Help appreciated determining/confirming breeds

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:06 am

Good morning folks,

I took photos of each of the chicks a couple of days ago and have finally gone through and selected a bunch of photos to show you.

A couple I have offered my opinion of breed. Please confirm.

They're numbered 1 - 11 (or it could be 10. I'm tired). Just tell me what you reckon each is. I'm particularly keen to sort 9, 10 and 11. I am unsure which are Brahmas and which are from my ex-battery hens.

Thanks, I appreciate your time and effort.

Oh...since they stayed still for a bit, I took a couple of photos at nap time.

Take a look. See anything you want to tell me about?

BTW: The newspaper is changed and the brooder cleaned out daily at about midday. It just about needs doing again, but it's too cold to take the chicks out in the middle of the night.

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2008 2:42 am

It's ok. I'm beginning to work some of them out.

debbieo4914 · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2008 8:05 am

If the dad of the ex-battery chicks doesn't have fluffy legs then they should all be clean-legged, I'm guessing. Which would lead me to believe that the ones with fluff on their legs might be brahmas - but as I've never actually seen a brahma, chick or otherwise, I could be wrong.

I'm sorry I have no idea about the other breeds - or even the one I've just discussed really! :oops:

Good luck.

Deb :-D

bunyanuternie · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:31 pm **Posts:** 2903

The dad had clean legs but only two of the hensin the pen were ex battery ,the other three in the pen were just large breed egg layers of no particular origin maybe brahma X leghornX Commercial layer ,

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2008 2:08 pm

Ian and Deb,

Please accept my sincere apologies to you both. It hadn't dawned on me that I was adding to the confusion.

Ex-battery
=======
When I mention my ex-battery chicks, I am talking about the chicks that came from MY old ex-battery hens that I got from Mt Tarampa that were severely moulting and two of the four hens died within two months. The dad is Rex the RIR/Silkie X. Rex also has commercial in him. From the eight original chicks with bantam mothers there were some with five toes, some with four, some with feathered legs, some without, some with single combs, some with rose combs. It's difficult to spot some of my x-breed chicks babies as they could look like pure bred anythings for a while. ;-)

Commercial
========
When I refer to the RIR/Commercial Xs, I am talking about the RIR/Commercial X eggs that Ian gave me. He also gave me pure RIR and Brahma eggs. We thought there may have been Light Sussex as well, but it seems that Rachel used those for her quiches. Time will tell.

There are definitely some Brahma, at least one of each sex in the Light and one of each sex in the Dark, I believe.

The RIRs and RIR/Commercial Xs are a little harder for me to separate into one breed or the other as I know (ok...maybe I just think) that some RIRs have little in the way of patterns when they're very young. I may have confused them with the Commercial Xs.

I'm enjoying learning all I can and next time I'll be a little better educated and much more able to work out what's what.

I appreciate all the help and support I am getting, even though I sometimes come across as annoyed that there aren't more replies.

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2008 2:14 pm

bunyanuternie wrote:

two of the hens in the pen were ex battery, the other three in the pen were just large breed egg layers of no particular origin maybe brahma X leghornX Commercial layer

I didn't know any were ex-battery. If I'd had to think about it, I'd have assumed all the commercials were possibly from Herman.

Possible Brahma ancestry? That could mean feathered legs, right?

I look forward to seeing how the girls turn out. As you said, they will be good layers.

I look forward to preparing the boys for eating by feeding them up real good. I may even sell a couple as breeders as I'm sure they'll look good.

Need any RIR boys, Ian? ;-)

Edit: No change. I hit EDIT when I should have scrolled down and hit REPLY. :oops:

When I noticed I went back through my browser history, retrieved the original and restored that text.

bunyanuternie · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:31 pm **Posts:** 2903

I have plenty of RIRs mate but your welcome to sell them , and they come from great lines , I the two ex batterys in the pen were hens ella bought from a mate at the markets he buys the from a farm near crows nest somewhere , Ella always pick the saddest neglected looking ones , she's daddy's girl

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:17 am

bunyanuternie wrote:

the two ex batterys in the pen were hens ella bought from a mate at the markets he buys the from a farm near crows nest somewhere , Ella always pick the saddest neglected looking ones , she's daddy's girl

One of the pullets looks like a young version of your standard commercial hen. She looks absolutely radiant! (for now) While she could be from Rex and one of my ex-battery hens, I think she is more likely from one of Ella's girls and your boy.

She's the one on the right in this photo. She has a well developed comb and wattles (not seen in the photo) compared to the others the same age, but is 100% girl.

greenaus · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:17 am

greenaus wrote:

I look forward to preparing the boys for eating by feeding them up real good. I may even sell a couple as breeders as I'm sure they'll look good.

I haven't eaten any yet, but I did sell two of the RIR boys last week.

I have an update to this thread...

Is the boy in this photo are RIR or a commercial/RIR X? He is 21 weeks old.

bunyanuternie · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:31 pm **Posts:** 2903

I can tell from the Tail feathers and Breast Feathers , He will Be From The layerpen , so his mum Will be a Brahma X and his dad will be an RIR , He should be a Big boy , and he looks very healthy .

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