What's wrong with their feathers?

[NicoleRM]

Wasn't ChooksChick working on a calico silkied? I

I have one with so much gold leakage he could almost pass for calico!

 

[CatKai]

I have one with so much gold leakage he could almost pass for calico!

Well I bet it's pretty

. My fluffy splash cockerel has some red on his wings. So with some of these not laying even close to a blue egg and with the feather colors being what they are, what's the plan the majority are moving towards? I will get pics of the 3 eggs I am getting and post this weekend. One is a very pretty blue.

 

[KellyHM]

Well, all together now I have 13 birds from this project. 7 F2s (4 hens, 3 cockerels), 2 pullets I hatched from alice's line A (1 fluffy), 2 fluffy cockerels I just got (from line A), and 2 line B girls I just got. It's taken me a long time and a lot of heartache to get to this point. Now my problem is I don't have any other Ameraucanas to outcross to except 1 pair of wheatens from Jean.

Here are my breeding plans until I acquire some more Ameraucanas:

Fluffy cockerel #1 with the 4 F1 hens
Fluffy cockerel #2 with line A smooth pullet and Wheaten hen.
Wheaten roo with the fluffy line A pullet

I'm not planning on using the F2 cockerels at this point since I don't know for sure if they're fluffy carriers or not. I have a splash and 2 blue. 1 of the blues has the slightest gold leakage around the hackles. Other than that they're gorgeous. If anyone is interested in trying them out let me know.

 

[CatKai]

Would be be better off just breeding 1st towards more fluffy feathered no matter the color, then work on color after those numbers were up?

 

[KellyHM]

I think everyone has different opinions on the way this should or could be done. Personally I think survivability (aka genetic variation) is the #1 goal for these birds at this time. Everything else comes after that.

 

[CatKai]

I think everyone has different opinions on the way this should or could be done. Personally I think survivability (aka genetic variation) is the #1 goal for these birds at this time. Everything else comes after that.

That's the way I am interested in going with this. Makes it easier to not worry so much about a little color in eggs or feather color not being exact. Just really didn't want to be doing something so far off what the majority wanted to do that I took away from the project.

 

[alicefelldown]

PHEW

. That was a BUSY three weeks. We had birds get lost by the PO, Renee and I spent a full week calling EVERY single phone number we could think of to get them located and delivered. Then the following week was MLK day, so I couldn't ship the next group, but was still calling and reporting claims and issuing tickets because of the previous week's screw-up. I'm happy to report that both my regional USPS processing center and LAX changed their bird shipping procedures because of the stink Renee and I raised! I actually took Monday the 23rd off work to ship 3 more boxes of (ten) birds and two boxes of eggs IN THE RAIN. On top of all that, I interviewed for and accepted a new job

, and after 4 weekends straight of used car shopping we finally found the one and made an offer. Oh, and I organized, hosted, and played in a poker tournament. Oh, and school started, so I was at class three nights a week. If I didn't get to anyone in as timely a fashion as they would wish - sorry?

I need a vacation!!! Just typing all that makes me feel like I need a shower!!

Let's start at the top.

ALL the birds are now shipped. I don't know if I'll be able to re-join the project for years, but almost all of you have my email and can send me questions and updates (PLEASE SEND ME UPDATE PICS OF THE CHICKS YOU HATCH!!! OMG CHICKS!

) By the time the blue fluffy girls were shipping they had just started laying - that's how close to black fluffies we (you) are!!

Yes, for me it worked fine, but they weren't shipped. That being said, I've hatched plenty of shipped with the dry hatch method, but it doesn't get below 25% here. I'd stay just above that.

Quote: Not only did we only use dry hatch here, but we also weighed the eggs pretty religiously during incubation so we could monitor weight loss (target was 13%) and adjust water levels accordingly. Send me an email if you want a copy of my last excel chart/log.

My new office mates for the day

OMG he looks so grumpy!!! What a silly bird. Have you noticed his weird voice? He cracked me up so much!


Regarding the olive coloring of eggs. One of the Line B hens, after her molt, started laying really olive colored eggs. If I hadn't sold my olive girls ages ago I wouldn't have even marked those as hers (they were all tagged, and weren't housed together, so there's no chance of a mix-up). One of the Line A pullets lays really olive as well. When faced with the choice of culling those two girls, or sending them out to you all to keep the project going, I went with sending. The only culling I did with these was fluffy males that had no tails. It's hard enough to get them to hatch and survive that culling for coloring should be our (now your) second concern. CatKai, I think you got the worst of it, I'm pretty sure you ended up with both of the olive layers.

