UncleChuck
Songster
Wild Warblers of the Womble / Ayam Ketawa Hatch-AlongThe incubator is warming as I write this, and Iām ridiculously excited.
These 17 Ayam Ketawa eggs are the starting stock for what Iām calling the Wild Warblers project ā an attempt to give this rare laughing-crow breed a healthier genetic base and eventually restore a strong, stable laugh.
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The Bottleneck
Back in February I hatched my first batch: 12 eggs produced 4 pullets and no cockerels.
That wasnāt just bad luck ā other keepers report the same skew.
Add to that the fact that U.S. Ayam Ketawa all descend from a tiny import base, and you have a classic genetic bottleneck.
Some of the problems we see ā poor cockerel ratios, weak chicks, odd behaviors ā are signs that the breed needs new blood.
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Choosing the Right Partner
I knew I wanted to cross in a line that would give:
ā¢ athleticism and stamina
ā¢ good respiratory and circulatory capacity for the long, high-energy crow
ā¢ enough frame to mate safely later with tall birds such as Indio Gigante
ā¢ without simply importing a modern fighting-line temperament
After months of research I settled on the Wahl Asils.
Theyāve been kept as a preservation/show line for roughly 40 years, so they have the classic Asil physique without the active fighting selection.
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Genetics in the Long View
Digging through everything I could find ā scientific papers, old hobbyist notes, even Indonesian breedersā posts ā I came away thinking that restoring a good, rolling ālaughā crow is actually simpler than breeding a solid level-9 dark-brown egg.
The laugh seems to involve only a small handful of interacting genes, whereas the really dark brown eggshell requires stacking up a whopping 13.
That convinced me that, with disciplined selection, the crow can be rebuilt even after an outcross.
Five-year goal: a stable, vigorous bird that crows in a recognizable laugh at about 25 % Asil and 75 % Ketawa.
Twenty-year dream: to develop four separate laughing lines in four different size classes.
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Breeding Structure
Iāll be using a four-pen rotational plan:
ā¢ hens stay in the pen they were hatched in (matrilineal line)
ā¢ cockerels rotate one direction from pen to pen each generation
ā¢ New breeders will be selected each generation following a single back-cross to pure ketawa.
That way, by the time a cockerelās line comes back to its original pen, itās at least a great-great-grandson, so the inbreeding coefficient stays essentially zero while still letting me select for type and voice.
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Raccoons Are Absolute Jerks
Last season I learned the hard way that no amount of optimism substitutes for tight predator security.
A raccoon found a weakness in my juvenile pen and tore through my second young Asil/Ketawa group.
It wasnāt just the loss of birds ā it set the project back months. The original plan was to debut this project with a hatch-along of F1s. My need to nerd with other hobbyists has changed that plan slightly. The surviving Asils I have now ā one hen and four cockerels (one white kept only as a backup) ā and two remaining ketawa hens are being guarded like gold.
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And Nowā¦ the Hatch
This evening the incubator is warming for the first proper Wild Warbler step:
17 fresh Ayam Ketawa eggs from two different sources.
These will be the matrilineal foundation that Iāll later cross the Wahl Asil males to and hopefully at least one male to pair with the female asil.
Hereās hoping for a good, even hatch this time ā especially some strong cockerels.
Iāll post candling shots, chick photos, and of course, eventually, the first little chuckles from the brooder!
A.M. Ketawa Chicks(Can anyone tell what inspired the idea to cross Ayam Ketawa with Indio Gigante?)
1. Frankenfurter
2. Pennywise
3. Wadsworth
4. Darkness
5. Long John Silver
6. Mr. Hector
7. Rooster Hannigan
8. Nigel Thornberry
9. Hexus
10. Herkimer Homolka
11. King Arthur
12. Farley Claymore
13. Ben Ravencroft
14. Dr. Petrov
15. Cardinal Richelieu
16. Professor Oldman
17. Simon Ferguson
Of course, why waste empty space??
Rorschach, the result of 2 generations of selection for iridescence
18. Jung
19. Bandura
20. Pavlov
21. Piaget
22. Erikson
And finally, we have Uncle Sam, our Red White and Blue EE mutt and his flock of Olive Eggers
23. Betsy
24. Lincoln
25. Washington
26. Franklin
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Let's grow wild warblers! 
