I’ve only made one post on this website so far and it was about the baby chicks I had just bought/hatched and was attempting to do genetics research on with genotypes and phenotypes.
I have bad news
Shortly after that thread was made, my chicks started disappearing from a coop that was dug a foot into the ground and boxed in top, bottom, and overhead with chicken wire. Every morning I would wake up, find a chicken missing, and find a hole ripped/chewed in my chicken wire.
I caught an oppossum, euthanized it, and thought I was done. The chicks stayed safe for a while (I’ll assume the smell of blood in the air) butt then 3 days later the holes came back and my ENTIRE COOP was emptied of chickens. This includes the replacement chicks I had bought to start from scratch with.
I set three more traps, found paw prints crossing the dirt in my driveway and laid the traps down near what seed to be there animal’s traffics patterns. I caught two raccoons, one more possum, euthanized them, and haven’t caught anything since. I’ve restarted my flick with ADULT chickens and decided instead to use them, hatch their eggs, and then continue my genetics research from there. I have 11 chickens- 1leghorn/buff Orpington cross rooster, 4 Rhode Island Red/buff Orpington cross hens, 3 straight run leghorn hens, 2 straight run buff Orpington hens, and 1 straight-run Rhode Island Red (by local standards. Brick shaped, dark red, almost brown with black feathers, beautiful brown eggs) hen. I have 20 eggs I’m hatching out now. They’re all between 5-6 months old. The rooster does a good job of mounting every hen once a day. Once he’s a year old I’ll add 5 more hens to his flock to test his experience but no more than that, then I’ll grab a second rooster and introduce another flock. I want to add some colour or squat traits to experiment with like a Barred Roc or a Scots Dumpey or a Jubilee Orpington. I don’t feel quite ready to work with frizzle, silkie, feathered feet, or ear tuft traits yet. I want to gain my confidence with some basic stuff.
I had a website I was reading about genotypes in. It was someone that had an entire series going on egg colours, feather patterns and colours, egg sizes, feather textures, sex linkage, and all, but when I got my new phone I lost her website and all of her research. Any advice or help? Does anyone know who I’m talking about?
I have bad news
Shortly after that thread was made, my chicks started disappearing from a coop that was dug a foot into the ground and boxed in top, bottom, and overhead with chicken wire. Every morning I would wake up, find a chicken missing, and find a hole ripped/chewed in my chicken wire.
I caught an oppossum, euthanized it, and thought I was done. The chicks stayed safe for a while (I’ll assume the smell of blood in the air) butt then 3 days later the holes came back and my ENTIRE COOP was emptied of chickens. This includes the replacement chicks I had bought to start from scratch with.
I set three more traps, found paw prints crossing the dirt in my driveway and laid the traps down near what seed to be there animal’s traffics patterns. I caught two raccoons, one more possum, euthanized them, and haven’t caught anything since. I’ve restarted my flick with ADULT chickens and decided instead to use them, hatch their eggs, and then continue my genetics research from there. I have 11 chickens- 1leghorn/buff Orpington cross rooster, 4 Rhode Island Red/buff Orpington cross hens, 3 straight run leghorn hens, 2 straight run buff Orpington hens, and 1 straight-run Rhode Island Red (by local standards. Brick shaped, dark red, almost brown with black feathers, beautiful brown eggs) hen. I have 20 eggs I’m hatching out now. They’re all between 5-6 months old. The rooster does a good job of mounting every hen once a day. Once he’s a year old I’ll add 5 more hens to his flock to test his experience but no more than that, then I’ll grab a second rooster and introduce another flock. I want to add some colour or squat traits to experiment with like a Barred Roc or a Scots Dumpey or a Jubilee Orpington. I don’t feel quite ready to work with frizzle, silkie, feathered feet, or ear tuft traits yet. I want to gain my confidence with some basic stuff.
I had a website I was reading about genotypes in. It was someone that had an entire series going on egg colours, feather patterns and colours, egg sizes, feather textures, sex linkage, and all, but when I got my new phone I lost her website and all of her research. Any advice or help? Does anyone know who I’m talking about?