The American Cemani Breeders Club...open forum

[cjwaldon]

That is very familiar!

I finally convinced mine to stop. Now they're laying gangbusters, but they're not separated so pointless to set any of their eggs. Go figure. They hold out on me until I put them in general. But them eggs is still good eatin'! mmmm-mm! Love me a hot hard boiled egg every morning.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I let them hatch some chicks, figured I wouldn't worry about eggs from them for a while anyways...

They make such different noises! Split them up and Gypsy who has chicks now, somehow sounds like an angry dog and a happy cat at the same time??? Definitely unique...

 

[WalnutHill]

Now that I have more than a pair, I am here to learn. I have some catching up to do!

 

[WalnutHill]

My opinion is that new breeders should not cull anything. Grow them all out. Every one. Once mature and you have selected your best, grow out all their offspring. Keep notes. Then you will get first hand experience what white is and how birds with white toes or white toenails or white feathers most likely will mature. You will gain first hand experience and have a pretty good guess how birds with pink mouths or pink skin, or white skin, or green legs most likely will mature. Don't rely on what other people tell you. Find out for yourself. Find out what your breeders are producing. This goes beyond raising purchase chicks or raising chicks hatched from purchased eggs.

Once you get comfortable with what your breeders produce, then and only then can you make educated guesses on which chicks most likely will not make the cut and should most likely be culled. Every time you introduce a new line, you'll need to repeat the process of growing out several batches of chicks from your new breeding set up so that you'll know what this new combination of genetics will produce.

Keep in mind the goal is to improve. Your best may be somebody else's culls, but with patience it won't take you long to achieve a great flock. But no matter how good your flock gets, you will still have culls. What I cull now is better than my best two years ago. My goal is to be able to keep saying that, to be able to say my current culls are better than yesterday's breeders.

Do yourself a favor and put in the time now growing out all your chicks. You will learn so much more from personal experience.

Wonderful advice, thank you.

I am just getting into quality chickens, but I have been selectively breeding turkeys for several years.

The good thing is that I have an egg laying flock. I can grow out all my birds, and those that are or appear to be culls can become generic egg layers (or in the case of surplus cockerels, meat birds). I always keep a few roosters around as I keep about 200 laying hens, which pay the bills for all the chickens. If I keep a bird because he or she is essentially a good bird with no developmental or conformation flaws, it can always be pulled back into the breeding flock in case I lose one of my selected breeders. My culls should be at least as good as someone else's culls (other than from the top breeders). It's worked well for me with turkeys, and allows me to keep backup birds that simply haven't developed to their full potential until they have matured. I have had some of my best turkeys not really come into their own until after they are a year old.

 

[WalnutHill]

Here is the ayam cemani cockerel I need to get rid of. I can't keep roosters and luckily he hasn't started crowing yet. I can post photos of a cemeni hen if anyone is interested in pairs. He is about four months old. If you want more photos just ask. He seems friendly, I have him in my lap right now and he is sitting nicely. Local pickup please. I am in Oakland county, MI.
I need this rooster gone, I can give you a discounted price if you just want him.
$50 for the pair obo, I'm reasonable

@Peep-Chicken let me know if you still have the pair.

 

[WalnutHill]

We have a trio of these beauties. Planning on crossing them with Broiler NNs for a nice sized fibro NN for one project, keeping others for improvement of the purebred breed.

Ooh, that sounds interesting! I have two hetero NN now. It would be fun to see the outcome and definitely easy to see the skin color!

 

[GabrielBane]

Ooh, that sounds interesting!  I have two hetero NN now. It would be fun to see the outcome and definitely easy to see the skin color!

First I've gotta start by getting the darkest Birchens possible! It's gonna be a loooooong time to even get the NN broilers to where I want, adding in the fibro is gonna be a long haul project, but I'm excited!

 

[WalnutHill]

Here are my new AC babies. They're somewhere around 4 weeks old.

 

[HeatherTheMommy]

Hatching my first ayams today. Do they hatch with black tongues or do they darken with age?

 

[HeatherTheMommy]

Freshly hatched