- May 17, 2014
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Hi all!
I recently had a little hen go broody under my barn and her eggs are due to hatch next week. This is the second generation of (accidental) Rosecomb-Dutch bantam crosses that I've bred and I'm curious about what this batch will look like. The parents are offspring of a Silver Dutch bantam hen (unsure of pedigree) and a black Rosecomb rooster (Champion-line). I bought the Dutch hen at a show from a young showman who had to get rid of her flock, but the hen was picked on so much by my mostly-standard-sized flock that I put her in with my separated Rosecomb flock so that she would be safer.
But there was a stint there at the beginning of May for about a week when my Rosecomb hens in that separate flock suddenly started laying, and since I don't have a working incubator, I stuck as many eggs as I could under a broody hen. I've had so many Rosecomb fertility issues that I was willing to risk a hybrid if I got at least a few pure Rosecombs. But my luck isn't that good and it turns out that the two eggs that that broody hatched were the Dutch's eggs that were mixed in with the Rosecomb eggs. I got one cock and one hen, which are a little over six months old now.
For reference, both Rosecomb-Dutch crosses have nice rosecombs and white earlobes, although they aren't as large or smooth as my purebreds'. The hen is all black with a tiny bit of copper in her cape and the cock looks something like a golden-duckwing Old English cock, but with more red in his feathers (with the rosecomb and white earlobes, of course). Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen chickens with shorter legs, besides maybe on a Japanese hen. Both birds are tiny; the hen probably doesn't weigh more than pound, if even that, and the cock is probably just a tad over 20 oz. Both are smaller than the parents, which hit the SOP and hover around the 19-22 oz range.
All that being said, I didn't mean for these two hybrids to breed. But that hen is too far under the barn to get her or her eggs out, so I'm just going to wait it out and see if anything happens. For all I know, she's sitting on infertile or even another bantam's eggs. But if they do hatch, I don't really know what they will look like. Is the Rosecomb a dominant trait or recessive? If the single comb gene is recessive, then would my birds could be carriers and could I could get single-comb babies? And about the color, it might just be a guessing game, but I'm just curious if anyone had any insight into chicken genetics and would know which traits are more likely to show up in these Rosecomb-Dutch and Rosecomb-Dutch crosses, especially about comb type, earlobe color, and plumage color.
Thanks for the help! I appreciate it!
I recently had a little hen go broody under my barn and her eggs are due to hatch next week. This is the second generation of (accidental) Rosecomb-Dutch bantam crosses that I've bred and I'm curious about what this batch will look like. The parents are offspring of a Silver Dutch bantam hen (unsure of pedigree) and a black Rosecomb rooster (Champion-line). I bought the Dutch hen at a show from a young showman who had to get rid of her flock, but the hen was picked on so much by my mostly-standard-sized flock that I put her in with my separated Rosecomb flock so that she would be safer.
But there was a stint there at the beginning of May for about a week when my Rosecomb hens in that separate flock suddenly started laying, and since I don't have a working incubator, I stuck as many eggs as I could under a broody hen. I've had so many Rosecomb fertility issues that I was willing to risk a hybrid if I got at least a few pure Rosecombs. But my luck isn't that good and it turns out that the two eggs that that broody hatched were the Dutch's eggs that were mixed in with the Rosecomb eggs. I got one cock and one hen, which are a little over six months old now.
For reference, both Rosecomb-Dutch crosses have nice rosecombs and white earlobes, although they aren't as large or smooth as my purebreds'. The hen is all black with a tiny bit of copper in her cape and the cock looks something like a golden-duckwing Old English cock, but with more red in his feathers (with the rosecomb and white earlobes, of course). Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen chickens with shorter legs, besides maybe on a Japanese hen. Both birds are tiny; the hen probably doesn't weigh more than pound, if even that, and the cock is probably just a tad over 20 oz. Both are smaller than the parents, which hit the SOP and hover around the 19-22 oz range.
All that being said, I didn't mean for these two hybrids to breed. But that hen is too far under the barn to get her or her eggs out, so I'm just going to wait it out and see if anything happens. For all I know, she's sitting on infertile or even another bantam's eggs. But if they do hatch, I don't really know what they will look like. Is the Rosecomb a dominant trait or recessive? If the single comb gene is recessive, then would my birds could be carriers and could I could get single-comb babies? And about the color, it might just be a guessing game, but I'm just curious if anyone had any insight into chicken genetics and would know which traits are more likely to show up in these Rosecomb-Dutch and Rosecomb-Dutch crosses, especially about comb type, earlobe color, and plumage color.
Thanks for the help! I appreciate it!
I did the math, and these chicks are due to hatch on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Any way they turn out, I guess they're all little Christmas presents. 
Mama hen is also doing way better than I thought and we've got them with a heat lamp since it's pretty cold here. 
Looks like it's just going to be the four of them, but mama hasn't given up on the eggs yet!
