It's about time I post a pic or two of my kids.
I got a small batch of them from Julie in September, and they were doing great until last week. I have heat in with them at night as we've had teens and they aren't yet fully fledged. One had a severely crossed beak and I'd just decided she wasn't eating enough when she passed- she wasn't quite right in other ways, so it was for the best, I think. Sure did love her- the coloring was different: almost a pearly white with nearly a complete absence of blue in the splash except as a cast to the white. Lovely
I also lost the largest of all of them, clearly a roo. Same night, without any reason. The cross-beak was in the house, so I know it wasn't the conditions, and many smaller birds weathered that night fine in the same coop, so it wasn't the conditions for him, either. Stinks.
I do still have 2 F1s and 7 others, so if all goes well I'll be breeding them this Spring. I've got a pair of Peruvian Nikkei I'll be breeding them with, as well, as a side project. Putting those genes into the mix ought to produce a lovely SA bird with a good diversity to the genes.
Nevermind the banty Cochin- she's a camera-hog. She is split for the Silken gene, though, as part of the Silken banty cochin project Steve Wheat has going. I have several of those, too...Sucker for furry chickens, I guess?
One has a very distinct gold or red splash as evenly placed on the body as the blue/black splashes. It's quite a nice calico look, and I wonder if we can duplicate it intentionally.
