What's wrong with their feathers?

[shadowpaints]

ok now i have been following this thread ever since it started.... i want some!! i have 2 awesome bators now and would LOVE to set 2-3 dozen if i could find them!!

who do i contact for eggs??? i would be willing to trade some eggs from my standard silkie project when they start laying again!

 

[alicefelldown]

Hi Shadow!

It depends on what you are looking for.

Right now, the only person able to send eggs that would hatch into Fluffy birds is Jubaby, and, as you've seen, the hatch rate is terrible. I'm not sure if her girls are laying either, they have been very sporadic.

If you are looking for eggs that will hatch into smooth-feathered F1s (mate those together for Fluffies) - a few of us do have hens that are laying and are selling eggs. I will be listing another auction soon, or you can send me a PM.

Give it another month or two for those who have F1 pullets to start laying consistently. Mine started quite recently, but it's been raining pretty heavily so I haven't been able to set any aside for incubation.

It's been such a long wait, what's a few more weeks

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[KellyHM]

My F1 hen is laying, and mated to an F1 roo, for a 25% chance of fluffy babies. I would be willing to share a few eggs, but can only send maybe 4 or so at a time since there's only one girl. Not sure if this is worth it to anyone?

ETA: I have the first batch in the bator, but haven't candled yet.

 

[alicefelldown]

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Something we need to keep in mind - of the remaining 75% smooth-feathered babies, you will be unable to tell which are carriers and which are (while no longer pure) just plain ol' ameraucanas.

To me, that unfortuantly means insta-cull. While I would want to keep them for blue eggs in my laying flock, I refuse to run the risk of letting their hookless genetics mix out into the wild. No matter how well I tag my birds and keep meticulous records, there are always uncontrollable variables. I sell /rehome birds from time to time - and can never control who buys eating eggs with the goal of cheap hatching eggs.

 

[KellyHM]

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Something we need to keep in mind - of the remaining 75% smooth-feathered babies, you will be unable to tell which are carriers and which are (while no longer pure) just plain ol' ameraucanas.

To me, that unfortuantly means insta-cull. While I would want to keep them for blue eggs in my laying flock, I refuse to run the risk of letting their hookless genetics mix out into the wild. No matter how well I tag my birds and keep meticulous records, there are always uncontrollable variables. I sell /rehome birds from time to time - and can never control who buys eating eggs with the goal of cheap hatching eggs.

While I understand where you're coming from, I don't have the heart to kill them all just b/c of their genetics. I'm planning on penning them separately from my other blue egg layers and using their eggs for my family and friends (that don't have chickens or hatch eggs) to eat. I don't mind culling some of the roos for eating as well, but I couldn't just cull them all.

 

[KellyHM]

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Something we need to keep in mind - of the remaining 75% smooth-feathered babies, you will be unable to tell which are carriers and which are (while no longer pure) just plain ol' ameraucanas.

To me, that unfortuantly means insta-cull. While I would want to keep them for blue eggs in my laying flock, I refuse to run the risk of letting their hookless genetics mix out into the wild. No matter how well I tag my birds and keep meticulous records, there are always uncontrollable variables. I sell /rehome birds from time to time - and can never control who buys eating eggs with the goal of cheap hatching eggs.

While I understand where you're coming from, I don't have the heart to kill them all just b/c of their genetics. I'm planning on penning them separately from my other blue egg layers and using their eggs for my family and friends (that don't have chickens or hatch eggs) to eat. I don't mind culling some of the roos for eating as well, but I couldn't just cull them all.

ETA: I may also breed some of them back to fluffy birds to continue on from there, since the carriers will give a higher 50% fluffies when bred to a fluffy bird.

 

[Gypsy07]

Surely with these birds being as rare as they are, it would be worth keeping any normal-feathered offspring and test mating them to find out who is carrying the gene and who isn't?

 

[alicefelldown]

They are becoming less rare with every month (and successful hatch!) Most of us have Fluffy and F1 birds to work with now.

Note, it's only the smooth feather chicks from an F1 x F1 cross that I'm talking about. 50% will be the useful carriers, but there's another smooth 25% will need to be weeded out. Unfortunately, there isn't any way to tell which ones those are!

Keep in mind, these birds take a long long time to mature - we are looking at 9 months in some cases for eggs! To raise a smooth F2 chick until maturity, then mate it to a fluffy or F1 bird, and then wait for those to lay (and hatch) is a really large investment - especially now that several of us are able to incubate or share eggs that won't take you over two years before getting a fluffy!

 

[NicoleRM]

I candled my eggs, tossed two quitters, and put the remaining dozen into lockdown!

 

[alicefelldown]

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