12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[OneMountainAcres]

Almost forgot to post! Set quail eggs yesterday and a pair of pigeons started sitting on the 15th, not sure if those count.

They all count! Send me a PM with how many of each you have going!

Is it too late to join?? I've wanted to join a hatchalong since like 2015 but I'm always too late lol.
I have some geese eggs in already and am putting chicken eggs in tonight-- my roosters are young & were not 'getting it on' just right, there weren't enough bullseyes. (I think they seem to know what they're doing now though.) The chicks should hatch around the 7th & the goose eggs the 10th. I'll probably be doing Easter with some kiddies so having a 'second Easter' is probably better for the chicks anyways lol, they will get more attention during hatch days since I won't be as busy.

It's not too late! Send me a PM with how many of each type of eggs you have going so I can add you to the spreadsheet!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Not the best picture because there was too much light in the room but you can just see the question mark shape in the middle of the ring, that is the developing embryo.

View attachment 2572665

Amazing!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

As weird as it sounds the hen can actually choose what sperm fertilizes the egg so typically whichever rooster is dominant will father the chicks in a flock even when there are multiple roosters but this is not 100% of the time. There can be interesting dynamics in multi-rooster flocks. Sometimes a dominant rooster or sometimes each roo will have "his" hens. Not sure how to answer your question but it takes about 24-26 hours to produce an egg so the egg she laid that day would still likely be from the first rooster and the egg the next day could be from either.

That is absolutely incredible! The two roosters aren't in the same area (they already try to attack each other through the fence and I don't want either of them injured) so I'm not sure who would be dominant. I guess I'll have to wait and see!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

As weird as it sounds the hen can actually choose what sperm fertilizes the egg so typically whichever rooster is dominant will father the chicks in a flock even when there are multiple roosters but this is not 100% of the time. There can be interesting dynamics in multi-rooster flocks. Sometimes a dominant rooster or sometimes each roo will have "his" hens. Not sure how to answer your question but it takes about 24-26 hours to produce an egg so the egg she laid that day would still likely be from the first rooster and the egg the next day could be from either.

Does this mean if the hen doesn't like the rooster, she can reject him completely and no eggs would be fertile?

 

[BesideStillWaters]

I am sorry to say, since I like you a lot! but the hen choosing sperm is a myth.

The sperm all goes into a storage gland and a hen cannot eject it. Fertilization with multiple cock birds is a flock will be randomly decided--like it is wit cats

Oooohhhhhhh. Well, I can't wait to see which it is!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Does this mean if the hen doesn't like the rooster, she can reject him completely and no eggs would be fertile?

Once you get through a few more pages Ron shared the actual study and it sounds like approximately 80% of the sperm from the lower ranking roo can be ejected. I really don't want to know how they conducted the study either. Lol!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Oooohhhhhhh. Well, I can't wait to see which it is!

They CAN eject the sperm according to the study. I just used a poor choice of words to describe what happens. Serves me right for going by memory, lol!

As I mentioned initially, it can still be either rooster fertilizing the eggs. It's just more likely to be from the dominant rooster.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I set chicken eggs will be the last hatch until summer

 

[Honora]

Interesting discussion of roosters...I have 2 roosters, 1 black based & 1 blue. My hens are all black based so any blue chicks will be the babies of the blue rooster. The blue rooster is the subordinate one but so far the majority of the chicks have all been blue! Don’t know how the theory applies here!
Candled a few eggs tonight & saw some development, so so far so good this hatch.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Interesting discussion of roosters...I have 2 roosters, 1 black based & 1 blue. My hens are all black based so any blue chicks will be the babies of the blue rooster. The blue rooster is the subordinate one but so far the majority of the chicks have all been blue! Don’t know how the theory applies here!
Candled a few eggs tonight & saw some development, so so far so good this hatch.

I tried getting into color genetics for a little while and it can really make your head spin. There are some genetic wizards here on BYC that I've learned a lot from but I would need to get a book on it to understand it better.

Don't take this as science fact because I could be remembering it wrong but it's my understanding that you can have a black chicken with split genetics. So it's not just the colors at face value. If his parents were blue & black then he's a split and can produce blue offspring I think. I have some basic diagrams somewhere that I can share. Just a second.