I’ve just had 3 chicks hatch yesterday. All three are very different in colour, though they all have clean legs and single comb.
My laying hens that could have provided the eggs:
- Light Sussex
- Speckled Sussex
- Black australorp
- Black layer (which are australorp x rhode island Red Cross, so a real mix to make a black commercial layer) these started life as black chicks
- Brown layer (Rhode Island Red Cross’s) though I don’t know that either of those girls are laying any more
- I have other breeds as well, but know or don’t believe any of these eggs came from them (Araucana’s - blue eggs, Araucana x Belgian d’uccle - feathered legs and blue eggs, Australian langshen - feathered legs, white silky - not currently laying, golden laced Wyandotte - only just started laying and her eggs are smaller and don’t think any of these were hers).
Rooster:
- Light Sussex
- bantam Belgian d’uccle, but I haven’t seen him mate any of the big girls recently, only our Araucanas, which none of the blue eggs were fertile so doubt he fathered any of these, but could be wrong.
At a guess I’d say:
the light sussex rooster fertilised them all.
The chick that’s yellow with brown markings is speckled sussex mum
Black chick is either australorp mum or black layer (it’s got white on the very tips of its wings)
Yellow chick is light Sussex mum
Of course they could be completely random mixes, but previous times we’ve had mixes they chicks were less uniform in colour, eg white with black spots.
Anyway, I’d love your opinion!
Sadly an egg that didn’t hatch when I opened it (day 23 and no movement detected inside, so I opened it up out of curiosity) the chick looks like it would’ve been a real yellow brown mix, absolutely gorgeous had it survived.
And a chick that I found dead right after it hatched (no visible injury, but looks like it’d maybe had the egg shell pulled off a little too early as it still had some stuff in the bottom of the egg with bloody umbilical cord coming off it, and on the chicks side too, so sadly possibly got pulled off by the other 2 that had already hatched also living around under the mumma hen, or by the hen herself moving around).
I’ll include those 2 as well, though I haven’t put as much thought into who may have produced them, though maybe speckled Sussex or brown layer or black layer given they’d be cross with light Sussex?
Ps the waterer has been cleaned since the photo was taken
My laying hens that could have provided the eggs:
- Light Sussex
- Speckled Sussex
- Black australorp
- Black layer (which are australorp x rhode island Red Cross, so a real mix to make a black commercial layer) these started life as black chicks
- Brown layer (Rhode Island Red Cross’s) though I don’t know that either of those girls are laying any more
- I have other breeds as well, but know or don’t believe any of these eggs came from them (Araucana’s - blue eggs, Araucana x Belgian d’uccle - feathered legs and blue eggs, Australian langshen - feathered legs, white silky - not currently laying, golden laced Wyandotte - only just started laying and her eggs are smaller and don’t think any of these were hers).
Rooster:
- Light Sussex
- bantam Belgian d’uccle, but I haven’t seen him mate any of the big girls recently, only our Araucanas, which none of the blue eggs were fertile so doubt he fathered any of these, but could be wrong.
At a guess I’d say:
the light sussex rooster fertilised them all.
The chick that’s yellow with brown markings is speckled sussex mum
Black chick is either australorp mum or black layer (it’s got white on the very tips of its wings)
Yellow chick is light Sussex mum
Of course they could be completely random mixes, but previous times we’ve had mixes they chicks were less uniform in colour, eg white with black spots.
Anyway, I’d love your opinion!
Sadly an egg that didn’t hatch when I opened it (day 23 and no movement detected inside, so I opened it up out of curiosity) the chick looks like it would’ve been a real yellow brown mix, absolutely gorgeous had it survived.
And a chick that I found dead right after it hatched (no visible injury, but looks like it’d maybe had the egg shell pulled off a little too early as it still had some stuff in the bottom of the egg with bloody umbilical cord coming off it, and on the chicks side too, so sadly possibly got pulled off by the other 2 that had already hatched also living around under the mumma hen, or by the hen herself moving around).
I’ll include those 2 as well, though I haven’t put as much thought into who may have produced them, though maybe speckled Sussex or brown layer or black layer given they’d be cross with light Sussex?
Ps the waterer has been cleaned since the photo was taken
