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Yes, the best hens that I got last year were from eggs laid by a Sussex/Aloha cross hen - which was a Sussex hen crossed with Laree's rooster - that must have been your Sussex hen she used! I lost my Sussex early on, so that was from Laree's stock, from you.
Most of the Ameraucana traits have been bred out at this point, used some of that early on, but the pea combs and gray legs and puffy cheeks were all complicating things a bit, so we've focused more on Buff Orp/Buff Rock/NHR/Sussex lines now for outcrossing . . .
Oh, the Thanksgiving chicks are starting to feather out now! Of 22 chicks, I now see visible white feathering on 15 of them. I keep thinking this *must* mean that Cheeto is a Mottled carrier, but I can't say
for sure until I get him in a seperate breeding pen and test him with various hen groups.
Here are photos of a couple of the chicks, now about two weeks and beginning to feather. Some show no white yet, but those ones look a lot like Sussex, and Sussex don't color up for a few months anyway. So I haven't given up hope on those ones, either.
This one is feeling under the weather which is a bummer, he's one of my favorites. Definately mottled with vibrant red in the chest area. No sniffling, no raspiness, no pasty butt, but he's lethargic and kind of thin on the breastbone. Can't figure out why, and everyone else is very perky. Hope he will be OK:
Two have gold color and lots of white. Will probably be "Confetti" colored:
A group shot, as I was cleaning out their pen and had them trapped in this small bird cage. Most are brownish and look like Sussex chicks. Which makes sense because we had a Sussex roo in one pen, and Cheeto was in a pen with two full Sussex hens, so a lot of these will be half-Sussex. A few show more reddish tones and I'm especially excited about those!
