Bay Area BYCers!

[jeremy]

Quote:
Norm, I plan on trying the dry incubation method this year, I've read a lot about it and talked with folks who swear by it, sooo...

I figured I'll give it a go!

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Hate to blow your theory up but I have 2 EEs that have a beautiful pea comb and lay brown eggs. Genetics are a lot more complicated than they seem at first glance. Start studying it and your head will start swimming in no time. Fact is an EE can lay any color egg and does. That is just the way it is. Now I have some EE/ameraucana crosses that I can be pretty sure will give folks a green egg cause I've only hatched green and blue eggs. If you cross 2 chickens that both lay green/blue eggs you are most likely to get blue/green egg layers since the blue egg gene is dominant but even then you can sometimes get a fluke egg layer that will give you something else.

They've been talking a lot about this topic on the ameraucana thread recently and I know I've seen you on that thread... Even with "pure" ameraucanas you sometimes get a layer that lays an odd color of egg from time to time. That is because all ameraucanas (an american bred chicken) come from EEs originally and the mix of genes is present in all ameraucanas and they are also a fairly new breed of chicken. Just like 2 brown eyed parents can have blue eyed children, even though brown eyes are dominant, this can happen in chickens as well. All it takes for 2 brown eyed parents to have a blue eyed child is for both parents to have the recessive gene for blue eyes. I don't mean to belabor the point but there is a lot of misinformation going around (on BYC and elsewhere) on this topic and folks need to understand that genetics is a very complicated subject and to really understand it takes years of study. This is a relatively new field of study so even scientists are still learning about how genetics work.

Sorry, did I mention before that I was a science teacher for many years?

 

[Mrsfoote]

Quote:
Norm, I plan on trying the dry incubation method this year, I've read a lot about it and talked with folks who swear by it, sooo...

I figured I'll give it a go!

Thats how I incubate

 

[kelseygirl707]

Quote:
You have no Idea how happy I am to read this! The Dry hatch method has always scared me, I would say I was gonna try it, then whimp out

lol. But I am "forced" to try it this time, because the Incubator I received off Ebay that is suppose to autmatically turn, came broken, and the turning mechanism isn't working. So after turning eggs manually for 2 days while trying to get it to work, I finally told the seller I wanted a refund, and sent it back, so eggs had to go into the GQF with the emu eggs that run at 30-35% humidity. My only issue is that I will need a hatcher for them, as the emu's won't have their humidity upped until the end of March. Oh and they may be a day or two late, because Emu eggs need to be at 97 degrees. But tonight I think I will move the Emus to the bottom shelf and the chickens to the top, as the top runs hotter, then I may be able to keep the emus at 97 and still have the chickens very close to 99.5.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
You have no Idea how happy I am to read this! The Dry hatch method has always scared me, I would say I was gonna try it, then whimp out

lol. But I am "forced" to try it this time, because the Incubator I received off Ebay that is suppose to autmatically turn, came broken, and the turning mechanism isn't working. So after turning eggs manually for 2 days while trying to get it to work, I finally told the seller I wanted a refund, and sent it back, so eggs had to go into the GQF with the emu eggs that run at 30-35% humidity. My only issue is that I will need a hatcher for them, as the emu's won't have their humidity upped until the end of March. Oh and they may be a day or two late, because Emu eggs need to be at 97 degrees. But tonight I think I will move the Emus to the bottom shelf and the chickens to the top, as the top runs hotter, then I may be able to keep the emus at 97 and still have the chickens very close to 99.5.

That should work!

 

[jeremy]

You make good points.

However, using pure Ameraucana stock that came from blue eggs (like my Blue Wheatens) will greatly increase your odds of green layers. No it will not guarantee this outcome but you've got a better chance at having green layers that were bred by a breeder who chose the pairings carefully than those supplied by a hatchery. Mostly because you have no idea what is in the hatcheries breeding pens. We all know hatcheries are only out to mass produce and sell, sell, sell so they throw whatever they can into a pen to make EEs as quickly as possible, thus the reason you get a lot of brown or "pink" egg layers from some hatcheries.

