# Lost track of time...



## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I wan't expecting this for another week or so. Such a delight to see newly hatched chicks.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I want the blue one.

Were those her eggs?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I was expecting some ‘chipmunk’ coloured chicks. I guess the father doesn’t have as many junglefowl genes as I thought. Still, an interesting mix. The grey/blue chick has black shanks, which is a first for us.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> I want the blue one.
> 
> Were those her eggs?


Yes. We let her brood five eggs, four of which have hatched. I candled the fifth and it didn't look good, but I popped it under a brooding muscovy duck just in case.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I'm really surprised those are her eggs and have peeps that appear to be white. Like you I would have expected a lot more pattern to them.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Cute chicks! The blue/grey one is interesting.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Now would be an opportune time to start sketching out your lineages. I just use a yellow pad of paper because guaranteed, by next year I won't remember. It doesn't take long to get a few generations in, Dan is on his 14th Serama generation and has done some selective breeding.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

And you have a cornucopia of Junglefowl genetic material. It's like a library!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> I want the blue one.
> 
> Were those her eggs?


What if the blue one is a Jungle Velociraptor!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> I'm really surprised those are her eggs and have peeps that appear to be white. Like you I would have expected a lot more pattern to them.


I would have expected more chipmunk too but that doesn't mean these won't be interesting!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> I'm really surprised those are her eggs and have peeps that appear to be white. Like you I would have expected a lot more pattern to them.


Our previous clutch was fathered by the same cockerel and this brown hen's mother. Five of those were white and three black/yellow so it's not a complete surprise. One of these chicks is almost a bit chipmunk.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

How old is the previous clutch now?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> What if the blue one is a Jungle Velociraptor!


What if it's from a different father. Maybe our grey cockerel got lucky!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> How old is the previous clutch now?


I think about 3-4 weeks.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Poultry Judge said:


> What if the blue one is a Jungle Velociraptor!


If it keeps that color I still want it.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Biring, I think you just might be driving PJ crazy with your easy access to so many ancient genetics.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> If it keeps that color I still want it.


I'm very interested to see how that one turns out. Of course, we expect to lose a few chicks to disease, sibling violence, mishaps etc, so I'm not yet counting my chickens.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Well, then the easy fix for that is to put them up. Of course not many of us have the extra open space to allow for little surprises.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Put them up? What do you mean?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Where nothing can get at them. Not other sibs or predators. Of course Momma may not be too pleased being up.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

We just let them run around from day one. The climate here is perfect for them and there’s plenty of free food for them to forage. There are plenty of natural predators too but the chicks are naturally attuned to their presence. And if we lose these chicks there is always the next clutch. My wife says we have enough chickens anyway. I might have to take one of our cockerels to the butcher this week or next to make room in the coop for clutch no.3.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Biring, I think you just might be driving PJ crazy with your easy access to so many ancient genetics.


Biring, thanks for the pics! Again, these are not our hatchery birds here in the States. These birds are much closer to a genetic line that nature dictates, with all the inherent diversity as well as checks and balances. I love the pictures, there is a lot to be learned from your birds and the wild birds in your area!


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

It's always fun to see what is produced in a cross. Cute little guys.


PJ- by Spring those of the 14th generation will be producing the beginnings if generation 15. Right now 14 is approximately 4 months old; by six months the three pullets I kept of 14 will be laying. Roughly speaking there's two generations in a year.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

danathome said:


> It's always fun to see what is produced in a cross. Cute little guys.
> 
> PJ- by Spring those of the 14th generation will be producing the beginnings if generation 15. Right now 14 is approximately 4 months old; by six months the three pullets I kept of 14 will be laying. Roughly speaking there's two generations in a year.


Very very cool, kudos to you Dan! How many folks these days will devote the time to 15 generations!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Just keeping those lines sorted could be mind bending.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Just keeping those lines sorted could be mind bending.


Yes, but as long as it's a hobby, it's fun.


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Just keeping those lines sorted could be mind bending.


I rarely have more than a dozen adult serama and that makes it easier to keep track.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I'm pretty sure our grey cockerel is the father of the grey chick, and a neighbour's cockerel fathered the three yellow ones.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Nice picture, that would seem to be the likely scenario.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Batch no.5 should hatch in a few days. There are three eggs left (she laid 11, we took 6 and candling a few days ago showed one was unfertilised and one had died). There are also three potential fathers! Should be interesting!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Sadly the grey chick died - it drowned in a water butt while I was away from home.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That's awful.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

It is. But I’ve been worrying about the number of birds we have here, especially as we’re all about to plant the next rice crop. Last time around we had a couple of hens and a few chicks that quickly dropped to just two chicks. Now we have 20 birds and I’m worried our neighbours will get very annoyed with us if our birds target their paddy plants.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It's really a no win situation. It would probably be best to start pulling eggs away from broodies if they are not going to be good neighbors. Maybe leave one for her to hatch but not a whole clutch.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

My wife already insists we restrict the broodies to five eggs. I think that is a good compromise.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That's still quite a lot if you've got quite a few broodies. Unless they can be sold to others easily. 

