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

 

[CharliesGarden]

The original cross chick is now 24 days old, and their siblings are 16 days old. I can't believe how much they've grown in less than a month. At a glace, the original and one of the younger chicks are more feathered than the others, and are very photogenic. The rest have slightly less feathering. Two of the six have slightly larger combs than the rest, one more so than the other. I've put in the journal that maybe those are cockerels and the rest are pullets, but I have no idea really. I also noticed that most of their legs are leaning towards slate coloring of the Phoenix sire, while others still show the white leg of the Game dam. The feathering color differences are incredibly interesting as well. Each Pyle chick now sports orange in their white wings, and one even has a singular, half-chipmunk-colored feather.

*Yellow, "Henry" - pullet? oldest, quite feathered in, upright tail, small comb, slatey legs
*Orange, "Shellington" - pullet? semi feathered in, small comb, slatey legs
*Green, "Jesse" - pullet? semi feathered in, small comb, slatey legs
*Purple, "Rivea" - cockerel? less feathering than others, short tail, comb is quite larger, white legs, singular half-white half-brown feather on left wing
*Blue, "Alex" - pullet? quite feathered in, small comb, upright tail, legs somewhat slatey
*Pink, "Fashion" - cockerel? less feathering, short tail, somewhat larger comb, white legs

If my guesses turn out to be correct, I'm wondering if there could be some sort of sex-linkage between the slate and white legs.

 

[MysteryChicken]

The original cross chick is now 24 days old, and their siblings are 16 days old. I can't believe how much they've grown in less than a month. At a glace, the original and one of the younger chicks are more feathered than the others, and are very photogenic. The rest have slightly less feathering. Two of the six have slightly larger combs than the rest, one more so than the other. I've put in the journal that maybe those are cockerels and the rest are pullets, but I have no idea really. I also noticed that most of their legs are leaning towards slate coloring of the Phoenix sire, while others still show the white leg of the Game dam. The feathering color differences are incredibly interesting as well. Each Pyle chick now sports orange in their white wings, and one even has a singular, half-chipmunk-colored feather.

*Yellow, "Henry" - pullet? oldest, quite feathered in, upright tail, small comb, slatey legs
*Orange, "Shellington" - pullet? semi feathered in, small comb, slatey legs
*Green, "Jesse" - pullet? semi feathered in, small comb, slatey legs
*Purple, "Rivea" - cockerel? less feathering than others, short tail, comb is quite larger, white legs, singular half-white half-brown feather on left wing
*Blue, "Alex" - pullet? quite feathered in, small comb, upright tail, legs somewhat slatey
*Pink, "Fashion" - cockerel? less feathering, short tail, somewhat larger comb, white legs

If my guesses turn out to be correct, I'm wondering if there could be some sort of sex-linkage between the slate and white legs.

Whites are all Dominant White.

 

[CharliesGarden]

Whites are all Dominant White.

Yes Their mother is I/i+ Red Pyle, so each white got a single Dominant White gene from her. All six also got one silver gene from their father, and I can't wait to see how that interacts with the wildtype gene from their mother. I've never purposefully crossed breeds before, and the one time it did happen I knew nothing about genetics. All of these guys will be duckwing, and I'm expecting the males to develop yellow on the hackles, saddles, and wing. The white females should appear solid white with salmon breasts, and the chipmunk chick should look like a Silver Phoenix hen if female. I am excited to see how they grow, and if my semi-educated guesses for phenotypes are correct.

 

[CharliesGarden]

It's been almost a month since my last post, and these guys have grown like weeds! The original cross chicks are 1m 16d and 1m 8d old. The light pullets and cockerels look so different, and it's so cool to see them change even more as they grow. The pullets are becoming a more creamy orange, with darker chests, and the cockerels are still mainly white but now have some darker red feathers peppered into their wings. The pullets have darker faces and beaks and slate legs, while the cockerels have light faces and beaks and white legs. I have found it very interesting that I've been able to tell the pullets from the cockerels for a couple weeks, meanwhile it's only been a few days since the pure Phoenix chicks have started to show sexual differences, and I'm still not entirely sure I'm right in assuming which are what with those guys yet.

We've got the next round of cross chicks hatching now, the first got here 3 days ago and the second and third hatched yesterday evening. There are two more eggs under the foster hen, and those are due any time now. So far, two are Pyle and one is Duckwing.

I'm not sure if any of my assumptions will be correct, but I am having so much fun making them. From the first batch, I now know that the lighter chicks were pullets, and the more orange ones turned out to be cockerels. I don't know if this was a fluke or if there is some weight to it. I am taking note that one of the new chicks is more orange/cream than the other, so I am wondering if the darker will be a cockerel and the lighter a pullet. The darker chipmunk chick also appears to be more red-tinted than the pullet from the first batch was, so I am wondering if that means this one is a cockerel.

I do think I was incorrect in my initial assumption that these chicks would sport yellow/wheaten in place of their Game mother's red. So far, the light chicks seem to be coloring up as Red Pyle, not Wheaten. Of course, there is still a chance they will change and lighten as they age. I am having so much fun learning about the genetics of my birds and how they mix, and I can't wait to see if my other guesses are correct. I am amazed that there is a chance that this may be a semi-auto-sexing cross.