# Introducing batch 3



## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Anyone care to guess how many males and females there are?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The one with the white ears. The white with the black tail. That's as far as I'll go.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Yup, those two are always play-fighting. I’m certain no.2 is female. She’s so sweet.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That's one thing about the game birds, they seem to be good with their humans. I enjoyed when my neighbor's rooster moved over here to be near other birds. He was a good boy and loved his treats. 

He has his own harem these days in a more protected environment.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

They take a while to get used to handling. Today was the first day I could help the chicks in batch no. 4 without having to catch them first. The bird in the second photo had to be rescued from a water butt a couple of weeks ago and has been very tame ever since. The rest of them, collectively, are terrorists. Our dog is terrified of them.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> That's one thing about the game birds, they seem to be good with their humans. I enjoyed when my neighbor's rooster moved over here to be near other birds. He was a good boy and loved his treats.
> 
> He has his own harem these days in a more protected environment.


Yes, it's kind of a native intelligence regarding their interaction with humans, versus say Guineas. But they have the alarm function.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> They take a while to get used to handling. Today was the first day I could help the chicks in batch no. 4 without having to catch them first. The bird in the second photo had to be rescued from a water butt a couple of weeks ago and has been very tame ever since. The rest of them, collectively, are terrorists. Our dog is terrified of them.


Agreed, collectively they exploit their environment and demonstrate their ability to work in a group think, like Jurassic Park.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> The one with the white ears. The white with the black tail. That's as far as I'll go.


Agreed, with Robin. I can't go any further either. A lot of Gamefowl have pretty forward combs.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Agreed, collectively they exploit their environment and demonstrate their ability to work in a group think, like Jurassic Park.


Hence your frequent velociraptor references.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Th


Biring said:


> View attachment 36024
> View attachment 36012
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> ...


Thanks for the pics! You have so much greenery around your place!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> View attachment 36024
> View attachment 36012
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> ...


Pictures one and two look like Velociraptors!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Agreed, with Robin. I can't go any further either. A lot of Gamefowl have pretty forward combs.


Several seem to have the strawberry comb they inherited from their mother. Time will tell if any develop the pea comb of their father (here it's called sirip sisik naga - dragon-scale comb). And a couple appear to have plain single combs.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Pictures one and two look like Velociraptors!


No.2 looks like a kiwi!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> Several seem to have the strawberry comb they inherited from their mother. Time will tell if any develop the pea comb of their father (here it's called sirip sisik naga - dragon-scale comb). And a couple appear to have plain single combs.


Thanks, I love the detail, I bet those names go way back!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> No.2 looks like a kiwi!


Kiwi-Raptor cross! Gamey stance.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> You have so much greenery around your place!


The weeds grow so fast, the plants we want not so much.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> Several seem to have the strawberry comb they inherited from their mother. Time will tell if any develop the pea comb of their father (here it's called sirip sisik naga - dragon-scale comb). And a couple appear to have plain single combs.


Are there any other comb names? Someday, you are going to be able to write a book about the birds in your area near the jungle. I think last year, someone wrote a book about the wild Gamefowl in Hawaii.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Kiwi-Raptor cross! Gamey stance.


I hope she makes it to 20 weeks. I want her for my breeding programme.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Are there any other comb names?


I'll ask my mother-in-law. But first I'll ask my wife where she heard that name from.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> I'll ask my mother-in-law. But first I'll ask my wife where she heard that name from.


I would be super interested in a Junglefowl, Gamefowl vocabulary. There has to be some cool etymological word origin stuff there.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I’ll see what I can find out. My Indonesian is still only about 70%, partly because people prefer to use their own languages/dialects here. I’m tuning in to my wife’s language, plus about half a dozen others. And I can still remember bits and bobs from the languages they use the other side of the mountains here although it’s been a while since I’ve been there. I used to be almost fluent in several very obscure languages there (which, quite fortunately, are distantly related to my wife’s language so the more I tune in to the local language here the more I remember from years ago).


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

That is so cool!


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

I think they haven't developed far enough to sex them with any accuracy. Post them again in a couple weeks.

I love the faces on the dark ones. Unique and beautiful.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

It’s starting to look like there are a lot of males in this batch, which is a shame. It’s quite hard to tell as they are all developing at different rates. But I’m almost certain that the prettiest (in my view) dark coloured chick is a female.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

There could be two females in this photo. I hope so.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Maybe three in this one!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I think it was Sylie who said males are slow to feather. I see a couple there missing feathers. 

I had never heard of the feather thing, I would love to keep track of those two.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I’ll keep you posted. i’m so hoping it’s 5 females, 2 males but I’m worried it could be 6 males 1 female. Time will tell.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Yeah, it's tough because their coloring will change so much.


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

Biring said:


> There could be two females in this photo. I hope so.
> 
> View attachment 36166


I'd guess that just these two are pullets.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I'm really hoping this one is female too.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Amazing color! I hope you get your wish. And that she/he keeps that color with subsequent molts.


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## Overmountain1 (Jun 5, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Amazing color! I hope you get your wish. And that she/he keeps that color with subsequent molts.


