Illinois...

[homeschoolin momma]

My dad sent me this picture while i was at the store.

Isnt that sweet? He managed to get all 4 kids down for a nap!

 

[homeschoolin momma]

My phone is going to shutdown from picture overload....

Right after i snapped this jake and the duck got into a fight. Apparently jake got a little too close to the ducklings.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

My hatch is going pretty good all my 1week experiment eggs have hatched, 2 of the 2 week ones, only 1 of the 1 day eggs and the only 3 week egg is radio silent too. Most of the spitzies hatched, 1 died while hatching. I peeked in and noticed its mouth was completely out and it was breathing, but there seemed to be a lot of fluid. I went outside for 20 min and came back to check to see how it was doing, but it had already died. I think it drowned. Bummer.

@Faraday40 please tell me what happened to this chicks color?!? I have black, lavs, 2 chocolates, and a silver laced. And i end up with a chipmunk striped calico chick?!? Marking are symmetrical too.

And then there is this spitzie. She is feathering in almost completely white!

She is the one with the messed up toes. I thought i had fixed them but apparently need a round two of orthotics.

Although, there is nothing i can do for this toe (middle toe, nail is growing sideways)

I hope this round of therapy helps her to walk normal. At best she would make a sweet pet, but i wouldnt breed her. Here's one of her siblings with its feather pattern. Much more normal.

 

[Faraday40]

My hatch is going pretty good all my 1week experiment eggs have hatched, 2 of the 2 week ones, only 1 of the 1 day eggs and the only 3 week egg is radio silent too. Most of the spitzies hatched, 1 died while hatching. I peeked in and noticed its mouth was completely out and it was breathing, but there seemed to be a lot of fluid. I went outside for 20 min and came back to check to see how it was doing, but it had already died. I think it drowned. Bummer.

@Faraday40 please tell me what happened to this chicks color?!? I have black, lavs, 2 chocolates, and a silver laced. And i end up with a chipmunk striped calico chick?!? Marking are symmetrical too.View attachment 1822758 View attachment 1822759
And then there is this spitzie. She is feathering in almost completely white!
View attachment 1822760
View attachment 1822765
She is the one with the messed up toes. I thought i had fixed them but apparently need a round two of orthotics.
View attachment 1822762
Although, there is nothing i can do for this toe (middle toe, nail is growing sideways)
View attachment 1822764

I hope this round of therapy helps her to walk normal. At best she would make a sweet pet, but i wouldnt breed her. Here's one of her siblings with its feather pattern. Much more normal.
View attachment 1822766

I had an almost all white spitz chick before. It feathered in lighter - but not mostly white like I had hoped. The toes are more of a concern. It could be a nutrition issue of the mom, incubation temp issue, hatching problem/injury, or genetic issue. If a female, she'll lay eggs and can make a nice pet, but you're right not to keep her for breeding. I don't think any of your other chicks had it, so I wouldn't be overly concerned. Sometimes chicks can have rolling toes for the 1st day & then it straightens out as they learn to walk. That's pretty normal. Just keep an eye out for future crooked toes.

The chipmunk orp belongs to your laced roo. My blue silver laced orps often start out as yellow with brown chipmunk markings. Then they feather in white laced.

I discovered this year that my Blizzard has some GLO genes when one of her granddaughters came out looking like this:

Yes, she's still in with the bantams, but that's a whole different story. I'm keeping her for a while to see what the final feathering will look like. (Blizzard's lacing was a real mess as a chick & turned out to be very pretty as an adult.)

So unless Jake was fence hopping again, I'm pretty sure your unusual brown chick either came from your laced orp roo (not sure about mama- maybe a hen who carries chocolate) - OR it could be an EE or other mix. You'll be able to tell as it grows and confirm if it's a pure orp or not.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I dont think jake has been fence hopping. He is quite content having his own girls all to himself. I was wondering if it belonged to my slo roo. I was so hoping for a successful breeding with the partial slo girl. But right now im just happy hes getting some of his fair share. He's so mild mannered and such a gentleman. He's my best guy out there! But third on the rooster totem. I think ive settled on the named Taji which is supposed to mean silver in Japanese.

