What is a sapphire gem?

[renk777]

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.

Ours laid small eggs at first...questioned what I'd read that eggs are big. But after a couple months, they really ramped up! Hoping yours are prolific layers of large eggs without the side of 'mean'!

 

[YardMoa]

The Sapphire Olive Eggers are a totally different hybrid. I don't think they're sex links. The pic on the Hoover's site shows three chicks, all with with light head spots and doesn't claim they are sex links. They're crested which has led to some speculation they might be a legbar/splash copper Marans hybrid.

 

[BarnGems]

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!

I lol'ed so hard at the hen pattern baldness. I put up an advertisement and sold all but a couple of mine to a man looking to do pasture free range eggs. They would only be penned in at night and have an acre of land to graze. This I believe will be the best solution for these birds. Being in an enclosed run even if it was 4xs (19x15 barn and 13x8 run for 6 birds) bigger than they should need just seemed to not work for most of mine. My barnie hybrids are really calm and so gorgeous. First two are my pure barnies, third is miss Satin, and fourth is miss Lovely all are six weeks old.


I wish you could see how purple miss Satin's feathers are

 

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

I lol'ed so hard at the hen pattern baldness. I put up an advertisement and sold all but a couple of mine to a man looking to do pasture free range eggs. They would only be penned in at night and have an acre of land to graze. This I believe will be the best solution for these birds. Being in an enclosed run even if it was 4xs (19x15 barn and 13x8 run for 6 birds) bigger than they should need just seemed to not work for most of mine. My barnie hybrids are really calm and so gorgeous. First two are my pure barnies, third is miss Satin, and fourth is miss Lovely all are six weeks old.
View attachment 1791687 View attachment 1791688 View attachment 1791689 View attachment 1791690

I wish you could see how purple miss Satin's feathers are

Wow! Those hybrids are beautiful! Did you use a sapphire gem rooster to a barnevelder hen?

 

[BarnGems]

Wow! Those hybrids are beautiful! Did you use a sapphire gem rooster to a barnevelder hen?

Oh no my trade secret!! But what's a little secret between friends. I used a barnevelder rooster over the sg hen.

 

[Thomas Lamprogiorgos]

Sorry, but you simply gain nothing when you breed from sapphire gems.
They lack the balance that paternal qualities express.
They are designed only for laying, winter laying, minimum feed consumption and being slaughtered to produce meat.
They are production hybrids, bot a breed.

 

[BarnGems]

I completely understand your frustration at the feather issue and I felt the same. I have always made sure my animals received the best care (weather or not I planned to eat them later). I feel like my hybrids (barn gems) should not suffer from the issue but I am going to be closely watching for it to see. The activity level of my Barn Gems is about 3 levels lower than the Sapphires were at this age.

 

[Thomas Lamprogiorgos]

I completely understand your frustration at the feather issue and I felt the same. I have always made sure my animals received the best care (weather or not I planned to eat them later). I feel like my hybrids (barn gems) should not suffer from the issue but I am going to be closely watching for it to see. The activity level of my Barn Gems is about 3 levels lower than the Sapphires were at this age.

What is barn gems?

 

[BarnGems]

Sorry, but you simply gain nothing when you breed from sapphire gems.
They lack the balance that paternal qualities express.
They are designed only for laying, winter laying, minimum feed consumption and being slaughtered to produce meat.
They are production hybrids, bot a breed.

I don't agree that they are not a breed of chicken or at least I believe it is debatable. You are calling the SG a hybrid, this mean you know exactly what two BREEDS they crossed to get this bird right? Why is it called a Czech breed then? It is completely unclear from all sources what has gone into the Sapphire GemTM. It cannot be called a hybrid if you don't know what was used to create it. Its not a breed if its not able to be reproduced reliably by others. All of this is just semantics. One thing is for sure the history behind these birds is pretty much uncertain.

The results of crossing a mongrel to a pure breed in dogs can become a established breed if you get it standardized and able to be reproduced by others. This is how all standardized breeds of chickens where created. If your curious I can explain my plans but you just can't say you get nothing, when that just isn't true. This is a raw, from the beginning creation. You can't take a F1 breeding and call it a breed, that much I agree with you on. But you can't completely discount these birds as another over bred, genetically short sex link when I can see they just are not.

This cross (bv & sg) does reliably create solid black and blue laced birds. I've got about 70 on the ground right now I can prove it with and I've got another 30 (plus my winners eggs) in the incubator. This year I have hatched 100 chicks that I sold to a local vendor to resell and I kept an additional 70. With 100 percent certainty I can with confidence tell you this is what mine produce.

I purchased the SGs from Hoover's hatchery, these are not the ones with red necks though. It is possible Hoover has since mixed them with another type of chicken. The pics on their website this year is not the same as it was last fall when I got these. Companies don't need to explain how they come up with a type of chicken they want to sell but I believe they took last years blues (they ones i have) and bred them to something else as I do not a have anything nor have a seen anything with red in it. This year I have hatched around 200 chicks so I have plumed the depths of what a cross of Barnie and SG will produce. I was so impressed by their temperament and colors, I thought people would like them and they do. I have offered them for sale on Ebay. This crossing does not produce god knows what, as you get with breeding a red or black sex link. The evidence I have found so far points to them being a breed, just for the fact that I can reliably get the same chicks every time I breed the same 10 hens to the same rooster.

I do know that blue is one of the hardest colors to breed true and it takes some messing around to get it to reliably reproduce. Lets not get stuck on semantics but look past the labels and see what we really have. The beginnings of something new. It will take me years to get this where i want it but the first goal is to get them to reliably reproduce expected traits in egg laying ability, egg size, temperament, and bird body size. My final product will be birds that have the same traits expressed in all chicks regardless of color. I found that blue is nice but iridescent black is oh so pretty too. Some of the best known and desired breeds where once lowly mongrels/sex links who were developed into something pretty and wonderful.

 

[BarnGems]

What is barn gems?

These are what I call my birds. Cross of Barnevelder and Sapphire GemTm. It's also the name of my farm/business - Barn Gems Farm.