The Search for Superbird

[varidgerunner]

To my knowledge nothing is done to ga dong tao feet. They grow that way. Just as many oriental game breeds put on extra leg scale with age. The pictures you see are of aged birds, three to four years old, that have the colossal feet. At less than that their feet look much like our cornish, which are a freaky messed up version of the fine breeds that went into them.

 

[Indyshent]

The icky method was supposed to cause Dong Tao feet in a different, normally footed breed. It was probably (hopefully) fake. That's how fads go. People try sick things to cash in while the money's good.


Think I might have a couple pure Leghorns. May keep them. I like that build because it's just big enough without having a lot of extra feed requirements. Seems like most of these white chicks are boys though. Regardless, I'll be growing them out to see what comes of them because they're in an awkward phase mostly now, and I can't guarantee who's going to live to adulthood (picked favorites always seem to die, turn out to be the other gender, grow into jerks, etc).

A number of what I thought were black birds actually seem to be blue with melanizers enough to look like a dark laced charcoal gray now that they're getting some big kid feathers. Might be keeping some of the Optimus Prime kiddos because of their nifty combs. Want to keep his longer tail/extra feathers/nifty comb genes around.

Also have some of the big boned, big breasted Orpington and/or Brahma genes coming out. Some of these guys (and pullets!) have some Dolly Parton/Arnold Schwarzenegger chests! I know many of them must be half Leghorns, too, and that's really funny to me. They're like Leghorns that are hitting the gym! One particular pullet I'm going to have to keep because she's a thick but spunky girl, and she's got dark quills in some places, which is really odd looking. Want to see if she grows out of or into some things, but I know she's carrying at least some of what I'm looking for, and I may wind up long on boys and short on pullets with this F1 group. Most of the pullets are dark, which is throwing cogs in the works so far.

May look about and see if I can get a hold of more Sumatras from that old line, but I probably won't because the whole group fell into the ether in heaps of anonymity and drama years ago. Very sad fate for a lot of very nice birds.

 

[Indyshent]

Ugh, so many problems with this site!

Took some pictures of the babies yesterday, and of course, the site's not wanting me to upload them. Grr.

This is "Horns," and despite being the only one with even a tentative name, it's *not my favorite*. Definitely not my favorite, and I'm sure you can see how much this bird simply isn't my favorite based on how it's perched all over me and begging for treats.

I have a few certifiable boys of un-certifiable heritage, and absolutely none of them are favorites either. The pea combs and feathered shanks incline me to think a Brahma granddaddy, with the proud carriage only really coming from either the Polish roo or Wun Wun, a simply massive Dark Brahma rooster I used to have (both of my DB roos were spectacular roosters, and both died in the line of duty, protecting their girls from hawks and stray dogs). Their slow feathering and comparative mass also make me think of my dearly departed Wun Wun. As much as I want to stick with smaller birds, I really miss my Brahmas.



I'm going to have to do some spelunking for a picture of Wun Wun, so hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.

Could not get a good picture of this other absolutely-not-my-favorite bird, who's shaping up to be the sassy Brick House of this bunch. If I hadn't known better, I might suspect a CX in her ancestry--what a stocky little Spunkmeyer! From the picture, it looks like she might have a single comb, but it's still small at this point. She's one of the very few likely pullets of the Leghorn crosses.



All of the Barred Rocks look identical except one, which I didn't get a good picture of.




The barred and white birds all have green eyes, but those will probably turn bay later. Even though no breed I know of is supposed to have green eyes, I think they're lovely and would gladly breed them in. I like the dark face and black eyed look too, so I'm not kicking that color to the curb either. I don't understand the draw of orange eyes.

I've tried to get some good pictures of the darker babies too, but I haven't been able to capture what I'm talking about with the charcoal laced thing.

 

[Indyshent]

This is Wun Wun before the 1 year mark. Biggest rooster I've ever seen, and one of the best.

Between him and his "brother" Mag the Mighty, several half-Brahmas hatched last spring, and two of the girls staid here. Both girls looked like DB with EE muffs and laid beautiful, huge blue-green eggs frequently, so undoubtedly, some of these babies belong to them.

I think Spunkmeyer is from the Leghorn Roo ("Foghorn") over one of these DB/EE hens (specifically the one with clearer markings who was always laying her eggs on top of a pair of broody ducks). A lot of these kids are likely hers, but I hadn't suspected she would have so many white babies or any with single combs both if her parents were pea combed--going to have to check Spunkmeyer's comb again)

 

[Indyshent]

Question for those in the know: Can one tell by looking if a rooster is single or double barred?

