13, the Duke of Wellington. Fattening up well, very wide at the front and hips. I have a feeling he’s going to be a big, chunky cockerel. No sign of a high tail thus far, so fingers crossed.
12, Mole, the DCM pullet. Caught up to the BCMs in size, her barring is becoming more uniform. Good flat back (I don’t know why her feathers were sticking up when I took the photos). Rectangle type with low tail so far.
11, the BCM cockerel. Big, same problems with over colour as Joan, you can clearly see the bright quills of the feathers on the front, plus far too much copper lacing. Still looking forward to seeing him feather out.
I guess the over-coloured BCMs may be suitable for the Golden cuckoo project...
10, Claudie, still moulting out the white from her chick feathers. Eyes still bright green, no mossiness. Tail quite long but pointy. Brilliant type, very long and flat back.
Didn’t get photos because my phone died but Joan has copper quills on her breast feathers and a little copper lacing. It’s odd because she’s darker than the others in other aspects.
Loki was highly coloured but not over-coloured, Chanel was never over-coloured.
Does anyone know of this...
Let the young Marans out with Chanel and the legbars.
The boys. No fighting amongst them yet: the most peaceful of all Anglo-Franco relationships.I’m seeing Mole’s type improve, her body is growing longer.Joannie asleep on a football.
Chanel is obsessed with watching the babies, it almost feels like she knows that they’re hers, even though she had nothing to do with hatching.I’m hoping all the offspring have missed inheriting the big comb spike, because her comb is quite neat other than that.
Joannie is feathering in very slowly, but is a tab bigger than the cuckoos. Tiny dark comb. Her beak is long and hooked at the end. Very faint copper on hackles, dark blue eyes. Very subtle mossiness on wings, not noticeable unless looking for it. Mossiness might not be ideal for Black coppers...
The BCM cockerel. Copper on hackles and breast, bigger comb than Wellington. Quite typical of my BCM cockerels, much like Loki at this age. Longer and fuller type than Loki, improved by Chanel’s genetics.
Assuming he is doomed to squirrel tail, but only time will tellI’m doubtful but if I...
Update on the English Dark Cuckoos.
Wellington's Face is reddening fast, his undercolour is pale blue, as it’s supposed to be. He’s a bit squarer than the others, maybe he’ll grow out of it.Mole is longer in type, her pattern is a tad smokey but maybe her adult feathers will be more in line with...
After seeing Wellington’s comb today, I’m back to thinking 11 is a pullet. I’m liking her type, she seems to just keep growing longer. Very long and low.
The confusing one (11) and cockerel this yeartwo cockerels from 2023, one had a redder comb and the other smaller and yellow. It also had white spots on its breast, juts like this one. In fact, they seem like a reincarnation of this pair.
This makes me lean cockerel for 11.
I’m hoping not though.
@Chooks man do you think it would be worth @wrathsfarm keeping the better of these young cockerels and breeding them back to his better BCM hens to see the result, or just stop using any of Kong’s progeny altogether?
It’s a real pity O/Y turned out like this. He had real potential as a young cockerel, big and chunky then, must have stopped keeping this up.
It will be interesting to see the Solo x Kong cockerels, this might be the last change to get good cockerels from Kong, seeing his genes mix with...
10, the make, next to 12, the confusing one. There looks to be an obvious difference between them.but this is Joannie, who makes the other one look like a cockerel next to her small, dull comb.Mole next to Wellington, both have tiny combs, but Wellingtons is brighter red.
Finally got a picture of all five.
The right hand BCM is clearly a boy.
The left DCM is a boy also.
Joan, hidden at the left, with her tiny, dark comb, is probably a pullet, so is Mole, the cuckoo in the middle of them all.
The one in the foreground, 11, is the one confusing me. Its comb is much...
Not hatching them myself but I sent 30 eggs to hatched when I took the cockerels to their new home, and I’m getting back half the pullets. 4 more of Chanel’s eggs (she spent three days with Napoleon so I’m hoping he sired some), 2 BCM x CCL, 6 green layer x Freddy, 2 silkies, 4 brown layer x...
Ah yes, sorry I got confused when you mentioned that you weren’t 100% on Momma. I guess there’s no rush to rest mate, but it could be interesting when you come to breed olive eggers to test it if possible, just to be 100%.
Mentioning Olive eggers, mine’s a cockerel! I sent 8 various olive egger...