Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Phill98]

Thanks so much  - part of keeping chickens, but it stinks. I think part of it is also just the frustration that it happened while I was away, but at the very same time I was on a plane heading back... 

Can't remember if I said it here, but I also threw in six of the eggs form the marans girls who were with Goodwin. I threw them in on a lark, but am sort of glad I did - I have at least two developing (very dark eggs, hard to see into them) - they'll be home grown olive eggers - black (because cross of Goodwin with Blue and black copper marans girls). Here's hoping I get some pullets... 

- Ant Farm 

I am very sorry for your loss, but I'm also very happy to hear about the olive eggers. I got interested in them about teo weeks ago and was researching like crazy on genetics and breeds that can make it.

I was wondering one thing for a long time but never asked it. If breeding lavender or recessive white to splash that is pure splash-am I going to get blue babies?

Or if breeding to blue should I get half black and half blue chicks?

 

[Pensmaster]

Happy New Year everyone.

Question on egg color also. I have a hen product of a leghorn/CCL who's laying a blue/green egg in with my NN rooster 4 eggs are in the incubator now. Will the hens lay blue/green eggs as well or will they be Olive. Or is the gene pool too mixed to tell? Assuming there are any that hatch.

 

[Kev]

I am very sorry for your loss, but I'm also very happy to hear about the olive eggers. I got interested in them about teo weeks ago and was researching like crazy on genetics and breeds that can make it.

I was wondering one thing for a long time but never asked it. If breeding lavender or recessive white to splash that is pure splash-am I going to get blue babies?

Or if breeding to blue should I get half black and half blue chicks?

olive eggs is rather straightforward. Cross blue/green with darker brown eggs and repeat.. that's it. When the eggs are coming out at a shade you like, start breeding them together for majority olive eggers. But if you use stock with pea comb-O gene(blue eggshell) linkage, it is very easy to pick out the olive eggers, no matter how many times you breed them back to single comb dark brown eggers.

With white or lighter brown eggs, light-medium shades of green are to be expected, sometimes there might be a surprise of a totally blue or a rather dark green egg.

Splash is pure for the blue gene, so they are going to give a blue gene to every one of their babies. It is the same as breeding a NN(not Nn) bird with anything else- all chicks are going to have a naked neck, no matter what the other parent is.

 

[Kev]

Happy New Year everyone.

Question on egg color also. I have a hen product of a leghorn/CCL who's laying a blue/green egg in with my NN rooster 4 eggs are in the incubator now. Will the hens lay blue/green eggs as well or will they be Olive. Or is the gene pool too mixed to tell? Assuming there are any that hatch.

Cross of 'normal' leghorn with CCL, right? Half of them will be colored eggers. No real way to tell which is which until the pullets start laying as all will be single combed.

In the typical colored egg bred to tinted eggers, the expectation is for eggs in various shades of green, primarily in light to low-medium shades. There is a chance for darker green but best not to expect any unless a hen surprises you..

to improve chances of darker green, really is best to cross with anything laying dark brown- does not have to be marans dark, a good solid brown like some red sexlinks, lay will do.

 

[Pensmaster]

Cross of 'normal' leghorn with CCL, right?   Half of them will be colored eggers.  No real way to tell which is which until the pullets start laying as all will be single combed.

In the typical colored egg bred to tinted eggers, the expectation is for eggs in various shades of green, primarily in light to low-medium shades.   There is a chance for darker green but best not to expect any unless a hen surprises you..

to improve chances of darker green, really is best to cross with anything laying dark brown- does not have to be marans dark, a good solid brown like some red sexlinks, lay will do.

Actually the leghorn hen is a Trader Joe's hen so I'm not sure of mix except she's very leghorn looking. Off spring of the CCL leghorn mix looks same except they have black specs here and there. She was put in with NN roosters due to no other place to put her and she was same size but older at the time. NN rooster is of MM hatchery. The color isn't all that green but definitely not white.

