What is a sapphire gem?

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

My crossing of these with pure Barnevelder has produced some interesting chicks.


I have only had the hens. All of mine are curious and eat grass from our hands but I do have a few that are flighty (which could startle/scare a child). None are aggressive towards us but they surely won't let you walk up and take eggs out from under them. I have found the SG's to be more active and a little bit more flighty than my Barnevelders. You may want to consider a true pure breed so you can be a bit more certain of what you will get. As a not yet finished breed this type has a large variety of behaviors in it.

It kinda depends too if you want a 'pet' chicken for your child to handle or just birds they can throw scratch to. Mine get pushy when they think you have something they want (grass, treats, scratch) and don't have a problem jumping up to grab it out of my hands whether I am ready or not. lol

That’s funny you should say that about the barnevelders. Last spring I got some and they ended up all being roosters. Mine ended up being the flightier chickens I’ve seen. Maybe it’s because they were still young but they were twice the size of my hens and yet ran away from them. I handled them a lot as chicks and they still were scared of me. They ran even when I threw them treats. What did the mix look like?

 

[RustyBucketFarmGirl]

My crossing of these with pure Barnevelder has produced some interesting chicks.


I have only had the hens. All of mine are curious and eat grass from our hands but I do have a few that are flighty (which could startle/scare a child). None are aggressive towards us but they surely won't let you walk up and take eggs out from under them. I have found the SG's to be more active and a little bit more flighty than my Barnevelders. You may want to consider a true pure breed so you can be a bit more certain of what you will get. As a not yet finished breed this type has a large variety of behaviors in it.

It kinda depends too if you want a 'pet' chicken for your child to handle or just birds they can throw scratch to. Mine get pushy when they think you have something they want (grass, treats, scratch) and don't have a problem jumping up to grab it out of my hands whether I am ready or not. lol

Well i have a mixed flock and there isn’t a bird who lets me take eggs from under her! Lol so that’s not a strange thing. They are kind of pets and kind of farmbirds. My girls handle them occasionally but mostly like to feed and run around with them in the yard.

My 2 year old is the rooster at the moment. She towers over them and they squat for her. So she picks them up and carries them. Most of them tolerate it and will let her handle them. The ones that won’t just don’t squat and run from her instead, to her dismay.

Thanks for the info!

 

[BarnGems]

That’s funny you should say that about the barnevelders. Last spring I got some and they ended up all being roosters. Mine ended up being the flightier chickens I’ve seen. Maybe it’s because they were still young but they were twice the size of my hens and yet ran away from them. I handled them a lot as chicks and they still were scared of me. They ran even when I threw them treats. What did the mix look like?

I lost most of my Barnie's in the fall last year. Only my roo and 1 hen survived. After that you could not get near them. I then bought my sapphire gems because my roo was ALL OVER my hen (she was having none of it) and I needed a bird that was a better layer than the Barnies are to cross them with. In terms of being flighty the gems we're completely afraid of us as chicks more likely to jump out of the brooder than let us touch them. Before dying my Barnies would eat from your hand, they were about 6 weeks when they died. The gems have been more, i don't want to say aggressive but if they want something you have they are not nice about getting from you. They hit hard, and a few of them are obsessive at picking on the smallest hen in the pen ( as well as my rooster, when we had all of them in one pen). There is no handling them as the rooster has decided we are only there to eat his hens and has become a complete pain. With his trauma and some of the mistakes we have made with him, it really isn't his fault. We have since separated them out into two groups. The one group has 4 in it who can't seem to get along with the rest in my main pen. Since pulling them everything is calm and my rooster has all his feathers back. There is a variety of temperaments in my Sapphire Gems (i have 10) and I have only bred the quietest/calm ones (six). The 4 i have set aside are much larger and lay larger eggs so for the time being they are our breakfast makers. We are coming to a time when we will be sending most to freezer camp as I am not finding this bird to be the best choice for keeping in enclosed runs. My first generation of crossing these two shows great promise and I am i love with them

Sorry such a long post, it seems like every time i come to post I make a wall of text! lol

 

[renk777]

