Last year I hatched a chick from a shipped egg that was a marans-based olive egger. He had very foreshortened legs, although the rest of his body was normal sized, and he got around fine. It almost seemed like achondroplasia. A bit of google-fu tells me it was likely something called the Creeper gene:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30172
I figured it was a rare, weird thing and I was unlikely to encounter it again (I only hatch maybe 10-20 chicks a year). But this year, I seem to have another one! A shipped egg, of a different breed (this time an orpington), from a different breeder.
Am I just weirdly unlucky? Or is this more common than I thought?
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30172
I figured it was a rare, weird thing and I was unlikely to encounter it again (I only hatch maybe 10-20 chicks a year). But this year, I seem to have another one! A shipped egg, of a different breed (this time an orpington), from a different breeder.
Am I just weirdly unlucky? Or is this more common than I thought?
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