turns out that there were 20 in total!!

Meet Broody Hen Nº 7 and her 20 babies!!
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The first-hatched pullet wasn't quite at point of lay yet, but she was enjoying the sunshine!
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[Ruthster55]

On May 15th, four chicks hatched. Here they are! The mother is a black Game hen, and the father, as for all, is Silly Rooster.

The mother was a wild thing who wanted to raise two of her babies outside, and left two in the nest. Instead of that, we scooped them up and put them in a safer place.
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[Ruthster55]

This is what the eggs looked like during early July. These are all eggs from the original ten or so hens in the flock. I don't believe any of these are from Silly Rooster's daughters. The new pullets weren't at point of lay yet.

I'll continue this thread tomorrow. There will be a major announcement and pictures regarding what happened on Saturday July 18th!
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[Ruthster55]

Then...COVID became a thing. On March 18th, just as we were going into quarantine, a hen hatched one pullet chick in the building. We rushed to put the hen and chick into a cage. I did not get pictures of the chick, although you will see the resulting hen in a later update!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Your Rooster is Lovely. Are you sure he was a mutt? Looks like a blue copper man boy to me.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Your Rooster is Lovely. Are you sure he was a mutt? Looks like a blue copper man boy to me.

Marans don’t have crests

 

[Ruthster55]

Here's the Silly guy looking blurry but pretty on green grass!
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