Comb Critiques

[Temple DaSilva]

As a super new newbie, I was hoping this group could give me some guidance in critiquing the combs on four bantam white cockerels I recently acquired.  These boys are four months old.  I'll post one photo of each but have additional.  The colored zip tie in the photo (or file name) can be used for identification.  Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two... or twenty!

[Suki]

I can't help you Temple, but I can copy from the APA Standard...the pea is a medium length, low comb the top of which is marked with 3 low lengthwise ridges.  The center one, and this is the important part, is slightly higher than the two outside ones. All ridges should be either undulated or marked with small rounded serrations and straight.

HTH Brownie

[John W Blehm]

Side views would also help, but from what I can see my favorite is the purple or 4th photo.  I know it shows some feathers growing from the comb and the three ridges could be better defined, but it appears to be the one that is closest to the skull and follows the contour without coming up in the back to leaving  a big gap between the comb and skull. 

[Mike Gilbert]

Side views would help!

[Temple DaSilva]

Apologies for not including side views initially.  Here are three of the four. I forgot to get Green's but will today.

[Russ Blair]

I prefer the green and the purple. Remember good cockerels are just as important as good pullets. I keep several of each variety to insure good genetic diversity. Not to mention Heaven forbid a predator snacks on one 😡.

[Mike Gilbert]

There is not a terrible comb in the lot.   I would be looking for other differences in the four cockerels to evaluate. 

[Temple DaSilva]

There is not a terrible comb in the lot.   I would be looking for other differences in the four cockerels to evaluate.

Thanks, Mike.  This is one of the basic things I was hoping to find out - if there were any deal breakers among the bunch in terms of combs.  I'm glad to know there's not but I would like to hear what makes one preferable over another.  How defined the peas or rows are?  Height?

And I will post Green's side view later this morning.

[Temple DaSilva]

And Green's comb side view just for completeness.

Thanks again, everyone, for your feedback.  With very few Ameraucanas in my area, I'm glad to have this forum to help me learn.

[John W Blehm]

The side view of "green" shows nice shape that stays close to the skull.  The side view of "light blue" shows it is a smaller comb and that is a plus when breeding for "medium", since too big is generally a bigger problem than too small.  My least favorite is "dark blue".  He has that pointy comb that sticks up a bit in the back.  As Mike said, none are terrible...some are better in some areas than others.

[Mike Gilbert]

Green has what I would consider an excellent comb, and his eye color is very good as well.    Hopefully the muffs will grow a bit more.  I do like the comb and beak structure of light blue, but am unsure about his eye coloring.  Purple is very good too.

[Temple DaSilva]

This has been amazingly helpful!  I agree... dark blue was my least favorite but I needed to hear the rationale for why the others were better. The SOP is good for a high level understanding but pictures and the degree of detailed commentary from y'all here has been invaluable!

If it's OK, I'll post some full body shots of these boys.  They are only four months old so maybe they need a bit more time to mature.  Some look a little gamey (light in body and up on leg) right now but I'm hoping that might change with a bit more age.

At what age would you expect a bantam to top out on weight?

[Mike Gilbert]

At about 8 months to  a year.  It varies.   Pullets will start laying sooner than that, but will still add some weight later. 

[Temple DaSilva]

Thanks, Mike.  I weighed all eight of the birds (4 pullets and 4 cockerels) and only one pullet was at SOP weight and they haven't even started laying yet.  The largest cockerel topped out at 38.8oz - and, yes, these are allegedly bantams - so I decided to let all but the one pullet go as non-SOP/Easter Eggers, unfortunately.  Expensive lesson to learn as I thought they looked big when I went to pick them up.

[Harry Shaffer]

By the pictures you presented which does not allows reflect what the birds look like in real life.  I would cull the green for being too crow headed in appearance.