Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

Does anybody know what color the eggs would be if I used an Austalorp Roo and a Marans Hen?

 

[ozexpat]

Oz, I just read about raised wicking beds. I've used self watering pots, but to do it in a larger scale with raised beds had not crossed my mind before. Perhaps something for you to look into. You basically put a tarp on bottom of the raised bed (and up around the edges a bit, fill the bottom with some gravel or similar medium (the coco cups might make a nice sparse water containing layer that can carry soil). Then soil on top of this. If you have something resembling mulch or hay to put on top, that would slow evaporation down too. Only problem would be during rain season, but I'm thinking you could either cover them during that time a bit, or have some escape valve sort of construction.

*Edit* Keyhole gardening looked like an interesting idea too.

I was thinking about trying heavy duty plastic (visqueen) to form a pond about 4 inches deep but also 4 inches away from the edges. That would reduce drainable area by 80% or so. If it was down 2ft from the top of the garden bed, it could offer a chance of capillary movement of water upwards in a humus humus garden medium.

I would not worry too much about our mega july rains - I would just have to deal with the same problems as normal gardeners in a big rain.

Lots to keep me thinking and thinking means I am am not dead yet.

 

[R2elk]

I was thinking about trying heavy duty plastic (visqueen) to form a pond about 4 inches deep but also 4 inches away from the edges. That would reduce drainable area by 80% or so. If it was down 2ft from the top of the garden bed, it could offer a chance of capillary movement of water upwards in a humus humus garden medium.

I would not worry too much about our mega july rains - I would just have to deal with the same problems as normal gardeners in a big rain.

Lots to keep me thinking and thinking means I am am not dead yet.

If you aren't already aware of it, you should consider hugelkultur.

http://permaculturenews.org/2010/08...sforming-woody-debris-into-a-garden-resource/

http://awaytogarden.com/hugelkultur-raised-garden-beds/

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

I live on a sand dune and I use a modified version where I bury wood in the sand and it does really help in retaining soil moisture. I have also been been burying my paper feed bags and cardboard/paper products about 18" below the surface in my garden. Where I have done this the soil above retains moisture much better than where I have not yet completed the task.

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks. Bens-hens pointed it out or at least I think it was him about six months ago.

Its part of why I was going to use coconut shells. We end up with thousands of them

 

[Tomtommom]

Does anybody know what color the eggs would be if I used an Austalorp Roo and a Marans Hen?

Light brown to dark brown. Some birds would lay light, the others dark.

 

[Tomtommom]

I've got 5 chicks right now, Marans roo over Australorp hens. They're only days old though

 

[ozexpat]

I've got 5 chicks right now, Marans roo over Australorp hens. They're only days old though

Mine are the other way around.

I was wondering what the effect on the color of the eggs would be as I thought the color comes more from the rooster.

I have cuckoo marans and want to try making sex links as I have a huge demand for them rather than dark brown egg layers. I will continue to develop the Marans but once I have twenty pullets I was going to put a 'Lorp roo in with some extra maran girls.

I did not want to have to raise a few of the chicks to see how they produce but I might as well keep five or six and see what happens.

 

[Tomtommom]

Mine are the other way around.

I was wondering what the effect on the color of the eggs would be as I thought the color comes more from the rooster.

I have cuckoo marans and want to try making sex links as I have a huge demand for them rather than dark brown egg layers. I will continue to develop the Marans but once I have twenty pullets I was going to put a 'Lorp roo in with some extra maran girls.

I did not want to have to raise a few of the chicks to see how they produce but I might as well keep five or six and see what happens.

Egg color is a combined trait.

http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/gms1-genetics-of-egg-color/

"Brown Egg Shells
In contrast, Continental (other areas of Europe) and American breeds tend to have red earlobes and lay tinted (off-white or tan) eggs or brown eggs. Controlled by 13 or more genes4, the varying levels of brown pigmentation seen on tinted and brown eggs is actually a coating applied during the last few hours in the hen’s uterus and isthmus6. (You can see a diagram and read an article about the hen’s reproductive system here.)

This brown pigment is protoporphyrin, which is derived from hemoglobin or blood. A little brown pigment over a white egg will produce a slightly tan egg, often called tinted; a lot of this pigment will produce the deep chocolate brown seen in Marans eggs. Because this pigment is not part of the shell but more like a paint on the surface, it can actually be washed from the shell. It can also be scratched, and some nesting materials, like wood chips, can mar the surface of a brown egg when the “paint” is still wet. Because it is controlled by so many genes, brown egg color does not always act in a consistent way. Generally, if you cross a light egg layer with a dark egg layer, the resulting generation will lay an intermediate color. However, some breeds have a gene which can inhibit (lessen or block entirely) the expression of brown pigment, such as pr, a recessive sex-linked gene.7, 8 (More on sex-linkage in a much later article.)"

sex-link article: http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/gms6-sex-linkage/



I love genetics.. it was my favorite subject in Biology

 

[Phage]

Awesome Tomtommom.

This also a great thread on sex linking :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information/0_50

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks!!