Birds and Breeding Projects

[CharliesGarden]

Hey everyone! I have been fawning over my first home-hatched babies in years, and I wanted to create a thread here to track our progress and share all of the precious moments that come with raising chicks.

I currently have 5 pens: Black Orpingtons, Silver Phoenix, BBR + Red Pyle Old English Games, and a cross pen with Silver Phoenix rooster and Red Pyle OEG hen. The Phoenix and OEG pair was planned to test whether the hen is hetero- or homozygous for Dominant White. Six of their eggs have been put under hens, and one has hatched so far. This baby is so interesting to me, as I was expecting either a yellow or brown chipmunk chick, but got a bright white baby with very faint eyeliner. This baby was also the same size as the Orpington chick that hatched the day after them, and looks ginormous compared to the Phoenix chicks that hatched just a couple days later.

We've had Phoenix and Game chicks together before, and the only difference between the two groups was their color. I'm not sure why combining the two resulted in this large-breed-chick-sized nugget, but I am enamored with them. I had planned to mate the pair just long enough to see what color their chicks were, to see what mom's genes are, and then give away or sell the chicks and move the OEG hen to my OEG pen, but "Henry" has stolen my heart. I don't know why I ever thought I could just keep their baby/ies long enough to check chick plumage color, because I am obsessed with color genetics and absolutely must keep this tot at least long enough to see what their adult plumage is. What I am expecting is a white bird with salmon chest and, if they're a rooster, "yellow" hackle, saddle, and wing triangles. I am hoping that the Red Pyle hen from the pair is homozygous, and the rest of the batch come out like "Henry". I really want to see what these genes look like on males and females.

Photos: "Henry" (06/05) the cross breed chick at hatch, 4 days, and 5 days old. "Stevie" (06/06) the Black Orp at hatch and 2 days old. "Jack" (06/07) the Silver Phoenix at 3 days old. "Duke" (06/09) the Silver Phoenix at 1 day old.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Those are some adorable chicks.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hey everyone! I have been fawning over my first home-hatched babies in years, and I wanted to create a thread here to track our progress and share all of the precious moments that come with raising chicks.

I currently have 5 pens: Black Orpingtons, Silver Phoenix, BBR + Red Pyle Old English Games, and a cross pen with Silver Phoenix rooster and Red Pyle OEG hen. The Phoenix and OEG pair was planned to test whether the hen is hetero- or homozygous for Dominant White. Six of their eggs have been put under hens, and one has hatched so far. This baby is so interesting to me, as I was expecting either a yellow or brown chipmunk chick, but got a bright white baby with very faint eyeliner. This baby was also the same size as the Orpington chick that hatched the day after them, and looks ginormous compared to the Phoenix chicks that hatched just a couple days later.

We've had Phoenix and Game chicks together before, and the only difference between the two groups was their color. I'm not sure why combining the two resulted in this large-breed-chick-sized nugget, but I am enamored with them. I had planned to mate the pair just long enough to see what color their chicks were, to see what mom's genes are, and then give away or sell the chicks and move the OEG hen to my OEG pen, but "Henry" has stolen my heart. I don't know why I ever thought I could just keep their baby/ies long enough to check chick plumage color, because I am obsessed with color genetics and absolutely must keep this tot at least long enough to see what their adult plumage is. What I am expecting is a white bird with salmon chest and, if they're a rooster, "yellow" hackle, saddle, and wing triangles. I am hoping that the Red Pyle hen from the pair is homozygous, and the rest of the batch come out like "Henry". I really want to see what these genes look like on males and females.

Photos: "Henry" (06/05) the cross breed chick at hatch, 4 days, and 5 days old. "Stevie" (06/06) the Black Orp at hatch and 2 days old. "Jack" (06/07) the Silver Phoenix at 3 days old. "Duke" (06/09) the Silver Phoenix at 1 day old.

If you get better pictures of the white chick, I maybe able to identify the color for you?

