24 mutts/pure breds in the incubator. We got chicks!

[Dogfish]

One of my friends needs 5 or so layers, as his have completely stopped laying because they are pretty darned old. He says they are not molting. I only have one rooster for my 16 hens, so I decided to give it a try. He is a nice Black Austrolorp, and I have 5 BA hens, plus some RIR, GSL's and BR's. I took the best large 24 eggs over 3 days (getting 13-16 per day) and set them last night.

I know what the BA chicks look like, but it will be interesting to see what varieties he ends up with. I figured a 50% fertility ratio, then having 50% being roos, to get to the number of eggs I would need.

Sorry if I upset anyone by cross breeding without a plan, but these will only be on our farms. Anybody else have mutts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me it seems like you have a plan. Cross good laying breeds with good laying breeds to get good layers. You can look in my signature and see what breeds I started with, but in another year, I will only have mutts based on these breeds.

With the Black Australorp rooster and those hens, you will get almost all black chickens. You know what the BA hens will give you.

I expect the chicks from the RIR hens will give you basically black chicks that look a lot like the BA chicks. When they grow up the pullets will probably be solid black. The roosters should be basically solid black but I would kind of expect to see a little red leaking through around the shoulders. Not much. Just a few scattered feathers here and there.

With the Gold Sex Links, I think they will work out a lot like the chicks from the RIR hens. There are several different breeds that can give you a GSL so there is some more uncertainty in this, but basically the same. The black in the rooster should pretty much dominate over about anything the hens contribute. You notice I used a few weasel words in this. Not knowing exactly what the genetic make-up of the GSL is (GSL's are mutts, by the way, since they are crosses), strange things can happen but I really don't think they will.

The Barred Rock hens will give you Black Sex Link chicks. The chicks will both be black but the males will have a white spot on their head. The adult hens will be solid black and the males will be barred.

If you cross the solid black offspring from these crosses (not the BA hen's chicks but the others), you will get mostly black chicks. Probably around 75% of them will be black. But you would be surprised at the colors and patterns you would see from the other 25%. Editted to say, probably more than 75% black due to the BR, but still some reds and gold colors with barred, solids, and wheaton patterns.

 

[Dogfish]

Thanks for the insights.

 

[Dogfish]

Almost at 2 weeks. The eggs appear to be progressing nicely and it looks like my rooster is pretty good at getting "the job" done, as I candled all 24 eggs and it looks like I have 18 active eggs. Pretty cool to look at them and see movement. All mine are brown egg layers, so it is hard to see everything, but I definitely saw movement in 18, and only saw 2 that were clear for sure. Might just end up with a better hatch rate than I hoped for.

 

[Baralak]

Sounds like he did a fine job!!!.. Keep up the posts.. want a bator.. but I have to get my wife to understand Chicken Math!!!... lol

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Love my mutts.

 

[Dogfish]

11 of the 14 that have hatched so far today. 3 are in incubator drying out, and 6 other eggs "may" hatch. I figured on a 50% fertility ratio and that was blown out of the water. 20/24 were fertile. 4 eggs were culled monday, all clear. Now we just need to see how the final 6 do.

The 11 in the brooder have found food and water. What a cool experience! Most look to be BA purebreds, but there are certainly a few certified mutts in there. The boys have certainly enjoyed the process as well.

 

[sloallie10]

Cool mixes! Im setting some mixed eggs as well on Thurs or Fri. Here are the eggs i have collected so far:

The roos are: EE, some tall game breed, White faced black spanish, and white silkie
Hens: BO, EE, silkie(black , white, partrige) WL, mix, RIR and i think thats all.
Any help on what the chicks could look like? (from the person who helped above?)

 

[Dogfish]

So I ended up with 17 of 19 fertile eggs hatching successfully. One dies in the shell, another died shortly after hatch, the last two.

Anyway, as you can see in the picture above I have a yellow chick. Actually in all I have 3 yellow chicks. Based on my possible mutt combinations, any Idea on what these yellow mutts are crosses of? I can see that I have 8 BA chicks, but the others, not so sure.