Chick Update

Time for the two week photo update on the four oldest chicks in the batch of 16 (hatched periodically over a month's time) that is getting ready to be moved out of a brooder and into a pen. This batch is primarily offspring of Howl, the white non molter, and the BBR Phoenix hens shown down in the "Beginning" post.  However, there are also several straight Phoenix, with BBR's, golds, and one lone silver pullet. The BBR's had a tendency towards green legs and longer feathers as you can see in BBRC1, the cockerel that I've been following in the photo updates.  This batch of chicks is running at 10 cockerels, 5 pullets, and one that I'm unsure of but leaning towards a pullet.

For the non molters, I'm less worried about leg color at this point since there will be no way to avoid having white legs if I breed back to Howl. But I'm keeping the best stock of slate legged and green legged birds for possible use later in getting the legs back to type.

First we have Spike (BBRC1) who looks like a skinny man wearing a fancy jacket way too big for him.

 Next is the Blue Red Cockerel (BRC1) At this stage, all of these related birds seem to have a roundish look to them, while the straight Phoenix are all slimmer and smaller. I expect they will grow out of it, the hens were long and slim, and the rooster as well.

The Blue Silver Cockerel (BSC1) is getting lots of juvenile red splotches. He's also the dominant rooster and will probably not be a keeper. But we'll see.

I'm starting to call this hen Football, because she is shaped like one. Just kind of a blob of a chicken at this point, not looking at all like either parent. She's very difficult to get a picture of, she just plops down and rests, looking alert is not on her agenda.

Slightly younger blue red hen (BRH2). Her tailfeathers are going through an odd stage where the tips are curling upright a small amount. A couple of the birds in this batch are like that, all are the same cross.

Sumatra!

I had wanted to wait until I was able to get new photos, but with winter rearing its ugly head, there probably won't be any more photo opportunities until spring for the adult and older juveniles. In spring, I hope to be hatching from two breeding groups of Sumatra. I will have some extra blue cockerels for sale in spring as well, once I select the one I intend to use. These birds have nice dark heads and multiple spurs, and are quite people friendly.

Spring Hatch 2011 Black Sumatra Rooster

He is not quite as short legged as the grass makes him appear.

Spring hatch Black Sumatra Pullet

Late Summer/early Fall hatch Blue Sumatra pullet

Late summer/early fall hatch Blue Sumatra pullets

Black Sumatra spurs at less than a year old.

Chick Growth Photo Update

Just a clarification on the chick photos - the ones I will follow and update are not individuals I have selected for any purpose other than they are the oldest of this batch. I will continue to follow the same two cockerels and two hens that are by the white rooster (three of which are out of the BBR Phoenix hen, one by a silver Phoenix hen), and the straight Phoenix BBR cockerel which is out of the Phoenix BBR stock I had previously - they are directly related to the hens which produced the chicks by the white rooster. I'm still perplexed on leg color. I think I have some greens, maybe some yellows, and some look like a pale whitish blue, all from the same cross.

Silver-Blue Cockerel (SBC1)

Blue-Red Cockerel (BRC1)

Straight Phoenix BBR Cockerel. This line has about 25% green legs and it looks like he'll have them. He has the fastest feather growth of all the chicks in this batch, so much so that he looks like a spikey skeleton chicken with feathers too big for his little body. (BBRC1)

Blue-Red pullet same as one shown in previous chick photo update. She's a hefty chick, doesn't yet look anything like either parent. (BRH1)

A slightly younger blue-red pullet.  All the pullets from the BBR x White Rooster cross have this coloring. The ones from the white rooster x silver Phoenix look silver. This is probably a darker gold, then, not really red? (BRH2)

Washing Your Cock

His feathers are looking decent considering he's been in a breeding pen for the last two months and has been in a molt as a result. Today was wash & oil day - he prefers the sink over the tub as he can keep an eye on himself in the mirror. In this photo he is still wet, having not yet been blow dried.

I try to gently soak and wash the feathers every other week if needed. I only blow dry the ones that get wet close to his body if it is cooler outside, then give a light oil to the tailfeathers and end of saddles - not enough to goop things up but enough to protect.

First Chicks

Blue-silver cockerel, hatched Nov 7th

Blue-silver cockerel, same as above.

Blue-red cockerel, hatched November 10th

Blue Red cockerel same as above.

Blue-red pullet hatched November 10th

Blue Red pullet same as above

Blue-red pullet hatched November 17th

Blue red pullet same as above

BBR cockerel hatched November 17th

Since I put these eggs in the incubator in staggered groups of 2-4, the ages on all my current chicks are up to one month apart. Above are pictures of several of the oldest chicks. The blue-silver cockerel is the oldest, and he is the only blue-silver as I did not feel the quality of my silver Phoenix were as good as the reds. That said, the chick is so far quite pretty and leggy. It's hard to tell what leg color I'm getting - the straight BBR's are slate with about 25% green legs, and the rooster has white legs, but the mixed chicks are looking yellowish green.

The Beginning

This past year, I made the decision to get serious about breeding longtail fowl. I spent the better part of the year reading, re-reading, and poring over photographs and forums to learn all I could. I had some silver duckwing Phoenix, and some nicer BBR Phoenix hens at the time, and produced about 25 chicks from these over the late summer/fall. Then, I had the opportunity to purchase a rooster from someone who has been breeding longtails for Onagadori traits for quite a while, Amanda Stewart. The rooster is a recessive white, blue splash silver duckwing that also carries ginger. I put him over my two best BBR hens, and have about 10 chicks in the brooder from them as I write this. Just a week or two ago, I was able to purchase two hens from Amanda, a blue-red and a BBR, which have now been swapped in and the old BBR's removed. I will not be hatching any more eggs over the winter, so will start in spring with this trio.

Pictured are the rooster at a year and a half old, one of the original BBR's, and the blue-red hen from Amanda. The blue-red has the same soft, supple feathering quality as the white rooster.