Not Quite a Hobby Farm

jififner: She may be a cross between an Ameraucana...

2012-05-07T08:47:07.773-07:00

jififner: She may be a cross between an Ameraucana and a polish type chicken that gives her the tuff on the top of her head. We have a little black chicken like that of that cross. That may be why there is no reference to her breed, it might just be a backyard mix and sometimes those are the most fun :).

Amanda chicken: I am guessing because of the tail it is an Ameraucana. It is very possible it is a white Ameraucana, however just because it looks like that does not guarantee it is a purebred white. They are hard to find and expensive from specialty breeders. An Ameraucana and Araucana have a peacomb and green legs. That is easy ways to recognize the breed. I will also recommend you to the feathersite page on Ameraucanas/Araucanas, he has a number of pictures on there to help you identify.
http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Arau/BRKAraucanas.html

I think this may be a White Araucana (English styl...

2012-05-07T07:46:29.621-07:00

I think this may be a White Araucana (English style - with tail). I have one of these and they are very hard to find. Ours is now 3 yrs old and still laying well, though not during the winter. If you could post a picture I could confirm it?

I believe to get the result you want, you should u...

2012-04-28T17:55:07.825-07:00

I believe to get the result you want, you should use a Maran rooster and leghorn hen. As a general rule of thumb (that allows for sex links), the characteristics in the pullet will come from the cockerel (father) and the cockerels characteristics will come from the hen (mother).

In theory, this should help pass down the egg color to the pullets. Honestly I am not sure if this general rule of thumb works exactly the same for egg color and it does feather color, but if I was doing the cross, it is what I would do. Feel free to share with me photos and how it worked out. I might even feature your story on this blog if you would like.

Thanks for reading my blog!!

Oh and to the commenter before, a RIR rooster to the white cochin hen should give you the result of a red sex link in color and will have thinner feathering on the legs and about halfway between the RIR and cochin in size.

Hi, I'm thinking of crossing Maran with Legho...

2012-04-27T13:11:25.807-07:00

Hi,

I'm thinking of crossing Maran with Leghorn, to try and get chicks that lay a good quantity of brown eggs. Woudl it be best to get a Leghorn Cock with a Maran Hen, or the other way around?

Thanks

Okay what about breeding RIR roo over white cochin...

2012-04-08T20:47:33.314-07:00

Okay what about breeding RIR roo over white cochin hen?

It will be just fine, just keep in mind they will ...

2012-03-27T11:52:42.738-07:00

It will be just fine, just keep in mind they will be a "mutt" of sorts, but sometimes they are the best and most affectionate chickens :). They also will not be sex-linked by color, so do not expect that.

I would go for it if I was you, unless you are using them for show birds or something like that. But they should be nice healthy chicks.

I wish you luck on your hatching!

So, I have a Black sex link rooster, since he is a...

2012-03-27T09:02:47.234-07:00

So, I have a Black sex link rooster, since he is a hybrid should I hatch eggs that he has fertilized to my purebreds? I have RIR, cuckoo maran, barred rock, red production, buff orpingtons, and black aust. We got the incubator set up and were going to put about 14 eggs in, this is our first time hatching our own eggs. My daughter is 6 and is very excited about the not buying chicks this year and being able to watch our own hatch. But since the rooster is a hybrid already, would that be ok?

How glad I am to have found your site! Most intere...

2012-03-21T14:00:45.582-07:00

How glad I am to have found your site! Most interesting explanation about the white/brown/blue/green eggs. My question is about a lovely little white chook given to us a few years ago.She is white,smooth feathered (though not silky)with a tuft on the top of her head and a small comb.She lays pale greeny-blue eggs and is still laying about one every second day.I mention this because of her age. Nowhere can I find reference to her breed or hybrid and would love to identify her as we would like to acquire more. Any ideas?

Nice Blog ! Thank you for your very nice articles....

2012-03-16T03:28:05.318-07:00

Nice Blog ! Thank you for your very nice articles. I look forward to visiting your site in the future! I like this very much.
Methods of Modern Farming

Very new to chicken keeping.I have a trio of silve...

2012-03-13T10:04:25.215-07:00

Very new to chicken keeping.I have a trio of silver qual bantams at present. but would like to have a go at breeding the following. What mix of breeds would be sex linked and produce blue eggs please?

I honestly do not know the answer to that. It is ...

2012-02-22T20:02:08.638-08:00

I honestly do not know the answer to that. It is a variety I am not familiar with, however it does sound like it could be very productive. I would love to hear about it if you do get some, sounds really interesting.

It seems like much of the "push" from the hatcheries here are the "sex-link" varieties, so that may be one of the reasons.

Why doesn't anyone in the US breed Gingernut R...

2012-02-17T11:50:36.669-08:00

Why doesn't anyone in the US breed Gingernut Rangers? It's a RIR X Light Sussex hybrid that's very popular in the UK. Omlet.com lists them as one of the best of the hybrids. Cold hardy, medium sized, great layers, not broody, good dispositions. I WILL find a couple and hope that they live up to what I've read in multiple places about them.

