Selecting Mutts To Create the Perfect Flock

[Ruthster55]

I took some more pictures of the blue rooster and then looked up hen feathering and @RoostersAreAwesome , I think you're correct!! He has no saddle feathers and his tail feathers are rounded. Hennie or Hf is a gene that I didn't know that I had in the flock.

Will be interesting to see whether the blue rooster reproduces - apparently his estrogen level is a little high.

For comparison, here is a picture of a hennie Game stag from googling.

 

[Ruthster55]

The Ruthster has some exciting news! The Ruthster will be visiting another flock next week and will hold a workshop in a couple of weeks on managing the flock and how to process chickens!

 

[Ruthster55]

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the current flock situation. Some of these are selections from a chick purchase I made back in December, and others are born and raised on the farm.
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[Ruthster55]

Full transparency....

Here are pics of some males that were the guests of honor at a birthday party yesterday.

I liked the coloration of the adult rooster, but am also selecting for blue or gray shanks. So, when the dinner opportunity came up, he went to dinner.

Because barring suppresses dark shanks, will have to eventually decide what to do about the remaining barred birds.
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[Ruthster55]

I believe I discussed selling Miss Velociraptor and her chicks to José and Fabiola. I was wanting to remove recessive white from the flock.

Here is one of these chicks all grown up.

Look what this hen threw! Here is Miss Velociraptor's grand-chick! José and Fabiola are really happy with this chick!

I think it's the silliest-looking thing....

Oddly enough, this is the father. Hey, he's got white legs and lots of silver leakage...

 

[Ruthster55]

Well, I've had a rainy, drippy time of over a year while the chicken yard has been mostly fallow. The former flock fed quite a few people.

The reasons for not having chickens lately are almost all personal and most have to do with the passing of the dear friend who got me into chickens in the first place.

It's been a three-year-long La Niña here in northern South America. That means it's been very rainy, which is really bad for young chickens. I decided to wait until a major weather change before getting any more chickens.

I can't complain right now, because parts of the US have downed trees and power outages from a big ol' ice storm.

I'm hoping for a weather change to "El Niño" within the next few months.