12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[casportpony]

The list of people that haven't reported hatch numbers is getting shorter!
@AgnesGray
@Anne02
@beth1004
@CaramelKittey
@chickenfarmergal
@Corbdee
@Draconias
@Eggs by Happy Chickens
@elizabethu42
@RedneckAccountant
@Reiki Rooster
@ValerieLovesChickens
@Verna Y

 

[AgnesGray]

Sorry to keep you waiting. Been a crazy month that prevented me from really participating much. My mom had a bike accident and broke some stuff and someone left me a lame working dog that needs surgery all at the same time. I have 30 chicks for now... still have some very late hatchers, but those are what hatched within the time which is kind of a miracle since I added water very randomly between one thing and another and didn't realize until week 3 that one of the turners wasn't working. I'm also naming this batch the boy hatch as I got 3 cockerels for every pullet. Ready for a clean start with the next hatch.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry to keep you waiting. Been a crazy month that prevented me from really participating much. My mom had a bike accident and broke some stuff and someone left me a lame working dog that needs surgery all at the same time. I have 30 chicks for now... still have some very late hatchers, but those are what hatched within the time which is kind of a miracle since I added water very randomly between one thing and another and didn't realize until week 3 that one of the turners wasn't working. I'm also naming this batch the boy hatch as I got 3 cockerels for every pullet. Ready for a clean start with the next hatch.

Congrats on your hatch. How are your mom and dog doing?

 

[BullChick]

Sorry to keep you waiting. Been a crazy month that prevented me from really participating much. My mom had a bike accident and broke some stuff and someone left me a lame working dog that needs surgery all at the same time. I have 30 chicks for now... still have some very late hatchers, but those are what hatched within the time which is kind of a miracle since I added water very randomly between one thing and another and didn't realize until week 3 that one of the turners wasn't working. I'm also naming this batch the boy hatch as I got 3 cockerels for every pullet. Ready for a clean start with the next hatch.

 

[AgnesGray]

Congrats on your hatch. How are your mom and dog doing?

I'm working mom's and my job as we have a small family business and because we have this option, she has been able to completely stay off of her breaks and probably won't need surgery.

Dog is amazing with the chickens and ducks miraculously and may even be a good mentor for my young LGD. Somehow some way we're going to try to get her the CCL surgery she needs to get her back on all four.

All considered, everything is turning out better than it could have for which I'm very grateful. Thank you for asking

 

[casportpony]

I'm working mom's and my job as we have a small family business and because we have this option, she has been able to completely stay off of her breaks and probably won't need surgery.

Dog is amazing with the chickens and ducks miraculously and may even be a good mentor for my young LGD. Somehow some way we're going to try to get her the CCL surgery she needs to get her back on all four.

All considered, everything is turning out better than it could have for which I'm very grateful. Thank you for asking

 

[ronott1]

Does this mean I have female?

Feather sexing by speed of feather growth works with breeds that are sexlinked.

First it has to be two breeds. The combination makes one gender have fast feathering.

Otherwise it does not work and is the same as a coin toss.

Feather Sexing Chicks

Color sexing chicks can be a difficult task and is dependent upon the phenotype of the chick. If a chick does not have the correct down color, then you can not color sex the chick. There is a way of using another sex-linked trait to sex chicks based upon the size of the primary and secondary feathers on the wing of a newly hatched chick.

Feather sexing chicks can be accomplished by crossing males that are homozygous for rapid feather growth or carry two rapid feather growth alleles ( k+/k+) with females that are hemizygous or carry only one slow feather growth allele ( K/_W).

The female parent contributes a dominant gene for slow feather growth (K) to all the male offspring while the female offspring will inherit only one rapid feather growth allele ( k+) from the father. This cross produces males that have slow feather growth (K/k+) and females that have rapid feather growth (k+/_W).


The following site provides an excellent example of how to tell the difference between a rapid feathering female (pullet) chick and a slow feathering male (cockerel) chick. You have to examine the feathers on the wings of the newly hatched chick. Wait until the down dries and examine the wing feathers.

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm


The table below contains some of the birds that can be crossed to produce chicks that can be feather sexed.

Any of the males in the table, can be crossed with any of the females in the table to produce offspring that can be feather sexed. If you purchased your birds from a hatchery, check with the hatchery to see if the hatchery feather sexed the birds you purchased. If your stock was feather sexed, then the chickens can not be used for feather sexing crosses.

 

[ronott1]

So, I have a chick sexing methods article and this is actually one of the newer methods I've added to my roster for it. From my preliminary testing using this method, it appears to be an extension of wing sexing. I've only tested 5 chicks so far using this method and it called all of them female, but only one was. Wing sexing, I'm past 50 chicks tested now and it's only been correct on about 57% of them. It is not an accurate means of sexing chicks because it is a sexlinked trait and your parent stock must be selected for the correct genes in order to make it work.

So, in other words, no, this does not guarantee that you have a female.

See my reply about sexing by feather growth.

What you are seeing is a coin toss method-- does not work this way.

 

[ronott1]

Sorry to keep you waiting. Been a crazy month that prevented me from really participating much. My mom had a bike accident and broke some stuff and someone left me a lame working dog that needs surgery all at the same time. I have 30 chicks for now... still have some very late hatchers, but those are what hatched within the time which is kind of a miracle since I added water very randomly between one thing and another and didn't realize until week 3 that one of the turners wasn't working. I'm also naming this batch the boy hatch as I got 3 cockerels for every pullet. Ready for a clean start with the next hatch.

I hope things are better soon!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

See my reply about sexing by feather growth.

What you are seeing is a coin toss method-- does not work this way.

Yes, I know this, that's exactly what I've been hoping to show people by using these chick sexing methods and recording their results over time.