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

[lisa67steve99]

Cyn, Thought you might enjoy seeing Ty's offspring.She hatched a total of 12, 2 didn't make it, so we have 10.

 

[drumstick diva]

Crazy Hen at least it just took coke instead of poultry. Darn varmints. Hope you will feel better soon, and any time spent with your mom will be a blessing. I lost mine almost 19 years ago and still have dreams about her. She died at 77 - much too soon.

 

[speckledhen]

@lisa67steve99 , aw, so cute! How is Miss Cheyenne doing with them? She looks like she's being a good mom.

 

[lisa67steve99]

Cheyenne is doing a great job, she is a wonderful mom. One of the chicks has got me stumped, it is jet black with the exception of a small light patch in the vent area and it has black legs. All the rest are yellow legged. I hope and pray it will look like Georgia!

 

[speckledhen]

Cheyenne is doing a great job, she is a wonderful mom. One of the chicks has got me stumped, it is jet black with the exception of a small light patch in the vent area and it has black legs. All the rest are yellow legged. I hope and pray it will look like Georgia!

Lisa, if there is no head spot, then it should look just like Georgia.

 

[lisa67steve99]

Oh Cyn, that's great news! No head spot on the chick, so maybe I will have a little black baby to replace my sweet Georgia.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh Cyn, that's great news! No head spot on the chick, so maybe I will have a little black baby to replace my sweet Georgia.

Hope it's a pullet, Lisa. It will be black, certainly, but unless you know which is the mother, can't say for sure if it's a pullet or cockerel.

My friend Karen (lockedhearts on BYC) drove up and got the Barred Rock trio so I now have my keeper pullet, Lizzie, and her two partners in crime, Rocky and Jet, for company. I think the old hens will be happy that those rowdy youngsters are gone.

@bargain , Nancy, I sent something back with Karen for you, my dear. Heard you were under the weather. Hope you're feeling better soon.



ETA: Angela, I gave Gloria Jean two days of heavy penicillin. At least I can say I tried, right? But, I may have another problem. On the roost where Sammie Jo sleeps, there was a big glob of pure egg yolk. I know it is hers because she sleeps there against the wall, bookended by Deacon on the other side of her. Rachel sleeps on the other end-Rachel started laying again yesterday and Rita laid an egg today so it is definitely Sammie's. I know she did not lay yesterday. I swear, this is the craziest thing, me losing all the younger and in-between aged hens rather than the super old ones. It's like a housecleaning because, eventually, the old ones will die, and then I'll have to start over completely other than Atlas and a few BR hens. His oldest Stukel hens are just past 4 years old, Dru is 3 years old. I have Rachel and Ro, but I consider them layers only at this point, as well as Sammie Jo since I know she produces dwarfs. I did keep Lizzie, Atlas's daughter, to add to the breeding pen, but most all the other hens are well over 5 years old, in truth, most 6-8 years old.

 

[speckledhen]

And then there were three.....Rocky, Jet and Lizzie remain after the three amigos left with Karen for the other side of Atlanta. Rocky is still bossy but they are getting along better. Ten-and-a-half weeks old.


Rocky is getting a lot of color in his hackles and wings now.

Amanda ready to snap at Jet, who is eating from her bowl.



See the split wing on Jet? Must be related to the dwarf gene since I've never seen it on any of the chicks raised here prior to this, just another part and parcel of that deformity.











And a short video of Rocky.

Isaac and Georgie, the old geezer couple, plus Blue Rock, Neela, behind Ike. Neela has pencil eraser sized spurs now at 5 years old, guess like an old lady mustache, LOL. Ike is going "gray" in his tail more and more with each molt.










And my lovebug, Gypsy. Gosh, I love that hen. She'll be 8 yrs old in November but I hope she lives to 20. She is my favorite of them all here, her and Pocket Penny, one of the Belgian D'Anvers.

 

[Peanutsmomma]

ETA: Angela, I gave Gloria Jean two days of heavy penicillin. At least I can say I tried, right? But, I may have another problem. On the roost where Sammie Jo sleeps, there was a big glob of pure egg yolk. I know it is hers because she sleeps there against the wall, bookended by Deacon on the other side of her. Rachel sleeps on the other end-Rachel started laying again yesterday and Rita laid an egg today so it is definitely Sammie's. I know she did not lay yesterday. I swear, this is the craziest thing, me losing all the younger and in-between aged hens rather than the super old ones. It's like a housecleaning because, eventually, the old ones will die, and then I'll have to start over completely other than Atlas and a few BR hens. His oldest Stukel hens are just past 4 years old, Dru is 3 years old. I have Rachel and Ro, but I consider them layers only at this point, as well as Sammie Jo since I know she produces dwarfs. I did keep Lizzie, Atlas's daughter, to add to the breeding pen, but most all the other hens are well over 5 years old, in truth, most 6-8 years old.

Yes, my dear you have tried. I wonder what is going on with all of these hens having problems? Can some sort of bacteria cause laying problems in hens that are normally good layers?

Loved the photos! Lizzie is a pretty little thing and whenever you mention Jet I always think of James Dean in Giant.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: Usually, that would be in older hens when the cloaca becomes "loose" and feces are accidentally sucked back into the oviduct where they should not be, causing an ecoli infection. But Sammie Jo is very young, under a year, I think. So, I have no idea what the heck is up with this bunch. I wonder if the dwarf gene she carries has anything to do with it but I don't see how.

Sammie has been very thin for quite some time. I wormed that group with 5 days of Safeguard in order to make sure I got capillary worms if they had them, but she is still thin. Rita seems okay. It's hard to judge Rachel since she was broody and raised chicks so she had not gained all her weight back when she temporarily went broody again and then into a hard molt. But now that the molt is on the way out and she is laying again, I hope she'll gain weight.

Gloria Jean is in an entirely different age bracket and group. She's past 4 years old.