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

[speckledhen]

Yes they are. Smart and quick - sounds like a good free-range roo.

Thankfully, they are all super friendly and easy to catch. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to round up all twelve from the big pen, but they had a big communal dust bath, then sun bath then they started exploring a little more with Little Guy in the lead. I decided it was time to put up that explorer dude with his sisters so I could get pics of the other four males to start the preliminary selection process.

I've started a thread just for the Brahmas and it has new photos there. I'm already seeing the cockerels show up there. Check it out! https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...eeding-group-blue-partridge-x-partridge-darks

 

[holm25]

Cyn everything looks amazing!!

 

[speckledhen]

Cyn everything looks amazing!!

Thanks!

 

[speckledhen]

The Teenagers. Yes, I still have them. Guess they're here to stay. They run with every group here so they get to stay out all day long, but they go to roost in Atlas's pen.














And Georgie, who was 7 years old in February, my last Delaware. She's a real bossy butt and will take over as head hen when June is gone, providing she outlives June. June is a year older than Georgie.

 

[Wyatt0224]

If you are keeping Apollo, Zara and Athena does this mean you'll keep more of your new barred Rock pullets to add to the amount of hens with atlas?

 

[speckledhen]

If you are keeping Apollo, Zara and Athena does this mean you'll keep more of your new barred Rock pullets to add to the amount of hens with atlas?

I'm actually probably going to try to keep the teens with Atlas, IF he will allow his son to stay in there with him. So far, he's not paid any attention to him at all, but of course, Apollo is still pretty babyish, not mating the hens or crowing. He's starting to grab his sisters, but Athena beats him up every time, LOL. I'm not planning on giving any of the new BR pullets to Atlas. His pen is fairly full already, until he loses a hen or two, that is. His hens are a good bit older than he is, other than his daughters, so not sure how long they'll be around.

I hope to just keep the new BRs and the Brahmas together for awhile, the ones from each group that I will end up keeping, that is. I'm not sure how the space will work out. All I really have is the 5x8 pen in the barn unless I put them in one of the old coops, something I really would rather not do. I don't want to put the new girls with Atlas, but if things keep being difficult around here with personal health issues and such, I may just try to get Atlas, along with the three teens, and the new group of young keepers to run together on range and go to their respective coops at night until whatever point I really need to separate a group for breeding. I'm not sure when I'll need to do that, but it will be awhile, I think.

I'm planning to keep one cockerel and the three largest pullets from the BRs and the same (maybe) from the Brahmas, so that will be 8 or 9 new youngsters coming along behind Apollo and his sisters. My friend, Andrew, is going to take whatever BRs I do not keep to raise up and see how they grow out compared to the Atlas progeny he has.

 

[Wyatt0224]

Well I hope atlas enjoys his sons company for awhile. At this point now with your new barred rocks and Apollo and his sisters (since they were atlas's children), when they were the age the new ones are, who do you think has the best barring?

 

[speckledhen]

Hmm, it's hard to call on the pullets because their barring tends to evolve and change more than the cockerels'. At around 5-6 weeks, here is Apollo. You can see he's further along in his feathering at that point than the newbies are, so going by that, the newbies have better overall barring. They feather slower, which always gives better barring. Even the smallest cockerel in the new bunch is feathering even slower than his larger brothers, giving him a slight edge in that dept.

 

[Wyatt0224]

That is interesting. It is always fun to watch this thread develop and to see how the chickens age and develop themselves.

 

[speckledhen]

I have one cockerel who is campaigning to be my keeper. I was sitting on a little plastic table, sort of hunched over, elbows on my knees, watching them outside and suddenly, something ran up my back and was tugging on my hair clip. I reached back over my head and brought the offender to the front and it was one of the top three males. He just stood on my knee, pecking at my shirt buttons, looking up in my face, just being Mr. Personable. He stayed with me for a good long time until I lowered him down. Good boy.