Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[RingedTeal]

I'll get some more pics of mine tomorrow it's to late here....

 

[Country Chickens]

Peeps I LOVE the pics of your chocolates! Other colors, too--they are all gorgeous! It's so exciting to see how pretty the adults are and then project forward for my birds...it just makes me heart happy.

Post more pics when you can, I want to see the variance of color from blonde to chocolate and so on. I might have to get a pic of our last hatch and show you a baby that has me puzzled, too. He's probably just a purple, but he's got more white than I've seen on purples--it comes right up and kind of meets over his wings. Anyway, guess I better get a pic! lol

 

[d3rabbitry]

nice

 

[PeepsCA]

Wow this thread was waaaaaaaaaaay buried, I had to do some major digging to find it to be able to post an update on what I kept from this past season's hatching frenzy, lol.

For those that are interested, I took some pics of what I kept and added a bunch to the bottom of my My 2012 Keet Hatchin' Page ... They aren't the greatest pics (the lighting was horrible and the flash made things worse) but between what I listed for keepers and the pics I added you get the general idea of what I kept. The rainy season has officially kicked in here so I may not be adding any sunshine pics of my pretty keepers until Spring 2013, but I'll try.

Everybody else that was hatching keets and frequenting this thread last season should post some pics of their keepers too!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Loved all the new pictures Peeps!! A broody recently hatched out 3 adorable keets that I need color ID help on. Pictures to come...

~ Aspen

 

[JLeigh]

Here are my newest. They hatched on August 10th and are three Chocolate females and one Buff female. I'm not the best photographer, but these are four beautiful guineas. 14 weeks old now. Geez they grow fast.

 

[PeepsCA]

Thanks Aspen, looking fwd to seeing your 3 keets... I love ID'n keets

 

[PeepsCA]

Pretty lil Hens there JLeigh

... but where's your newest additions??? I want to see those too!

 

[JLeigh]

You know how slow I am to take pictures. I'll try to get some before Wednesday when we're starting all the Thanksgiving stuff. The white is a doll - beautiful little face, and the Pearl Gray is going to be huge I think. I'm 99% certain he's a male and I don't care if the white is a male or female. I'm going to have some beautiful keets next spring.

I think the PG will produce with my females some Chocolates, some PGs, some buffs, and the white will bring in pieds. Cool beans. I'll have a pretty flock.

That female I told you about...the one that never shuts up?, well, she's a little better but I've named her Petty Petunia.

 

[PeepsCA]

Pearl Grey huh? I thought you were getting a Slate, what happened to THAT? lol.

Depending on what the Pearl Grey is carrying for recessive genes in it's background (if anything) you may end up with mostly Pearl Grey keets from your hatches if it turns out to be a male. Chocolate and Buff are both very recessive to Pearl Grey, so the grey color gene and the full pearling gene will most likely beat out the Chocolate and Buff color and partial pearling genes in the hatches. Who knows tho you may end up with Chocolates, Buffs, Browns, Buff Dundottes, Pearl Greys, Royal Purples plus maybe even a few surprises. Same goes for the White, if it's covering up Pearl Grey or something else... but yes it will give you Pieds. A mix of assorted colored Pieds in each hatch would be nice!

I know lots of people like Pearl Greys... but they muddy the waters too much in my flocks' gene pools, so I have to keep them out of my breeding flocks in order to hatch all the recessive colors that I want and breed for (and so I only keep Pearl Greys in my free range flock). I still have quite a few Pearl Grey keets pop up in my hatches tho, because 10 of my Hens came from a Opaline X Pearl Grey breeding pair. I also get a lot of Pied Pearl Greys out of another flock.

So far 2 of the 3 Whites that I kept from the hatches from my light flocks have turned out to be Hens, which I am thrilled about. The 3rd is staying quiet still. I have high hopes these Whites will produce lots of heavily Pied keets for me... heavily Pied Chocolates and Blondes are what I am aiming for, and a few more heavily Pied Coral Blues wouldn't break my heart either, lol.

Gonna be a fun hatching season for both of us

And I'm happy for you that you are building up a nice flock and can set your own eggs next Spring instead of wasting your time, money and stress on shipped eggs, Congrats!