Belgian Watermaal

[CastielH]

I thought they were quail but now I’m not totally sure lol. Do you have examples somewhere of the difference?

I’ll have to email Kristen and verify.

Just checked my email threads and they are quail.

Looking back they're 100% normal quail I'm not sure why I thought they might be blue, I'm blaming it on finals being next week

 

[KristenG]

But isn’t work at least consistent and not something where you have to learn something new every time?

Or if you are a female and select a degree in biology you might spend the first half of your “career” life working temporary jobs and shifting gears every 6 months and then finding a new venue every 3-4 years. And sweating about where you might move, if you can take the chickens or afford them… and then kids come along and life comes crashing down. Better like where you are at when you bring them into the picture because kids can really trap you wherever you happen to be. I think it is reasonable to say that most or all of your career aspirations have to be put on hold for at least the first two years of each one of their lives (especially now that childcare is so expensive- so make sure you already make a lot of money so you can afford a nanny or live close to some family willing to help out if you want to keep working - or that you have a partner/spouse who can keep working and float you financially and is okay with you not working). And they throw all kinds of emotional and mental challenges at you that nothing can prepare you for…somebody in the household will need to have some significant work schedule changes so kids can be shuttled to activities/school/ appointments/daycare (or a grandparent’s house if you’re super lucky). And that typically falls on the person who makes the least money in the house (or a nanny), and said person might have to stop career track and either get lower-paying job they didn’t go to school for just for the schedule. And that requires all new skills and learning on the fly. Or it might require said person to give up job entirely.

I am extremely grateful that I have been able to keep my chickens through two children. I am sad I had to give up my career track. I adore my children. My life has been a whirlwind of change, challenge, and bittersweet since college, and not everyone will have a life like mine. The stakes are higher than bad grades. It is conceivable that you could make life more predictable and comfortable than college… and it is nice not having to make certain grades. And you don’t have to keep challenging your mind to consider new concepts, but I hope you do. I think that is the one skill college gave to me that I have used to better my outcome in every life change.

Through it all I am so lucky that I still have chickens for my happy place. And these are my chickens… with some lines that have been evolving with me for the last 23 years. I love my d’Anvers and Watermaals. And my kids love them, too.

 

[CastielH]

I just noticed I accidentally took pictures of one of the little stinkers twice so here are pictures of the actual Big Hat (name pending). It's been very dark and rainy here in Vermont but I checked combs today and saw lots of triple spikes starting to come in! Kenneth has the most prominent but Allo has the start of three for sure. Notho has one spike (as well as a hollow comb) and I'm not sure about Terran, 1 has what could be either one or three spikes it's not quite clear yet, and the girls don't really have spikes yet.

 

[kurby22]

Update on my Watermaals! Between 9-13 weeks

 

[CastielH]

I'm so happy with how the birds are maturing, they're starting to look like actual chickens now and not just birds put together with spare parts lol. These two in particular Kenneth (with number one in the background) and Derby are maturing and I can't wait to watch them mature.

 

[KristenG]

Thank you so much for your posts! These are all great visuals for what we should be looking for. I'm really glad you mentioned the tassel size because that's something I've started looking at with my birds as I evaluate them. Both of the males I'm for sure keeping have correct tassels but I only ended up with three pullets from my hatch two of whom have crests and one who is crestless, in your opinion is there a strong reason to only use the pullet without a tassel or given that both cockerels have tassels do you think it could work for at least a first generation to pick more girls from? My knockoff d'Anvers has the best body out of all three pullets so I'm planning to keep her regardless. Here's one of my other girls just so you can get an idea of what I'm working with, my birds are about 16 weeks if that helps. View attachment 3592669

You’re welcome!
The tassel is a dominant gene with accessory modifiers. Any time you breed a non-tasseled bird to a tasseled one, the result is generally a smaller, heterozygous tassel in the chicks. If you are working with moderate to large tassel sizes in your homozygous birds, this can be a great option if you want to reduce tassel size immediately in the next generation for showing. Long term breeders are ideally going to be smaller homozygous tassels though, because you don’t want to be perpetuating huge tassels. The only way you can effectively select against against huge homozygous tassels is by breeding from homozygous birds. But, in a pinch, you can use a non tasseled birds.

There is something else you want to be cautious of, however. The gene for the triple Spiked Rose come is linked to the tassel. Generally birds that do not inherit the tassel will not inherit a triple spike grows comb and will contribute nothing to future generations on that front. Thus, the tasseled bird you use must have a very strong triple - especially if you are to breed it to a non-tasseled, single spiked bird. Triple spikes more easily express in the male than the female - so you can think about this in a couple ways. 1. A female with a triple spike will more potently pass on genes for triple spiked combs than a similarly spiked male m. And 2. You should be less lenient on the combs of the males than females. Double spiked females often have triple spiked genes, but double spiked males or worse are going to give you a lot of trouble down the road.

Finally, avoid short or nonexistent spikes entirely if you can. It is better to use a single spikes rose comb than a comb with no spikes. This is because no spikes can indicate the bird Carries one copy of pea comb, or Carries an obnoxious gene that eliminates the spikes and is incredibly difficult to eliminate from your flock.

So, long story short, yes. You can use them and still get properly tasseled chicks. Just be sure you are also looking at those combs!

 

[CastielH]

Mine finally started laying! Woohoo! such tiny little pullet eggs

Nice! Only one of mine is laying but she’s averaging 4-5 eggs a week so not bad in my opinion expressly with how little daylight we get up here.

Ohio National boyView attachment 3682820

What a handsome boy! Some phenomenal birds made it to nationals this year.

 

[CastielH]

Thought your avatar was a flower.

Wait, its not a flower?

Pfff omg it's not

For what it's worth it's made me do a double take too thinking I somehow changed it to a flower it's one of the reasons I've kept it

 

[kurby22]

I just saw your post on Instagram with them, they are so adorable!

One of us, one of us

Thanks!! They are super cute

The one we named Chandler is a beardless girl, which I’d not seen before! She’s the overly buff one. I think I’m going to bring home a blue quail rooster in a couple weeks to make some babies!

 

[BDutch]

If you are interested in all the Watermaal colors we have in the Netherlands and Belgium:
http://www.kippenencyclopedie.nl/php/index.php?title=Watermaalse_baardkriel

The photos were taken on exhibitions.