The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Okay, so Ron says wait three more weeks. Anyone else?

 

[ronott1]

Ron, yes, the first picture is most certainly a rooster.

Here he is on the left at about a year of age. That pic, like the second one is of the parent stock (hence the labels "Sire" and "Dam" above the first two pictures. I'm just trying to compare the current chicks to their parents at a similar age, but I didn't have a pic of the sire at 3 weeks.

He looks like a speckled sussex--is he a Finnish landrace?

The beak and leg colors will not be sexlinked on them so you will have to go by comb and wattles starting at now to 6 weeks or so. It is possible that feathering speed might indicate gender but you would have to keep track of the cross and see if one gender feathers faster than the other. It will not be too reliable though. Basque hens will have white wing feathers with black to gray in a line in the first week. The darker the black the more likely they will be a boy I think. It is not very reliable though either.

Silver gray dorkings will begin getting salmon color feathers on the breast at about two weeks old for pullets. cockerels will get black feathers on the breast at the same age.

It is so fun learning about the breed you have!

 

[vehve]

The sire is a pure Speckled Sussex.

Sadly we don't have any landraces left, I really like them as birds, but one of them was killed by a hawk, the second by a dachshund, and the third was killed by extended broodiness due to my stupidity. (The dachshund incident was caused by my stupidity too). As egglayers they aren't the best choice though, the eggs are a bit on the small side at 45 grams, so I don't know if we'll be getting any more of them. They are however very pretty with their random coloring, and I really like their personalities.

The dam in the mix of our current batch is a Heinz 57. She was sired by a BCM, and her dam was a mix of Araucana, Silkie and Finnish landrace. She lays beautiful 55-60g olive eggs. She herself was born from a pale blue 37g egg.

This mix is an attempt at getting a more colorful egg basket, with decent sized eggs. I'm hoping for green and light brown eggs to add to our collection.

 

[vehve]

Oh, the pic of the grown SS roo also features our previous batch of chicks, all four were boys, and they are some sort of wheaten-cuckoo maran mixes. F2's would be my guess.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Puddin, I should clarify, the first two pictures are old pictures of the parent stock at 3 or 4 weeks, I gave them as a point of reference. The four last pics are of the current chicks I've got.

Gotcha. I was thinking you were asking about first pic too. My confusion.

Ron, yes, the first picture is most certainly a rooster.

Here he is on the left at about a year of age. That pic, like the second one is of the parent stock (hence the labels "Sire" and "Dam" above the first two pictures. I'm just trying to compare the current chicks to their parents at a similar age, but I didn't have a pic of the sire at 3 weeks.

Love the colors.

He looks like a speckled sussex--is he a Finnish landrace?

The beak and leg colors will not be sexlinked on them so you will have to go by comb and wattles starting at now to 6 weeks or so. It is possible that feathering speed might indicate gender but you would have to keep track of the cross and see if one gender feathers faster than the other. It will not be too reliable though. Basque hens will have white wing feathers with black to gray in a line in the first week. The darker the black the more likely they will be a boy I think. It is not very reliable though either.

Silver gray dorkings will begin getting salmon color feathers on the breast at about two weeks old for pullets. cockerels will get black feathers on the breast at the same age.

It is so fun learning about the breed you have!

Now I need to go look closely at my two week old Phoenix and Phoenix/dorking mix chicks. I had forgotten about this.

I have been looking at head strips to see how they develop and see if there is a difference. I know on dorkings you can sex that way.

 

[chickisoup]

We sooooo need a tiny Viking emotocon!

 

[Puddin Fluff]

@chickisoup

You Rock!!!!! Now tell me how to steal/save those?

 

[Beer can]

Okay, so Ron says wait three more weeks. Anyone else?

I always figure it out when they start crowing... Lol!

 

[vehve]

If these chicks take after their mothers side of the family, that would be pretty soon. I think the two cockerels we had with the same lineage as the dam used for this mix started crowing at 7 and 9 weeks. Super fast developers. On the other hand, the sire didn't start crowing before he was about 20-25 weeks.

I'm leaning towards calling all of these chicks girls, but like Ron said, it's pretty early still. If they do turn out to be girls, it will be interesting to see if my theory on their leg and beak colors holds true next time we hatch out birds with the same lineage. It would take a heck of a lot of hatching to know for sure though.

 

[drumstick diva]

I think it would help if the chicks were looking forward, I can't see their combs at all, not that my guess would matter. I can't tell the front from the back otherwise. Maybe I'll put my eye drops in and see if that helps.

That little emoticon looks like Felix. I wonder if they have any smilies eating ice cream and getting fatter by the minute. Too bad everyone doesn't have their own personal one.

Bunny Lady, could be pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Too sleepy to think of more.