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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 4, 2013 17:21:55 GMT -5
In the first pic I would guess the sun has him washed out some in the picture or he is lighter than any I have or have seen. In the second pic the one with his head down in the dish looks like what I call medium in color and the one standing to his right (is that the light one from the first pic?) is very light but I do like his head, body and it looks like he has very dark eyes.
I finally charged my camera and I am going out to see if I can get some decent pics of mine. I will post later. I don't know if I have any males in the bbs that have really nice big broad heads or not.
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 4, 2013 18:03:42 GMT -5
In the first pic I would guess the sun has him washed out some in the picture or he is lighter than any I have or have seen. In the second pic the one with his head down in the dish looks like what I call medium in color and the one standing to his right (is that the light one from the first pic?) is very light but I do like his head, body and it looks like he has very dark eyes. I finally charged my camera and I am going out to see if I can get some decent pics of mine. I will post later. I don't know if I have any males in the bbs that have really nice big broad heads or not. There are two birds. The second pic has both of them in it. It takes time with Blues to get the darker saddle feathers. These 2 are barely 2 months old. I will for sure cull the very lite one. And cull the other too. I have the longer back older one who I may use. Both hens who I am using with my Blue male are still laying. I get 2 eggs from them every other day.
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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 4, 2013 20:04:30 GMT -5
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 4, 2013 20:31:38 GMT -5
Still pretty young birds. I know what went into Korfus line. She has Bammachicken's Charlie now. You should have some wonderful Exhibition genetics to play with. I suspect you will have to raise up as many as you can reasonably, 40 or more, or more like 75 or more to cull from. Blue is a very tuff variety to nail down the color. Still even then you have to hope to cull the rite ones. An ABA judge told me he likes to keep at least 5 males for breeding. Another friend Alan said even if you have brothers or sisters who are from the same parents, the genetics that each one throws can vary drastically. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. Except there you may have better odds. lol I find I have no problem selling cullable pullets on CRAIGSLIST. It is the boys who usually get whacked. Sadly to make better birds you need to have no issues with culling. The way I look at it is, IF I make better birds I need not have to raise a 100. I can get by with 20 to 30 per variety. This season, I have near 20 Buffs, near 50 Whites, 20 Blacks, and maybe if I am lucky 10 Blues. Plus these oddballs that I am getting from my Cuckoos and my Buff Columbian.
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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 4, 2013 20:34:40 GMT -5
Now here's the other blues I hatched this year. The one in front has nice lacing but a small head & light eyes. The one behind her is the lavender split that I didn't hatch. Now this little girl is younger than the others by about 3 weeks or so. I can't tell much about her yet but think she is going to be medium in color, nice dark eyes, decent lacing but may have a small head too. Now this is the girl I am going to watch. She is a medium blue with nice dark eyes and good shape.
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 4, 2013 21:00:46 GMT -5
I like this Blue girl with the big chest. Put a longer back on her and you then can worry about lacing. I do like the lacing in the first pic. And like you said I too do not like tiny heads.
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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 4, 2013 21:25:03 GMT -5
I think we agree on most things but I believe you like a longer back than I do. I don't want the basketball look but something in between. I think out of the 5 pullets I hatched 1 is a keeper, 3 maybes and the 1 with the best lacing is not. I think I read somewhere you "build the house first and then paint it" and it rang true to me.
I didn't have a problem culling my cockerels as I gave them to a family that wanted and could make good use of them for food. I have a feeling the black cockerel I kept will be going to them too and if they want I will send the pullets I don't keep for eggs. The way I look at I know they need them and will not be flipping them all over the country. I would rather see them go for food as to see them mistreated and used to make a buck.
I don't have the funds or space to hatch/raise very many so I will keep the best ones I have, put the broody ones in with the mutt flock and see what I can do. If it does not work out with the blues I will concentrate on the blacks.
Good luck with yours and if you ever get down this way you are welcome to some of mine if you want them.