What she said!! Love love those colors- really nice.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

It seems I deleted the photo, but a few years ago I bought a hen with this colour/pattern for a friend here and she went on to have many chicks. While looking for the photo I did, however, find another photo I was looking for a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned I'd seen someone divining the future by reading chicken entrails. Siberut Island, 1992, bloke performing some kind of ceremony with a chicken:


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

Beautiful bird! There's always some that are hard to sex when young. My porcelain d'Uccle has a comb that looks to big for a pullet but smaller than the brother. I guess, for both of us, we'll just have to wait and see. Good luck!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> It seems I deleted the photo, but a few years ago I bought a hen with this colour/pattern for a friend here and she went on to have many chicks. While looking for the photo I did, however, find another photo I was looking for a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned I'd seen someone divining the future by reading chicken entrails. Siberut Island, 1992, bloke performing some kind of ceremony with a chicken:
> 
> View attachment 36192


Thanks for the cool pic!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

It’s looking like 2 male, 5 female. I’ll probably keep two hens, maybe one. The plan is to let the hens lay their first clutches then take them to the butcher before they start brooding. By that time the local custom prohibiting me from butchering them myself will no longer apply, but I’m not sure I want to do it myself anymore. I suppose it all depends on whether my wife will let me spend 50c to get someone else to do it. Somehow I doubt she would go for that in the long run.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Why are your male to female ratios so much better than so many others? That's a rhetorical question.

How are you determining who to keep?


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Biring said:


> It's looking like 2 male, 5 female. I'll probably keep two hens, maybe one. The plan is to let the hens lay their first clutches then take them to the butcher before they start brooding. By that time the local custom prohibiting me from butchering them myself will no longer apply, but I'm not sure I want to do it myself anymore. I suppose it all depends on whether my wife will let me spend 50c to get someone else to do it. Somehow I doubt she would go for that in the long run.


Yeah, I hear you! Around here, if it gets named, it never gets eaten.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

What birds would be most profitable to sell, the all black birds for religious purposes?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> What birds would be most profitable to sell, the all black birds for religious purposes?


I'm not even sure if we have the same standards here. It looks like we'll have an all white rooster when he's all grown up. No idea if he will command a premium. Either way, it's hard to sell traditional chickens when meat birds are so easy to come by.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

robin416 said:


> How are you determining who to keep?


I'm keeping the pretty hens first and foremost, fast growers second. I'm wondering how much of a correlation there is between egg size (ie the age of the mother hen) and the final size of the offspring.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Yes, I was just wondering if there was any type of bird which would be in particular demand.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Biring said:


> I'm keeping the pretty hens first and foremost, fast growers second. I'm wondering how much of a correlation there is between egg size (ie the age of the mother hen) and the final size of the offspring.


That's more a genetic coding thing. After what I faced with this year's Guinea hatch it's very obvious that genetics play a big part.


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## danathome (Sep 14, 2020)

Biring said:


> I'm keeping the pretty hens first and foremost, fast growers second. I'm wondering how much of a correlation there is between egg size (ie the age of the mother hen) and the final size of the offspring.


On this I have seen no correlation at all. As Robin posted, it's genetic coding. Young, middle aged, or old the chicks will get to about the same size as long as the same size rooster is used for breeding. I have hatched numerous pullet eggs that are a bit smaller and the chicks grow to the same size as the eggs from older birds that are a bit larger.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Yes, I was just wondering if there was any type of bird which would be in particular demand.


There's a demand for fighting cockerels in some areas, but we're so remote and anyone who wants chickens already has chickens so there's not really a market for village chickens here.

That's one of the things that surprised me most when I moved here earlier this year - on the other side of the mountains there are village chickens for sale at every local market. I thought it would be easy to buy a couple of hens to get my flock started. In the end my wife asked her parents for a hen or two.

My foster daughter often buys produce from her home village and sells it in the city where she lives. I've been thinking about sending our excess chickens to her as I'm confident she'll be able to sell them there. I'm also confident I wouldn't see a penny from those sales, so it's only really a back-up plan if our chicken maths gets out of hand.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Ah, chicken math. It even reaches out across the sea.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Maybe your village would come to you for birds and eggs.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)




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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Most of batch 3 are growing faster than batch 2 and have more or less caught up in size despite the six-week age difference. I’m hoping the bird in the third photo is a pullet as that’s the only one I intend to keep from this batch.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I've been scrolling back and forth trying to decide which is my favorite. I like the looks of the one you want to keep but I also like the looks of that white and black one. But I'm a sucker for white and black birds.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I’d keep him too if I could keep more cockerels. It’s rice planting season here and a neighbour has already threatened to poison our chickens - and our dog - if she sees them in her paddy fields. (The same neighbour blocks off the public drainage channel causing our land and several other people’s to flood. She also throws leaves from other people’s trees onto our property.)


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Oh, one of those. I've had to deal with a neighbor like that. It got so bad I had to call the sheriff. I'm guessing it's not something you can do.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

There’s the hamlet chief who is supposed to keep a lid on this kind of thing but he’s the same tribe as the neighbour (as are most people in this particular neighbourhood). I’m hoping someone else will complain to her about the flooding as it affects several people. Failing that I could open her dam myself but I risk getting into trouble. I need a clean sheet to convert my temporary residency status to permanent so I probably shouldn’t do anything rash.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I'm surprised your wife lets her get away with that. 

What is it going to take to get your residency status to permanent? I assumed you were already permanent since you've spent so much time there and are married with a baby right around the corner.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Permanent residency should be a mere formality next year. But I need to keep my nose clean.

My wife is approaching 40 weeks of pregnancy and I don’t want her to pick fights with people. We’re not the only people affected by this selfish person’s actions. Let someone else deal with this idiot.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I do understand that. Maybe get the others affected to go as a group to complain and if that doesn't work get the local law involved. 

Right around the corner is going to be another Biring in the world. Are you ready?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Not ready at all.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

And he will be a “Biring” as that is my clan name here!


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Your child will have chickens though and be the lawful inheritor of the Biring Poultry Palace!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

He? So you know you have a little boy on the way?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Not for sure. We’ve had a couple of ultrasound scans but nothing conclusive. My wife is sure it’s a boy though.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Well, I'm not going to argue with her.


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