We usually process mid morning. We feed normally the day before...which means we pull the feed at about 8 PM. We just don't give them their morning feeder. but we may throw them a little scratch to keep them occupied. Water is never pulled.
Pennsylvania!! Unite!!
- Thread starter LeBlackbird
- Start date
- Jun 10, 2012
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I have no idea on the feather sexing of the Americaunas, but on the Easter Eggers I tried it this year and was wrong as many times as I was right. Pretty little chicks.Hatch day was Wed. to Thurs. this week! I finally have a moment to post some pics! Thanks to Troyer and Chiques Chicks for the eggs! Of the 7 Americauna, 3 Easter Eggers, and 5 Swedish Flower Hens, we had a great hatch rate: Mama pushed 1 SFH out of the nest day 1 after I set them (I guess 15 was 1 too many); and the rest hatched except 1 A and 1 SFH. Not bad for me leaving for vacation and letting Mama do the work! Gotta love my Black Australorp! This was her second time hatching and she was a trooper!
To Troyer & Chiques: Do you think wing feather sexing has any chance of working on these babies? I observed all of them & made note of how they feathered but I know that's not a reliable method unless the breeding is set up correctly.
The bottom pic is the 3 SFH. They are so cute! Ok, they're all cute but I'm in love with the variety in the SFH breed! And of the Americauna, I was tickled to get a mix of lavendar and black.
So Friday I went to the TSC in Olean, NY (1 hour away b/c my kids won $130 in gift cards for selling clovers during 4H clover sale. Nice surprise!
Then I went to NYP, the local grain mill and bought 600lbs of egg producer pellet feed.
Today the Asst. Manager calls and says that the have 21 bags (50 lbers) of blue seal egg layer that they need to unload and would sell to me for $5 each bag. So I do the math and some up with $105 for 1050 lbs of feed! I hauled my butt into DFIL's truck and went and got it. They had someone special order this stuff 6 months ago and only took 1/2 of it.
I bought some vitamin/ electrolyte supplement to help in the heat. And I figure that with the birds all being outside right now that what's been lost in the feed will be negligible. I just wish they'd found it before I special ordered the stuff from NYP!
Then I went to NYP, the local grain mill and bought 600lbs of egg producer pellet feed.
Today the Asst. Manager calls and says that the have 21 bags (50 lbers) of blue seal egg layer that they need to unload and would sell to me for $5 each bag. So I do the math and some up with $105 for 1050 lbs of feed! I hauled my butt into DFIL's truck and went and got it. They had someone special order this stuff 6 months ago and only took 1/2 of it.
I bought some vitamin/ electrolyte supplement to help in the heat. And I figure that with the birds all being outside right now that what's been lost in the feed will be negligible. I just wish they'd found it before I special ordered the stuff from NYP!
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I don't think you can rely on feather sexing at all. You might see differences because the slow/fast feathering genes are present, but it takes a carefully setup breeding to link that to the sex of the chicks. The only reliable way for regular chicken keepers to sex chicks is by careful hybridization to makes sex links, or with an autosexing breed. The autosexing breeds are great and eggs from those breeds should be a lot more available next year (I presume you will want to do this again, it would be a shame to not employ such a talented hen).
Another note about the genetics - your "lavender" Ameracuna chicks are really "blue". There are 2 genes that produce blue and they have very different results. Because they all have a lavender parent (the roo you raised last year), they are all carrying 1 copy of that gene, but it's not expressing in any of the chicks because it's recessive and so you'd need 2 copies to make the bird lavender. The mother, however, has one copy of the "blue" gene and that is partially dominant, so it always shows up, in this case in about half the chicks because the lavender roo is really "black" as far as the blue gene is concerned.
The interesting part is in the next generation. If you get black hens, those could be crossed back to their father and half the babies will be true-breeding lavenders, the others will be genetically like their mother (carrying lavender, but look black). The blue hens will produce an very strange set of offspring if bred back to their lavender father - 50% will be "blue" and 50% "lavender", but some (25%) will also be black because those 50% will overlap in the blue chicks. IDK if you will be able to tell the chicks that are expressing both type of blue. They could look like either type of blue or like an overlay of both types. I think troyer is working with this also, so we may have a local source of lavender ams next year.
Wow, great results, I'm so happy. I sort of feel like a number of us had a part in making this happen. And that's an impressive broody you have there. I bet she is very happy to have all those chicks.
I don't think you can rely on feather sexing at all. You might see differences because the slow/fast feathering genes are present, but it takes a carefully setup breeding to link that to the sex of the chicks. The only reliable way for regular chicken keepers to sex chicks is by careful hybridization to makes sex links, or with an autosexing breed. The autosexing breeds are great and eggs from those breeds should be a lot more available next year (I presume you will want to do this again, it would be a shame to not employ such a talented hen).
Another note about the genetics - your "lavender" Ameracuna chicks are really "blue". There are 2 genes that produce blue and they have very different results. Because they all have a lavender parent (the roo you raised last year), they are all carrying 1 copy of that gene, but it's not expressing in any of the chicks because it's recessive and so you'd need 2 copies to make the bird lavender. The mother, however, has one copy of the "blue" gene and that is partially dominant, so it always shows up, in this case in about half the chicks because the lavender roo is really "black" as far as the blue gene is concerned.
The interesting part is in the next generation. If you get black hens, those could be crossed back to their father and half the babies will be true-breeding lavenders, the others will be genetically like their mother (carrying lavender, but look black). The blue hens will produce an very strange set of offspring if bred back to their lavender father - 50% will be "blue" and 50% "lavender", but some (25%) will also be black because those 50% will overlap in the blue chicks. IDK if you will be able to tell the chicks that are expressing both type of blue. They could look like either type of blue or like an overlay of both types. I think troyer is working with this also, so we may have a local source of lavender ams next year.
Very interesting! I think I understand.
Some (at least 1) of the Easter Eggers look very "lavendar" also. I hope I'll be able to sort out the EE from the A as they get older because right now they all look very similar! And yes, I'm going to have to mark this hen so I don't accidentally mistake her twin for her next year.
Thanks!
Whoa! Seriously good deal! Congrats! And congrats to the kiddos! Sounds like their hard work paid off!
Great!! Thank you Wing!!
Thank You Fisher!! Thank you guys, I really do appreciate the feed back. Even if you have an idea of what you are going to do, it makes you feel better to have some input from others who have "been down that road" many times...i would guess between the two of you, there wouldn't be too much that wouldn't have been experienced. Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful weather..warm, but nice!!
**I have quite a few posts to catch up on....that is if the Granddaughter lets me sit for a few moments
Hatch day was Wed. to Thurs. this week! I finally have a moment to post some pics! Thanks to Troyer and Chiques Chicks for the eggs! Of the 7 Americauna, 3 Easter Eggers, and 5 Swedish Flower Hens, we had a great hatch rate: Mama pushed 1 SFH out of the nest day 1 after I set them (I guess 15 was 1 too many); and the rest hatched except 1 A and 1 SFH. Not bad for me leaving for vacation and letting Mama do the work! Gotta love my Black Australorp! This was her second time hatching and she was a trooper!
To Troyer & Chiques: Do you think wing feather sexing has any chance of working on these babies? I observed all of them & made note of how they feathered but I know that's not a reliable method unless the breeding is set up correctly.
The bottom pic is the 3 SFH. They are so cute! Ok, they're all cute but I'm in love with the variety in the SFH breed! And of the Americauna, I was tickled to get a mix of lavendar and black.
I've never heard of a Swedish Flower Hen until reading this post (I'm still getting my feet wet in the chicken world), but what a bunch of cute babies! Congrats on the great broody work!
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