It's been a while since I've been here. Not too sure I like the new forum layout.
I've had some progress on my colored sultans though. One of my sultan/brahma hens hatched out some eggs and one chick was a perfect little black sultan..then my cochin rooster ATE it!!! So now no more broody momma hens in the yard, I'm pulling eggs and incubating. Seems I have a raccoon too who goes into my boxes at night and eats eggs if I do not get them pulled in every evening now too.
Happy news though, today I had another little black sultan chick hatch. It's a real hodpodge of chicks coming since I have a sultan rooster, standard cochin barred rooster and a black shamo rooster. The cochin and sultan mostly keep the shamo away, but I have had a few long legged chicks appear
And I find this gorgeous little silver fluff ball cochin and fall in love, pick her up and discover 5 toes..RooRooRooster, you dog! So I guess my boys are not sticking to their own hens all the time. Now that I have a lot of young chicks which are mixed I plan to discontinue my standard cochins, rehome those and the shamo pair and have just my sultans running in the yard. Once my chicks grow out I'll pick the most sultan like of them and continue on in the hopes of colored sultans.
While I have not yet grown out any chicks from my blue and lavender speckled sultan/brahma hens, the ones that hatched and were eaten by Goliath (cochin roo), were beautiful chicks. They are very sultan like and born with skull vaults. I have one immature rooster outside now who I thought was a pure sultan, but as he's aging his spots are showing up more. He's lightly splashed but looks like a pure sultan. So my two mixed girls are throwing nice chicks and they will be nicer when there's no cochin or shamo thrown in there haha! It's pretty easy to tell who is fathering the chicks. Shamo have long legs, cochins are straight combed and my pure sultans or lightly mixed have head vaults and all sultan features.
I've had some progress on my colored sultans though. One of my sultan/brahma hens hatched out some eggs and one chick was a perfect little black sultan..then my cochin rooster ATE it!!! So now no more broody momma hens in the yard, I'm pulling eggs and incubating. Seems I have a raccoon too who goes into my boxes at night and eats eggs if I do not get them pulled in every evening now too.
Happy news though, today I had another little black sultan chick hatch. It's a real hodpodge of chicks coming since I have a sultan rooster, standard cochin barred rooster and a black shamo rooster. The cochin and sultan mostly keep the shamo away, but I have had a few long legged chicks appear
And I find this gorgeous little silver fluff ball cochin and fall in love, pick her up and discover 5 toes..RooRooRooster, you dog! So I guess my boys are not sticking to their own hens all the time. Now that I have a lot of young chicks which are mixed I plan to discontinue my standard cochins, rehome those and the shamo pair and have just my sultans running in the yard. Once my chicks grow out I'll pick the most sultan like of them and continue on in the hopes of colored sultans.While I have not yet grown out any chicks from my blue and lavender speckled sultan/brahma hens, the ones that hatched and were eaten by Goliath (cochin roo), were beautiful chicks. They are very sultan like and born with skull vaults. I have one immature rooster outside now who I thought was a pure sultan, but as he's aging his spots are showing up more. He's lightly splashed but looks like a pure sultan. So my two mixed girls are throwing nice chicks and they will be nicer when there's no cochin or shamo thrown in there haha! It's pretty easy to tell who is fathering the chicks. Shamo have long legs, cochins are straight combed and my pure sultans or lightly mixed have head vaults and all sultan features.
I think he's most likely from one of my half brahma hens since his foot feathering is sparse. I also have a couple of splash pullets (see pic 3, the pullet with the dark beak). I've decided to keep this young rooster and see what happens.