Yes, the splash roosters have a lot of red/gold leakage. This has been mentioned since the beginning. The girls could be a better blue. Some of the blue fluffies are much too dark, and the smooth blues are much too yellow. Yes, one of these birds is throwing yellow in the legs.

It's a project, there are A LOT of things that need to be worked on! Once you're sitting on a few batches of "unrelated" fluffy chicks is when you can really start selecting for the traits you want.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!

 

[NicoleRM]

OMG he looks so grumpy!!! What a silly bird. Have you noticed his weird voice? He cracked me up so much!

He did not like being in that cage! I really hoped that it being short would keep him from crowing but nope - I definitely got to hear that voice of his! LOL

Thank you so much for all the work you put into these birds and dealing with the headache of shipping them!

 

[wolftracks]

PHEW

. That was a BUSY three weeks. We had birds get lost by the PO, Renee and I spent a full week calling EVERY single phone number we could think of to get them located and delivered. Then the following week was MLK day, so I couldn't ship the next group, but was still calling and reporting claims and issuing tickets because of the previous week's screw-up. I'm happy to report that both my regional USPS processing center and LAX changed their bird shipping procedures because of the stink Renee and I raised! I actually took Monday the 23rd off work to ship 3 more boxes of (ten) birds and two boxes of eggs IN THE RAIN. On top of all that, I interviewed for and accepted a new job

, and after 4 weekends straight of used car shopping we finally found the one and made an offer. Oh, and I organized, hosted, and played in a poker tournament. Oh, and school started, so I was at class three nights a week. If I didn't get to anyone in as timely a fashion as they would wish - sorry?

I need a vacation!!! Just typing all that makes me feel like I need a shower!!

Let's start at the top.

ALL the birds are now shipped. I don't know if I'll be able to re-join the project for years, but almost all of you have my email and can send me questions and updates (PLEASE SEND ME UPDATE PICS OF THE CHICKS YOU HATCH!!! OMG CHICKS!

) By the time the blue fluffy girls were shipping they had just started laying - that's how close to black fluffies we (you) are!!

Not only did we only use dry hatch here, but we also weighed the eggs pretty religiously during incubation so we could monitor weight loss (target was 13%) and adjust water levels accordingly. Send me an email if you want a copy of my last excel chart/log.

OMG he looks so grumpy!!! What a silly bird. Have you noticed his weird voice? He cracked me up so much!


Regarding the olive coloring of eggs. One of the Line B hens, after her molt, started laying really olive colored eggs. If I hadn't sold my olive girls ages ago I wouldn't have even marked those as hers (they were all tagged, and weren't housed together, so there's no chance of a mix-up). One of the Line A pullets lays really olive as well. When faced with the choice of culling those two girls, or sending them out to you all to keep the project going, I went with sending. The only culling I did with these was fluffy males that had no tails. It's hard enough to get them to hatch and survive that culling for coloring should be our (now your) second concern. CatKai, I think you got the worst of it, I'm pretty sure you ended up with both of the olive layers.

Yes, the splash roosters have a lot of red/gold leakage. This has been mentioned since the beginning. The girls could be a better blue. Some of the blue fluffies are much too dark, and the smooth blues are much too yellow. Yes, one of these birds is throwing yellow in the legs.

It's a project, there are A LOT of things that need to be worked on! Once you're sitting on a few batches of "unrelated" fluffy chicks is when you can really start selecting for the traits you want.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!

Wish I hadn't backed out of the trio, but you know the security problems I was having. Still I nearly cried when I saw all the birds pics on here. I'm having another BYCer, Sewngrow, hatch the eggs for me. She has really good hatches and I'm for some reason terrified to do it myself. I don't want to jinx them. Hmmm Maybe I should see if she dry hatches before I run them over. Taking them tonight before I leave for the Stockton show. Can not believe how nervous I am about these eggs. LOL

 

[wolftracks]

OK just talked to her. She's going to use her Hovabator for them, dry hatch. On my way there now.