Chick coloring, bloodlines

[raylastanford]

Some time ago, there was a request for people to write in if they had Nankins, and to trace their bloodlines if possible.  My original group came from Lyn D. of Lyn'salmost a farm.  These hatch out beautifully with light color all over, yellow legs, and one or two dots or almost a stripe on their heads.  Last fall I received some birds from Charlie who used to post here (anyone know what happened to him?)  His hatch out pretty much the same, but then I've been seeing lots of black in the saddle, body and hackles, but as they get older some look more like traditional Nankins.  There is a lot darker feathering over the body on some, and some are very light.  Anyway, my question is about bloodlines and sources.  Feel free to pm me, but I don't want to mix lines, or pursue any that have too many unwanted genes.  Why reinvent a wheel, right?  This question is similar to one posted a little while back.  I opened a new post in hopes of getting an answer. I'll try to get some pictures on today.  BTW, I see some posts are read like 43 times, so I know Nanfolk are out there.   

Thanks,  Laureen

[Rog]

  Yellow legs are not good. Should be slate as in an off color of blue. The Nankins are an old breed , but the US Nankins very a lot. Several crosses bred into them. Some good and some not so good. So guess a person needs to breed lots of birds and cull heavy for now.  Rog

[raylastanford]

Hi!  Don't know how I missed there was a response to my question.  I had read in Mark Field's book on Nankins that the true Nankin is born with yellow legs that change into blue/slate later.  That's where I got that.  The Nankins that I wrote about earlier have been growing out much darker overall with the black in the hackles and saddle pretty much growing out.  I forgot to note that the ones with more black also initially had some black on the tips of their combs. ( I know I'm so new at this, but breeding Nankins does get confusing.  Field's book does have some great history, but some of the info is slightly at odds with the standard.)  Some of the legs on these darker birds are brighter blue, almost sea blue.  Hard to tell if the red striping is there.  It's hard to cull heavily when I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for.  Could some of the members with Nankin wins post pictures so we can have a visual for comparison?   I think I'm going to have a lot of older culls.   By the way, anyone know if Nankins taste good............Laureen

[nankin3]

Hi All,
 I would love to see some pic's of young Nankins and a description of what to look for in the young ones that may help me cull as soon as I start getting some good hatches. I am going to try and post some pic's of the ones I just hached out and maybe someone can give me some input.
 Thanks