Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[VillageChicken]

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Thanks for the input. I searched pictures of chicks from 4-12 weeks. None of them look like my chickens! I do know I have one rooster and 5 hens. I will try to get some picutres on here so you can see them. Maybe that would help. I am kind of worried about them because the age the guy that sold them to me I do not think is true. But then again maybe it is true and there is something wrong with them.

Wheatens can go through a kind of "ratty" stage when their darker feathers start to come in and there's still a lot of the earlier lighter feathers on the bird. Initial feathers are white on both sexes, and they eventually get their color. Their heads are sometimes the last to get color, so the head can still have the "chick" color, even though it's not the chickdown. If your birds are otherwise acting healthy, eating, drinking, pooping normally, I wouldn't worry too much. Do they look at all like some of the wheaten chicks on this thread?

 

[berkeleysprings]

thanks for the help and yes my budy henery / cottage hil;l were from budy henry . so i think i have lots of time and i want to correct this so i will take my davis roo and 2 origonal budy henery hens and start over , in another coop to regain my flock but it will be a few weeks befor i can hatch any eggs , no big deal im in it for the long haul so in a few months i will start over ,lol and i was just thinking everything was fine ,,, how quickly things go bad lol lol
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Okay, so you know the 2nd gen Davis roo is a carrier, and his sisters MIGHT be carrying. If your ebay hen is a carrier, not all of her offspring necessarily carry, and you don't know for sure if any of your 3 first year hens are even hers. You could have perfectly good hens from her, if any of the 2nd generation hens are hers. Your goal is to eliminate ALL the carriers of the yellow skin gene in your entire flock. It could just be your 2nd gen Davis roo with his mother (the original carrier) that are making the yellow shanked birds. Your 3 newer hens from your first year could all be clean. Carriers are hard to identify. Were your Buddy Henrys direct from Cottage Hill/Skyline?

If the list isn't too long, you might want to let folks know who got eggs from your original 4 birds that they probably have yellow carriers and if they breed siblings or breed back to the parent birds they'll see yellow. They could have ended up with a really nice roo or a few hens like yours that will start making yellow shanked birds. Kind of ironic that out of 150 birds, maybe two that you found to be the best are also carrying yellow. At least your eye is consistent. If Don is right, maybe you can't get a good roo and hen out of the same pairing, so with luck all your first year hens are clean, and it's just your Roo's mother that's the carrier (maybe none of your 3 first year hens are sisters to your younger roo).

You would have to hatch fewer eggs if you put your hens under a yellow shanked roo. Borrow someone's Leghorn, RIR or Plymouth Rock Roo, and if your hen's a carrier then 50% of the offspring will be yellow shanked. The offspring will just be hybrid layer/meat birds, but you probably wouldn't have any problem getting rid of them. Putting your carrier 2nd gen Davis roo with a carrier hen will only hatch one in four with yellow. I'd sleep better with the 50% odds.

 

[CourtneyC]

VillageChicken,
I went back through the thread and found a picture! On page 41 post #408 the chick on the far right and the far left look like mine! I am relieved. How long should they look like this? Thank You so much for your help

 

[VillageChicken]

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Just a couple weeks. maybe. So yours are closer to 5 weeks than 10 probably. Just follow their progress based on them being about 5 weeks old right now, and compare them to other chick pictures you find here in a month or so, and their growth/progress will probably be normal. I did have one wheaten pullet that lagged way behind the rest of the chicks she hatched with, but other than a wry tail and being a bit smaller, she ended up fine.

 

[flgardengirl]

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The F1 offspring should appear as blue/black, probably with some red leakage, and will dark legs.

I think it would be easier to get a blue wheaten to mix with your Wheatens.

Then again, I may be wrong.....

Thank you are probably right on that one. I was gonna try to work in the blues I have to improve on egg color but I haven't decided yet. I already have a few other projects going and they are gonna take up more space than I thought LOL! I lost my best blue roo and one of my darkest laying blue hens just days apart recently so now trying to decide what to do with the remainding girls. I really don't wanna use the next in line blue roo I have he is just so nasty! He needs to be in the freezer but I kept him 'just in case'.

Thanks Village Chicken for the excellent info on shank color. I am gonna save it in my file for future reference.

 

[berkeleysprings]

you are a great sorce of help here village, thanks for everything , i am going to be here but i will be out of comission with wheaten till i can solve this nasty yellow shank thing . i decided to cull heavy , i will start over with my davis roo and 2 budy henery hens 2 yellow shanks out of 25 is not bad in three years and a few hundred chicks but for me , any is to much and it will only get worse if i dont act now,in my three years i never had yellow shank till a test mateing i should of test breed along time ago rather than waiting 3 years to test brother to sister , so a word to the wise , dont keep useing the same rooster for years and years befor doing a brother to sister mateing so any new comers keep that in mind. i will always be reading this thred but im outta comisson for now lol lol . i keep thinking of that country song ,,,,(im perty good at drinking beer ) lol lol
take care all

 

[Lotsapaints]

Randy you better come and chat with us I'll miss you if you just go and get all quiet and we still want to see pictures I think your birds are beautiful......

 

[berkeleysprings]

aww , dont get me all choked up lol , i got west coast swing dance lessons starting tonight and that would throw my 6 count way off lol

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[CourtneyC]

Finally got pictures of my chicks to share! Sorry they are a little blurry

One of the girls

Two more of the girls

My roo with the girls in the background

My roo all by himself


What does everyone think? Is about 5 weeks old probably right? VillageChicken has been giving me some help on getting thier ages correct.

Thanks for the input!

 

[knjinnm]

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Hi Randy,
Before you cull your existing flock of hens I would use Village chicken's suggestion of using a yellow legged rooster to identify any hens split for yellow. You have nice looking hens, it would be a shame to cull some that are not split for yellow legs.

Joe