Lavender patterned Isabel duckwing barred - lavender brown cuckoo barred - project and genetic dis

[hhong3138]

The last broody chick hatched and it is a brown-down.  Three cheers for "Sissy" --

Meanwhile, a pip in the 'big' incubator.   .

Encountered this great article about humidity. 

Here's a quote that resonates:
"[COLOR=696969] Here are my thoughts: Are you a meddler? If you have a chick that you feel needs assisting, (There is an awesome thread on BYC on assisted hatching and why it should only be done if you feel it's absolutely necessary and the what happens if you assist too soon.) are you willing to open the incubator to help?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=4D4E4E]
[/COLOR][COLOR=696969]   Many people have a hands off philosophy after lockdown. They will not, for any reason open that incubator until the hatch is complete. If a chick is stuck..so be it. If there are 15 chicks running around and it takes 2 days for the rest to hatch, then those chicks are in there for two days. (There is nothing wrong with their philosophy, but....)[COLOR=4D4E4E]
[/COLOR]
 [/COLOR]
[COLOR=696969] If you are a hands off hatcher, then you can probably successfully hatch out chicks with 60/65% humidity in your bator.[/COLOR][COLOR=4D4E4E]
[/COLOR]
 
[COLOR=696969] If you are anything like me, then a higher humidity is better for you. I like to move my chicks to the brooder once they are active and bouncing off my incubator walls, thermometers the other eggs and each other. I do not leave my chicks in the bator until hatch is over. If I feel it is absolutely necessary I will assist a hatch. To properly assist a hatch you have to take things slow, help a little and replace the chick in the egg for rest and to give them a chance to finish. This constitutes opening the bator periodically. Every time you open the bator humidity slips out. Chicks need that humidity to hatch. If you are a “meddler” or someone who feels it necessary to open the bator, then naturally a higher humidity level is going to help keep adequate humidity in your bator. So take into consideration your actions and you should be able to judge a good humidity range for hatching. I personally believe you can't go wrong having extra humidity at hatch, but you most certainly can by having it too low.[/COLOR][COLOR=4D4E4E]" --from a blog by Amy.  [/COLOR]
[COLOR=4D4E4E]Thanks for the insights Amy.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4D4E4E]The indoor humidity here is 58% and outdoors right now 96%.  Humidity is the big question mark.  (not the only question mark).[/COLOR]

Yes, humidity is a tricky thing. Lately, I have had higher than normal later embryo death. I think it is because inappropriate humidity levels. I have removed all water sources in my incubators except the hatcher.
Also congrats on mom chicken's good job e

 

[ChicKat]

Sunday morning!

 

[Kiki]

What a wonderful thing to wake up to!
Precious!

How many?

 

[ChicKat]

What a wonderful thing to wake up to!
Precious!

How many?

9 in the brooder, 2 more hatched but were too wet to move or too close to not being completely out of the egg...and 35 eggs left in hopes of hatching.

 

[Kiki]

9 in the brooder, 2 more hatched but were too wet to move or too close to not being completely out of the egg...and 35 eggs left in hopes of hatching.

O wow you are not going to get one thing done today huh?
Too busy watching all those babies!

I love it!

 

[hhong3138]

3 Isabel one?

 

[ChicKat]

3 Isabel one?

Yes, I think that pict shows three -- now it is up to 10.

 

[ChicKat]

O wow you are not going to get one thing done today huh?
Too busy watching all those babies!

I love it!

Haha, I'm trying hard to keep away from the incubator!

 

[ChicKat]

On type -

While awaiting the completion of hatching and biting fingernails off....it occurs to me to delve into two topics. First is type.

The Legbar type is not the same as the Leghorn type.

Leghorn has a more horizontal carriage and the back line is more parallel to the horizon. The tail extends backwards 'farther' and the back line -- or more specifially the line that goes from the back of the head down the neck, across the back and up the tail is a very graceful curving swoop





Here is a beautiful artist rendition of the wild type ' - tail and wing bars are green - because black with the sheen looks beetle green. Nice renditoin of the females and the Legorn himself.

Here is a dark brown leghorn image -- it looks like Diane Jacky art work. Poultry catalogs, and websites use her art -- and it shows the long soft curve on the back of both male and female Leghorn.


Diane Jacky did this view of a pair of Cream Legbars. Can you see that the back line is not the graceful swoosh of the Leghorn. The bird is more upright, the back has a steeper slope and the mass is more in the front and less in the back like Leghorn has. Diane did this image, I think from the SOP in the UK. She did the illustration for a magazine article. Seems that there aren't many Legbars that have this substance and form - but probably there are a lot of Leghorns that don't quite measure up to the artist rendition of Leghorns either.

That brings me to Ancona


Ancona

Can you spot the difference between Leghorn type and Ancona? To me this bird is more upright and balanced front to back than either Legbar or Leghorn. Infact, I think maybe this would be an ideal Legbar type -- even a better type than the original Legbar picture.

Co-incidentally an elderly gentleman of 84 spry years was over here one day -- and had no idea what Legbars were and kept telling me my Legbars were Ancona. This man is a rancher but in his younger days among many of his occupations he raised chickens -- at one time he had 15,000 chickens (multiple times actually because he was raising them as meat birds....

Certain people know breeds of livestock really well. Chicken judges and quality breeders have the 'eye' to pick out the desired traits. Those of us starting out can begin to train our eye to see what makes a breed a breed -- it's more than just the colors. (but then again this project is about plumage color).

And that brings me to "Jack".
Here is a picture of him:

and another one:

Yep, he is photo bombed by that hen, but his back line is what I'm focused on. He's more upright, and granted this is a live chicken from a different angle and not an artist rendition -- but "Jack" has most of the type that I'm going for. Not the sweep of the Leghorn, although it is very graceful and a pretty bird, but the more sturdy look for the Legbar - like the Ancona.

Meanwhile - "Robinson", who now lives with Sharon in Louisiana is the father of this mega-hatch -- and he has the coloration. "Jack" has great color -- but his very light neck hackles are less desirable than "Robinson's" IMO - and one must project how the colors will dilute, and what effect any females will have on the chick's color.

 

[campingshaws]

Robinson (I call him Jim ) has a much shorter back, yes?