Purty Chick Pics

[sewren]

Ooooh exciting - looks like project motzle is starting to reap some rewards! Cool stuff

[AlisonS]

Yes, a picture certainly paints a thousand words!! Those birds look fab! And I usually don't find frizzles very endearing - but wow! Keep up the good work - and the photos!

[wolga]

They look really cool ! How many frizzles do you have now ?

[seatil]

Many frizzles! Half of this season's chicks are frizzled, so about 15-20 frizzled chicks at a guess right now. Many are barnyard specials, but I've also got 6-7 mottled frizzled, including some unplanned mottled frizzled chicks from an extremely wild Ancona that I wasn't intending breeding from (way too wild to consider using unless I desperately need the genetic diversity -- very unrelated to my other anconas).

Unfortunately I don't get to keep many of the frizzles. I keep frizzled roosters, but obviously limited numbers. The few frizzled hens I have (4) end up in the smooth rooster orchard where they don't contribute to Project Motzle.

[wolga]

Wow! So you’re frizzletown at the moment.
Why do you keep the roosters and not more of the hens ?

[seatil]

You're not supposed to cross frizzle to frizzle as you end up with a bird whose feathers are super frizzled, are brittle and break and I seem to recall something about reduced viability of the embryos too.

Frizzled hens sell like hot cakes and at a premium compared with their smooth sisters, so I can claw back more food money by selling frizzled pullets and keeping the (generally unwanted!) frizzled cockerels.

So I go for one or two frizzled roosters plus an army of smooth hens.

[wolga]

I was wondering how it works breeding them. Learned something new. Thanks.
I'm not surprised that they sell very well. They look so cute !

[seatil]

Another follow-up on this lot (and another lot that came after them).

I have three girls. Two of them are here:




And three boys. Again just two of them photographed (left and right in the group pic, middle is a girl):




Sadly the blue turned out to not be mottled despite the promising chick down.

[seatil]

Likely the last follow-up of this generation of motzles. This picture is just some of the birds I'm keeping; left most is a female motzle, probably the most stunning of the five motzle pullets I've hatched. I'm keeping her for comparison with the next couple of generations. Front most is a notzle - the most placid of all the chicks that hatched. She's relaxed enough to hang around at arm's length. In the background is one of the three roosters I grew on, seen better in the second pic.



And the rooster:

[sewren]

OK, now I am totally in love with your notzle!! WANT!! Big time!!! How big is she compared with the Anconas? I'm starting to think I might have to get some Anconas now, but I do really prefer the heavy breeds. Why are all the pretty patterns in the light breeds, ay? (Yeah yeah, speckled sussex, laced things - but she's gorgeous!!)

On a more serious project-related note, it's kind of hard to tell whether the motzle has the same level of mottle as the notzle - it kind of looks liks she doesn't, but I think that might be partly an effect of the frizzled feathers. Looks like you are getting very close to your aim though, which is fab!

[seatil]

They're a similar size to the parent Ancona, which is about the size of a white leghorn. They don't have the dumpling shape of our large breed chooks, but that's something I can work towards.

There's a lot of variability in the mottling at present. Something else to work on. The notzle is probably overdone; each moult more white will come through than before and she's already substantially mottled at less than a year old. But she has other great qualities that I want to keep, so she's staying (along with her much flightier blue egg laying almost-doppelganger).

[sewren]

(along with her much flightier blue egg laying almost-doppelganger).

You also have one that lays blue eggs....?!?! I have serious chook-envy now - my dream is a mottled blue egg-laying heavy breed, but I don't have the time to get into a project right now. Maybe one day....

[seatil]

Yup, the blue egg gene comes from the original grandmother heavy breed frizzle.

There's always ordering eggs and hatching them, but I'd wait a couple of years before doing that. The odds of getting a smooth mottled blue egg layer from next season's breeding stock aren't that high. I've only got one F2 bird with the blue egg gene and that's a hen, which limits how many chicks I can get with that gene.

I'll be repeating some of my F1 crosses in the hope of hitting the jackpot (a heavy peacombed mottled frizzled rooster) or the powerball (same again, but with blue feathers as well). Trouble with that generation is only 25% of the offspring are mottled, statistically speaking.

I am intending to keep the blue egg gene in the line.

[sewren]

There's always ordering eggs and hatching them, but I'd wait a couple of years before doing that.

KEEN! But my first priority at the moment is hatching a couple more good broodies - would you believe only one of my 8 ever go broody? I used to think that was a good thing but I'm starting to get paranoid that she is getting on a bit and I might end up with no broody at some point! But if you have any spare eggs later this season I might give some a go, kind of fun to see what comes out, and that doesn't mean I can't go for more next season

I'll be repeating some of my F1 crosses in the hope of hitting the jackpot (a heavy peacombed mottled frizzled rooster) or the powerball (same again, but with blue feathers as well). Trouble with that generation is only 25% of the offspring are mottled, statistically speaking.

Ha ha - jackpot and powerball cracked me up!

[seatil]

KEEN! But my first priority at the moment is hatching a couple more good broodies - would you believe only one of my 8 ever go broody? I used to think that was a good thing but I'm starting to get paranoid that she is getting on a bit and I might end up with no broody at some point! But if you have any spare eggs later this season I might give some a go, kind of fun to see what comes out, and that doesn't mean I can't go for more next season

Be very careful what you wish for! I was buying in broodies less than 2 years ago. Last season I couldn't stop everything from going broody, including 3 year olds that had never previously shown any inclination to sit on eggs!