Micah's Birds

As many of you know, our son, Micah has his own little flock of birds that he enjoys. He is VERY opinionated when it comes to poultry, and has some very interesting ideas of what appeals to him as "pretty" or "cool". He has the Magpie Call ducks that are pictured somewhere already on the blog, in addition to those, he also has a Showgirl breeding pen set up currently with a white Silkie cock in with a splash Silkie hen and a white Showgirl hen. He has a breeding quad of Birchen Modern Games, in LARGEFOWL. As well as a Birchen Modern Game bantam cockerel and a white Silkie cockerel/pullet (we still haven't figured out what sex the little Silkie is, but it is still really young.) I will try to get nice pictures of the Moderns for you all to enjoy...

Games

"In Pencil" 2012 Breeding Plans

These are all still "in pencil" as we haven't actually divided the pens or switched anyone around yet, but this is the plan so far.

Welsh Harlequins:
4 males, 8 females (3 trios of silvers, 1 trio of golds)
All bred together for the first portion of the year, and then around May, we may seperate the gold drake with our best silver hens to hatch gold breeder females from.

Indian Runners:
2 males, 4 females (2 trios)
All bred together for the breeding season, in hopes to increase the flock and give us a few more birds to go through and cull down to a decent flock.

Mallards:
5 males, 10 females
J.P. Drake x KS old hens, KS old drake x JP old hens, KS young drake x ks young hens, the wild greys will stay together as a pair, the J.P. gray drake will go in with one of the snowy hens we hatched last Spring from another line that is pied in hopes of producing all grey pieds. (Just for fun!)

East Indie:
Pair together

Pekins:
Still not sure on this project.

Calls:
Pair together.

Nankins:
Still don't know, probably won't decide until they begin laying anyway.

Largefowl Gamefowl Project:
Red Male x Black Modern Game Hens

Micah's Projects:
Birchen, Silver Blue, Blue & Black Modern Game bantams.
White & Splash Showgirl/Silkies

Animal Breeding Genetics Calculator Website

http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#pluginTree

Ducklings and Chickens

A white Call, three gray Calls & a Welsh Harlequin ducklings from several years ago.

Two pictures of the game-ish project cock I currently have. I love the color, but he's wild!!! Same one in the chicken crossing the road blog, but I finally caught him to dub him.

A cream light brown Dutch hen. We use to raise these wonderful little birds several years ago, and I love the breed, they are fragile birds, but excellent for children and great for 4H. (This photo is from the 2006 Crossroads National Show in Indianapolis. Hard the believe it was that long ago, but after the last one in October, it seems like just yesterday.

Why did the chicken cross the road...

Because he is wild! He escaped a couple weeks ago from a pen he was in, and I haven't been able to catch him since. Here he is near our house in the median of a four lane highway...Crazy bird! He is a crossbred cock-bird, but I really liked his pattern. Sort of a largefowl-Nankin looking bird.

Some Nankins...

I love this guys comb! There is a full body shot of him further down, but in a breed where there is often little attention paid to a quality comb, this bird has a pretty nice one. Its small, has nice DISTINCT points and an actual blade in the rear. (No spike like you often see from the rose-crosses.)

This is the hen that "started it all". She came from Mary Ann Harley's stock at the '06 Crossroads National, and I actually got her from a local breeder where a lot of my stock originally came from, and some still does, but she is the first Nankin hen I ever purchased, along with a rose combed cock bird that is still alive, but he lives at a 4Her's house not far from us.

Cock #27- rose combed, mostly red earlobe

Cockerel #91- single combed, completely red earlobe

Cockerel #43- single combed, mostly white earlobe.
I love his tail and sickles, but the lobe bothers me. Luckily the other single comb cockerel will probably end up as the single comb breeder for 2012, and this one will be a back-up "just-in-case" male bird.