That last pic of Tim reminds me of Cher! Same panache in a feather boa! LOL
What great looking babies, sewin! How could DH not want them in the living room? Can't he handle the competition? =0)
Jay
How can you tell???
Green, the Showgirls, from what I understand, are a cross between a female Turken and a male silkie. You will either get a silkie or a showgirl naked neck between the two. I am not an expert though. These are my first and I am still learning. They sure are fun and very nice sweet birds. Their personality is nice.
Patch, I will take them out a couple at a time and watch how they stand and walk. Does size matter with this breed? I have some that are bigger than others.
Jay, I think DH is just jealous of the time I spend with them. I sit and pet them at night while I watch TV. ;) Competition!! hehehe So the other partridge showgirl could be Sonny. "I Got You Babe."
Great Uncle, I am glad you and Great Aunt have gotten a kick out of the babies. They realy make me laugh as well. They really do not fly. They have not even bothered to try to get out of the tote. Every other hatch they were jumping out after a few weeks!! LOL
Ooooo, he misses the petting. You'll have to make that up to him... If you do it right, he may come to Love nekked necks... hehehe.
Heyyyyyyyyyy..Maybe we could get Tim to be the DG MASCOT.. He could be in the banner....LOL
Ginger
:0 Do you think it would work? If I do it right maybe I can get a goat like Clairs Luna!!
Tim is cute. I'm not sure if he could stand up to the pressure of being the mascot. hehehe
I think he would be a fine mascot!
Ginger
I agree with Ginger! He's already a STAR!! Why not a MASCOT? We must give the people what they want. TIM TIM TIM TIM. That settles it. Tim's our new mascot. Gitter-done. Haystack.
LOL, I read that "glitter done"... ja!
Feather boas and glitter, very P&L
Uhhh.. Does someone have to notify Dave that we have chosen a mascot?
LOL
Ginger
You all quack me up! hehehe
The males tend to be larger, or at least stand upright so much more than the females that they appear to be that much larger. The hens walk more stooped down. I think Pim is a hen.
awe, what little cuties, congrats! yes showgirls origionate from a turken x silkie but depending on what generation they r they may not breed true. by that i mean usually they have to be 6-8th generation at least to not throw turken traits.
to get showgirls from a showgirl u can cross showgirl to showgirl or any sex showgirl to the opposite sex silkie. i breed mine silkie roos to showgirl hens and silkie hens to showgirl roos. u get traits and progress better breeding them showgirl to silkie.
I see. So these are probably not 6-8th generation. Look at the pic with Tims comb. It is a raised comb. Turken? He is still cute and I love them all dearly. I just wanted to know more about them. So you can breed showgirl to showgirl or showgirl to silkie. I hope you are right and Pim is a girl. It is one of the prettiest ones. ;) I do have about half that are physically larger than the other half. (taller and rounder) Thanks everyone.
You're right, Patchouli. I never thought of that, but the Silkie roos do stand up much more than the pullets. The girls are sort of horizontal and the boys are verticle. I'm not sure when that becomes apparent. I have month old Silkie chicks outside and I have been trying to sex them by their crests--I think I have two pullet and a roo--but now I am going to examine them for uprightness.
We learn something new everyday! ;) I took them all out but they were so excited about it they were flying around like knuckle heads. hehehe I will keep trying. LOL
I have a question. I was counting Tims toes and noticed he has more than three? is this the norm?
I want to say mine are typically outside once I notice this, so they would be at least two months old at that point.
Tim is part silkie.Silkies have 5 toes on each foot.
Ginger
Thanks Ginger I was looking at my girls and saw that some of them had 4 and I am thinking they are roosters... But I very well could be wrong... Guess I will wait till they either start crowing or laying eggs...
Thats right Beadmom. Silkie breeds have 5 toes. Showgirls are also silkie cross. I thought that when they were born. (As these are my first of this breed) I freaked out. I was thinking they were deformed. everyone here set me at ease to know its a good thing for them to have 5. Otherwise they can not be show. (I wont be showing them anyway but its good to know) hehehe
Mine are about 2 months now. They were born in Jan. So its close to two months. I brought them out today again and it seems true to size. The larger birds seemed to stand taller and walk more bold and on toes. The smaller ones stayed lower to the ground. I will observe a few more times to be sure. Thanks.
