the sultan thread

[hokankai]

Mine hates it when I try and pick her up...but loves to be held. She's skittish until I grab her and then she'll just sit there forever. Haha

 

[cluck-cluck]

Yah, same here, they don't squiggle much once I have them, they're really cute. But they panic every time I walk by their "new" brooder, which is all open so they can see me from the side. It's a busy spot, so I'm hoping they'll get used to us and our noises, etc... Ugh, it's going to rain tomorrow night, and I am behind on building! Must ... finish ... coops!!! LOL

 

[kiaa]

very nice
bravoooooo

 

[cluck-cluck]

LOL, I have 3 cockerels that crow in the morning (sorry, can't find the camera!) and now they're trying to chest butt, but they're like, incompetent. They're too scared to actually touch and fall short every time! Once, one tried to stop another by putting his head down on his back, it wasn't even noticed by the other. It's just funny since even my Serama boy jousting with Harriet does it WAY more aggressively; they chest butt in mid air and are 2 weeks younger than the Sultans, LOL.

Poor little sultans, they are chickens/chicken-like but are so not bold in any way! So much fun to watch!

 

[cluck-cluck]

Wow, I just noticed that one of my boys has a few scattered black feathers! Will they go away when he molts again? They're really just a couple in his hackles and beard, but they're really black. Actually upon closer inspection, the feathers are black on one side and white on the other?!?!? Very interesting! Wonder where that comes from?

Looks like several of my birds have black spots on one or two feathers?

I just washed Ms. Betty White's feet. I didn't think Ms. White's namesake would approve of so much sh*t on her feet, so we took care of that, hee hee hee. However Betty the bird isn't too happy with me at the moment.... I can't believe her crest is already almost blinding her! Very nice head of hair, just like her names sake, LOL

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Mine have black feathers too.

Not sure where they got then either. One has completely black feathers and the other has "spray painted" black on their white feathers. Weird.

 

[hokankai]

That's interesting! Jazzy has one "off" brown/black wild type feather on the edge of her wing, but it's got a white overlay and isn't too noticeable.





It's probably just because of epistatic genetics. Some of their birds have an off gene and it's getting spread around the stock in different forms. It's not easy to get a pure white bird!

 

[cluck-cluck]

Interesting, I'm guessing it's how the genetics go. I guess white is a kind of "other" gene that turns off the black, and maybe a bit leaks through?? Genetics are so confusing! LOL

 

[cluck-cluck]

Well, I took a good look at what I believe are my cockerels. I know I have 3, as they crow all the time, LOL, and another looks very boy like, so I assume he is a boy. However he hasn't crowed yet. This might be problematic as he is the one I chose to keep. He has a very even comb, with a nice spike starting up. He has nice white feathers and good toes. He is also the smallest of them, and since they're supposed to be bantams, I see that as a good thing.

The one thing I'm not too happy with are his nostrils. They seem a little flat and not as cavernous as desired. He looks like he has something in them as well? Is this just food from pigging out? Several of my birds look like this. They get mash chick feed as the one time I bought crumbles, they gave me layer crumbles

Is the stuff getting up their noses?


Well, here is Charlie, my keeper roo



He wasn't terribly happy up there, LOL. His tail is down in unhappiness

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Beautiful cockerel cluck-cluck!

I have bad news. One of my Sultans died a few days ago. I don't know the cause because there was nothing visibly wrong with her. She will be missed.

I still have my little Ivory though. She is getting big and beautiful. Definitely the keeper.

Please pray she'll make it through the night though, I've noticed my Sultans aren't very hardy, and although I have two strong heat lamps in her brooder she doesn't seem to be doing very well.