Thanks

2011-11-17T07:28:16.749-08:00

Thanks

Hi! I just found your little farm. Horses are prob...

2011-10-19T06:56:12.311-07:00

Hi! I just found your little farm. Horses are probably one of my favorite animals! I'm in 4-H, and my dream is to show horses...but that's a long ways off for now. I do show goats though, and have my own little farm. We raise Nigerian Dwarf goats, which are the colorful minis of the group! If you would like to see more about them, you can visit our farm website:http://aztecskygoatfarm.yolasite.com/ or my blog:http://chazak-kaboom.blogspot.com/
So what other animals do you have?

Thanks for sticking with this blog. Would you post...

2011-08-14T07:56:05.518-07:00

Thanks for sticking with this blog. Would you post some info about what is best for chickens to eat? My Gramps has always had the best eggs. I know one secret is that they are free range but somehow I can not help but think he has some kind of secret food scrap of produce he feeds them because they are the richest darkest eggs I have ever had. Of course I was raised on them so I may be partial. Also do you feed your chickens produce scraps like turnip greens or other such green leafies to increase the egg nutrition? It seems to me most people would do this for it is a sustainable way to provide more food.

I have bread many different breeds of chickens ove...

2011-05-24T14:22:05.069-07:00

I have bread many different breeds of chickens over the last 50 years. Presently I have White Leghorns, standard and miniature, commonly called bantam (this wasn't done of any chickens that had a standard size 40 years ago.)Also have Campine miniatures, Rhode Island Red miniatures as well as the standard size. Also have the true Rhode Island Reds (very dark, like the miniatures.)
Just wanted to say, I also like the Black Sex Links, and have raised from them with no apparent side effects. But a couple yeas ago I received eggs from a friend that were "supposed" to be Barred Rocks. When they hatched some were solid black (no white dot) so I assumed I had Sex Links. Then as they feathered there were little tuffs on the side of their heads. These grew up and they looked exactly like Sex Links except the tuffs. So I asked her and found she had a Araucana rooster get into her Barred Rock pen. I liked them but the young they raised looked like the Araucana, so I sold them! :)

There may be some minor correlation, but for the m...

2011-05-02T07:58:07.579-07:00

There may be some minor correlation, but for the most part there is no affect on egg quality by color. What is important for egg quality is a healthy chicken with sufficient calcium, as long as that is the case you will have a good quality egg. The blue egg color and the white egg color are of the shell, so it is not affected by the amount of time in the oviduct, so no ability to correlate there. I also believe on those studies, there may have been outside factors as well, but I understand your argument.

I found previous comments very interesting. I hav...

2010-11-25T14:43:30.310-08:00

I found previous comments very interesting. I have red sex link cross, RIR x White Rhode Island bought from a hatchery. My rooster is white with brown feather highlights. If I hatched out some of the eggs could I assume that their genetics would be sufficiently far apart to not compromise vitality? I realize the chicks would not be of sex link coloration, however, could I expect them to be of similar size, color and productivity as the hens they came from? Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for this post.....I enjoyed it!

2010-11-11T01:25:07.474-08:00

Thanks for this post.....I enjoyed it!

Hi, you write that eggshell color has no bearing o...

2010-07-29T06:59:19.739-07:00

Hi, you write that eggshell color has no bearing on eggshell quality. This is a little misleading. Eggshell color can actually be a very good indicator of shell strength. Studies have shown that the darker the egg (which can be determined by strain, breed, nutrition, or age) have stronger eggshells and higher hatchability. The darkness of an egg indicates how long it spent in the oviduct, and therefore, how long calcium could be deposited on the shell.

Good post. Dogwoods

hi i,m interested in the cross beeding i have just...

2010-06-29T17:09:54.218-07:00

hi i,m interested in the cross beeding i have just hatched an egg from a cross of welsummer cockerl and an ancona hen,the chick at about 11 days old is black bodied with a white breast and white wing tips do you think it will stay this colour.

Yeah, you will get a nice interesting color. We o...

2010-02-24T18:33:04.918-08:00

Yeah, you will get a nice interesting color. We once had one that almost looked "chocolaty". It can get kind of fun when crossing egg color like that :).

I have some americauna that lay beautiful green/bl...

2010-02-24T09:59:17.079-08:00

I have some americauna that lay beautiful green/blue eggs. I have a Cuckoo Maran rooster. If I bred him to the Am. hens, would I get some funky green/blue eggs? What fun! diana
onthefarmat40@hotmail.com

It sounds something like the silver barred hybrid,...

2010-02-23T06:07:58.905-08:00

It sounds something like the silver barred hybrid, which is a white and barred rock cross. They are said to grow fast, at feathersite.com if you find the "sex link" chicken page, he had some photos on there of male silver barred hybrids that you can view.

For the second part I am a little confused. Sometimes a mother will abandon her chicks if something scares her off, we had this happen with our peahen. Also if those eggs were added later and they still were not going to hatch for a couple days, she could have left them to take care of her other babies.

Oh, and according to genetics, they should lay brown eggs!