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  1. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Here they are, enjoying a freshly exposed compost heap as a birthday treat this morning
  2. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    The summer birthday parties continue here: Fforest, Killay, Uppsala and Ystrad are 3 today 🎉 🎂 🎈 During the last year the other hatch-mates, the SFH sisters Frida and Quenelle, passed quickly and in quick succession, of illness unknown, but thankfully no-one else in the flock suffered it...
  3. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Their 4th birthday seems an appropriate time to praise the 3 Penedesenca ladies. They have been one of the best rare breeds here. (Sadly the same can't be said for their male hatch-mates, all 3 of whom passed within 15 months, apparently of heart failure [black comb tips].) The breed is famed...
  4. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Do you know how old Fret is @Shadrach ? My memory says she's been there from the start of your field days, but not what her age was when you started, if you mentioned it. Anyway, I think you're doing the right thing. Maybe she's just feeling the very long hot days of summer, and will improve...
  5. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Now Aberglasny has gone broody :th Xmoor and Rhondda are still sitting....
  6. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    That makes sense. We talk about some [internal] switch 'flipping' when hens go broody, and when they get broken from it; the broody trance is an abnormal sort of stasis, so there must be some physiological process behind it, which can get turned on, and off again. So a partial or total failure...
  7. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    My lack of understanding is not for want of trying. There are a lot of good resources out there; this is one that I've bookmarked eg https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/genetics-mini-series/ but there must be a mental block somewhere in my head because the bits won't come together into a whole...
  8. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    I don't have plans for any more introductions at present, largely because I don't have space for any more! Otherwise I'm sure I could find an excuse to add this and that if they came available :D I've still got two broodies sitting on fake eggs! :th I have no idea how the flock will develop...
  9. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    If she thinks they've just hatched, that would be quite normal. Is she still sitting on any eggs? that would encourage her to hold too. I assume you've put a water dish and food nearby for the chicks; is the concern that she will actually stop them consuming either?
  10. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    That isn't the aim, at least consciously. I started off with naïve notions about preserving rare breeds, but I soon realized that rare breeds have tiny gene pools, some are probably rare for good reason, and they are relatively fragile health wise. Then I realized that rare breeds are usually...
  11. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    that drives speciation certainly, but isolation is the exception rather than the norm for life on earth, isn't it? E.g. "hybridization between domesticated and wild populations is common in nature and thus could mislead the estimation of their genetic differences [32, 33]. Domesticated chickens...
  12. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Only the SFH - starting in 2017 with one full crested male and one partially crested female - and the single Araucana full crested female. The Rhode Island Red, Norfolk Grey, Welsummer, Barbezieux, Penedesenca, and Leghorn, each of which came in in successive years, were all uncrested.
  13. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    but this happens in nature; chickens are one of those bird species that live in groups and don't mind donations from other hens in their nests (there are a few keepers here whose broodies are notorious for gathering as many eggs as possible from wherever/whoever possible!).
  14. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    have you tested this against Swedish Flowers, which can have full, partial, or no crest, which are considered a landrace, and which consequently lack a standard?
  15. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    That is the norm here. It's only those who make secret nests and don't then get donations who have just their own eggs under - and those eggs have all been predated, so nature selects against it to date.
  16. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Yes, several times No it isn't. It's a nightmare :lau I never know the dad, and with multiple roos there are too many options for my poor brain to juggle Hens sometimes sporting a single spur pops up as a curiosity on BYC posts occasionally. It would be nice to have an explanation for it if...
  17. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    I don't know. I choose to try to ensure that each pullet/hen gets a chance to reproduce her genes and those of whoever she mated with, rather than to continue a particular trait. Would that be landrace or not? I'm trying to put Darwin in the driving seat while maximising everyone's chances.
  18. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    this provokes the thought, what, size-wise, counts as 'full' crest? I was assuming Killay was homozygous because he has a relatively large crest (relative to the Swedish Flowers and the hybrids here), but your earlier explanation for Gwynedd's lack of crest suggests he's heterozygous. But his...
  19. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    yes indeed, I've brought in quite a lot of different genes via hatching eggs, and generally I've had great hatch rates and most make it to maturity, and I've tried to include at least one egg from each hen in home-bred clutches, so there might be a real smorgasbord of genes floating around now 🤪...
  20. Perris

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Nature is doing all the relevant work, and that's always a work in progress isn't it? I understood that the crest gene was co-dominant, but I'd started to question my understanding this year, when I realised that many youngsters here lack a crest, despite roos no. 1 and 2 both being crested...
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