The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[KF0002]

This is my trusted rooster guy, not some wacko stranger. He says these roosters are existing together in the same pen, so we gonna try it out. I have never had good luck with 2 roos in a pen.

I have two Brown Leghorn roosters that were hatch mates in a pen together with 6 pullets. I need to break that group up, but for now the roosters are pretty docile with the pullets. OEGBs are a pretty docile breed also, and I have had several males together in a breeding group before with no issues.

 

[KF0002]

@The Moonshiner do you have any experience with slow feathering in Leghorns? Can a breed be sexable by slow feathering? Or does it have to be done by a particular cross? I have read it is sex linked. Just trying to figure these WL chicks out.

 

[KF0002]

Okay so what I have discovered is that fast feathering is caused by a dominant gene (K) and only requires one copy to express. It is a sex-linked gene. Slow feathering (k) is a recessive gene and requires two copies to express in males (only one required in females). So the fast feathering WLs are k/k if they are male or k/- if they are female. The slow feathering birds are K/k or K/K if they are male, and K/- if they are female.

So while a breed as a whole cannot be feather sexable, the birds I have could be used to produce feather sexable offspring. If I tagged any slow feathering WL females and set those aside to use as breeders and mated those to a fast feathering male, I could produce birds that are reliably feather sexable.

A fast feathering male (k/k) mated to a slow feathering pullet (K/-) would produce 100% slow feathering males (K/k), and 100% fast feathering females (k/-). Boom. Science again.

Is this accurate, @The Moonshiner ?

 

[KF0002]

This obviously changes my original hypothesis. I just have to grow the slow featherers out and select the females from those to breed to a fast feathering male.

 

[WallyG74]

If ya stick em in the cold their feathers grow faster. Right?

 

[KF0002]

If ya stick em in the cold their feathers grow faster. Right?

I've never heard of that. lol. I try to avoid dipping my chicks in cold water. I prefer them to stay alive.

 

[WallyG74]

I didn’t say water. Just the cold. Pretty sure I saw it on here. Lots OPINIONS floating around.

 

[KF0002]

I didn’t say water. Just the cold. Pretty sure I saw it on here. Lots OPINIONS floating around.

Pretty sure chicks + cold = NO.

 

[BlueBaby]

Pretty sure chicks + cold = NO.

That's why they have to have heat lamps. Maybe in the warmer season you can move them outside earlier.

 

[KF0002]

That's why they have to have heat lamps. Maybe in the warmer season you can move them outside earlier.

Yes they can do well during cold months but they have to have heat and a draft free brooder if outdoors. We have successfully brooded many chicks over the years in the winter. Our brooder building is well insulated and easy to heat so chicks do well in there for the most part. One year I moved a set of chicks out to the brooder building as newborns and we lost power overnight. By the time we realized it the chicks in that group had already chilled and died. So that is why they have to be house chickens for 2 weeks before I will take them to the building now during cold months. By then, they are sturdy enough to huddle together for warmth and survive a power outage until we can get to them. We are shopping around for a generator so hopefully we can find one at a decent price.