The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

They look good! So will you keep #3 or still #2?

I don't know! I don't know!

The best personality is #1 (of course, why wouldn't he be the best in that dept?). The one who wins all the sparring matches, and usually starts them, truth be known, is #3. I can just see him starting that stuff up with his father! Oh, my.

And now, #4 is in play, too. He's bigger than he appears, but I have not seen him actually next to the others so maybe he's not as small as he seems out on his own.

What I know for certain is that #1 can't stay due to his bad comb issue. Sigh.

 

[eleaserek]

They look good! So will you keep #3 or still #2?

I'm very curious about this too! #3 has the best barring, and now that he's made strides size-wise...or will you keep them both to see how they grow out...?

 

[speckledhen]

I'm very curious about this too! #3 has the best barring, and now that he's made strides size-wise...or will you keep them both to see how they grow out...?

Well, I just don't know. It's a hard decision. Maybe if no one buys #3, I can get them all out with Atlas and the hens and after the inevitable sparring of hens with Wynette, see how they do with Atlas, or how he does with them. It's crazy. #3 has the best barring and is catching up in weight. His comb is a 6 pointer and the base of it sits high, so it may end up being too "meaty" or too large, hard to say. Combs are not that much of a big deal except for side sprigs, but still, I just love a nice, balanced comb. The extra point doesn't bother me as much as the base being sort of raised up and large. If someone buys one I was considering keeping, I do have the ones in the incubator due in a couple of weeks. Surely there will be a keeper in there. Uphilljill says her line has good temperament, which is very important to me, as most of you know.

I'm going to see if I can find a picture of #3 at 7 weeks to put beside one of the #4 taken today for comparison. He seems to have decent barring, though he feathered out faster than the older one.

 

[speckledhen]

You see #3 was not nearly as feathered as #4 is at the same age. That slow feathering means better barring, most all the time.

 

[speckledhen]

Candling Report! Day 7 on the remaining shipped eggs from uphilljill, a gift from 1muttsfan.

As you recall, I removed #4 for seeping albumen early on. So, was left with 15 eggs to candle.

Of the 15, only one shows no development at all, #15. It has no air cell, no veins, floating air cell. I left it in for now, but will recandle later, as I usually do, just to be safe, but I'm about 99.999% positive it's not going to be viable. Hey, darn good so far, I think!

Of the remaining 14 eggs, four of them have what I call "scalloped" air cells, those extra large, misshapen ones you often see in shipped eggs, #1, 8, 11 & 14, but all show normal development so holding out hope that at least a couple or more of those will hatch anyway.

I'll not candle (except for #15 to verify today's findings in a couple of days) until near Day 18, before, or as, I remove the turner and lay them on their sides.

 

[1muttsfan]

That's not bad - similar to the shipped eggs I recently received, interestingly enough the best developing are those that had yolk smeared all over them and required washing.

And thanks Cyn for the cute mug mats - I love the old style fabric patterns, and the card too!

 

[speckledhen]

Mary, you are very welcome! Hope you enjoy them. I use them here all the time.

 

[speckledhen]

After the newest weigh-in, even though the #3 boy caught up in weight to #2, even bypassing him by a tiny bit, if you look at them from overhead, you still notice that #3 is narrow down the sides, not wide across his back. That bugs me about him. My gut tells me that I should probably still hold onto #2 for now and keep with my original plan to let #1 and #3 go and sell the younger two as a pair, especially in light of the fact that I do have some quality eggs in the incubator as well.

What do you think?

 

[1muttsfan]

Size matters. Pretty barring will come with time, the genes are there, just a matter of getting them sorted out.

 

[speckledhen]

Size matters. Pretty barring will come with time, the genes are there, just a matter of getting them sorted out.

So, would you go with #2 with the wider back over #3, then? They are close to the same weight, but you'd never know it from looking at them overhead. The other thing that #3 has going on is the longer top line-but, again, it's like he's "stretched" and more flat sided, not entirely, but not super rounded like #1 and #2.

It's easy to see the barring will improve. Just look at Atlas, with his way less than perfect barring, producing progeny with those nice hens that surpasses his own quality. I keep looking for the "chevron" feathers and all of the boys seem to have straight-across barring. I'm dying just looking at #1 with him being about six ounces heavier than the others, such a big round guy, sigh. Can't breed a male with side sprigs and I know he got them from Gloria Jean, no way he'd have them otherwise. She's not laying now, keeps going on the nest, no egg, so I think her egg factory is malfunctioning again and I'll eventually lose her.


ETA: Looks like I better pull out my extra incubator! Got the PM about my Brahma eggs-will soon get an assortment of Dark, Partridge and Blue Partridge! I've been waiting for this for a long time now, ever since I had to cancel a hatchery order of Dark and Buff Brahmas from the feedstore three years ago due to our house fire that happened about two weeks before I was supposed to pick up the chicks. These will be better than Brahmas from Privett, so I'm very happy. Of course, I figured I'd get the call while my BRs were in the bator, but when you get this chance, you take it! Caroline, the Queen of All, my Buff gal, is still kicking. If it wasn't for her horrible crop, she'd make it to 10 years old, I bet.






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