I know, I know, its been months since I checked in - yikes! Its been a busy summer.
I finally have a little good news to report. To recap.....I got Exchequer Leghorns 2 ½ years ago to breed back to a good quality German NH rooster. The goal was to breed that first generation back to one another and repeat.
The EL's are kind of duds. They were slow to develop, slow to lay, first to quit in the fall, last to start up in spring, lay small eggs yada, yada. And, because the hens are small, the rooster massive, and there are lots of much larger LF hens around, it turned out the rooster did not favor the hens and would not mate them voluntarily. I had to pen them together to get fertile eggs and even then, out of an incubator full of eggs, wound up with only 3 chicks. And, as luck would have it, all three were pullets. So at the end of 18 months, all I had to show was 3 not-yet-laying hens. (They started laying this spring).
Round two. When I thought I'd be starting on the next generation, I was instead back at square one, putting the EL hens in a pen with the NH rooster. I needed at least one cockerel. Once again, an incubator filled with as many eggs as the EL hens would lay while penned (my birds are used to free-range and stopped laying once I had them penned) yielded just 3 chicks.
And now for the good news. All three are cockerels.
So - 3 pullets the first year. 3 cockerels the second year. At this rate....well, you get the picture.
Those 3 little cockerels are now 2-3 months old. Not nearly old enough to breed and I'm concerned that about the time they are, the hens will have ceased laying for the year. That means I have to keep all 3 hens and at least one of the cockerels alive through the winter in order to go to the next generation.
The 3 cockerels were raised by broody hens so are NOT human friendly. That only matters when it comes to photos as they find my presence highly suspicious when I appear too focused on them, and do their best to hide. Nevertheless, I did attempt some photos and Sommer, I believe you will be pleased with these little guys. The hens from this same cross look like BSL's - all black with gold lacing around their necks. At least two of the three have "tells". One has white ear lobes and another has a white spot on one wing.
However the 3 cockerels are full of "tells". Here they are, poor quality photos and all.
Cockerel number one. In addition to several "tells" you can see reddish colored feathering on his wings - the influence from the NH sire. None of the hens got this and he is the only cockerel who did.
Cockerel number two. This is the least colorful of the three, but you can see white on his chest, even in this picture.
Cockerel number three. This guy has the most white - you can it on both his chest and his wings.
So here's my plan. Assuming I keep all 6 birds alive over the winter, I will set up 3 pens and put a pair in each. I will rotate cockerels between pens each week. So the eggs I get from each hen will have been fertilized by all three cockerels. This will give me the greatest genetic diversity I can think of, while keeping in mind that I am breeding siblings to siblings. To what degree they are siblings is unclear.
The eggs resulting in hens were collected from multiple EL hens. They were all sired by the same rooster. So they are at least half siblings, but it is possible they are full siblings, if the only eggs that developed out of that batch were collected from the same hen (I had no way to mark eggs from different hens).
The cockerels resulted from eggs collected from the same EL hens as above and the son of the sire from above. Once again, there is no way to know whether one or multiple EL hens laid the eggs that developed and whether or not the mother of any of the cockerels is the same as the mother of any of the pullets. And this time the sire is the son of the pullets' sire so he added a little genetic diversity due to having a NH mother who is completely unrelated to the hens.
That's the best I can do on genetic diversity with my set up anyway.
Size wise, it is hard to tell in these photos. They are typically sized for their age - small but still with a lot of growing to do. You can see their yellow legs and single combs. It is hard to get close enough to them to evaluate their overall body type, but the tail is on nice and straight and the legs seem to be set a nice distance apart.
I probably won't have another update until spring but wanted to let you all know I didn't drop off the face of the earth and though this is going far slower than I anticipated, I am still determined to get there. I'm the tortoise, not the hare.
I finally have a little good news to report. To recap.....I got Exchequer Leghorns 2 ½ years ago to breed back to a good quality German NH rooster. The goal was to breed that first generation back to one another and repeat.
The EL's are kind of duds. They were slow to develop, slow to lay, first to quit in the fall, last to start up in spring, lay small eggs yada, yada. And, because the hens are small, the rooster massive, and there are lots of much larger LF hens around, it turned out the rooster did not favor the hens and would not mate them voluntarily. I had to pen them together to get fertile eggs and even then, out of an incubator full of eggs, wound up with only 3 chicks. And, as luck would have it, all three were pullets. So at the end of 18 months, all I had to show was 3 not-yet-laying hens. (They started laying this spring).
Round two. When I thought I'd be starting on the next generation, I was instead back at square one, putting the EL hens in a pen with the NH rooster. I needed at least one cockerel. Once again, an incubator filled with as many eggs as the EL hens would lay while penned (my birds are used to free-range and stopped laying once I had them penned) yielded just 3 chicks.
And now for the good news. All three are cockerels.
So - 3 pullets the first year. 3 cockerels the second year. At this rate....well, you get the picture.
Those 3 little cockerels are now 2-3 months old. Not nearly old enough to breed and I'm concerned that about the time they are, the hens will have ceased laying for the year. That means I have to keep all 3 hens and at least one of the cockerels alive through the winter in order to go to the next generation.
The 3 cockerels were raised by broody hens so are NOT human friendly. That only matters when it comes to photos as they find my presence highly suspicious when I appear too focused on them, and do their best to hide. Nevertheless, I did attempt some photos and Sommer, I believe you will be pleased with these little guys. The hens from this same cross look like BSL's - all black with gold lacing around their necks. At least two of the three have "tells". One has white ear lobes and another has a white spot on one wing.
However the 3 cockerels are full of "tells". Here they are, poor quality photos and all.
Cockerel number one. In addition to several "tells" you can see reddish colored feathering on his wings - the influence from the NH sire. None of the hens got this and he is the only cockerel who did.
Cockerel number two. This is the least colorful of the three, but you can see white on his chest, even in this picture.
Cockerel number three. This guy has the most white - you can it on both his chest and his wings.
So here's my plan. Assuming I keep all 6 birds alive over the winter, I will set up 3 pens and put a pair in each. I will rotate cockerels between pens each week. So the eggs I get from each hen will have been fertilized by all three cockerels. This will give me the greatest genetic diversity I can think of, while keeping in mind that I am breeding siblings to siblings. To what degree they are siblings is unclear.
The eggs resulting in hens were collected from multiple EL hens. They were all sired by the same rooster. So they are at least half siblings, but it is possible they are full siblings, if the only eggs that developed out of that batch were collected from the same hen (I had no way to mark eggs from different hens).
The cockerels resulted from eggs collected from the same EL hens as above and the son of the sire from above. Once again, there is no way to know whether one or multiple EL hens laid the eggs that developed and whether or not the mother of any of the cockerels is the same as the mother of any of the pullets. And this time the sire is the son of the pullets' sire so he added a little genetic diversity due to having a NH mother who is completely unrelated to the hens.
That's the best I can do on genetic diversity with my set up anyway.
Size wise, it is hard to tell in these photos. They are typically sized for their age - small but still with a lot of growing to do. You can see their yellow legs and single combs. It is hard to get close enough to them to evaluate their overall body type, but the tail is on nice and straight and the legs seem to be set a nice distance apart.
I probably won't have another update until spring but wanted to let you all know I didn't drop off the face of the earth and though this is going far slower than I anticipated, I am still determined to get there. I'm the tortoise, not the hare.
sorry to hear it...... we have to predator proof our home and runs to keep an array of things out. good luck !!!
