AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi All,

At what age or level of feathering can you start to assess the quality of colouring and pattern? I have some Barnevelders which are feathering up but the lacing is quite indistinct, they haven't fully feathered yet so I'm wondering how much more the colour and pattern will develope as the mature. Do I need to be patient until they are nearer to POL or after the first moult?

Thanks for the help.
ww

Do you have any current photos of them that you could perhaps post?

Always with the photos Not at the moment but I'll see what I can do.

Photos help people see exactly what one is describing.

"I have some Barnevelders which are feathering up but the lacing is quite indistinct, they haven't fully feathered yet so I'm wondering how much more the colour and pattern will develope as the mature."

I know, I should have anticipated that question shouldn't I?

From my experience with Ancona bantams, Columbian Wyandottes, Blue Leghorns and of course RIR's, you get the first look at the quality of the "adult" feathers at around 10-14 weeks depending on breed. Note some of breeds such are mottle pekins, Ancona's tend to show more white "gay" each moult, in RIR's often hens don't moult back with the same intensity of marking. RIR's are a wonderful brred that if they are laying while having a part moult, the hen puts all her effort into the eggs and the new feathers will lack colour and markings. If stressed will add some white just for fun, this is often seen in the wings.

I would expect the Barnies would be similar, their "chick feathers will have markings a bit all over the place or non. But once the start to get their adult feathers coming through you will start to see the markings. Noting in RIR's they often absorb some of the excess black shown in the first feathers, like neck hackle and backs. I am sure their back feathers will start to show the lacing, as it does in Wyandotte chicks i.e Goldens.

As I mentioned earlier in another post, handle the chicks every other day and lokk at how the different chick develop, look at the different colour patters of the chicks and see how they mature. If needed write this down in your breeding book. After a year or two you may start to see little pattern emerging, like the chick with wing markings in its chick feathers, will normally have "standard" wing markings as an adult, or those with dark base colour in the chick wing feathers will be even coloured adults.

Rhode Red

Ok, thanks Rhode Red, my chicks are only about 4-5 weeks at the moment, so perhaps too early by your reckoning.

So by "chick feathers" do you mean their fluff when they are hatched? And the adult feathers are the ones developing now or is there an intermediate feathering stage? I'm probably handling these chicks a bit more often than the first batches we had but I'm still developing my eye for what I should and can observe. I don't have a breeding book yet, would you mind sharing some ideas about the things you observe and record? Unless that's giving away your trade secrets of course.

I'll post some photos of the 3 chicks below. The third one is slower to feather so I was suspecting it might be male but it is also the smallest so maybe it's a slow runt. Any thoughts are welcome.


Sorry about the quality of the photos, there is sometimes more hand than chicken but the buggers wriggle.

For those wondering about the comments regarding colour of the chicks when they hatched I originally started this thread. http://australianpoultryforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14491

BABY CHICKIE PHOTOS

Sory for not explaining my feathering terms. I call chick feathers the "intermediate" stage as per your photo's, i.e. their first true feathers. As you can see the colouring is a little all over the place in these feathers especially at the ends, don't really worry too much at this stage. In the RIR's I do note that the last (outside - (See photo 3A the onse closest to the persons thumb on the wing) 2-3 Primary feather give a good indication of final wing markings. These will be the last primaries to be moulted at around 5-6 months of age (pullets). It will be a while before the start to moult out the "chick " feathers on the back to show show their final lacing pattern, you will see the Primary feather first. The will moult from the medial feather out, and once a 5-6 feather have moulted they will start moulting the secondary ones from medial feater in towards the body.
I keep a separate Breeding book that described each breeding bird - faults and strenghts - Dam, Sire, Year hatch, Toe punch.
In my hatching book I record mating details (ID of Birds), Toe punch the chickens will be, Date eggs set, Date hatched, number of eggs set, how many fertile, how many hatched, Observation of chicks at hatching, down colour, size, any thing else I see.

I then make note when I do a cull. How many culled, number of males and females, reasons for culling each bird colour, combs, feet, type, size (runts) etc. I do this for each culling process generally at hatching, approx 6 weeks, 4-5 months, at maturity (7-8 months). I also havea process where when I am handling a chicken and see something I don't like or not sure about, that chick will get a cable tie on a leg. Generally not a good thing in my yard. So when I do a full cull I start with those with cable ties, if the fault still remains then good bye. The start on the others. I have had friends test this process letting birds grow out to 7-8 months and very few birds of the years that have had a cable tie on their leg have made the cut.

No I don't have OCD , though others will probaly argue that point. .

I think chick 3 may be a boy. Not all cockerels are big, I see it has a good set of legs i.e the big feet theory, eventually they grow into these. Also the chick does not have a tail or little back feathers. While these traits can vary between breeds and strains, generally in most large softfeather the pullets feather quicker than the cockerels.

I hope the helps.
Rhode Red

That's great information, thanks Rhode Red. I appreciate the details about your breeding book, I haven't got that heavily into it yet but I think it's coming.

I also thought no. 3 was a male, despite being a bit smaller I did note the large legs on him and the slower feathering.