This site simply won't let me post a picture of a rooster in question, even though I downloaded it from this site. RAWR.

EDIT: here's a link to a post full of studly available guys.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/indiana-bycers-here.730582/page-5293#post-19036904

Near as I can tell, all of the guys pictured are single barred, but please correct me if I'm wrong. So far, I most like the look of the last one pictured.

I know I need gold partridge type genes and barring, so getting a rooster who's got both seems like a good deal as I could skip the step of crossing Barred Rocks in by crossing barred gold crele in instead. If he's double barred, I would get all barred offspring. I know he's also at least heterozygous for rose comb too, and has a family history of good build and egg laying. His father is part BO (waiting for word on it, but the other half was most likely Barred Rock or Dominique from what I understand) and his mother is Dominique.

 

[Indyshent]

I'm not likely to have many F1 chicks to work with next spring at this rate. I might have three white pullets total. Hopefully, they're pullets hiding under big, bright pink combs. Leghorns can be bad about being assertive, big-combed, early maturing girls, so I'm really hoping that count's off.

I'm thinking Horns, Wun Wun Two, and Foghorn Jr are all guys, and they're most of the white kids right there (or at least, that's what it seems like--they're assertive little guys who like begging for treats and are always underfoot). Between those three, I've got three flavors of comb: Horns has a funky V-comb with an extra third sprig midway down the length; Wun Two has a pea comb; Foghorn Jr has a straight comb and could pass for a fullblooded Leghorn, minus some dark quills here and there.
Spunkmeyer's a gal (she does have a single comb). There's another likely pullet with a single comb, too, plus a few younger ones that could still go either way (leaning on pullet for most of them).

I have a few Marans mixes, which is nice. Most of those, in fact, look like pullets, and one looks like OP over a Marans, so these should be some nice olive eggers. One is OP over an OE, so hopefully will get some super dark eggs from her. OP's mom laid #8s sometimes but usually laid around #6. Think I may make an OE/Marans pen just to focus on egg colors and pretty type. Will have some interesting alleles in that group, between the Sumatra heritage, the French black copper Marans, and the dun blue copper Marans/ Seeing OP's comb crop up (kinda) in a bunch of these kids.

Still not sure what egg genes OP has on his other side of the family--just know he's 1/2 Marans, and that his paternal grandfather was a SQ Sumatra from a nice laying line. His paternal grandma could've laid white, blue or green eggs though, so... she's completely up in the air. Have to wait til his daughters start laying to hopefully solve that riddle.

Needing to get some multicolored packs of zip ties and a new record book.

 

[Indyshent]

Last count, looked like three white cockerels and five white likely-pullets. Not much to base much off, but I'll see what I can do. One of the little girls is suffering under a terrible broody mom's bad advice and wound up stuck in the cold mud last night. Hoping I can get her back up and running, but it wasn't looking good for her last night.

 

[Indyshent]

Looking like four roos, and three pullets now. One of the pullets died overnight, and another is looking more like a boy. I've only got a couple chicks with a chipmunk down base, and both look like boys. Too darn many boys here. Hoping more gold genes are going to pop out in the F2s, but I don't have my hopes up.

The barred Rock babies are dwindling. We're down to four out of six due to dog attacks. One has very pretty barring, the others are more muddled/cuckoo.

Think Horns is Leghorn/Breda, so definitely keeping him in the program. His V comb is certainly frost resistant, and he's likely split for recessive Breda comblessness (and mottling!). If I cross him over single combs, his double rose should win over, and I should eventually get that combless trait out. All of his "sisters" are single combed.

 

[Indyshent]

Dog got in the pen in this morning and attacked two cockerels who had been up the tree last night. Wun Two I'm giving an 80% survival chance, but I expect to find the little olive egger dead next time I check on him.

 

[Indyshent]

I think Spunkmeyer is Lavender Orpington+ Coronation Sussex rooster over white Leghorn hen. She does have a single comb but is definitely built more like an Orpington.

The cold weather has hampered a lot of comb development, especially for the broody babies. Looks like I've got a lot of pullets in the younger bunch of birds. Should have enough to keep going with on all projects.

Only have one confirmed Silkie pullet, might have another one.