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I disagree on hte crest comment. Looks perfectly in proportion to me. Any bigger and you would start wondering which end is the tail, and when that happens, the crest is definitely too large.

Yes, I know the crest isn't supposed to be huge, but I'm a sucker for it. LOVE me some big crests;-) Here is another of my girls and her crest isn't as big - probably more correct - than the first pullet I posted.

 
I was thinking the same! I don't think I've ever seen a splash, blue, etc with crests like the whites can get.
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If someone has one, I'd love to see it!

Go to Hattrick's splash page. Some nice, big crests on her splash.
 
Go to Hattrick's splash page. Some nice, big crests on her splash.
they still aren't quite as large, but very nice.
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Okay... question, because I have a bird that is not yet finished growing, but is developing a big crest and seems to be getting nice type and I keep picking that bird up to look at it, forgetting that the toes are messed up. I go out there and am drawn to this bird's looks and pick it up and see the feet, and think--- oh darn!!! There's another two birds that sort of look like it, but not quite as nice. Is everyone SUPER strict on toes? This one has fused toes on both sides and i even think there is an extra toenail thrown in for extra frustrating measure. What if this bird turns out to be amazing otherwise?? Would you still not use it..? Ideas? I should post a picture of it's toes. All of it's siblings except for two turned out fine feet wise. This is from some hatched eggs I bought. Would you believe that NONE of the birds I hatched had fused or messed up feet out of my own birds? Anyway, would you take type over feet??? Or would feet rule out a nice bird?
 
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they still aren't quite as large, but very nice.
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Okay... question, because I have a bird that is not yet finished growing, but is developing a big crest and seems to be getting nice type and I keep picking that bird up to look at it, forgetting that the toes are messed up. I go out there and am drawn to this bird's looks and pick it up and see the feet, and think--- oh darn!!! There's another two birds that sort of look like it, but not quite as nice. Is everyone SUPER strict on toes? This one has fused toes on both sides and i even think there is an extra toenail thrown in for extra frustrating measure. What if this bird turns out to be amazing otherwise?? Would you still not use it..? Ideas? I should post a picture of it's toes. All of it's siblings except for two turned out fine feet wise. This is from some hatched eggs I bought. Would you believe that NONE of the birds I hatched had fused or messed up feet out of my own birds? Anyway, would you take type over feet??? Or would feet rule out a nice bird?
I always sell anything with an extra toenail or nub as babies, but if one got by me (very easy to miss) and turned out fantastic I would probably do a test breeding. I have found that every breeder I have purchased from has about 1 in 10 with an extra nail and that's about what I get with mine too. So if you breed it and have one in ten, I would say go ahead and use it. If you get a bunch of bad ones then cull. As for the fused toes I am more convinced than ever that it's an incubation problem. I know you know this but I had done a couple of hatches from one pair I have and no fused toes. Then I did a staggered hatch and the batch that went through high humidity twice had 50% fused toes. I have done two more hatches with that pair since and no fused toes. I'll be interested to see what others think about this.
 
I always sell anything with an extra toenail or nub as babies, but if one got by me (very easy to miss) and turned out fantastic I would probably do a test breeding. I have found that every breeder I have purchased from has about 1 in 10 with an extra nail and that's about what I get with mine too. So if you breed it and have one in ten, I would say go ahead and use it. If you get a bunch of bad ones then cull. As for the fused toes I am more convinced than ever that it's an incubation problem. I know you know this but I had done a couple of hatches from one pair I have and no fused toes. Then I did a staggered hatch and the batch that went through high humidity twice had 50% fused toes. I have done two more hatches with that pair since and no fused toes. I'll be interested to see what others think about this.
Peep, this bird is one I hatched from Deb. It is just looking really good. I kept all of her birds regardless of faults because I wanted to grow them out and see what they looked liked. Now, I see how this one is turning out-- and not all of them are this nice. Sigh. I may hang on to it and do a test breeding on it next year and then get rid of it if it throws bad toes.. or maybe I should get rid of it now. I don't want to have to worry about toes. All of my own birds (chicks)-- none of them have bad toes. So I'm guessing the person I bought my original birds from, that had been bred out and they just have good breeding behind them. So I would hate to introduce something bad into birds that aren't having these issues. Sigh. I don't know. If this were in my own birds, i'd get rid of it, because I could make more. Yeah... can't wait to hear how other's weigh in on this. I did staggered hatches on everything except Deb's eggs. So even with the staggered birds, I didn't end up with any fused toes.
 
Peep, this bird is one I hatched from Deb. It is just looking really good. I kept all of her birds regardless of faults because I wanted to grow them out and see what they looked liked. Now, I see how this one is turning out-- and not all of them are this nice. Sigh. I may hang on to it and do a test breeding on it next year and then get rid of it if it throws bad toes.. or maybe I should get rid of it now. I don't want to have to worry about toes. All of my own birds (chicks)-- none of them have bad toes. So I'm guessing the person I bought my original birds from, that had been bred out and they just have good breeding behind them. So I would hate to introduce something bad into birds that aren't having these issues. Sigh. I don't know. If this were in my own birds, i'd get rid of it, because I could make more. Yeah... can't wait to hear how other's weigh in on this. I did staggered hatches on everything except Deb's eggs. So even with the staggered birds, I didn't end up with any fused toes.

I agree with Peep, test her out. Her? He? Test hatches are a lot easier to do than say, breedings with dogs and no one is the worse for it. (I mean come on, they ARE birds;-)
Put it this way, if you part with it without trying, will you regret it?
 
I agree with Peep, test her out. Her? He? Test hatches are a lot easier to do than say, breedings with dogs and no one is the worse for it. (I mean come on, they ARE birds;-)
Put it this way, if you part with it without trying, will you regret it?
Okay, you twisted my arm! (har, har) I think I'm going to keep her. I *think* it's a girl. The boys are starting to become a bit more obvious right now.
 
Peep, this bird is one I hatched from Deb. It is just looking really good. I kept all of her birds regardless of faults because I wanted to grow them out and see what they looked liked. Now, I see how this one is turning out-- and not all of them are this nice. Sigh. I may hang on to it and do a test breeding on it next year and then get rid of it if it throws bad toes.. or maybe I should get rid of it now. I don't want to have to worry about toes. All of my own birds (chicks)-- none of them have bad toes. So I'm guessing the person I bought my original birds from, that had been bred out and they just have good breeding behind them. So I would hate to introduce something bad into birds that aren't having these issues. Sigh. I don't know. If this were in my own birds, i'd get rid of it, because I could make more. Yeah... can't wait to hear how other's weigh in on this. I did staggered hatches on everything except Deb's eggs. So even with the staggered birds, I didn't end up with any fused toes.
Don't forget that some birds are really slow to mature and can look really awkward for quite a while. Look at this 7 mth. old roo I got from Deb and compare to 10 month photo. Photos are in the wrong order but you get the picture. Feel free to evaluate!!


 

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