Lavender patterned Isabel duckwing barred - lavender brown cuckoo barred - project and genetic dis

[ChicKat]

https://vimeo.com/danasarahfilms/backtoeden

Have you see this?
Its all about how good wood chips/mulch is good for the land.

After watching this movie I am a believer!

ohhh - thanks for that link.
Know what else is good for the earth -- once you clean out the chicken coops -- and let the poop and shavings decompose for 6-months - it is supposed to be the best compost/fertilizer. A guy from Australia or New Zealand - Jonathan White - has a lot of material on the internet -- and he says he would have chickens for just the fertilizer alone - forget eggs and meat -- because they have so much nitrogen in their fertilizer.
Here's a link to one of his YouTubes

here's another one:

 

[Kiki]

Yes, this man too uses his chickens in that way...says the eggs are just extra.
Ill check out the links, thanks.

 

[AshlyMommaWard]

I'm finally caught up, just discovered this thread a few days ago and I'll be following along now. Love what you're doing with this project and the end results sound like something I'd have dreamed up myself. I've taken an interest in genetics a while back and have been reading and Re reading. Appreciate all the time you took to share your information. Lots of people post threads about their projects, very few go into such wonderful detail and explain why they're doing what genre doing, for genetic reason. Beautifully done. Thanks again!
Best wishes!

 

[ChicKat]

I'm finally caught up, just discovered this thread a few days ago and I'll be following along now. Love what you're doing with this project and the end results sound like something I'd have dreamed up myself. I've taken an interest in genetics a while back and have been reading and Re reading. Appreciate all the time you took to share your information. Lots of people post threads about their projects, very few go into such wonderful detail and explain why they're doing what genre doing, for genetic reason. Beautifully done. Thanks again!
Best wishes!

Thank you for your view and the good wishes AshlyMommaWard! --

This thread is certainly a 'work-in-progress'. Adding a little at a time is easy and helps pass the time as they mature. Then the thought occurs to me -- "what if the end product isn't what you think it will be?" -- all TBD - and 'so far, so good' -- putting it in this thread does help me focus and keep track too. It's like therapy.

 

[campingshaws]

Speaking of keeping track, lockdown tomorrow!

 

[ChicKat]

Yes, this man too uses his chickens in that way...says the eggs are just extra.
Ill check out the links, thanks.

Now that you say that... it just makes me want to go out there and dig in the dirt. Those guys and their lush gardens are inspirations. It also makes cleaning the poop trays so so rewarding.

. After all, compost is 'gardener's gold'. Love those chickens. However, I also require eggs.

My project eggs -- wow. In the first iteration of Isabel males X CL females - for some reason I only got two hatches (from different roos) of 3 each. Two males and a female in each for a total of 6 F1 chicks that I knew to be split for 'everything'. -- Of the two females -- the first one laid an egg Very early and she died that day. I was opening up the coop and she seemed kind of droopy, so I put her in a pet carrier for examination later -- and low and behold to my surprise she was dead a few hours later -- and it wasn't until I dumped the shavings in the pet carrier that I found an egg. It was white. -- It smashed when I dumped the shavings (as you would expect -I had no idea an egg was there)-- I should have looked at the shell more carefully because that pairing shouldn't have produced a white egg -- on the other hand, I think something was wrong with her egg producing machinery. - About two months after that from the hatch taht was 3-weeks later, the next hatch -- that female laid a beautiful blue egg -- equivalent to a legbar egg. She didn't come into lay extra early or anything. Both females, although split for lavender didn't have a barring gene to pass along to offspring so they were never destined to be part of the LPID-B2 project. However, who wouldn't want a very pretty reddish hen with a small crest, that lays a blue egg, and when paired with the right male could produce lavender chicks?



she was laying at a pretty good rate too, when she moved to Louisiana.


Smaller egg is pullet egg.....

Okay - so then recently, a pullet with CL male parent and Isabel female parent produces this color

These greens are from the pullet hatched Nov 2, 2016. The one closest to the lens is her first pullet egg, then she reverts to normal sized pullet eggs.

The greens together with a blue and a white-- but the littlest two greens are in real-life the same color as the long 'pullet bullet' - so it shows how the camera can distort colration.
Here's what the colors came out on the phone color app

Green was named ' Lemon Grass / green '
http://www.color-hex.com/color/989888
It is near the 2nd or third swatch from the right on the tints line
Some of my legbar eggs:
"submarine / blue'
http://www.color-hex.com/color/9da2a2
let's say 2nd from the right on the tints line --
and
'heather / blue '
http://www.color-hex.com/color/a4b5bc
again this one is closest to the 2nd or third swatch from the right on the tints line.

One interesting thing is the % of Red-Blue-Green...... the blues have close green/blue contents but since the blue is a bit more it falls into the blue category.
Colors- and getting colors photographed, then put on the computer is maddening.

