I have 2 White Holland toms and a Regal Red tom with 4 WH hens and a BBW hen. The BBW is from last year and my plan was to try crossing her to a WH tom. The year got away from me, in part due to all of the rain and flooding in this area so I figured I'll try next year..
I had some peafowl eggs that I put in the incubator even though I doubted that they were fertile, and I put some turkey eggs in too. I wasn't sure whose eggs they were, but since I had the 'bator going anyhow, I figured it wouldn't hurt. The pea eggs didn't do anything, and only one turkey egg started forming. The turkey hatched on the 19th, right on day 28. I offered the poult to a friend who had a WH x BR poult hatched by her hens about a week earlier, I figured she could see if her hens would accept it. At first she sounded interested (before it actually hatched), then she said she was worried about the age difference. I resigned myself to having a brooder going with just one poult in there, but before I even moved it to the brooder I found two chicken chicks out by one of the pens. There was no mom in site and I have no idea of what the cross is but they looked like day olds and I put them in the brooder along with the poult.
The thing is, I almost gave this poult away, but I am thinking that it's from the BBW hen! Maybe I will get to start my experiment this year? The question is... The poult is yellow so I don't think it would be from the RR tom, but is the father a WH or is it the result of parthenogenesis? Is there any way to tell? It's pretty chunky, whatever it is. I'll see how big it gets before the pre-Thanksgiving processing, and see if I want to hold onto it it do it along with the others. I have gone from resigned to excited!
I had some peafowl eggs that I put in the incubator even though I doubted that they were fertile, and I put some turkey eggs in too. I wasn't sure whose eggs they were, but since I had the 'bator going anyhow, I figured it wouldn't hurt. The pea eggs didn't do anything, and only one turkey egg started forming. The turkey hatched on the 19th, right on day 28. I offered the poult to a friend who had a WH x BR poult hatched by her hens about a week earlier, I figured she could see if her hens would accept it. At first she sounded interested (before it actually hatched), then she said she was worried about the age difference. I resigned myself to having a brooder going with just one poult in there, but before I even moved it to the brooder I found two chicken chicks out by one of the pens. There was no mom in site and I have no idea of what the cross is but they looked like day olds and I put them in the brooder along with the poult.
The thing is, I almost gave this poult away, but I am thinking that it's from the BBW hen! Maybe I will get to start my experiment this year? The question is... The poult is yellow so I don't think it would be from the RR tom, but is the father a WH or is it the result of parthenogenesis? Is there any way to tell? It's pretty chunky, whatever it is. I'll see how big it gets before the pre-Thanksgiving processing, and see if I want to hold onto it it do it along with the others. I have gone from resigned to excited!
