out of my 2 young rooster prospects, the better one who had a lot of chest copper, had a freak accident. he was puffing up with one of the Delaware roosters, in teh rooster pen, when they saw me and one of the big Delaware roo's jumped off the roosting bar and landed on my prospects neck, breaking it.
Needless to say the Delaware's were placed in the freezer the very next morning.
So that leaves me with the second rooster, which has a quarter halo. Went out yesterday and checked him over because it was possible that he might have parasitic white from the photo I had posted. I did not find any white, but a lot of grey underfluff near the tail and a few white feather shafts.
So my conundrum is if I breed him or not.
To top that off, my two hens actually lost copper around the neck during molt. They are 18 months old now and laying a nice 6 - 7 egg; not as round as one would like, but the color is decent. I was so hoping to use the over coppered rooster on them.
Getting any BCM here in southern Arizona, eggs, chicks or otherwise, that are anywhere near decent is practically impossible it seems. I have tried shipped eggs, but if they go through Texas, the eggs arrive scrambled, no matter how they are packed. I had 2 egg brothers to the hens, but one was mean, if you paid any attention to the hens when going in teh pen he would attack the hens then you. He ended up soup. and the second, he ended up growing white flight feathers after a molt, so I got rid of him to someone who wanted to breed up olive eggers.
If the grey is a prelude to parasitic white, then I have to start the search for another rooster before I can even begin to think about building the flock up.
Needless to say the Delaware's were placed in the freezer the very next morning.
So that leaves me with the second rooster, which has a quarter halo. Went out yesterday and checked him over because it was possible that he might have parasitic white from the photo I had posted. I did not find any white, but a lot of grey underfluff near the tail and a few white feather shafts.
So my conundrum is if I breed him or not.
To top that off, my two hens actually lost copper around the neck during molt. They are 18 months old now and laying a nice 6 - 7 egg; not as round as one would like, but the color is decent. I was so hoping to use the over coppered rooster on them.
Getting any BCM here in southern Arizona, eggs, chicks or otherwise, that are anywhere near decent is practically impossible it seems. I have tried shipped eggs, but if they go through Texas, the eggs arrive scrambled, no matter how they are packed. I had 2 egg brothers to the hens, but one was mean, if you paid any attention to the hens when going in teh pen he would attack the hens then you. He ended up soup. and the second, he ended up growing white flight feathers after a molt, so I got rid of him to someone who wanted to breed up olive eggers.
If the grey is a prelude to parasitic white, then I have to start the search for another rooster before I can even begin to think about building the flock up.
