Sub-tropical chooks - picture heavy

[K Spot]

They are such beautiful birds, aren't they?

We've had a flock of over 50 in our pine trees at the back of our property. Was a awesome sight to see

 

[cwrite]

50!

I dread to think what that must have sounded like K Spot. Cockatoos sound just like what I imagine pterodactyls would have sounded like and just as loud too.

 

[appps]

Thanks ChickyChickens. : ) We had a good morning today. I woke up at 6am with a fright that something had happened to the chooks because they had been so quiet. They had their five hours of free range (4am - 9am) and got apples from my heat hardy apple tree when they went back into the run. Snowy only whined a little and they have all settled down. The cooler weather is over and we are back to scorching today. We had three visitors in the bush over the back fence yesterday. It appeared to be a juvenile with it's folks although there wasn't much size difference. The one bird complained incessantly and kept setting my chooks off. It also wasn't foraging, just complaining so I'm guessing juvenile being shrugged off. I still find it amazing seeing these birds in the wild. Yellow-tailed black cockatoo.

Great photos. You must have been pretty close? I tried to get some when a couple visited us but even with my long lens couldn't get as clear as those!

 

[cwrite]

Great photos. You must have been pretty close? I tried to get some when a couple visited us but even with my long lens couldn't get as clear as those!

Thanks appps! I was using my old 75-300mm lens from my old camera on a newer digital body. It has mixed results, but was a much cheaper way of upgrading. The trees are pretty close up against our back fence so that also helps.

 

[K Spot]

They certainly made plenty of noise, that's for sure

 

[cwrite]

The chicks are ten weeks old now and we STILL have all 11 of them. I've had an ad up for Rumpless for a week and no takers. This last week I have become more sure of who is what. The only ones I'm not sure of are the late developers, Baby and Dotty. I suspect that they are both roos although I may be biased seeing as all the other lavender chicks have turned out to be boys. I suspect that out of 6 lavenders all will turn out to be boys and out of the 5 cream chicks, two are boys. So it looks like 3/11 are pullets. I would have liked a lavender pullet, but it's ok as long as it isn't too hard to find homes for the boys.

A few pics of how they have grown up.

Baby


Dotty - still the smallest and least developed


Two lavender boys. It looks like they are going to do ten steps before drawing.


Ninja - still the hardest to catch by a long way.


This boy has grown a few feathers with cream spots on them.


Fan boy. Yes, I have found naming them makes it easier to keep track of who is showing signs of being a boy.


A cream boy and girl. The colour hasn't come out well here, but it's a great photo for showing the difference in their tails. The cream boys have also gone a lot redder and taller than the girls.


Dotty, Princess in the front and the two cream boys behind her.


From left to right: Lav boy, cream girl and Rumpless. Although his tail still isn't as large as the other boys, he is the biggest by far and clearly has thin saddle feathers growing. He's still my favourite.


Silly chicks in the tree trying to roost on very thin branches. Someone inevitably falls off. Usually when one too many get on.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment, particularly if you think I've got any of the boys wrong.

 

[chooks4life]

Was looking up genetics info and found this and thought of your birds with the poor feathering. Apparently, according to the source Bulldogma (Karen) cited in her article, the genetics responsible for self-blue/lavender are associated with poor feather structure. Aha!

Bulldogma is a user on this forum too by the way so you can ask her questions directly if you do a search for users with that name and PM her.

Some general info on it:
Quote:
The specific source mentioning the poor feather issue:
Quote: Quote from above source: "Then came Lavender or self blue, for the other blue tends to be laced in appearance. This is a recessive mutation often associated with bad feather structure."

Heaps of good info there.

Best wishes.

 

[cwrite]

Was looking up genetics info and found this and thought of your birds with the poor feathering. Apparently, according to the source Bulldogma (Karen) cited in her article, the genetics responsible for self-blue/lavender are associated with poor feather structure. Aha!

Bulldogma is a user on this forum too by the way so you can ask her questions directly if you do a search for users with that name and PM her.

Some general info on it:

The specific source mentioning the poor feather issue:

Heaps of good info there.

Best wishes.

Thanks Chooks4life! Those sites are great. I've bookmarked them as I'm sure I'll need a while to get through all the info. I recently discovered some of this on the lavender ameraucana thread but it has been slow going trawling through for little bits of info here and there. Apparently the best method to deal with feather fretting is to breed them to black and then back to lavender. Also small size is another problem that comes with lavenders so there is Dotty in a nutshell.

 

[chooks4life]

You're welcome, and it certainly does take some trawling for info, doesn't it! I'm still working on learning all this myself, looks complicated even for the experts, especially when dominant /recessive designations don't necessarily apply to all cases and multiple genes can have the same effects and some are only guessed at then passed around like truth, and others long-believed are now in contention, and so forth...

I wonder, do lavender-and-whatever-other-color birds have the same issues? I read it's just pure lavender, which means perhaps a breeding program to incorporate other colors, or just buying birds of mixed lavender and other colors, would solve the poor size and poor feathering issues. I'm not a fan of solid colored birds myself, but lacing would sway me, lol.

Best wishes.

 

[Teila]

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