Yes Ameraucanas are a relatively new breed that came from a mixed background but I've been highly selective in who I sourced my breeder birds from, only to then cull seriously for the birds that I would begin my breeding with. I feel my stock from Jean Ribbeck is a very good quality. Jean has progressed leaps and bounds over the past couple years with her birds and I feel she's truly a breeder to respect and look to for advice as she produces some very nice birds. That said, I do have a hen that lays a slightly aqua/teal egg which indicates that there is a brown egg gene somewhere in her ancestry but her type and plumage color and overall confirmation to the Ameraucana SOP overrode the fact that her egg color isn't the "pale blue" that Ameraucanas should lay. I personally prefer the teal colored eggs to their paler counterparts because they seem so much more vibrant in color.

Does this bird have a greater potential to throw brown egg laying chicks because of this fact? Yes.

But, could she still produce green egg layers too? You bet.

I guess when I said "You would get some lovely, highly productive green egg layers out of the hatch..." I should have said "You should"...

 

[kelseygirl707]

Quote:
You have no Idea how happy I am to read this! The Dry hatch method has always scared me, I would say I was gonna try it, then whimp out

lol. But I am "forced" to try it this time, because the Incubator I received off Ebay that is suppose to autmatically turn, came broken, and the turning mechanism isn't working. So after turning eggs manually for 2 days while trying to get it to work, I finally told the seller I wanted a refund, and sent it back, so eggs had to go into the GQF with the emu eggs that run at 30-35% humidity. My only issue is that I will need a hatcher for them, as the emu's won't have their humidity upped until the end of March. Oh and they may be a day or two late, because Emu eggs need to be at 97 degrees. But tonight I think I will move the Emus to the bottom shelf and the chickens to the top, as the top runs hotter, then I may be able to keep the emus at 97 and still have the chickens very close to 99.5.

That should work!

Hey Sunny

You wanna buy Emu Chicks in March/April Don't you?

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Roll your eyes if you want but that was exactly my point. In fact my exact words were, "there is no guarantee that EEs will lay green eggs". Yes we all hope the odds will be in our favor but we do need to be careful when we are selling our birds to not say our birds will do something that they may not, which may cause a big a letdown for someone buying from us. Ok, I'll hush on this topic for now. Sorry once a teacher always a teacher. I'm still learning too and I always appreciate it when someone clarifies something for me (which, trust me, they do often).

What do you want from me? I kept my mouth shut on the "odds" of winning money at the casino!

kelseygirl707, you crack me up!!! How about this, if I come into a huge piece of property in the next year I will buy emu eggs from you!

 

[kelseygirl707]

Quote:
Roll your eyes if you want but that was exactly my point. In fact my exact words were, "there is no guarantee that EEs will lay green eggs". Yes we all hope the odds will be in our favor but we do need to be careful when we are selling our birds to not say our birds will do something that they may not, which may cause a big a letdown for someone buying from us. Ok, I'll hush on this topic for now. Sorry once a teacher always a teacher. I'm still learning too and I always appreciate it when someone clarifies something for me (which, trust me, they do often).

What do you want from me? I kept my mouth shut on the "odds" of winning money at the casino!

kelseygirl707, you crack me up!!! How about this, if I come into a huge piece of property in the next year I will buy emu eggs from you! http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Happy/happy-038.gif

LOL, I doubt the In Laws will let me keep the Emus on the ranch Long enough to get eggs from them, lol.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Roll your eyes if you want but that was exactly my point. In fact my exact words were, "there is no guarantee that EEs will lay green eggs". Yes we all hope the odds will be in our favor but we do need to be careful when we are selling our birds to not say our birds will do something that they may not, which may cause a big a letdown for someone buying from us. Ok, I'll hush on this topic for now. Sorry once a teacher always a teacher. I'm still learning too and I always appreciate it when someone clarifies something for me (which, trust me, they do often).

What do you want from me? I kept my mouth shut on the "odds" of winning money at the casino!

kelseygirl707, you crack me up!!! How about this, if I come into a huge piece of property in the next year I will buy emu eggs from you! http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Happy/happy-038.gif

LOL, I doubt the In Laws will let me keep the Emus on the ranch Long enough to get eggs from them, lol.

Yea I have to admit, as much as I love my kids, their bringing home emus would be pushing it a bit.