Bantam Brown Red color and pattern

[Max Strawn]

Being new to the Brown Red variety, I'll need some advice on what to look for as far as color and patterns are concerned as they grow out. What can I cull for early? I hatched about 100 chicks so I need to get busy! 

[Mike Gilbert]

Glad to hear that Max.    As you well know, the backs of the heads and upper hackle on your two bantam females are too black where they should be orange with black striping.  You can spot that before they get too old, but they do tend to get better with age.  You should not have any problems with overall size or with shank or skin color unless some develop mulberry color in their faces.  Don't mind a few white flecks or wing tips in the juvenile feathers, they will go away.   You will get some females that are too black and some that have a lot of shafting in the lacing - those can be culled fairly soon.   But I would start first with any obvious defects, as with any other variety.   Crooked toes, malformed beaks, crooked keels, broken down hips, that type of thing.   I tend to cull early for what I call "squawkers."  Those would be the ones, when you pick them up, that don't stop squawking.   Temperament can be inheritable to a great extent, and those would be the types that could be very difficult to coop train for show.  Hope that gives you some ideas.   If you end up with any extras that are decent, I would sure be interested. 

[Max Strawn]

Thanks Mike, I've already culled two with the mulberry face or gypsy face as some call it, and one that was solid black. There are some that have a lot of gold all the way down their breast. I'll post some pics as they grow for evaluation. I've noticed quite a few with pinched tails... I'm guessing there was modern game used in their development somewhere along the way?

[Mike Gilbert]

Those tails often improve when the adult feathers come in.   You will always get some too black and some with too much orange on the breast.    I think you can mate the too dark ones with the over-colored ones and come close to what you get by breeding best to best.   No Moderns in this line that I know of, but I did have one line that I used a Modern hen to create.   That was many years ago, back in the 1980's I think, or maybe 1990's.

[Max Strawn]

I have noticed that the heads on some of the chicks are solid black and some have a red-ish tint to them. Does this indicate something that could be culled for early?

[John W Blehm]

I have noticed that the heads on some of the chicks are solid black and some have a red-ish tint to them. Does this indicate something that could be culled for early?

I believe so and wouldn't grow them out.  They should be just about completely black as day-old chicks.