Recent content by Bluegenes

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    Selecting for autosexing ability based on chick color

    I had a group of Legbar chicks I got form a hatchery. I know some Legbar strains have lost their accurate autosexing characteristics and this strain seems to have. I had a few very distinct females, one very distinct male, and a lot of very male looking females. I sold off the females that...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    I opened them occasionally if the humidity seemed too high, but the directions say to keep them closed unless you are above 6000 feet in elevation, so mostly they were closed. I kept them closed during lockdown to keep the humidity high. (The directions say can open one after hatch if the chicks...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    Right now I am trying to keep the humidity lower, like 20/25% since it seems to be a more likely the humidity was too high than too low. I am doing that by keeping one of the vent holes open and a small amount of water in the well. I think I may get some sponges and see if I can get a more...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    So how can I tell if it is sticky chicks from too much humidity versus shrink wrapped chicks who dried down too much from too little humidity? I had to help the chicks out, which sounds like shrink-wrapped. But they were sticky, at least sticky in the way that mostly dry glue is sticky (and on...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    It's hard to say for sure on pre-lockdown humidity. Prior to lockdown they all shared the same incubators but we're at different stages of incubation. I think probabaly ranged from about 15%- 45% most the time. I've been having a hard time keeping humidity constant. In the Hovabators it's hard...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    Thanks! I've looked at a bunch of those troubleshooting charts, but they all give so many options of what could be wrong I can't figure out which one is right. And regarding sticky chic, yes I wondered that, but it also seems like they they got stuck in the shell was more like chicks that had...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    I wanted to add that all the eggs were incubated together in two Hovabators, and were put for lockdown in a Brinsea mini and the last hatch was in one of the Hovabators. Also, I had been using a candy thermometer I had tested in ice water earlier in the incubation. Later on I tested it against a...
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    Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

    I have had the most heartbreaking hatches lately. They are all with shipped eggs and unfortunately I don't have any non-shipped eggs to compare them too as we just recently moved to the country and my only adult chickens are older hens (though I did just get a couple trios of birds so I may be...
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    A Saga of Thermometers, Or: What Thermometer is Best?

    Thanks! How did you order them? I don't see a way to do it online?
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    Can a chick's legs change color?

    Well I'm hoping they change... Right now they look pretty much straight up pink. I can't remember with my now grown Nankin what color her legs started out as. But the Brabanters and EEs already have grey/green legs...
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    Can a chick's legs change color?

    A couple years ago I got a Nankin bantam in an assortment from Ideal. I really like her and thought she was decent quality for a hatchery, as she wasn't too light colored and had blue(ish) legs. Now that I am in the country I wanted to breed Nankins but wasn't able to find anyone near with some...
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    A Saga of Thermometers, Or: What Thermometer is Best?

    And to further confound things I just compared my cooking/cand/meat Thermometer with the medical thermometer in warm water (just over 100 degrees) they were 2 degrees apart. And then I took my temp with the medical on is said 97.8... Urg
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    A Saga of Thermometers, Or: What Thermometer is Best?

    What thermometer are you all using? I am so frustrated with lack of good thermometers I can trust right now! First I was using an IncuTherm which I tested against a good digital candy/meat thermometer (which I had tested both in ice water and in boiling water). Then I thought my incubator went...
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    Recessive Silver gene in ducks?

    Yeah, I went back and changed it to clarify. You are right that Mallards and Harlequins are completely different breeds. But I think the color Snowy in Mallards is the same as the normal silver phase Harlequin color. I might be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere
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    Recessive Silver gene in ducks?

    Because if it was the two copies (homozygous) of the blue gene it would produce 100% heterozygous blue type mallards when bred to wild type, since blue is an incomplete dominant. But he said all the babies were wild type indicating it is a recessive gene, rather than a dominant gene.
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