I'll bet JP would love to have some of them.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

We’ve been lucky so far, but we have to factor in losses to predators (eagles, crows, monitor lizards, snakes, dogs, tigers even), theft, poisoning, accidents, disease.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It's hard to imagine that amount of loss since I live in such a quiet place that the only threats are usually out at night when the birds are up behind a hotwire.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

We’ve lost three chicks to accidents (including one I stepped on and one my wife crushed while folding laundry), one to sibling violence, six to disease. And we’ve eaten one. I’m looking forward to eating the second cockerel, but he’s not growing as fast as I’d hoped.


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

Biring said:


> Sadly the grey chick died - it drowned in a water butt while I was away from home.


Sorry to read this and your other posts. And I complain about hawks and snakes. With all you have going on where you live it's a wonder you raise anything.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

It’s an interesting place to live and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Losing a two-week-old chick is disappointing but not game-changing. Life goes on (for the living).


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> Batch no.5 should hatch in a few days. There are three eggs left (she laid 11, we took 6 and candling a few days ago showed one was unfertilised and one had died). There are also three potential fathers! Should be interesting!


I'm so sorry.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> We've been lucky so far, but we have to factor in losses to predators (eagles, crows, monitor lizards, snakes, dogs, tigers even), theft, poisoning, accidents, disease.


Yes, there are a lot of ways to lose birds to attrition.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> That's still quite a lot if you've got quite a few broodies. Unless they can be sold to others easily.
> 
> I'll bet JP would love to have some of them.


I am still very fascinated with Jungle Fowl.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> I am still very fascinated with Jungle Fowl.


Today I visited the village our two initial hens came from. The chickens there, well many of them anyway, resemble junglefowl to some extent or other. There is a bit of a bantam vibe going on there (especially with the roosters) and some patterns I haven't seen in our chickens yet (cuckoo barred, for example). I didn't get to take photos of the ones I was really interested in, but here's the best photo I did manage to take.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> Today I visited the village our two initial hens came from. The chickens there, well many of them anyway, resemble junglefowl to some extent or other. There is a bit of a bantam vibe going on there (especially with the roosters) and some patterns I haven't seen in our chickens yet (cuckoo barred, for example). I didn't get to take photos of the ones I was really interested in, but here's the best photo I did manage to take.
> 
> View attachment 36318


Thanks!.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Here is an illustration I looked up last night of some Jungle Fowl raised in America around 1860ish I think. In the Oxford versus Carlisle Club wars these would be Carlisle. They are very high station and the breed category would be Modern Games. They fell out of fashion after about 1900 but I am told there are still a few people raising Modern Games. Even in the bigger shows, there are very very few exhibited. If they look spindly and weak compared to other Jungle Fowl, it's because they are. They ended up being fragile birds both physically and genetically, (just my opinion).


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Whereas, I bet Biring's birds are tough as nails.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I once tried incubating some modern English game eggs in the UK but had no luck.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

This pullet looks quite like the hen in the illustration.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

JP is going to lose it when he sees her. 

Are they as inquisitive as she appears?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Yup. And they won't stop trying to sneak into the house to hang out on our bed.










Our puppy is finally learning to be useful. Today she chased them out of our house, but stopped chasing once they went outside.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Is there a reason they want to be house birds so bad?

I love these pics of them showing up in unexpected places. In your house, that is.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I have no idea what’s behind it, but their determination is so strong we’ve decided to build a barn for them that is basically a replica of the bits of our house they insist on hanging out in.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

LOL I thought you were going to say they started off in the house and remember it as a safe haven. 

It's so strange that they laid claim to your house.

Make sure there are pics with their favorite rug and a mini bed.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

They started off on the back terrace and they still go there to roost at night, but during the day they try to sneak into the house from the front terrace


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Try? Looks to me like they've got it well mapped out for how to sneak in.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Whereas, I bet Biring's birds are tough as nails.


Biring said:


> I once tried incubating some modern English game eggs in the UK but had no luck.


The genetics on the Modern Games are pretty messed up.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I should add, (just my opinion), because there are a few dedicated breeders. You just never see them at the shows anymore. I thought about trying to hatch a few this past season but didn't get around to it.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> This pullet looks quite like the hen in the illustration.
> 
> View attachment 36348


Wow, thanks for the great pic! I think that pullet is very attractive from what I can see. That bird would not have any competition at a show here.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> Yup. And they won't stop trying to sneak into the house to hang out on our bed.
> 
> View attachment 36352
> 
> ...


They say, please put our nesting box here!


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## Overmountain1 (Jun 5, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> I am still very fascinated with Jungle Fowl.


Me tooooo. I'm still intrigued about keeping some in the future. Like 10 years from now maybe, but I am really interested. Love all the pics!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Maybe the Jungle Fowl strains will start to make a comeback, they are incredibly hearty birds. They were most popular in Europe and the States from about 1870 to 1925ish. Folks crossed them with everything!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Here are the three survivors from batch 4. The white one is obviously a male.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

But it's white even if it is a male. I love white birds. 

I think this is the first time I've really noticed the longer legs of game birds like I can see on that one.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> But it's white even if it is a male. I love white birds.
> 
> I think this is the first time I've really noticed the longer legs of game birds like I can see on that one.


Thanks for the pic, very interesting birds!


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