#pennaproject

[pennaraptor]

and wendy's swarm of all NINE rosecombs - 4 blue and 5 black. 5 of them are rook's and 4 are suzie's, but i will have to wait and see if i can tell them apart. those two girls have very different comb shapes so it might be possible

[pennaraptor]

the 3 phoenix (sandy is also in possession of these along with the carlos chicks). wendy is their actual mother

[pennaraptor]

so, here is the entire rosecomb harvest. i think i can tell them apart by their white facial markings (which i figured out last year).

black:

1 - very little white on face (tiny freckles)

2 - neat, perfect freckles

3- large freckles with a third white spot above one nostril

4- mustache

5- big splotches of white

blue:

6 - almost no white

7 - halfstache (line on one side, freckle on the other)

8 - patchy mustache

9 - lots of white connecting with white on chin

[pennaraptor]

phoenix pullets (solo x wendy), 2 months old. Goldie, Buffie, and Blondie

[pennaraptor]

delphinium and mertensia. delphy's a lil shy but shes clever enough to figure out its worth it to jump on me for treats. she's also noticeably smaller than mertensia and their other siblings, real little girl. mertensia is very sleek and leggy.

[pennaraptor]

the carlos babies - one dominant white (I/i), one splash (Bl/Bl), and two blue (Bl/bl).

i thought at first they were black but theyre definitely blue, which makes more sense statistically (both parents carry Bl). the dom. white chick could also be blue (just like its mom), we will have to wait and see!

[pennaraptor]

the rosecomb pullets 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9. they're about three and a half months old.

so my question this spring was, if i breed the non-skittish individuals together, will i get more non-skittish offspring? the answer seems to be: well not really. i blame Foggy. anyway, numbers 4 and 5 are really wild and struggle even when captured gently. the others allow handling as long as i scoop them up without startling them, fairly reasonable for teenage birds, but are generally avoidant of me otherwise. when i stopped interacting with them all one-on-one (that is, when i combined them with the adult flock) they stopped seeking me out, and none of them came out as particularly friendly or human-oriented.

for comparison: of their half-sisters, cardamine did develop this way (seeking me out, very handleable) and mertensia while more aloof is not so skittish and is still an eager hand-jumper. of the phoenix raised the same way, one comes up to me and jumps on me frequently, another sometimes but less, and the third is very avoidant (though based on how they were last year, i expect the phoenix to chill out when they mature)

anyway - i'm giving at least some of these to a friend as pets and will be left with only the half-rosecombs as potential breeders if i really decide i want that, but i'm just not into what they've got to offer. not much.

[pennaraptor]

26-1 group Carlos chicks (1/2 rosecomb), 2 months old. Cardamine, Phlox, Mertensia, and Delphinium