What's wrong with their feathers?

[Illia]

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You've yet to show a pic of it though

 

[jeremy]

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I love BBS birds too, but I love my Wheaten/Blue Wheatens more.

Lav I'm not too impressed by, just looks like old feathering IMO.

 

[AquaEyes]

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I don't know if she's Dominant White or Recessive White (I learned about the genes for the traits I like, and I don't like white...sorry, no offense, just explaining my ignorance). In any case, if you breed her to a white roo, the offspring will be carrying one copy of the fluffy gene (but not expressing it...which would require having two copies of the gene, like your hen). You can then set up a pen of her best-looking roo son set up with your original fluffy white hen (his mother), and his sisters. You'll get 50% fluffy white babies from mother X son, and 25% fluffy white babies from brother X sister. Once you have some more fluffy whites, you can repeat the process with other unrelated white birds (I don't know if you want to go the Ameraucana route or the Easter Egger route...). You have to do some inbreeding to get some more fluffy birds, but once you have them, you can use unrelated birds to widen your genepool.

You'll have to decide early on if you want to just have cute fluffy Easter Eggers (and thus breed for whatever traits you want), or if you want to breed toward the Ameraucana standard. If you choose the latter route, you'll want to get good quality Ameraucanas to breed with her (and to continue the project), as well as cull birds that don't meet the Ameraucana standard (or at least select for breeding only those that come closest to the standard). If your original female has a lot of faults according to the Ameraucana standard and you wish to breed to that standard, you'll do best following the plan I posted here in post #8. It's your project -- so it's up to you.

Have fun!!!

 

[AquaEyes]

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I love BBS birds too, but I love my Wheaten/Blue Wheatens more.

Lav I'm not too impressed by, just looks like old feathering IMO.

Hey, I'm a bird nut. The birds I've been interested in "for beauty and enjoyment" typically come in a loud range of colors (many of which aren't found among chickens). For the "utility" birds, I'm looking forward to a little relaxation for my eyes -- and that's why I like the idea of black and shades of gray -- B/B/S and Lavender for chickens and muscovies, and guineas in non-pearled shades that don't incorporate any brown or white. I'm making a concession for my second breed -- Marans -- only because the solid B/B/S are apparently so hard to find, and don't lay eggs as dark as the B/B/S Coppers (and the egg color is the big reason for me liking them).

But anyway...back to the Fluffies.....does anyone have a pic of a black one? I think I remember seeing pics of blues earlier on.

 

[AquaEyes]

BTW, back to my original post here -- I just wanted to offer an alternate route for these guys, considering the health issues in the original Fluffies. So if you have some, and you're experiencing problems with the health and hatching of the Fluffies, you can get rid of the "unhealthy" genes faster if you follow the "project breeding" plan I outlined here in post #8. Translate "Lavender" to "Fluffy", and think of the "unhealthy" genes in the Fluffies as Orpington traits, and "healthy" genes in unrelated non-Fluffies as Cochin traits, following the pattern I posted there. It is a trade-off -- half as many Fluffy offspring but twice as many unrelated genes in each generation as compared to breeding F1 X Fluffy.

 

[allmychickens]

man these are amazing!! If i had those id be devoted to continuing there breed and hopefully eventually making them official

 

[AquaEyes]

Just out of curiosity (and I can't remember if it's been mentioned already), but how high can these birds get? I'm assuming that like Silkies, they can't fly because the gene affects their flight feathers. I guess they're limited to jumping.

 

[alicefelldown]

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You guys aren't looking hard enough - I've had blue fluffies since April.

 

[AquaEyes]

Very cute. I remember seeing these pretty Blues. Have you gotten any Blacks yet?

You're doing a great job with them...I am sure that whether you still breed them or not when I'm ready for some, the population will have a lot of blood from your farm.

ETA -- And I'm sure by the time I'm ready, you'll be working on (or already have) Fluffy Olive-Eggers!!!

 

[alicefelldown]

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No blacks yet, need these blues to hit laying age and cross w/ their 'aunts' and 'uncles' from the other F1 line. Had some trouble w/ coccidiosis, these fluffies don't seem to be able to pick up any immunity from medicated chick starter like our other birds. Figured out the problem and treated/culled and are ready for the next curve ball.

No more olive eggers - much less fluffy. Had to move for work and sell 90% of our birds. Made an agreement with our old landlord who is tending our fluffy flock until we can get back on our feet. They get table eggs and we get to keep the project going. We get to see them weekly for the major chores and have retained our hatching and ownership rights. Gotta do what ya gotta do right - at least we were lucky in that our landlord really wants to see the project through.

In answer to the jumping question - they can jump 3-4 feet when they are younger, but as they get older and heavier they stop trying. We've got a ladder in with this current bunch and they roost 4.5 ft off the ground at night. Their daddy still sleeps on the ground like a weirdo though. At least he found a spot which isn't under the females anymore