Starbirds Chickens

[ozu]

Hello again, everyone!

☆

WEEK 5 UPDATE


Klim (Silkie) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Surbhi"
Cockerel of course.
Look at the red patches coming in on the wings, the green tail feathers.
So far, this is our rooster-keeper.

Unnamed
I'm thinking all of the silkie x easter eggers are pullets besides Surbhi.. could I be that lucky?
But I am under the impression that these colors are hen colors.
Thoughts?

"Roadrunner"
Pullet!

"Zapp"
My guess continues to be pullet ..

"Friendly"
Pullet?

☆

Blue (Easter Egger) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Mini Wheat"
Pullet

"Twix"
Pullet?

"Stringy"
Cockerel

Unnamed
Pullet?

☆

Zeeb (Old English Game Bantam) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Beez"
Pullet?

☆

Mostaccioli (Mystic Maran) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Gnocchi"
Cockerel

"Rigatoni"
Cockerel

"Ditalini"
Pullet

☆

And the Extras!

"Twisty"
Pullet
Talked to the breeder of her. She has never normally gotten wry faces or crossbeaks in her lines, and suspects it is from humidity issues when hatching. She also is in agreement that she is likely a pullet.

Based on all of this, and the fact the twist has not gotten worse/is VERY mild (it gets bad fast with genetic versions), I will keep her and breed her to see what happens. If she produces crossbeaks or any of the sort, she will be "soft culled".. if not, well then we know!

Crossbeaks are generally culled in our household, but this is a different situation that I am willing to test out since I will not be selling babies.

"Groucho"
Cockerel
Trying to find him a home, he is too cute to cull lol.

"Sour Cream"
Pullet?

"Stella"
Pullet?

"Concrete"
Cockerel

"Butter"
Pullet

☆
A serious program Update!

Eeby, the Mille Fleur D'uccle is effectively removed from the program.
Soft cull for now, but hard cull is under consideration, despite her having been our favorite.

She's been broody for a week or so now (trying to break her of it by separating), and she's so aggressive and mean, and has been breaking and eating eggs consistently since the egg eating issues started. I am not a fan of the aggressive broody, and do not want any of those behaviors in my hens.

Either way, we will not hatch any eggs from her, and we have put pinless peepers on her to try and stop egg eating. It is something I did not want to do, but unfortunately it's kill the egg eaters (which is high in number, despite everything we have done) or try the peepers, since I will not officially introduce the babies to egg eaters.

☆

Other stuff!

I also found this playset on the side of the road for free! We set it up yesterday and the chickens are truly enjoying it! I really wanted one of these so this is awesome.

So now our pen looks like this! (Temporary, we will be making it better later!)

And I'll leave you all with a lovely pic of daddy Wheaten!

​

 

[ozu]

And some candids for you.​

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Hello again, everyone!

☆

WEEK 5 UPDATE


Klim (Silkie) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3495949
"Surbhi"
Cockerel of course.
Look at the red patches coming in on the wings, the green tail feathers.
So far, this is our rooster-keeper.

View attachment 3495950
Unnamed
I'm thinking all of the silkie x easter eggers are pullets besides Surbhi.. could I be that lucky?
But I am under the impression that these colors are hen colors.
Thoughts?


View attachment 3495951
"Roadrunner"
Pullet!

View attachment 3495952
"Zapp"
My guess continues to be pullet ..

View attachment 3495953
"Friendly"
Pullet?

☆

Blue (Easter Egger) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3495955
"Mini Wheat"
Pullet

View attachment 3495956
"Twix"
Pullet?

View attachment 3495957
"Stringy"
Cockerel

View attachment 3495958
Unnamed
Pullet?

☆

Zeeb (Old English Game Bantam) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3495959
"Beez"
Pullet?

☆

Mostaccioli (Mystic Maran) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3495960
"Gnocchi"
Cockerel

View attachment 3495961
"Rigatoni"
Cockerel

View attachment 3495962
"Ditalini"
Pullet

☆

And the Extras!

View attachment 3495963
"Twisty"
Pullet
Talked to the breeder of her. She has never normally gotten wry faces or crossbeaks in her lines, and suspects it is from humidity issues when hatching. She also is in agreement that she is likely a pullet.

Based on all of this, and the fact the twist has not gotten worse/is VERY mild (it gets bad fast with genetic versions), I will keep her and breed her to see what happens. If she produces crossbeaks or any of the sort, she will be "soft culled".. if not, well then we know!

Crossbeaks are generally culled in our household, but this is a different situation that I am willing to test out since I will not be selling babies.

View attachment 3495974
"Groucho"
Cockerel
Trying to find him a home, he is too cute to cull lol.

View attachment 3495975
"Sour Cream"
Pullet?

View attachment 3495977
"Stella"
Pullet?

View attachment 3495978
"Concrete"
Cockerel

View attachment 3495980
"Butter"
Pullet

☆
A serious program Update!
View attachment 3495982
Eeby, the Mille Fleur D'uccle is effectively removed from the program.
Soft cull for now, but hard cull is under consideration, despite her having been our favorite.

