the black crested white polish project

[Elite Silkies]

I would use the Roo in the 10th photo also. Good luck on your project.

 

[becky3086]

Polish do tend to be quite scrawny as they grow. I think you have a good start. The next batch will bring a whole new batch of culls and the next and the next etc. but you will eventually have some decent birds. I am actually rather pleased you posted this because I have held off getting any of these because I knew they weren't anything like they were pictured but now I know they at least are decent enough to work with.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

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MPC has them this year.

 

[Vcomb]

Thanks for posting these! I'll give you my two cents on a pic by pic basis...this variety needs a lot of work across the board so you'll have to be pretty ruthless in your selection of your stock. you can do more with 3 good birds than you can do with 8 birds that are just "ok". one or two good roos and a couple of hens to single mate under them is all you really need to start.

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This one don't use. poor color, poor tail set and not very good color in his earlobes.

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while having hardly any black in him might prove useful, his pinched tail and pitted crest cross him off the list of keepers in my book.

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she's got a weird crest, but as long as its even it may be correctable in breeding. plus she's got a good solid black head.

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don't really like the two on the left here, one on the right hard to tell.

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solid white in the crest again. if you can get rid of this early on you'll thank yourself later.

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poor crest, looks like he's been pecked in the tail. something to consider in the broodpen is select the more dominant birds - pecking denotes being "down the coporate ladder" so to speak. plus he's got light legs.

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roo walking away here might be promising.
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don't like the crest on this one, in terms of shape and the fact that it has some solid white feathers in it. also placed back on the head showing too much comb.
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while I don't like his crest shape the fact that of his color is so clean and that it appears his crest is laced will help clean up the color of the others. keep.

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kind of a toss up on this one. not sure how such a white colored bird will work out in the broodpen. seems he's missing some sickles? hard to judge tail placement and whether the tail breaks from the line of the back or not.

 

[aladatrot]

Thanks for all the input! This is exactly what I needed to help get me heading in the right direction.

This group of 17 birds which came from a hatchery left me with three hens and a lot of roosters. I know straight run is luck of the draw, but I had no luck at all in this one. Two of the hens met favorable mention albeit one of them just barely. One of the three hens is the spangled one which I did not post pics of. I figure she is not going to cut it as a breeding bird.

I am typing this sitting on an upside down bucket in the hen house. I am surrounded by my chickens. As I am sitting here distinguishing which rooster is which in the photographs, I am noticing that some of the roosters have awful people manners. One of those meanies is what would be considered the best roo I have by the comments. How much should temperament play into this when the ill tempered ones are the better specimens in my flock?

Cheers
M

 

[Vcomb]

temperment is pretty important in my book. I'd say keep him anyway as once mature another roo might put him in his place. A rooster with attitude is a good thing to an extent but you don't want a manfighter. Some roos are just stand-offish, so studying his behaviors you'll learn what you can and can't do around him - but if no matter what you do he gets to where he attacks you that's definately no good. Many of my roos will come to my feet, cock their head at me and drag a wing but they know to display is ok as long as they don't try anything more. A friend of mine actually feels these cocky roosters will have better fertility, which to an extent is true (don't want roos that a hen can whoop up on) moderation is key. Just keep ahold of him and see if he gets worse or better.

 

[aladatrot]

I will keep him then and move him and the two decent hens into my smaller coop. The rest of the polish roos will pull bug duty around the barnyard.

Is it worth incubating the polish eggs as soon as they start laying them? Also, as far as culling the birds, shall I start the culling process as soon as the chicks start to color up and get real feathers, or should I raise the new batch to adulthood before I cull?

You guys have no idea what a help you have been to me!

Cheers
M

 

[Vcomb]

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First step is to analyze your goals in your breeding program. If you truly want to improve them, you will need to do pair matings. To do this you will need to set up smaller pens, one for each hen. I would recommend each hen be in their pen for 3-4 weeks with no roosters before introducing a rooster. legband all the birds you breed, keep records of who is bred to what and mark their eggs. when the chicks hatch toepunch the webs between their toes, write down what punch means what mating. Starting with two roosters and two hens you can do up to 4 matings this year. Rooster a to hen a, rooster b to hen b. Then remove the two roosters for 3-4 weeks, continuing to hatch eggs from those hens and marking them as the first matings. Then you reintroduce the roosters, this time rooster a to hen b and rooster b to hen a and hatch from these matings.

With this color you will probably want to let the offspring get to about the same age as these because you will need to see them partially filled out body-wise to assess their type, although birds with extreme color flaws could be spotted early on and culled out if necessarry.

 

[aladatrot]

Would you mate best to best and then the two lesser individuals together as the first pairing?

Best to best would be the rooster you and everyone else seemed to think was better. He has clean color but with a few black-edged white feathers in his crest. Best hen has a good black crest but a little off in shape. The next best rooster and hen are both white with predominantly white crests.

There may be one more hen out there, but it looks awfully rooster-ish to me now. Has long thin feathers over it's rump as well as some long thin feathering on the neck.

Cheers
M

 

[Vcomb]

I'd probably breed your best roo to the mostly white hen and vice versa in the other pen first. this is sometimes referred to as blanket theory. The way you look at it is each bird's genetics are like an old blanket with holes in it, but when the two blankets combine hopefully they cover each other's holes. Get chicks out of these matings first then try mating them the other way.