Yes, the smaller cockerel was who I had been breeding them to. Most of the chick pictures I have posted, are from that combo...Rachel & Leah (The really nice blue laced ones) and Esther (The really nice black with all the green). Their chicks either come out really nice or too small. I have since then bred those two to a real nice "large" black male. I'm eager to see how the chicks turn out. I'm expecting a hatch with them on Saturday and again on the following Friday.
The garlic...I just chopped up about a half of a clove and mixed it in with a few drops of Apple cider vinegar, olive oil and some of their laying pellets and add a little grit. I massage it around after they eat this. I also think the grit helps break up any clumps. It's my understanding (not that it's correct) but that sour crop can also be a result of too much yeast, kind of like a yeast infection. The garlic helps to fight the yeast. Ruby had this problem a year ago and there was a long post regarding this. Here that is:
http://ameraucana.org/forum/index.php?topic=1721.msg11692#msg11692I personally think that Ruby's issue was my fault from not having enough free choice grit available. My birds always want to gobble up a lot of the straw when I put fresh down (Dang, you'd think they're starving around here) and I was letting her out on grass a lot. I believe her problem started with a blockage. Grit is a must in my coop and they eat a lot of it. I just went through this again several months ago when I was feeding them scraps and bread. My hen DeDe (my garbage hound) ended up with sour crop and I started making her throw up and treated her like I did Ruby, tubing her and such, but then I read an article about the garlic and tried it. Amazingly enough, the sour crop was gone within 24 hours...without making her throw up again. I can't say whether or not it would work on others as fast, but it will be the first thing I try if I ever have another bought with it.
Okay, I wasn't going to mention this, but if my stupidity can help others, here it is. DON'T be too quick to tube anything into them. It can be done fairly easy, but one little mistake and it's fatal. I recently had my first attack with lice or mites (don't know which since I can't find any of them) But it affected two of my favorite birds. My best pullet, Esther, started acting quiet (not her personality at all, she was so playful and she'd actually play with me) so I looked her over, but couldn't find anything. I couldn't find any lice or mites so my second thought was to worm them and put her in a separate pen, so I did. A day or two later, Thor started acting quiet and Esther quit eating. I noticed Thor's back (near the tail) looked matted down and determined it was bug eggs of some kind. I still couldn't find any crawlies. I dusted everyone real good with Sevin Dust, but I was worried about Esther not eating so I tried to tube some Nutra-Cal and water into her while she recouped. I tried to do this by myself and the syringe stuck, then released real quick shooting too much, too fast. It came back up and into her lungs. That was the hardest I've been hit (mentally) ever losing a bird. She was such a class clown and made raising birds fun. Enough said.