SEWINCIRCLE can I see another picture of Tim as he has grown since the last one you posted,I just love to look at him and wanted to see what he looks like now,it would be nice if you could post a pictue of him every few weeks so we can see what he looks like when is full grown.My Granddaughters love to look at him when they come to my house as he is my screensver and want to know if I can get one of him,I told them I was going to get some silkies this summer but no naked necks so no I could not have one like Tim so pictures will have to do for them and me.
Tim is the cutest thing around! I would love to have him as a screensaver too.. Love him!
I will do that green! I will take another this week. LOL Karbear, be my guest. Tim can be anyones screensaver. hehehe I should make a chick calander. LOL
My husband wants to use Tim as his poker avatar for Poker Stars.
LOL.. Tim will be famous!!!!
Ginger
OMG, Tim goes Vegas big time.... feather boas AND poker. What a fast bird he is... he is a he, isn't he?
=0) Jay
Raise or fold Tim? Tim says fold. Good call Tim.....See him live on the World Poker tour....
Ginger
{{snicker}}
Hey, on the Food Network"s "Will Work for Food" they showed a pheasant farm--huge incubators, the pheasant take 25 days to hatch AND you can tell the males from the females immediately because the males have an extra flap of skin on their necks (the wattle). I couldn't see it, but I guess with practice it becomes apparent. I only wish we could find something similar with chickens. Vent sexing is just too difficult and vague.
I saw a program once on how they sex chicks at the big hatcheries... it's vague in my memory, but at 2-3 days (vague) one of the sexes has 2-3 primaries starting to show and the other doesn't. Don't even ask me which, but that's how they can sell pullets as day old chicks... OK, maybe it was 1-2 days. Like I said, it was a while ago.
Maybe if you call a hatchery...
Early primaries work with some breeds and some strains of breeds (the hatcheries sometimes breed for this). I think, in general, if you have several chicks from the same hatch--the ones with early primaries are most likely to be pullets. Barnevelder roos sometimes seem incapable of feathering out until long after their sisters.
Does anyone know if this works for Shamo? ZZ's got me babysitting two--one has bare patches on its wings, the other is fully feathered there. But some of the more "primitive" game birds are just a little light on feathers in general. These roos just break my heart. They usually are the more outgoing and friendly--at least till the hormones hit.
Oh boy, Tim could make it big!!! I am not sure...Tim could be Timantha. I sure wish sexing was easier. I couldnt vent sex if I tried. :/ I just wont try. Shamo? LOL I wouldnt try that either. Chick sitting? hehehe FUN!
Catscan, do silkies have the early wattle thing too? That would be cool.
Tim/antha needs an agent. Fast!
I don't think the day old wattle thing has ever been reported in chickens--but they are in the pheasant family. Maybe if you looked very closely? I mean the wattles on the pheasant chicks were not that easy to see. Vent sexing is quite new and practically an art anyway, so maybe wattle sexing could be just as accurate? If you knew ahead of time what the sex of the chick was you might be able to gradually work out some sort of wattlely theorem.
This message was edited Mar 22, 2009 9:02 PM
Oh, that would mean lots of babies! I have never ordered pre sexed chicks before. Okay, I have never ordered any chicks before. hehehe I may need to start then. I would much rather check out a chickens wattles than the vent. LOL
"Vent sexing is just too difficult and vague."
and you have to walk around the rest of the week hoping no one asks you.. So what did you do over the weekend???
Ginger
{{snort}}
You could tell them... the look on their face would be precious. =0)
:o Yup! priceless!
You WHAT?? LOL
Timatha is the bomb! I love it/him/her.
Thanks InnBetween! I still have no idea what he/she is sex wise. Just cute. hehehe
Waiting for new pics of Tim.. Tim is picture perfect! So cute!!!!!