Haven't been on here in forever. Not much time to write but wanted to weigh in. Our girls are over a year now. Some are super friendly...others super flighty but not uncatchable. They are very pushy when they want treats but also lay large eggs. Typical for us is around 75 to 80 grams though we do get single yolkers in the 90s and today got a 101 grammer. None have given us a double yolk so this egg is huge! I really like these birds but not sure I'll get them again because they're mean to others. One ripped the pinions out of our roo and despite my best efforts to prevent that becoming a habit, it has. I separated the worst offenders...bought the flock chicken saddles, etc, but it's an ongoing issue. I've checked for mites and parasites so many times. ..none. So I sat in there and watched one day and when they got bored of my treatless state, they returned to their normal activity and I witnessed some literally walk up to another bird and rip out a beakful of feathers...drop it...and go for another. We have a small lot and can't separate any more than we have. I had hoped to keep some of my favorite birds on when we cull and replace at 2 years but sadly, I need this habit to stop and so all birds will be dispatched. Makes me sick but even with the worst girls separated, the others are still plucking feathers from each other. Never had this before and so frustrated. Anyone else have the same issue? Thinking I'll go with Australorps, Marans, and Bielefelders next time if I can get my hands on chicks or pullets. Posting pics of eggs and eggs next to my kid's glue stick for reference...

 

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

I have two girls and love them. We haven’t had any aggressive behaviors but they are at the bottom of the pecking order since my older girls put them in their place when they were introduced. I do have one that protects her black sexlink friend. She gets picked on more then the others and my Penny will stand up to the aggressor enough for them both to get away. They are pretty close. I will say when one of my 7 week old chicks got out as I opened the brooder my Sapphire Gem that’s all the way at the bottom of the order went over and pecked her on the leg. I think she was just thinking she found someone who she could dominate.

Also my girl’s eggs are the smallest of all my layers. Not sure if it’s because they are still young but even my sexlink is laying bigger eggs then them. But they sure are a pretty glossy cream color.

I got a bunch of chicks this spring and ended up getting 7 sapphire gems that I split with a friend. I did notice some glitches in their quality this year ( like they got sloppy with the line at the hatchery.) Their feathers do look more rough and one appears to have white barring on her head. Her feet and beak were yellow but are now darkening up like you would expect a hen’s to. I really thought she was going to end up a rooster but at 7 weeks I would expect her comb to be more developed. I think I’m only going to keep one of them to replace the one I lost.

Here are some picks of the new girls. I need to get some new pictures as these are at least a week or two old.

 

[BarnGems]

Haven't been on here in forever. Not much time to write but wanted to weigh in. Our girls are over a year now. Some are super friendly...others super flighty but not uncatchable. They are very pushy when they want treats but also lay large eggs. Typical for us is around 75 to 80 grams though we do get single yolkers in the 90s and today got a 101 grammer. None have given us a double yolk so this egg is huge! I really like these birds but not sure I'll get them again because they're mean to others. One ripped the pinions out of our roo and despite my best efforts to prevent that becoming a habit, it has. I separated the worst offenders...bought the flock chicken saddles, etc, but it's an ongoing issue. I've checked for mites and parasites so many times. ..none. So I sat in there and watched one day and when they got bored of my treatless state, they returned to their normal activity and I witnessed some literally walk up to another bird and rip out a beakful of feathers...drop it...and go for another. We have a small lot and can't separate any more than we have. I had hoped to keep some of my favorite birds on when we cull and replace at 2 years but sadly, I need this habit to stop and so all birds will be dispatched. Makes me sick but even with the worst girls separated, the others are still plucking feathers from each other. Never had this before and so frustrated. Anyone else have the same issue? Thinking I'll go with Australorps, Marans, and Bielefelders next time if I can get my hands on chicks or pullets. Posting pics of eggs and eggs next to my kid's glue stick for reference...]

I am sorry to hear you are having a similar experience with these birds. I am equally saddened and frustrated with this behavior. We did make a change in our feed (increased protein), checked repeatedly for external and internal parasites, started spreading out the feed on the ground to give them something to do, throwing random food snacks in, put a rubber ball into the pen for them to play with, grass clippings, mineral supplements, kale, seaweed, and meal worms. I don't even think free ranging them would stop this, as they tend to do it the most a bed time when everyone is on the roost bar.

By crossing these with my Barnevelders the new birds I have gotten are so calm and friendly it is wonderful. I am thankful I purchased the Sapphire gems but they certainly are not something I would choose to purchase again. I will be keeping a few to continue crossing them with my Barnies because the cross birds are great, but I will probably be freezer camping all but 3 or 4 of them. I know it's difficult to know when you get a sex link what to expect but this kinda of behavior caught me by surprise. I believed it must have been something in their diet that drove them to this but even feeding 20% feed with supplements did not stop the behavior as they will pluck any chicken that they can catch unaware. I too worry if I put any other birds in with them that they will learn this behavior so mine will be permanently in a side pen set off from my main barn.