 

[CharliesGarden]

Thank you guys! I woke up this morning expecting one, maybe two new babies...but I got five Once the new kids dry off and get to movin' and groovin', I'll take better photos of everyone. I went to bed with one cross bred chick in a half crushed egg, because mama got a bit clumsy. I created an air hole for the little one, but there were still a few red veins so I did not assist aside from that, and I set the egg in the brooder to avoid any further squishing by mama. When I got up this morning, thank the heavens, the little survivor was out and about. I've decided to call them "Shellington", after the crushed shell ordeal, and because I have a toddler who loves Octonauts We also welcomed in three more of their siblings, all white like Henry, and one new Phoenix chick.

Please ignore the state of the brooder, I got excited to update you all, but today is cleaning day. I also have not ever put chicks in buckets, I have been holding them or putting them in my hoodie pockets to go from nest to brooder, but I was handing out breakfast, unprepared for four new arrivals, and did not wear the hoodie on this 75° morning. I really need to invest in baby leg bands, because the white chicks are going to be tricky to distinguish

The first picture is Shellington, so far they're one out of five to be born more Phoenix-like in coloring. The white babies in the bucket are Henry and Shellington's siblings (who take after their mom in color), and the chipmunk baby is a Silver Phoenix. <3

 

[CharliesGarden]

After 8 days, we finally have a full, yet tiny, flock of Phoenix/Game cross babies. All six hatched safely, aside from Shellington's squishing incident, and so the scientific curiosity of my Red Pyle hen's genetics has been brought to an end. Final head count is five "white" and one little reddish-brown bean. When the first chick hatched bright white, I expected that all the I/i+ chicks would be white, but I was wrong. Two are white, one is a pale yellow, and two are mostly light orange. I've come to the conclusion that the variation of white to orange is probably random, because these are from a random crossing, and random crossings tend to give random outcomes. I was a little concerned that the brown chick may get confused among my Phoenix chicks, but they stand out quite a bit with the strong reddish overtone on their darkest stripe.

Once all the Phoenix chicks are out, I'll be able to get more close up pictures of these guys. I am ordering chick bands, to make sure I track each one's growth and update this thread, and my files, accurately.

1: "Henry" - June 05, white (e+/e+, S/s+, I/i+)
2: "Alexander" - June 13, white (e+/e+, S/s+, I/i+)
3: "Jesse" - June 13, yellow (e+/e+, S/s+, I/i+)
4: "Rivea" - June 13, orange (e+/e+, S/s+, I/i+)
5: "Fashion" - June 13, orange (e+/e+, S/s+, I/i+)
6: "Shellington" - June 13, reddish brown (e+/e+, S/s+, i+/i+)

 

[CharliesGarden]

The younger crossbreed chicks are 9 days old today, so I did a little photoshoot and made collages to show each bird's growth. I am not 100% sure that I matched the current chicks to the correct hatch day images, but I did my best. Their leg bands are coming in tomorrow, thank goodness.

One of these guys is very feisty, and pecked me almost the entire time I held them. Thankfully, the little guy isn't as tough as they think they are (but I won't tell them).

While taking the photos, I realized that three of the five white chicks appear "solid" white, although they have pastel-type orange beginning to creep into their plumage. The two more orange chicks actually appear to have a "bleached" chipmunk pattern. I will include a few of those photos as well. I doubt this has any relation to sex-linked coloration, but I am excited to see how these guys feather out.

For the sake of keeping tidy notes, I've decided to call the dominant white chicks' coloration "Wheaten Pyle", and the chipmunk chick is "Wheaten Duckwing", as (per my limited research) one silver gene dilutes gold to wheaten. This is because I am expecting the white chicks to color out like Red Pyles, but the red will be diluted to a yellow/orange ("Wheaten"), and the chipmunk chick will look like a Silver Duckwing, but the Silver parts should be yellow/orange ("Wheaten") as well.

I am completely open to all criticism of my terminology and somewhat limited genetics knowledge, and always incredibly happy to learn things I didn't know <3