The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding
Genetic discussion of slow Feather (K) and tardy feather (t)
crystalcreek:
Mine have been very hardy, but my climate is mostly hot and humid (more hot than humid this last year--epic drought & heat wave). I lost adult birds, including my great Smith black hens and the mother of my cockerel who was a Ribbeck split. I didn\'t lose any lavs at all. I think the lavs probably fare better here because their feathers aren\'t black and it affords them some heat relief.
My lavs pretty much lay all year, too. When I had hatchery RIR, they shut down completely during the hot summer.
Do a search, I remember reading something about K being associated with depressed immunity--I believe it was on this forum, but not sure.
dak:
--- Quote from: crystalcreek ---
Clare, what do those 5 you raised look like? Do you still have some?
--- End quote ---
I\'ll try to get some pics and send you on the \"other\" forum. Still haven\'t got the trick of posting them here.
I\'m down to three now and will soon go to 1-2. They have improved type/size, but still color issues. I\'m holding on to my Lavs til I see what my Split to Split produces this year.
Clare
crystalcreek:
Update:
I hatched another batch at Christmas. Out of 21 chicks, I isolated three that had any significant tail growth at day 12. One of those was a split with excess white on the wing primaries and another had improper down color; so only one keeper--out of 21 chicks.
The older batch from 12/1 is looking very promising. I have one female in that group that is nice and big, with great feather coverage at 5 weeks. I don\'t think looking for tail growth at day 12 is going to be the tell all I thought it would be. One of the chicks that I marked as a fast feather female now has less feather growth than some that I kept which I thought were male. I marked her (him?) and I\'ll keep watching.
Another batch goes in the incubator January 10.
HarryS:
Crystal,
Your percentage for a project sounds about right. Since they are only line bred for a few seasons and there are many various genes from many families so consistancy will not rule. I feel good to get 1 out of 10 as keepers from my flocks of various breeds. The only one consistant is my white Orps since they were from a fellow that did not add much over the last 20 years and the female I used was from the same previous breeders line. My only culls from them are because I crossed colors and I get black legs on some of the white Orps.
Your blacks will improve them eventually.
crystalcreek:
Harry I know. You gave me the best advice in the world when you said to get some blacks at the same time I obtained the lavs. If I had set up my original pens with lav females and made my splits with a pure black male instead of the other way around, I would be farther along because K is sex-linked.
As it stands, half of my Smith splits potentially are carriers, so I knew I would have to hatch A LOT.
Understanding it is half the battle.
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