 

[Kev]

Actually the leghorn hen is a Trader Joe's hen so I'm not sure of mix except she's very leghorn looking. Off spring of the CCL leghorn mix looks same except they have black specs here and there. She was put in with NN roosters due to no other place to put her and she was same size but older at the time. NN rooster is of MM hatchery. The color isn't all that green but definitely not white.

Ah a store bought egg success story. Was it white or brown eggs? If white, could either be a specific strain of leghorn or a leghorn on leghorn hybrid(many lines are so inbred they could be argued to be their own breeds).

Some leghorn lines have a gene that actively suppresses eggshell pigmentation- both browns and blue,, it's used for whiter eggs. So it may be possible the 2nd generation away from the leghorn, might start to get a few darker green tones than what the hen lays.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Well, I'm bushed. I couldn't sleep well (my sleep cycle is all out of whack), didn't get to sleep until 4-5AM, and then I had to get up multiple times early this AM because I have yet MORE pullets trying to win a Darwin award. I was out there after chasing Puppy down, and WATCHED her crane her neck up, pacing, like she was a mountain climber gauging the route. Then right in front of me she SCALED a slightly sagging bit of the 5 ft fence with her feet flapping her wings for balance.

I fixed the sag, but really, what am I supposed to do about that?! It's not like she's flying out, so clipping her wings will just impair her if she tangles with a predator. At this point I just hope she starts laying again soon, so I can get some of her babies.

You know, she did this from the age of about 1-2 weeks old, and was always trying to get out of the brooder, multiple escapes. I wonder if she learned it that way? Regardless, I'm beat, and have napped a lot of the day away (in between chicken wrangling). My favorite black copper marans girl was out of the paddock this morning as well. What happens when I'm at work and can't put them back up?!

I think I may need to put some of that aviary netting over the paddocks to keep them in...

Baking bread now, and then I need to start on my to do list. Not the best start to the new year. Why does Puppy have a death wish??!!!

"What death wish, Mommy?" (Photo taken after getting OUT of her paddock, climbing INTO the CL paddock, and harassing the CL girls until the CL rooster had had enough. Hence, the need for a little hospital stay. Good grief...)




- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

You know, Puppy doesn't do this all the time - she has this habit of getting out of the paddock, laying eggs in a hidden nest, and getting back in - I lost track of the number of these outdoor nests she had last year - and so I sort of know what her eggs look like. I caught her on the way out this AM and put her back in and keep there form getting out. Then an hour or so later, there was an egg in the nest box (and no one else is laying in that coop to my coop). So I'm saving it to set, and will set any other egg that I find that I think is hers - including if I find her outside nest (which is likely impossible). It is earlier than I had planned to hatch from that coop, but I don't want to wait...

And... Has anyone had a rooster taken down by cats? I found two housecats sitting near the coops this morning - I'm wondering if they got Goodwin by working together. I can't keep them out of the yard...

- Ant Farm

 

[draye]

You know, Puppy doesn't do this all the time - she has this habit of getting out of the paddock, laying eggs in a hidden nest, and getting back in - I lost track of the number of these outdoor nests she had last year - and so I sort of know what her eggs look like. I caught her on the way out this AM and put her back in and keep there form getting out. Then an hour or so later, there was an egg in the nest box (and no one else is laying in that coop to my coop). So I'm saving it to set, and will set any other egg that I find that I think is hers - including if I find her outside nest (which is likely impossible). It is earlier than I had planned to hatch from that coop, but I don't want to wait...

And... Has anyone had a rooster taken down by cats? I found two housecats sitting near the coops this morning - I'm wondering if they got Goodwin by working together. I can't keep them out of the yard... 

- Ant Farm 

A good 20 gauge shotgun will help keep them out.

 

[DesertChic]

A good 20 gauge shotgun will help keep them out.

LOL! That was my precise, instant thought too. (Great minds think alike.)