Finnie

Thank you, Gracegarden and Robyn!

Cool, I will look for photos next time I log on. It looks like you and I are the only ones on the forum, right now, but I have to log off now and go get some chores done. Thanks for answering all my questions. I'ts been nice to chat with someone in 'real time'!

Here is the chick with plum eyes No its normal for greywings Normal for greywings? That is something very useful for me to learn! That could explain why I thought I had all opaline hens in my nests last winter, because I had so many "greywings" (well, or clearwings or diltues ) and I kept seeing white down everywhere. To the point where I just decided that I must not know the difference between white down and grey down. (I really did feel kind of stupid about it.) So maybe I really was seeing white down. Oh, and with the plum eyed chick, do their eyes stay plum, or is it just when they are first born?

That looks like some really white down, to me. Does that meant that he cock is split to opaline?

Does that interfere with any of your plans? I know a lot of times I've read that some of you don't like cinnamon turning up where it doesn't belong. I just realized that a cinnamon chick from this pairing will have to be a cinnamon and greywing. You probably don't remember when I asked a long time ago if this was a possible combination, and what would it look like. Well, now we will find out! Cinnamon and greywing ? NO. The cock is dilute. The hen is greywing. The chick isnt greywing at all based on what I can see. Anything else we will have to wait and see. I did this pairing aiming for dilutes. Sorry, I meant 'greywing' in the loosest sense of the term, not differentiating between greywing, clearwing and dilute. So, all these chicks will be either greywing/dilute or dilute/dilute, to be more specific. Did I get that right? And then if there is cinnamon thrown on top of it all, that is a separate gene. So I will still be interested to see what this chick ends up looking like.

Hi Sunshine, In your other post, you mentioned that they had been in your mom's aviary for a couple of years. They probably feel like they are in each other's space, since they are in a cage now. It sounds like they are improving. It's nice that you have two cages, so you have the option of splitting them up if necessary.

I especially love this one! Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't these all be considered very nice show types? (What I know about show types is all academic, but I'm trying to develop an 'eye' for what is desired in them.)

I agree with Squeak. Not only do you not want the bird moving, but you also want to make sure your view is good, so you can see clearly. There' no room for estimating where you think the quick is. One way I have found to make a bird hold still better, is to have it wrapped loosely in a small rag so that it's head is shrouded. They struggle less that way. Personally, I prefer to leave the nails alone, unless their length seems to be a danger to the bird, so I only did this one time. Oh, and by the way, welcome back! I'm happy for you that you get to have your birds back!

Does that interfere with any of your plans? I know a lot of times I've read that some of you don't like cinnamon turning up where it doesn't belong. I just realized that a cinnamon chick from this pairing will have to be a cinnamon and greywing. You probably don't remember when I asked a long time ago if this was a possible combination, and what would it look like. Well, now we will find out!

the babies Interestingly the fourth chick has plum eyes So what does that mean? Either cinnamon or recessive pied? No pied spots on the parents, is there, so it's more likely that the cock is split to cinnamon? I guess you have a wait and see situation!

That's funny, Dave! I learned back when I had babies to sell, not to give them beetroot, or nobody would want to buy them.

Teagan appears to be dilute opaline SF dominant pied okay, thanks! That means that if Kevin actually is split for some kind of greywing, I could get some greywing babies, again. And since he's a normal spangle, then I could get some normals, some normal spangles, some dom pieds, and some dom pied spangles. I don't care if Teagan is not spangle, herself, although I would have liked to get a double factor spangle. Down the road I can breed the offspring of Kevin to those of Donovan to get df spangles.

Today was open-the-nestbox day! It took about half an hour, and then Aveline and Finnie were both checking out their boxes. Finnie went all the way inside of hers, but Aveline so far has only poked her head in. I noticed a couple of days ago that Finnie's cere was less white, and by today it is almost completely tan. She seems to be progressing along right on text-book schedule. Aveline has the type of cere, that during her first moult, it puffed up to a dry brown color, and has never changed since. It doesn't flake off, it doesn't change colors. My old hen Colleen was the same way. So the only way to tell if she's in breeding condition will be by her behavior. And she and Aidan seem to be in a courting mode, so hopefully they will work things out. As for the other pair, Teagan is still moulting, so it will be a while before I let her go in her nestbox. Kevin is flirting with her like mad, but she doesn't give him the time of day. Hopefully after her moult, here cere will turn tan, and then she will change her mind. These two are going to be on a different time shedule with their chicks than the other two pairs.

