Sultan with YELLOW FEET!!!!!

[Nupine]

I recently bought 7 white sultan bantam hatching eggs on ebay. Cost me $32, but oh well. I had some problems with the picture of the sultan on the auction, which WASN'T HERS, but I fixed that. So today one hatched! He was so cute and different looking! But them I realized he has YELLOW FEET!!!!! Sultans are supposed to have SLATY BLUE FEET!!!!! He also has PINK skin, when they are supposed to have WHITE skin. I currently have two fantastic sultan hens. I bought these eggs in the hopes to have about 2 trios of sultans. BTW, I am NOT raising sultans to give free chicks to the little kid down the road, I AM raising them to improve the breed and to conserve this dying piece of history. I want to breed the best birds I can find, and sell them to dedicated people who care about them like I do. They are beautiful birds. I am not a big ''cull'' person. I don't like the thought of killing an innocent chick just because he isn't perfect, it isn't his fault. And I HATE critisizing people about their birds, like my least favorite thing ever. I don't like people critisizing my silkies because they aren't exactly show quality. Or when or local chicken man called my what I thought were ''prize cochins'', barnyard birds. So I don't like doing it to anyone else. I have some more of those eggs, and I am PRAYING they come out nicely. What should I do with my fuzzy fella and what should I tell the breeder I got the eggs from? What happens if they all come out like this? HELP!!!!!
Ashlyn

 

[patandchickens]

I am NOT raising sultans to give free chicks to the little kid down the road, I AM raising them to improve the breed and to conserve this dying piece of history. I want to breed the best birds I can find, and sell them to dedicated people who care about them like I do. They are beautiful birds. I am not a big ''cull'' person. I don't like the thought of killing an innocent chick just because he isn't perfect, it isn't his fault. <snip>What should I do with my fuzzy fella and what should I tell the breeder I got the eggs from? What happens if they all come out like this? HELP!!!!!

Unfortunately the process of improving -- or sometimes just maintaining -- a breed is inherently a process of producing a whole buncha chicks and then only keeping (breeding) the best of them. And in a breed that has not been a pretty closed gene pool for the past umpty generations, you may have a LOT of non-keepers.

So if you are intending to get into breeding, especially of a rare breed, you are going to have to find some way of reconciling yourself with what to do with the ones that 'flunk out' of your program.

If you don't want to kill them (and if you're not going to be eating them, then I *totally* *totally* feel the same way about it as you do), then actually what is wrong with giving the non-keepers to the kid down the road? (Either literally or just that sort of thing in general.)

The only argument I could see against this would be if you were afraid this would decrease the market for "proper" birds that you produce. But it does not sound to me like you are doing this just for cold profit (and really I doubt too many people make a true profit breeding chickens

) ... it sounds to me like you just wnat to improve and perpetuate the breed? So, if you end up with some quasi-Sultans floating around out there, either given or sold to other homes, that do not meet the Standard, so what? They'd still be happy chickens with, presumably, happy homes

Good luck,

Pat​

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

The other's may hatch out to meet the Standard for the breed. Even the best "Show Quality" birds often have a bad gene in their genetic makeup.

Lot's of people have flocks that contain "mutts" & are quite happy with them. Of the 6 I have only 2 are true Show Quality. They all have won ribbons at fairs, but if I was to breed, I would stick to the purebreds.

And besides, a mutt egg is just as tasty as the one from Show quality stock.

 

[Nupine]

Thanks. I probably will just give him/her to someone. I have no problem ''giving'' away chickens, it is ''selling'' them that I find hard. Last Tuesday I had to give away 4 silkies and 3 turkens, 4 males, 3 females, to a large [12 people total] family in our 4-H club out of desperation to empty that brooder. I just hope I will get some slaty blue ones. And no, I don't raise my birds for cold profit. I do, however, like to break even if I can. Some of my birds have made a dandy profit, but that isn't the reason I have them. I just like enough to pay for the birds themselves and feed.
Ashlyn

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Does it have any blue on its legs? When we had sultans, the chicks hatched out with slate legs and had pink or yellow toes. You cannot judge a chick until it is older, like with buff orpingtons, the ones at the feed store have yellow legs, but when they get older, the legs turn white.

 

[Nupine]

I emailed her about and she said the feet turn slaty blue as they age.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
My sultans hatched out with pink feet & they turned gray/greenish/blue when they got older. Hope this helps!

 

[NYREDS]

Just curious-how do you hope to "improve the breed" without culling?

 

[Cabe]

My sultan chick had yellow legs at a day old, but they darkened up and are now slate colored. I wouldn't panic and just give the little guy some time to grow a little.