First, I'd like to thank the friends who helped ID the chicks. Garrett at Dwarfs R Us who raises show bantams, and April at OlivYew Farm who is as new to chickens as myself. Alan at Ardenada Acres also confirmed the white is a leggy Japanese. The previous post has been edited with this new info.
I will probably adjust the flock over time to concentrate on a few breeds, and it might not be these. My not-so-great experience with Cogburn has me a bit leery of roosters in some of these breeds. Notably the Sebrights and Old English. While they are beautiful birds, Old English Games were originally raised for cock fighting. However, the (possible) Spangled OE roo and BBR OE hen are the calmest of all the chicks. Sebrights are persnickety, and the buff pair is pretty flighty. It could just be that Cogburn never had any other chickens to take his attention away from me. So I'll see how this goes.
I don't know yet what those might be. Cochins probably for sure. I like Wyandottes for their round cochin-shape but with clean legs. Japanese maybe (love the tails), but their big combs might not be able to handle the occasional deep freezes in winter. They won't have much in the way of winter housing so they have to be able to handle it. I'll see how the white Jap roo does.
Moved the 2nd batch into the transition cage, and the 1st batch into a bigger cage. Now I see another thing that needs changing. I just used a good sized screen bottom feeder in the bigger cage. It was already attached when I used this cage for guineas. But it's big enough for the chicks to stand in, and what do they do...scratch. Guineas don't do that. So a lot of feed is kicked all over, including outside the cage where they can't reach it. I have extra J-feeders w/tops so I'm going attach those instead. I can mount them from the outside so filling is easier. Job de jour. 3rd batch in their bin was moved into the shed to acclimate to outside temps.
In the rabbitry:
I moved 10 buns, plus 4 weanlings out to the Summer House yesterday, which pretty much filled the holes out there. I kept the show string, and of course, the working does in the shed. It's easier to load up for a show in there where there's lights. I need a flashlight to load up outside.
In the nestbox:
Honeycomb x Sugardaddy's 2 torts look very promising. Looks like 2 does at 5 weeks.
All the others have opened their eyes. I'm pretty sure all the himi litters are in fact himis. There's still one I'm not sure if REW or himi, but I think I saw a faint smudge of color on the tail. Color development is slow on all of them. They might be blue which is possible from both dams and the sire. That would explain the lack of color at this point. There's one that has much more so I'm sure it's black.
The brokens from Nyx x Sugardaddy and Cirocco x Ford's Roc, I love the patterns and they might have that bigger head I need. Roc's might be too big for my taste. He's right on at 2.08, but he looks bigger. I hope there's does if they turn out to be bigger than I'd want in a buck. Big bucks just don't mesh with my doe lines very well.
Cutting back on the herd also drastically cut the show string. I can barely fill a carrier with entries. Does are working, and several bucks aren't being shown for one reason or another. Fewer srs (and hard litter culling) means fewer jrs. I feel bad I can't support show clubs with more entries, but I just don't have them. The lack of entries means I'm only doing select shows these days, and distance is a big factor.
Lenoir City is coming up in May, and I'll probably only have 4. That includes debuting one of the broken jr does from Dreamcatcher x Whiskey Mac (no names yet). The other one ripped a back toe off (oweee!) when she was younger so she's out.
I'm debating whether to enter Dreamspinner. She's a BUD but a real good lookin one, and still under sr weight limit at 6 months. She did pretty well as a jr, and even earned a leg. Her pattern is a bit heavy and could be DQ'd for that, although it didn't happen (that I remember) the few times she was shown.
This is Chevette's last show. She's now over 6 months and I'll breed her after this. Stoney Brook's Jackson is still here on loan, and he'll get her in the next round.
Poor Jackson is blowing his coat and looking very scruffy. He's a little off-feed, too. He's getting more hay to help him through the molt. It hasn't been that hot, but he was bred in a cooler climate (Ohio), and then kept in a climate-controlled barn in VA. Rabbits from other breeders tend to molt sooner than the rest of my herd. At least for the 1st year they are here.
Happy Easter
tnt
