'Tis that season again...fall! Crops come off, stores get filled for our long winters and flocks get reduced! Most people cut their flocks down to the best of the best ready for spring breeding pens, and we're no different. I've already started trimming down in general in the last month. I sold off some younger turkeys that were going to take to long to grow for processing, and I've also sold off a few quality birds that didn't quite fit into my plans for breeding pens next year. I'm very happy to see that my fine pair of Narragansett turkeys have found a home. A nice young couple are just starting off and are coming to pick them up on Monday! The beautiful young lavender ameracaunas i have have gone to live on a new farm also with a very happy young boy.
I've trimmed down my marans cockerels alot too. down to my keeper, a backup and 1 more to go to a member of the PSO forum. All in all things are looking up! I have extra cockerels in the black orpintons and silver laced wyandottes yet to deal with, but they are rather pleasant breeds so no rush has been placed on that. That brings me to my main topic tonight, the blue/black orpingtons!
Today had a couple hours of sun so i brought them outside to do a bit of comparison and just a good through check up on all of the black and blue orpingtons. Unless i found a major defect or something unforgivable, I was intending to keep all the hen, I really needed more to decide on which cockerel to keep. They are a bit on the young side yet, only around 15 weeks, but they have come along way. His brother was on the smaller side and had a stray sprig also, so that leaves me with my winner.
The other difficult thing about trying to evaluate these birds at this time of the year is feather condition. I think the birds are getting a double whammy right now with changing from chick feathers to more adult feathers plus the weather change. So please don't hold their feathers against them! There were 3 black cockerels to choose from the 1 male had good overall potential but had carnation comb... not something i want to breed into my foundation flock as it is genetic(see Breeding discussion:combs in an earlier blog). My spring breeding flock (barring no strange incidents) for the blue/black/splash breeding group will consist of the black cockerel over 2 blue hens, 1 black hen, and 3 splash hens. Should give me some well rounded offspring of a nice range in colour!
I've trimmed down my marans cockerels alot too. down to my keeper, a backup and 1 more to go to a member of the PSO forum. All in all things are looking up! I have extra cockerels in the black orpintons and silver laced wyandottes yet to deal with, but they are rather pleasant breeds so no rush has been placed on that. That brings me to my main topic tonight, the blue/black orpingtons!
Today had a couple hours of sun so i brought them outside to do a bit of comparison and just a good through check up on all of the black and blue orpingtons. Unless i found a major defect or something unforgivable, I was intending to keep all the hen, I really needed more to decide on which cockerel to keep. They are a bit on the young side yet, only around 15 weeks, but they have come along way. His brother was on the smaller side and had a stray sprig also, so that leaves me with my winner.
The other difficult thing about trying to evaluate these birds at this time of the year is feather condition. I think the birds are getting a double whammy right now with changing from chick feathers to more adult feathers plus the weather change. So please don't hold their feathers against them! There were 3 black cockerels to choose from the 1 male had good overall potential but had carnation comb... not something i want to breed into my foundation flock as it is genetic(see Breeding discussion:combs in an earlier blog). My spring breeding flock (barring no strange incidents) for the blue/black/splash breeding group will consist of the black cockerel over 2 blue hens, 1 black hen, and 3 splash hens. Should give me some well rounded offspring of a nice range in colour!
This is the young black cockerel I've settled on as the best. He is incredibly wide all around. Nice wide and deep chest, broad back, and good size so far. Hes loosing feathers like mad, so no where near at his best, but i'm really interested to see how he looks by spring.
3 of his lovely ladies, the wind was blowing them all over the place unfortunately. They are filling in nicely so far. Once they grow a bit more and feather in properly they should be quite nice!