The Naughty Coop

The Naughty Coop Researching chicken breeds, genetics, & egg colors is my passion. NPIP & AI.

I breed Silverudd Blues, Opal Legbars, Cream Legbars, Speckled Olive Eggers, Pink Eggers, Whiting True Blues, Marans, Welsummers, Bresse, Vowerks, Lemon Owlbeards & Ermines.

04/17/2026

FYI:
Flaxseed can give chickens diarrhea and yellow p**p!

04/13/2026

Roosters never cease to amaze me. This is the second time I've found my rooster Ezekiel in the nesting box with his girls. It looks like he is caring for and guarding her. Although I don't think she sees it that way. Crazy birds!

So, for Newbies and Oldies, there are two things to be careful of when getting chicks from TS and RK. Hoover's hatchery ...
04/12/2026

So, for Newbies and Oldies, there are two things to be careful of when getting chicks from TS and RK. Hoover's hatchery supplies chicks for both companies. You’ll see bins that say straight run or only pullets. I remember being confused by this when I first decided to get chickens.

Straight run means they are mixed males and females, and pullets means they are s*xed as females. First, the hatcheries use vent s*xing, which is a difficult skill to acquire and is only 90% accurate. So you could end up with a cockerel. Cockerels also tend to be the prettiest chicks.

Second, chicks get easily mixed up by the people who work at these places. So even though it states a particular breed or pullets only, it occasionally gets mixed up. So you could end up with the wrong breed and or wrong gender.

Pictured here is what is supposed to be a Welsummer pullet. You don’t have to vent s*x Welsummers because the females have different patterns. Some lines are trickier than others.

Hoovers, known for their sought-after splotchy speckling Welsummers, have at one point been mixed with Marans because I had a few with feathered legs that I parted with. This combination would make s*xing them by their pattern impossible.

I suspect this might be a Welbar. A mix between a Welsummer and Barred Rock, which should be s*xable at hatch. This little guy was in a bin labeled "Welsummer pullet." He obviously is male. Hoovers could have different lines of Welsummers that look different as chicks.

That large pink comb at 3-4 weeks old is a dead giveaway. The eyeliner should go from the outside of the eye to the inside near the beak. And the triangle on the head should be dark brown, not ginger, as pictured with the two Welsummer chicks side by side for comparison.

I’ve only gotten this wrong once. I thought the little chick in the last two pictures was a female. That spectacular egg blinded me into wishful thinking. On closer inspection, the eyeliner isn't right. He was still wet and looked to have the darker triangle on his head. I still have him as my backup spare because his eggshell is so awesome!

How do you avoid this mistake? Hopefully, learn from those who have made these mistakes. And by paying close attention to how a breed should look. If this helped, leave a thumbs-up in the comments.

*xingchicks

Happy Speckled Egg Saturday!Olive egger, Silverudd Blue and BCM Backcross. Going to ☺️ enjoy the last of the cool 🌷Sprin...
04/11/2026

Happy Speckled Egg Saturday!
Olive egger, Silverudd Blue and BCM Backcross. Going to ☺️ enjoy the last of the cool 🌷Spring🌷mornings.

Even though it's 💐Spring, fall colored🍁eggs are still a welcome sight in the nesting box. Can't believe how dark they ar...
04/10/2026

Even though it's 💐Spring, fall colored🍁eggs are still a welcome sight in the nesting box. Can't believe how dark they are. This year, I will outcross my OE rooster from a dark and speckled Egg with backcrossed OE girls that didn't inherit a blue gene, but lay black 🍒 cherry delights in an effort to create super dark olives and possibly ☕ coffee-colored eggs that are all the rage. Don't miss the Ft Myers 🦞 Seafood Festival or the Bloom and Brew🍺 beer tasting at the Naples🪴Botanical Gardens this Saturday.

I'm expecting a delivery of 10 Purple💜laying Black Copper Marans this month from a private breeder, so what's a few more...
04/06/2026

I'm expecting a delivery of 10 Purple💜laying Black Copper Marans this month from a private breeder, so what's a few more chicks🐣, while I wait? I just acquired 4 Hoover’s Welsummers and 2 Prairie Blue Bells. I said I wasn't going to get hatchery chicks 🐥 anymore, but Hoovers is known for their crazy speckled ✨ Wellies and rarely offers them at RK 👑 or 🚜TS. Prairie Blue Bells were some of the first chicks I started with 5 years ago. It's Hoover's version of McMurray's 🐦Whiting True Blues. However, they have a distinct chirp 🎶 that none of my chickens make, and I miss it 😔. I only got two because I have plenty of 🪺 blue eggers, and all thanks to my partner in crime 🦹, who picked them up for me and will remain anonymous 🤭 to protect the guilty.

How many roosters and hens should you have for breeding purposes? I’m down to one Vowerk rooster and one hen. I original...
04/05/2026

How many roosters and hens should you have for breeding purposes? I’m down to one Vowerk rooster and one hen. I originally had two hens, but I lost one to a stinking predator 🐅 a few months back. The hatch rate for hatching eggs last year 🐣was disastrous due to the longer 📬postal travel imposed during the usps changes, so I was lucky to hatch out 3 chicks 🐣🐣🐣. It’s important to have two males 🐓🐓and two females when possible to breed for two reasons. One is obvious: keeping them alive long enough to breed due to predator issues, and the second is fertility or illness that affects it. After waiting a whole year, I had my one and only American Bresse rooster who fired blanks. It messed up my plans 😤 and I had to start over. Now I hope there aren't any issues with the two I have. Wish me luck 🤞!

Happy Speckled Egg Saturday!
04/04/2026

Happy Speckled Egg Saturday!

No need to color eggs when my chickens produce these rainbow 🌈 gradient colors. Don't miss 🎨 Art in the Park at Naples C...
04/03/2026

No need to color eggs when my chickens produce these rainbow 🌈 gradient colors. Don't miss 🎨 Art in the Park at Naples Cambier Park, Saturday, 10 am - 4pm.

So this little jerk attacked 🎯me today! This is the first time this has ever happened to me. He is going to a new 🏡home ...
04/03/2026

So this little jerk attacked 🎯me today! This is the first time this has ever happened to me. He is going to a new 🏡home on Saturday. He was on a perch eye level when he flew at my face and head. Fortunately, I was turned sideways,🦅 because he was only able to scratch the right side of my face, pierce my ear, and head. And sliced 🔪my arm open. If I hadn't been standing sideways, I would likely need 🤦‍♀️ a seeing-eye dog 🐕‍🦺. Luckily, his spurs aren’t mature, but he is still able to give me a good-sized bloody bump 🩸and a whopper of a headache 🤕. He’s a Whiting True Blue rooster, which aren’t supposed to be overly aggressive, but I’m finding most of them to be good candidates for🥶 freezer camp.

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