Here is a pic of the cross chicks:

 

[rlhagan56]

I had my hubby pick up some Sapphire Gem chicks from the feed store. I got 3 pretty little pullets that are now about 4 weeks. But he also said he had them grab two from another bin marked Sapphire Gem Olive Eggers. Unfortunately they both had a light spot on their heads, one had a marker dot. So I thanked him and told him that pretty soon he will have to send both SGOE to freezer camp since they were cockerels. At 4 weeks the one is lavender with white feathers coming in (the one with the marker dot and matching the photo on Hoover Hatchery SG rooster), and the other is getting barred feathers in. Both are screeching, flighty little things, they may visit camp sooner than expected. But they ARE roosters in every respect. Oddly a week later I went into the same feed store and that bin of SG Olive Egger's still had about 15 chicks, some older and new ones. They ALL had a light spot on their heads, so now I wonder how they could ALL be cockerals. Just now I noticed from my avatar that the one standing has a light ring around the eye, the other does not. They were EE's I hatched, and the standing one was a cockerel and the sitting one was a pullet. So the lighter ring around the eye seems to have merit, I don't remember who posted that.

 

[renk777]

I am sorry to hear you are having a similar experience with these birds. I am equally saddened and frustrated with this behavior. We did make a change in our feed (increased protein), checked repeatedly for external and internal parasites, started spreading out the feed on the ground to give them something to do, throwing random food snacks in, put a rubber ball into the pen for them to play with, grass clippings, mineral supplements, kale, seaweed, and meal worms. I don't even think free ranging them would stop this, as they tend to do it the most a bed time when everyone is on the roost bar.

By crossing these with my Barnevelders the new birds I have gotten are so calm and friendly it is wonderful. I am thankful I purchased the Sapphire gems but they certainly are not something I would choose to purchase again. I will be keeping a few to continue crossing them with my Barnies because the cross birds are great, but I will probably be freezer camping all but 3 or 4 of them. I know it's difficult to know when you get a sex link what to expect but this kinda of behavior caught me by surprise. I believed it must have been something in their diet that drove them to this but even feeding 20% feed with supplements did not stop the behavior as they will pluck any chicken that they can catch unaware. I too worry if I put any other birds in with them that they will learn this behavior so mine will be permanently in a side pen set off from my main barn.

Here is a pic of the cross chicks:
View attachment 1764356

Wow....that's sounds so similar. Ours really pull out feathers when roosting as well. Though I witness it during the day too. I bought all but one saddles...she's head hen...no one pecks her...and I put her and the 2nd worst feather plucker in a separate coop. But she was doing a number on the other one despite the saddle and even with them removed, the flock was still defeathering. So last week, I finally merged them again to see if after a couple months of separation, they'd be bottom of the pecking order. No such luck. In fact, I haven't seen it yet but my roo has typical pattern baldress of a hen that's being mounted too much. So I think the head hen is now trying to put him 'in place'. I check periodically for parasites. ..pretty much anytime I hold a chicken...and never found anything. But with Spring upon us...and birds in the trees above our run...it appears we now have lice to add to the fun as of yesterday. And the saddles certainly don't help them preen as I had to get ones with the tail extensions to try to protect their bums a bit more so the oil nub is covered. Really toying with the idea of just culling the whole flock prematurely. They're only a year old and it seems like such a waste. The 2 year plan makes me sad enough. But I want my animals...food or pet varieties....to have the best care I can give. ..and be warm and dry and happy. And I look at these birds and feel horrible at their state aND what they're doing to each other. Going to dust for the lice and talk to hubby. If you had shown me this lot before I ever got chickens and told me they were mine, I never would have believed it. Not in a million years would any of my animals look like that. All our previous birds were plump and had shiny feathers and we had double the birds we have now! So frustrating. I'm comforted to know I'm not alone but still so upset about my flock. Thanks for sharing your experience. ..it will definitely help me decide. And your barney hybrids...so cute <3 Keep us posted on how they mature!

 

[renk777]

Just went outside...seriously. ..she's not even secretive about it!

 

[renk777]