What's in your flock?

[hosspak]

Show us what you have that makes you a crazy green thumb who has chickens as well.... I dare ya!
Here at the Ranch we have: a Black Copper Marans rooster, a Rhode Island Red Rooster, 2 Buff Orps, 2 Black SL, a Black Copper Marans Pullet, a Brahma, a Golden Comet, A Tetra Tint, a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Black Wyandotte, 2 EE's, and an EE Sussex mix.

 

[baymule]

Chickens are the entry drug of livestock.
I have 6 Red Stars. Great layers, wonderful disposition, don't mind getting lugged around by a little girl.

4 blue laced red Wyandottes plus 2 BLRW splash

2 red sex links-old, need to go to freezer camp.
2 black sex links-old, one going to freezer camp, one has a bad attitude, rules the roost, walks on a leash, bites, plays "chicken on a string" which is a string tied to one leg and the other end of the string tied to a brick so she can play with us in the front yard. Her name is Robin.

4 mutts, Green Legs, Screecher, Purpleistic, and Rusty. Rusty is the resident hen molester. And yes, she is definitely a hen.

And one Silver Laced Wyandotte. Had 5 more, but sold them to someone who wanted them worse than I did. I have a request for "breeder rejects" that don't make the show string so I can get some more.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A CHICKEN TODAY?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

my cheep therapy flock includes a mix of bantam cochins, bantam salmon faverolles and 1 splash bantam faverolles, 1 lf black fav, 3 lf white fav, 1 lf salmon fav roo, a sometimes spiteful d'uccle roo, an anti social polish roo, and quite a few mixed favs with cochin which have made for some neat project colors! i don't have pics on here yet. maybe i'll get them up, eventually.

 

[journey11]

I've got 8 EE hens. I'd post pics of them, except they look mighty sad right now after being cooped up for 3 weeks straight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

These went in a the incubator a week ago today from a flock of barnyard mutts. There's not a pure breed bird in the flock.

 

[Wishin']

Tetra Tint?

 

[Kassaundra]

I have NN w/ style and one EE

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Tetra Tint?

Last time I checked a Tetra is an aquarium fish.

I've never heard of a Tetra Tint chicken. It's probably the top left picture?

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I have a mixed breeds roo, two mixed breed hens, a Black Copper Maran hen, probably about six Rhode Island Red hens, and probably about another six of what we think are Golden Comets. We're planning on switching over to all Black Australorps.

A mixed hen with RIR's off to the side. She is from a male BCM and a female RIR, if somebody's interested in trying to recreate her. This picture really doesn't do justice to her pretty looks. The back two or three points on the comb are always flopped over. Both mixed hens are super broody. Sometimes they'll sit in the same nesting box. They're almost like close twins as they'll often copy each others movement and sounds.

And our mixed rooster Peep. He is a BCM (roo) x Barred Plymout Rock (hen) Cross. A lot of his barring, especially around the shoulders and hackle feathers, is golden with a few odd feathers sticking out. You can see the Pekings and one of the mixed hens in the background, we also have a few breeds (and mixes) of geese and Muscovy ducks.

I wanted to see if I could cross the roo back with one of the mixed hens. I'm not really sure if they're laying anymore so I'm just taking pictures and notes to see if I can try my little breeding project later down the line in the future.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Seedo, when you mix mixed breed hens with mixed breed roosters, especially when they are mixes of different breeds you can get a huge range of colors and patterns, some you totally don’t expect.


With that BCM/BR rooster over most hens, you should get half the chicks barred and half not barred, as long as the hen is not barred. That’s just the odds. In the past I’ve had 4 out of 4 barred with those odds. The odds are the same for males and female offspring.


That rooster should have one Extended Black gene and one Birchen gene, which are the two strongest genes at that location. With most hens, in theory, you should get about half solid black and about half with some black but some other colors too. Again, in theory, that cross of BCM over RIR should have a black upper body. She doesn’t obviously, which makes me think her daddy was not a pure BCM or her mommy was not pure RIR. In theory, your rooster should be black and white barred, no red showing, but in reality that red leakage is to be expected. Don’t put too much faith in pure theory, especially when crossing crosses.


What I think you’ll get with your cross, either to that hen or your comets, is a wide range of colors and patterns. You could even wind up with some solid whites, especially if your comets have white tails. You should get a fair amount of black, but probably with leakage especially on the roosters. The roosters especially should show some really nice colors and patterns. The hens won’t be bad either.


I like hatching eggs from a mixed cross. It’s like opening a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get.