Incubating in the winter - doable or crazy?

[K0k0shka]

Doable. I just hatched a batch and am planning on hatching one more. I do have a heated shed though, so that helps

I'm doing a hatch in my hallway closet right now. Temperature seems stable.

Great to hear, thanks! There is hope.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Thanks! I just added one to the original post. He was such a handsome boy, and so sweet till the end, even at 7 months!

He is beautiful. Sorry for your loss. Hope the babies all look like him.

 

[K0k0shka]

He is beautiful. Sorry for your loss. Hope the babies all look like him.

Thank you! Looks don't matter, I want them to be sweet and friendly like him He just had the best personality. So tame and patient, curious, smart, goofy and entertaining to have around. That's part of why we want babies from him. The sentimental attachment aside, he was just a great pet chicken, exactly the kind we want. I know some of it is personality and there's no guarantee that even his full siblings would've been like that, but at the same time, some aspect of personality/temperament is genetic, so we're hoping out of all his babies at least some end up similar.

 

[Windrider]

I am so sorry you lost the partridge cockerel. He was a special boy, and man, was he starting to come into his full glory in that last pic.

I saw on your other thread that he had a special girlfriend at his new home at the farm and it will be her eggs that are incubated. I am curious as to what breed she is (hoping beyond hope that she is also an orpington!) I'd love it if you can also post pics of her, so we can enjoy speculating about the chicks.

I love all your threads and will be following this with interest!

 

[K0k0shka]

I am so sorry you lost the partridge cockerel. He was a special boy, and man, was he starting to come into his full glory in that last pic.

I saw on your other thread that he had a special girlfriend at his new home at the farm and it will be her eggs that are incubated. I am curious as to what breed she is (hoping beyond hope that she is also an orpington!) I'd love it if you can also post pics of her, so we can enjoy speculating about the chicks.

I love all your threads and will be following this with interest!

Thank you! The mama of the eggs is an ameraucana, but it turns out it was her mixed breed daughter that was his favorite, and she’s not laying yet (spring chick). He loved the mama, too, but, being older, she was pickier and bossier and wouldn’t always let him. So we don’t actually know how many of the eggs are fertilized But I’ll set what I have and hope for the best. I’ll take pictures later today.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'd love it if you can also post pics of her, so we can enjoy speculating about the chicks.

Here are some pictures! The mother of the eggs is the Ameraucana. Her eggs are a beautiful green color. Our boy’s favorite was her underage daughter next to her though, and she’s not laying yet. So we’ll see if he managed to get some action with mom as well I’ll be setting the eggs tomorrow and will start a hatch thread.

I love her blue tail, and her beard is adorable! I’m so curious about how that’s gonna mix with the partridge pattern... if the babies will have beards... if they’ll lay green eggs...

 

[Windrider]

I would think the babies will technically be Olive Eggers (or Sage Eggers?). Brown egg gene from dad + mom's green/blue egg gene should give some shade of olive, though much lighter than the Olive Eggers bred from Marans.

I don't know that much about chicken color genetics, and those Americana/Easter Eggers aren't pure for one color anyway, but from what I understand, her blue tail is from one blue gene diluting one black gene. So I think the babies could be 50/50 on blue and black tails, depending on what others say about the crossing of partridge with whatever the color mix mom has (I don't know what her genes are, but she seems to have a common Easter Egger color other than the blue tail instead of black).

From what I've read, those cute beards are from a dominant gene, so all the babies could have them or only 50%, depending on if she has one or two genes for it.

This is going to be fun!

 

[K0k0shka]

I would think the babies will technically be Olive Eggers (or Sage Eggers?). Brown egg gene from dad + mom's green/blue egg gene should give some shade of olive, though much lighter than the Olive Eggers bred from Marans.

I don't know that much about chicken color genetics, and those Americana/Easter Eggers aren't pure for one color anyway, but from what I understand, her blue tail is from one blue gene diluting one black gene. So I think the babies could be 50/50 on blue and black tails, depending on what others say about the crossing of partridge with whatever the color mix mom has (I don't know what her genes are, but she seems to have a common Easter Egger color other than the blue tail instead of black).

From what I've read, those cute beards are from a dominant gene, so all the babies could have them or only 50%, depending on if she has one or two genes for it.

This is going to be fun!

Thanks for the information! Genetics is such a fascinating field, and such a fun rabbit hole to get lost into on the internet I used to read a lot about cat genetics and horse genetics, now I need to read up more on chickens as well.

 

[ackie]

she did all the incubating for me

 

[K0k0shka]

I set the eggs this morning! This is actually happening. If anybody wants to follow along and play the guessing game, you can check out the thread over here:

Emergency winter hatch thread (Partridge Orpington x Easter Egger)