It is never quite the same...and even if you look at the color hex links -- there is still the difference in the monitor at your end, the room lighting etc. -- It is really complex.
Maybe another post on coloration soon -- back to plumage -- and maybe some of the egg genetics.

For my part, I'm pretty OK with any egg color -- as long as the birds lay plentiful eggs. I appreciate that there are differences IN the color, so I know who is laying well -- and laying well to me is a sign of a healthy happy chicken.

 

[ChicKat]

Speaking of keeping track, lockdown tomorrow!

Oh that is so exciting. Hope you will have a really good hatch -- and post some pictures.

 

[Finnie]

I think it's kind of funny. If I want a specific chicken color, I don't care what color egg it lays. And when I want a specific egg color, I don't care what color chicken it comes from!

Gotta love genetics. I got caught up in breeding budgies 8 years ago because I loved learning about their genetic mutations. I've had a great time mixing and matching them like an artist. (You have to understand the genes to be able to do this.) But the budgie colors are all on the same basic bird. Now that I am interested in chickens, it's a lot more complex because you have skin color, egg color, comb, body shape, all the things that differentiate breeds according to their standards. And for the numbers you need, they require a LOT more housing than budgies!

I'm really impressed by your project, and enjoy following the steps along your way. Not to mention I am learning a lot of chicken genetics which is helping me make more sense if it all. Keep up the good work, I like seeing your small steps of success!

 

[campingshaws]

Topaz still lays often! She's a very steady girl. Here she is with Jim in mid-crow.

Only 10 more days in quarantine! I know it looks crazy to have them in that small kennel, but I have three good reasons for it.
1.) it minimizes opportunities to contaminate my flock. If they were in a pen then I would risk getting pathogens on my shoes.

2.) stress induces most symptoms. I want them to be calm and happy, but being so closely confined will bring out the symptoms of any hidden illnesses.

3.) they're right outside the window so I can see them more often. No other coops are that close.

All that said, I give fresh food and water every day and give them fresh litter every two days or so, unless they spill water or make other messes. The girls all lay nearly every day, so it must not be too uncomfortable.

I trusted these birds to be healthy and cared for, I'm just weird about germs. I would expect any bird leaving my farm to be quarantined at their new home.

 

[ChicKat]

Topaz still lays often! She's a very steady girl. Here she is with Jim in mid-crow.


Only 10 more days in quarantine! I know it looks crazy to have them in that small kennel, but I have three good reasons for it.
1.) it minimizes opportunities to contaminate my flock. If they were in a pen then I would risk getting pathogens on my shoes.

2.) stress induces most symptoms. I want them to be calm and happy, but being so closely confined will bring out the symptoms of any hidden illnesses.

3.) they're right outside the window so I can see them more often. No other coops are that close.

All that said, I give fresh food and water every day and give them fresh litter every two days or so, unless they spill water or make other messes. The girls all lay nearly every day, so it must not be too uncomfortable.

I trusted these birds to be healthy and cared for, I'm just weird about germs. I would expect any bird leaving my farm to be quarantined at their new home.

ho ho -- I see that blue egg there in the front... she's a good chicken doing her job and taking it seriously!

You are so right! Really and truly is a 'word to the wise' -- As chicken keepers we cannot be too careful about pathogens. Usually our birds are healthy and hearty -- and there in nothing wrong with anyone's flock. But something that one flock may be completely immune to could be lethal to a flock 10-miles away. Here's a link to an article I wrote a couple years back for the Cream Legbar club newsletter. I had a young Cream Legbar Cockerel with a swollen eye that wouldn't go away after a week of my 'treating' him. I was afraid that he may have a respiratory disease and needed to find out for sure. As it turned out he didn't - and the necropsy showed nothing. No disease nothing. Talking with Dr. Moore the lead vet at that time at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine Diagonostic Lab -- he really told me some things that 'hit home' about being careful to keep your flock healthy-- here's a link to the article...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g4aklH2XpPWOGGrzq4Z5rER2JS0LjOL4cpgKLGSnbcA/edit?usp=sharing

It's better to be safe than sorry. I remember that once I got birds and quarantined them for 12-weeks because 12-weeks is the incubation period for Merek's...

Since that time, I haven't gone to any shows, or events -- and all the members of the show team are gone. The male disappeared one time when I was out of town under mysterious circumstances* -- and some weeks later I found some feathers in a field. The two females that were in the pen with him -- have subsequently died...but their genetics are here because they had baby Cream Legbars..... (* How did he get out of the wire run, then close the door behind him so the females counldn't get out, or in my hurry to leave town did I leave the door open, and did they all wander out but the females returned to lay eggs and then the door blew shut or he bumped it shut and hence they were enclosed and he was left out in the cold? Or was it space aliens messing with my chicken pen?)

ETA - I'm so glad that those 4 are getting along in their quarantine -- none of them were roommates before they moved to your property - so that is pretty remarkable. Good photo, Good news.