Hey everyone!
Back in town - what a whirlwind of activity that was! Wow. Boy did I put in some serious hours.
Anyway, I'll take some new pics ASAP but here's the latest . . . .
Everyone here is doing GREAT. My boyfriend did a wonderful job of taking care of everyone!
Cheeto's three spotted sons are having the same "color fade" issues as some of the previous roosters - the white is just starting to disappear. I am still going to use at least two of these roosters, however. The spots may be fading but the body type and size is still going strong.
I have two thoughts on this. One, it could be just a "rooster thing" because if you notice, Speckled Sussex roosters actually don't have a ton of white on them. Mostly speckles on the chest, but often the back and most of the wings/tail are totally solid colored. Compared to the hens, who are usually way more colorful.
Now, I haven't yet had a hen chick with spots out of Cheeto that has grown up yet. He had two colored hens here, but one was culled for leg issues, and another was culled when she grew sick from a respiratory issue that was going around the flock. So maybe the hens out of Cheeto would stay colorful, if we only had any?
The second thought is that it has something to do with the out-crossing? Maybe it is related to the fact that one parent (Cheeto) has no spots at all, and that if I put the fading-spot roos in with the pure Alohas, pure Sussex, or half-Sussex hens, we will see "permanent" spots in the next generation.
Two of the rooster chicks in particular still look really nice. Big! Yellow legs. And they still do have some spotting, but it's not as neat looking as it was before. But, I'm hopeful that this is just a temporary issue and we'll resolve it in the next cross. I can't wait to get this two boys from Cheeto in with the half-Sussex, half Aloha hens. And maybe toss in a few of the small colorful Aloha hens, too - that would make 3/4 Alohas with yellow legs and probably a bit more size. (And most certainly, LOTS of color!)
Plus, I do see a couple of baby hen-chicks that look like Cheeto's offspring in the baby grow-out pen, so hopefully in a few months we'll be able to see if the fading spots is anything gender related? It's hard to make a call on this without both boys and girls to look at.
When I first crossed Oddball the Banty with an Exchequer/Sussex rooster, the rooster Vanilla didn't look like Oddball at all. But he threw lots of chicks that looked like her. So we can't discount Cheeto's babies or this color fade issue until we cross them with some spotted hens and see what happens. It could be nothing more than a temporary glitch?
In the incubator is a new group of chicks that include some of Stephen's stock, plus a bunch of eggs from Cheeto's breeder pen. Hopefully we'll get some colored baby HENS out of Cheeto so we can see how those look as adults!
Oh, and I have isolated Flame away from the adult hens while I've been gone. The only roosters in the main pen are the three Swedish Flowers with all the Aloha hens plus the half Sussex hens, who are now laying! So in a week, I will start collecting eggs, and if those eggs are fertile, they will be our first Swedish Flower x Aloha cross chicks. Will keep everyone posted!