She's been broody for a week or so now (trying to break her of it by separating), and she's so aggressive and mean, and has been breaking and eating eggs consistently since the egg eating issues started. I am not a fan of the aggressive broody, and do not want any of those behaviors in my hens.

Either way, we will not hatch any eggs from her, and we have put pinless peepers on her to try and stop egg eating. It is something I did not want to do, but unfortunately it's kill the egg eaters (which is high in number, despite everything we have done) or try the peepers, since I will not officially introduce the babies to egg eaters.

☆

Other stuff!

I also found this playset on the side of the road for free! We set it up yesterday and the chickens are truly enjoying it! I really wanted one of these so this is awesome.
View attachment 3495983

So now our pen looks like this! (Temporary, we will be making it better later!)
View attachment 3495987

And I'll leave you all with a lovely pic of daddy Wheaten!
View attachment 3495988
​

The only cockerels I see are Surbhi, the two olive eggers, Concrete, and Groucho. Stringy is a pullet. Sour Cream isn’t a mix with another breed, she’s just hatchery quality. Also, crossbeak is a very widespread genetic trait in silkies, so I would not breed Twisty. Keep in mind that if you breed her and there are no crossbeaks in the first generation, that doesn’t mean it’s not genetic and won’t pop up later.

 

[Nero70002]

Oh yeah here’s Bee now who kinda looks like mini wheat. I find that yellow chicks with red and blue splotches turn out to be white chickens with pretty red patterns and blue heads.

 

[ozu]

The only cockerels I see are Surbhi, the two olive eggers, Concrete, and Groucho. Stringy is a pullet. Sour Cream isn’t a mix with another breed, she’s just hatchery quality. Also, crossbeak is a very widespread genetic trait in silkies, so I would not breed Twisty. Keep in mind that if you breed her and there are no crossbeaks in the first generation, that doesn’t mean it’s not genetic and won’t pop up later.

Whoa. My suspicion was that there were mostly pullets, but that just feels like.. way too lucky! Crossing fingers that you're right. When I checked 5 week old pics of Cheetah and Wheaten (the dad(s) of the chicks), they were so obviously roosters that early..

I so appreciate the input, totally makes me feel better about everything. I'm constantly going "they're all cockerels... they're all pullets.. " and repeat. But overall, I think most of them look like pullets too!

As for Twisty- if her beak was genuinely crossing, I do want to clarify that I would already have plans to hard cull her or rehome her (depending on the severity). We had a crossbeak EE rooster that we culled and ate last year, who was probably Wheaten and Cheetah's brother, (people say it's really common in EEs, so I doubt we will be able to entirely avoid it.)

Twisty's face is just kind of twisted a bit in the way that my partner and I have seen chicks look like when they have been stuck in the egg for too long (but usually it straightens out if they get out soon enough/they have some help out of the egg).. here's pictures I sent to the breeder.

(tilting her head in the last pic)

It doesn't ever seem to get worse (thankfully, and crossing fingers), and I can't seem to find many chickens that have this sort of ailment so mildly.. so there are many reasons why I don't feel this situation is in particular, genetic..

BUT! I am taking your advice to heart and will do some more thinking on it and not commit to anything with Twisty at this time. Thank you, again. ​

 

[ozu]

Oh yeah here’s Bee now who kinda looks like mini wheat. I find that yellow chicks with red and blue splotches turn out to be white chickens with pretty red patterns and blue heads.
View attachment 3496075
View attachment 3496076
View attachment 3496079
View attachment 3496080

Awww hi Bee!! She's looking so cute and grown up!! It's going to be so fun to see how similar her and Mini Wheat look like as adults!

When Mini Wheat hatched I was convinced she'd be blue (so shiny and cold colored) like mom Blue, but as she dried she became more reddish too! And well, you know the story!

They're so cute how they change. ​

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Whoa. My suspicion was that there were mostly pullets, but that just feels like.. way too lucky! Crossing fingers that you're right. When I checked 5 week old pics of Cheetah and Wheaten (the dad(s) of the chicks), they were so obviously roosters that early..

I so appreciate the input, totally makes me feel better about everything. I'm constantly going "they're all cockerels... they're all pullets.. " and repeat. But overall, I think most of them look like pullets too!

As for Twisty- if her beak was genuinely crossing, I do want to clarify that I would already have plans to hard cull her or rehome her (depending on the severity). We had a crossbeak EE rooster that we culled and ate last year, who was probably Wheaten and Cheetah's brother, (people say it's really common in EEs, so I doubt we will be able to entirely avoid it.)

Twisty's face is just kind of twisted a bit in the way that my partner and I have seen chicks look like when they have been stuck in the egg for too long (but usually it straightens out if they get out soon enough/they have some help out of the egg).. here's pictures I sent to the breeder.

View attachment 3496096
(tilting her head in the last pic)

It doesn't ever seem to get worse (thankfully, and crossing fingers), and I can't seem to find many chickens that have this sort of ailment so mildly.. so there are many reasons why I don't feel this situation is in particular, genetic..

