Sumatra Thread!

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I'm no Sumatra expert but I do know that you can only feather sex some breeds of chickens, not just any breed. Many (maybe even most ?) have to be vent sexed which is difficult to do accurately, according to Mike Rowe, anyway. Lol
I just wait for feathers to develop. If you start to see shiny, thin, pointy too feathers on the saddle and hackles, it's a too.

That's right... I've heard a lot of talk of feather sexing, had a guy tell me just the other night he wanted to come over and get some but he wanted to feather sex them. Told him knock yourself out...but it doesnt work.
The breeds for the most part that you can do that on are production style birds which threw years of genetic engineering now have that built into them.
If it were that easy and reliable, hatcheries wouldnt pay sexers a ton of money to vent sex all their sexed offspring, they'd just look at the wing feathers, any minimum wade person could do that....

I deal pretty much solely in bantams and for a fact it doesnt work on them. Tested in a lo of birds in years past just to see if there was anything to it.

Like you said, without a magnifying glass and knowledge of what you are looking for, time is the only way to sex these. Shinny feathers, and pointed hackle and saddles is the best way to tell for sure

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I'm going to get some black sumatra bantams from a local breeder as soon as he has some hens available and just wanted to know a little more about them. I've had a pair before, but didn't really know to much about them. Are they really seasonal breeder like I read? Do they mature quite quickly? Are they fairly smart as a breed? And does anyone have any experiance with the roos consistantly coming out as manfighters? Go ahead and post anything else you think would be good/interesting to know. Sorry for all the questions, and thanks in advance.

1) yes pretty much only lay in spring and summer into early fall
2)they grow quick but some lines can be slow to feather, usually dont get best tails and saddles til 2-3 years old
3)very smart for a chicken
4)mine are the gentlest chickens I have, very tame and not flighty at all, never had one try me, or even look like he would

 

[cyspoultry]

I Love sumatras i have 5 and one little baby.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Has anyone ever had a blue Sumatra chick that feathered out black!? I'm dumb founded with mine.

Had a guy contact me last year about some he raised . He had a splash to a blue which should have made all blue and splash, all came out black, but most turned dark blue as they matured.

Had another man contact me with similar chicks.

Most of my blues are extremely dark which is what you want variety wise. The pale ones get DQed if a proper judge is looking at them.
Could that be what these are doing? Their down color doesnt last long and is much paler than the adult feathering

I know you've seen them, but here's what they should end up like

 

[stonykill]

1) yes pretty much only lay in spring and summer into early fall
2)they grow quick but some lines can be slow to feather, usually dont get best tails and saddles til 2-3 years old
3)very smart for a chicken
4)mine are the gentlest chickens I have, very tame and not flighty at all, never had one try me, or even look like he would

1) with my girls it depends on the age. Pullets born now lay through the winter. Here in north eastern NY the older girls start laying in February and lay right until early December.

3) absolutely. Quite smart birds.

4) I have 1 who try's me once in a while. The only one in 15 Sumatra roosters who try's me. Only a couple of times a year will he try, but he does. For the most part mine aren't flighty.

mine go broody any time of year they are laying. I had a broody last December. She went broody again in early march. She goes broody 3 times a year without fail.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

That's interesting to hear on your's laying like that. I've had them for years, they usually start Feb or so, but stop by Oct at the lastest here, my are bantam sized too though, maybe large fowl go longer. But they and most all game fowl dont do that as a rule

 

[jeremy]

Had a guy contact me last year about some he raised . He had a splash to a blue which should have made all blue and splash, all came out black, but most turned dark blue as they matured.

Had another man contact me with similar chicks.

Most of my blues are extremely dark which is what you want variety wise. The pale ones get DQed if a proper judge is looking at them.
Could that be what these are doing? Their down color doesnt last long and is much paler than the adult feathering

I know you've seen them, but here's what they should end up like

Very, very pretty!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

We had one hen in each pen doing the broody deal but when I started my new job a couple weeks back, I didn't get home til after 9 for the first week and it turned out no one had been collecting eggs. So now we have them everywhere! At least they will be hatching around the same time. So far as far as sex goes, it looks like the first hatch was mostly cockerels and the second big hatch is mostly pullets.

I also got some bantam eggs from a good breeder, he has a blue cock on black and blue hens. So far 2 eggs have hatched from him and it looks like 1 black and 1 splash. These birds are unrelated to ours for the most part, we swapped breeding stock years back but it has been diluted enough.

 

[gallo4319]

When comes to sex Sumatras that only thing had worked for me is spending time holdingg them
Pullets sounds different from cockerel,
Their behavior could be a good indicator, body structure .
Sometimes it takes days .
otherwise I rather to wait until they are two months
When is easier to separate pullets from cockerels.

 

[fowlsessed]

Just wanted to say thanks to those who answered my questions. The one roo we had was terrible for attacking people, but I'm glad he was the exeption.