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 4, 2013 21:53:05 GMT -5
I think we agree on most things but I believe you like a longer back than I do. I don't want the basketball look but something in between. I think out of the 5 pullets I hatched 1 is a keeper, 3 maybes and the 1 with the best lacing is not. I think I read somewhere you "build the house first and then paint it" and it rang true to me. I didn't have a problem culling my cockerels as I gave them to a family that wanted and could make good use of them for food. I have a feeling the black cockerel I kept will be going to them too and if they want I will send the pullets I don't keep for eggs. The way I look at I know they need them and will not be flipping them all over the country. I would rather see them go for food as to see them mistreated and used to make a buck. I don't have the funds or space to hatch/raise very many so I will keep the best ones I have, put the broody ones in with the mutt flock and see what I can do. If it does not work out with the blues I will concentrate on the blacks. Good luck with yours and if you ever get down this way you are welcome to some of mine if you want them. The door is open for you here as well. Yes, I do like a longer back. My goal is to use the genetics of my best type of Orp in all my varieties. 5 years ago a good friend, Larry Lee, gave me 5 of Doug's line of Buff hens. No males. I went and got a young cockerel from Doug. Seen him breed 2 times. ASSumed these gorgeous Buff hens were bred. Well, they were not. They were knocked up by a test male I used. The 5 I hatched out I culled except for one. He was a Dun Birchen I called BUSTOFF. Since I knew BUS had some of the genetics of these Buff hens, I used the one cockerel, who weighed 11 lbs at 11 months with a Korfus Blue and Black hens. Not even my best hens either. Just to test and see what would come out. Well, the Akers Buff Orp hen's genetics have passed on down. Now I am trying to put these genetics into Whites, Blacks and here with Blues. Even my Shafer line Cuckoos I bred BUSTOFF line into. The darker male from the other nite that I posted has a nice long back the way I like it. So, with only 10 Blues hatched here I am crawling along. lol I spend way too much money on my flock. I do not spend it on buying birds anymore, but on feed. lol
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 20, 2013 14:46:58 GMT -5
Here is another one for ya Davy. I do not know if you sold your Black cockerel. This first Blue is more to the style I like with a bit longer back. NOW, a month or two ago his back appeared to be longer. So, you Black may also grow into his length like this first one is. The second Blue has more the color I like. A month or two ago I like him better. but the first one is really doing nice as well. Not too worried I have about a 1/2 dozen more growing up here.
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Post by lildinkem on Aug 20, 2013 14:47:11 GMT -5
Here is another one for ya Davy. I do not know if you sold your Black cockerel. This first Blue is more to the style I like with a bit longer back. NOW, a month or two ago his back appeared to be longer. So, you Black may also grow into his length like this first one is. The second Blue has more the color I like. A month or two ago I like him better. but the first one is really doing nice as well. Not too worried I have about a 1/2 dozen more growing up here.
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Post by gayle on Aug 29, 2013 10:40:02 GMT -5
I have a few blue pullets I have picked out for the Blue project, they appear to have good lacing, although they are a little dark, hopefully some of their offspring will be pigeon blue.
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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 29, 2013 19:30:45 GMT -5
Gayle- those are pretty girls. I really like the nice big chest on the middle girl (can't tell but guessing the other one has one too). All my blues are dark except the one and her eyes are too light for my liking but I may try her next year just to see what happens.
Dumb newbie question but how do you go about getting the really nice lacing? Does both the parent stock have to carry the gene? thanks
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Post by gayle on Aug 29, 2013 21:50:49 GMT -5
Gayle- those are pretty girls. I really like the nice big chest on the middle girl (can't tell but guessing the other one has one too). All my blues are dark except the one and her eyes are too light for my liking but I may try her next year just to see what happens. Dumb newbie question but how do you go about getting the really nice lacing? Does both the parent stock have to carry the gene? thanks to get the good lacing both parent stock needs to carry two copies of the Pg/Pg dominate pattern gene, two copies of the dominate Ml/Ml melonotic gene. and two copies dominate Co/Co columbian restrictor gene. the illustration below show what happens when a recessive gene slips into the picture. If you are not already there with well laced birds Unfortunately you might have to hatch a few extra birds to sort through. By using the pictures below you can get an idea what to look for in your stock to get lacing established.
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Post by gayle on Aug 29, 2013 22:08:50 GMT -5
Littlechickelet
from the looks of your birds, they appear to be carrying good lacing genetics. some seem to be stronger than others on the presentation of lacing.
you mentioned that you had a female with light eyes, you can continue to use her if you match her up with a rooster that has strong dark eye (carrying 2 copies of the sex linked recessive dark eye gene.) The females should hatch out with dark eyes, but the roosters that hatch will all be carrying one copy of light eye gene. You most likely will not want to use the young male offspring from this hatch in your breeding program.
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Post by littlechicklet on Aug 30, 2013 20:05:31 GMT -5
Gayle- Thank you for all the information. I will try to take it all in. I culled almost all of my cockerels because of light eyes. I am going to try a different cockerel in the Spring and see what happens but he does not have the really dark eyes. I don't think any of my offspring had eyes as light as my one hen and I will not use her again.
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