I think that if you already know she is a "nasty little biter" then it's time to keep looking!

Awww, he's cute! Congratulations, Cory!

I think GB's explanation above (highlighted in red) seems to be right on the mark. The bird is turning greener.As for what pied he is, in my simplified little world, belly band means dom pied, no band means clearflight pied. But I'm sure it's more complicated than that, and I'm probably wrong. (I vote for: he is what his father is. ) Thank you for that Finnie I do believe though that GB was explaining what Jasper's chicks were though not Sonny's LOL. Sonny's chicks don't have the band so they must be clearflight pieds, meaning that sonny must be one too. I was also doing some research on clearflights and found out that blue series birds have white flights, so my chicks must be green right? But then I thought.. if they are goldenface like Sonny then they would have yellow flights as well even if blue series? Or does the goldenface affect the flights as well on clearflights or doesn't it? hehe I am so confused Well, I would have assumed that goldenface would affect the flights on a clearflight the same as it would on a non-pied bird, so maybe they would be a pale yellow. Or maybe they would start out white and turn yellower during the moults, as the yellow bleeds in more. I've also read that sometimes a green series bird starts out more blue looking and then turns greener. I wish an expert would come and give their opinion. I feel like the blind leading the blind!

They are very pretty. What a nice variety!

Oh, because then it would be a single factor yf1 on the dad's side, and something from the mom on the other side, and either way, it would be yellow face! I get it now. But wait, what if the hen was a golden face, split to yf1? Then the baby could get a white face. But would a gf/yf1 look different to how she looks, would we be able to tell it visually? (Time to go back and review the Great YF Symposium.)

I didnt know that No way!

Well, a bend, and a hill, and add bike riders to the list, and it sounds like a recipe for disaster! When I was little, my grandmother lived at the curve of a road, and she was always paranoid about letting us play in her front yard. There's not much the city can do to make places like that safer if people refuse to use their common sense and slow down. Even putting in a bike path wouldn't help much. Around here the cyclists choose to ignore the paths and ride in the road anyway. The roads weren't designed for them, and it's hard to get around them.

Well, I'm sure he's not a SF dom pied. He would have more markings if her were. Whether he is DF dom pied, or whether he is dom pied/ recessive pied, I can't say. But if he were a dom/rec, then you could get visual recessive pieds from this pair. Chick 3 looks like it could be recessive pied. If it were, that would give you your answer. (If it isn't, you would probably need to breed a dozen or so more chicks before ruling it out. )The pieds confuse me, too. If only they were easier to tell apart! I think GB's explanation above (highlighted in red) seems to be right on the mark. The bird is turning greener.As for what pied he is, in my simplified little world, belly band means dom pied, no band means clearflight pied. But I'm sure it's more complicated than that, and I'm probably wrong. (I vote for: he is what his father is. )

Its mostly because I work with glass and have glass on hand in my workshop that I think of using it Being A LEADLIGHT artist and craftsperson I remember it now! As soon as I saw those pictures, I thought "Oh, and Kaz said she can do that because she works with glass." So I looked back, and I was right! Thanks for finding it for us, Kaz. And did you all know, that there is a little red arrow in the quote tag area, that if you click on it, it takes you right back to where the quote came from? I'm so proud of myself that I figured that out! (Probably common knowledge to all of you. Oh well.)

Do you get car accidents in that spot a lot? Seems like they ought to look into making it safer there!

Thank you, Nubbly!

It's okay to ask, Jack. We are always telling people that no question is a bad question to ask. I can see how you would think there was a big difference between "plucking out some feathers" and "2-3 cm bald patch". But, yes, in this case it is still for the same reason, to warm the eggs. Dave is right, you don't need to worry. HOWEVER, if something does worry you, no matter how small, it is okay to ask. It is better to be safe than sorry. It is great that you are being diligent about your breeding pair. But I have one other piece of advice that I have learned on here. If you worry too much and keep hovering over your hen, you can transfer your anxiety to her, and cause her to have problems. So just check her in the morning and evening, see that she looks healthy and can move around properly, and then leave her alone for the rest of the day. (If she can move around properly, she's probably fine- don't expect her to get egg bound, she'll probably won't.)