Two more spitz hatched at the same exact time this afternoon. One hadn't even pipped, but boom! He wanted OUT!! I was checking on the others progress and found two! Two more of the 1 day exp.eggs have pipped. I think these will be the last two. Ill give it through tomorrow though to make sure.

 

[Faraday40]

@homeschoolin momma
I forgot to show you how "Micro" looks. Definitely a tiny little rooster. He's almost 8 weeks old now. I'm not going to keep him, but he's just about the sweetest chick ever. I hope I can find him a good home as a pet.

If anyone wants a tiny "useless rooster" let me know. He's 75% serama and 25% silkie. His sisters are almost 2x his size. (Technically they're "cousins" but they all hatched on the same day) That's a reg size can of pop.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

@Faraday40
He's got his moms comb, dad's feet, and a little bit of both coloring. Its too bad it didn't turn out to be a girl. The only serama that hatched out of 8 in this batch has daddy's feet, but everything else screams mother's child. I was hoping for another Jasper colored one.

Experiment is almost done. I've got two orps hatching now and 1 more spitz that I made a pip hole for. I was candling all the eggs one more time and saw this guy internally pipped and breathing quick breaths. So I made the decision to go ahead and pip a hole. A warm damp papertowel and some neosporin on that one and the orp thats been pipped and made a huge hole, but no zipping. I had another orp egg this morning that did the same thing, huge hole and no zip. I made the hole a little bigger, papertowel, and 30 min it was out and almost dried off. It was getting shrink wrapped. But it fluffed up and is doing great. Really pretty color.

 

[Faraday40]

@Faraday40The only serama that hatched out of 8 has daddy's feet, but everything else screams mother's child. I was hoping for another Jasper colored one.

Thank goodness no chicks got their mama's poor feet! That would be a sight.

I have plenty of Jasper colored seramas. LOL I actually would prefer more variety.
Teddy has some pretty strong genetics.


So how are the lavs growing? Does it look like 2 males & 5 females?

Their hatchmates have no gender signs yet. Even the one recessive white that I thought was male at hatch has no comb color or wattles yet. I know it's early, but sometimes summer chicks mature a little faster.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

So how are the lavs growing? Does it look like 2 males & 5 females?

I can't tell yet, but truthfully haven't been inspecting much because of hurting so much. I'm just trying to survive and make sure the babies are cleaned and fed and looking in good health. I did pick one up and look a little today, but couldnt see anything significant. Their feathers are a nice shade and no sign of the tattered feather syndrome yet. The yellow seems to be fading out some. Ill grab some pictures tomorrow.

 

[Faraday40]

I can't tell yet, but truthfully haven't been inspecting much because of hurting so much. I'm just trying to survive and make sure the babies are cleaned and fed and looking in good health. I did pick one up and look a little today, but couldnt see anything significant. Their feathers are a nice shade and no sign of the tattered feather syndrome yet. The yellow seems to be fading out some. Ill grab some pictures tomorrow.

No rush. Take care of yourself.

I too fell sick. I got a cold in mid May that never went away. The symptoms kept changing every few days.... headache, sore throat, dry cough, stuffed nose, fever, runny nose, lost voice, tired, mucus cough, sore throat & headaches again, etc. Thankfully it didn't all come at once, but after a month of being sick to a varying degree, I went to see the doc. On Thurs, I was exhausted, my glands were swollen and my throat was raw from another bout of dry cough. It turns out my tired, lazy feeling was from low O2. I have a sinus infection & bronchitis, but also my asthma was making it feel worse. I got some strong antibiotics for the infections, some steroids, and an inhaler. I actually had some energy yesterday & today, so I'm glad I went. Of course I'm not used to taking medications, so one big side effect is insomnia. .... Fun times. NOT!