BUT! I am taking your advice to heart and will do some more thinking on it and not commit to anything with Twisty at this time. Thank you, again. ​

The twisted face can also be a genetic trait, and it too seems to be more common in silkies than other breeds.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Whoa. My suspicion was that there were mostly pullets, but that just feels like.. way too lucky! Crossing fingers that you're right. When I checked 5 week old pics of Cheetah and Wheaten (the dad(s) of the chicks), they were so obviously roosters that early..

I so appreciate the input, totally makes me feel better about everything. I'm constantly going "they're all cockerels... they're all pullets.. " and repeat. But overall, I think most of them look like pullets too!

As for Twisty- if her beak was genuinely crossing, I do want to clarify that I would already have plans to hard cull her or rehome her (depending on the severity). We had a crossbeak EE rooster that we culled and ate last year, who was probably Wheaten and Cheetah's brother, (people say it's really common in EEs, so I doubt we will be able to entirely avoid it.)

Twisty's face is just kind of twisted a bit in the way that my partner and I have seen chicks look like when they have been stuck in the egg for too long (but usually it straightens out if they get out soon enough/they have some help out of the egg).. here's pictures I sent to the breeder.

View attachment 3496096
(tilting her head in the last pic)

It doesn't ever seem to get worse (thankfully, and crossing fingers), and I can't seem to find many chickens that have this sort of ailment so mildly.. so there are many reasons why I don't feel this situation is in particular, genetic..

BUT! I am taking your advice to heart and will do some more thinking on it and not commit to anything with Twisty at this time. Thank you, again. ​

I’ve got a polish mix hen like her. I kept her and she does great, agree with @RoostersAreAwesome I would not use her as a breeder, if u do keep her I’d use her for a broody and eggs. That’s what I use both of my cross beak hens for.

 

[ozu]

Thank you both.
Back with 7 week pictures!
I messed up last week, and it was 6 week pics, not 5 weeks.


WEEK 7 UPDATE


Klim (Silkie) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Surbhi"

Cockerel

Unnamed

Pullet

"Roadrunner"

Pullet

"Zapp"

Pullet

"Friendly"

Pullet


☆

Blue (Easter Egger) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Mini Wheat"

Pullet

"Twix"

Pullet

"Stringy"

Cockerel

Unnamed

Pullet?

☆

Zeeb (Old English Game Bantam) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Beez"

Pullet?

☆

Mostaccioli (Mystic Maran) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)

"Gnocchi"

Cockerel

"Rigatoni"

Cockerel

"Ditalini"

Pullet

☆

And the Extras!

"Twisty"

Silkie Pullet

"Groucho"

Silkie Cockerel

"Sour Cream"

Unknown Silkie

"Stella"

Pullet?

"Concrete"

Sebright Cockerel

"Butter"

Sebright Pullet​

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Thank you both.
Back with 7 week pictures!
I messed up last week, and it was 6 week pics, not 5 weeks.


WEEK 7 UPDATE


Klim (Silkie) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3501486
"Surbhi"
View attachment 3501508
Cockerel


View attachment 3501492
Unnamed
View attachment 3501509
Pullet

View attachment 3501498
"Roadrunner"
View attachment 3501510
Pullet

View attachment 3501512
"Zapp"
View attachment 3501513
Pullet

View attachment 3501514
"Friendly"
View attachment 3501515
Pullet


☆

Blue (Easter Egger) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3501517
"Mini Wheat"
View attachment 3501519
Pullet

View attachment 3501521
"Twix"
View attachment 3501522
Pullet

View attachment 3501523
"Stringy"
View attachment 3501524
Cockerel

View attachment 3501525
Unnamed
View attachment 3501526
Pullet?

☆

Zeeb (Old English Game Bantam) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3501527
"Beez"
View attachment 3501528
Pullet?

☆

Mostaccioli (Mystic Maran) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
View attachment 3501533
"Gnocchi"
View attachment 3501534
Cockerel

View attachment 3501535
"Rigatoni"
View attachment 3501536
Cockerel

View attachment 3501537
"Ditalini"
View attachment 3501538
Pullet

☆

And the Extras!

View attachment 3501539
"Twisty"
View attachment 3501540
Silkie Pullet

View attachment 3501541
"Groucho"
View attachment 3501542
Silkie Cockerel

View attachment 3501544
"Sour Cream"
View attachment 3501545
Unknown Silkie

View attachment 3501546
"Stella"
View attachment 3501548
Pullet?

View attachment 3501549
"Concrete"
View attachment 3501550
Sebright Cockerel

View attachment 3501551
"Butter"
View attachment 3501552
Sebright Pullet​

Beez is so pretty! Stella is a girl, my little babies are 5-6 weeks and my little fawn oeb is already showing to be a roo.
Sorry, you may of already stated this, what is your ultiamant goal with your breed? What color, size and amount of toes are you wanting? What type of feathering?