Setting eggs today, 6-30-12...anyone else want to join in the fun???

[Cats Cradle]

Ok, I have four babies so far. There are two more eggs that are showing promise, pips have started. I have one blonde baby, one cream and black (barred rock), and two of these little cuties. Anyone know breed the little one is? I'm clueless at the chick stage.

Sorry to take so long, but I had to come back to this chick! I have recently become fascinated with chicken genetics, and chick down gives a lot of clues to the genotype of the bird.

I can't tell you what breed it is, but this chick appears to be e+ (also known as wild type) on the e locus. There are a lot of color patterns built on this genotype including the duckwing and quail patterns. And those color patterns appear in a lot of breeds.

Do you know what the possible breed choices could be? We might be able to narrow it down. I see clean legs and yelow skin, so those are some more clues. I can't see the comb type in the picture.

At any rate, it's a very cute chick!!!

 

[Stephanie739]

Sorry to take so long, but I had to come back to this chick! I have recently become fascinated with chicken genetics, and chick down gives a lot of clues to the genotype of the bird.

I can't tell you what breed it is, but this chick appears to be e+ (also known as wild type) on the e locus. There are a lot of color patterns built on this genotype including the duckwing and quail patterns. And those color patterns appear in a lot of breeds.

Do you know what the possible breed choices could be? We might be able to narrow it down. I see clean legs and yelow skin, so those are some more clues. I can't see the comb type in the picture.

At any rate, it's a very cute chick!!!

I am very fascinated with chicken genetics too!! I'm still very new to it, just experimenting with barred and blue genes. The e+ / e locus detail - completely foreign to me at this point!!!

 

[Kanga77510]

Well, I cleaned out the unhatched eggs yesterday afternoon. The one that started pipping and stopped never did start up again. I opened some of the shell and the smell was awful. I'm not sure what happened, but nature took it's course and I'm OK with it. I ended up with 5 babies out of 11 eggs. I have three babies with the stripes, one mostly black, and one blonde.

I was hoping for more babies, last time we had a bunch of babies. We ended up losing a bunch of those guys to predators and not baby proofing the coop. This time I have mom and babies in a maternity pen, and they're not getting out for a while. I'm going to guard those fluffy butts like they were my own kids.

How's everyone else doing?

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Well it is now 9 am on day the start of day 21. I still don't have any pips. I am hoping they are all still doing well. Fingers crossed that I will start having some action later today and into the night.

Hope everyone who is hatching got some sleep last night. I woke up around 2 am to let the dog out, grabbed the flashlight and took a quick look, at my eggs. I was thinking about all of you who might be up standing watch over your maternity ward. I smiled at the thought of all the new babies and then went right back to bed. lol

 

[Stephanie739]

Well, I cleaned out the unhatched eggs yesterday afternoon. The one that started pipping and stopped never did start up again. I opened some of the shell and the smell was awful. I'm not sure what happened, but nature took it's course and I'm OK with it. I ended up with 5 babies out of 11 eggs. I have three babies with the stripes, one mostly black, and one blonde.

I was hoping for more babies, last time we had a bunch of babies. We ended up losing a bunch of those guys to predators and not baby proofing the coop. This time I have mom and babies in a maternity pen, and they're not getting out for a while. I'm going to guard those fluffy butts like they were my own kids.

How's everyone else doing?

I cleaned my incubator and am preparing for my red bourbon turkey eggs! They should be here today!!

I ended up having 13 of 15 hatch. The one with the crack (fully developed inside) didn't make it and one other that must have died a few days ago. It was sort of gooey.

Here they are! See the lighter colored barred roo baby? I think he will be blue barred. He is not as lightly shaded as my other blues but he is definitely not as dark as the blacks. We'll see.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

They are all so cute...thanks for sharing! What day did you set them again? also, do you have pictures of adult blue barred chickens? I think they would be beautiful. I have a barred rock hen and a few barred mutts, one is a cockeral and one is a pullet....they are pretty, striking actually with such a red comb on the boy...I bet the blues are very pretty.

 

[Stephanie739]

They are all so cute...thanks for sharing! What day did you set them again? also, do you have pictures of adult blue barred chickens? I think they would be beautiful. I have a barred rock hen and a few barred mutts, one is a cockeral and one is a pullet....they are pretty, striking actually with such a red comb on the boy...I bet the blues are very pretty.

I set them on the 28th. Most of my eggs were from adult black barred rock hens and black australorps hens. I have an adult blue orpington roo that had been penned with them the most for a couple weeks. My first chicken project was/is blue australorps and blue barred babies. Of course the blue barred babies would be roos at this point (chicken genetics!!) but their offspring would all be barred with a 50/50 chance of being blue barred (I think!)

I had a couple other eggs in there too. I am not always sure which egg belongs to which hen and I have a few other roos that surely got to the girls at times. I do have a new leghorn and a couple others that I have to guess. I might have a black star pullet, but perhaps that chick is an australorp/RIR mix...not sure.

 

[Stephanie739]

I think this was the first picture I saw of blue barred chicks. I love the hazy/blurry look of the stripes! http://www.thebantambarn.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=23482502

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I love the chicken genetics and am just learning. I ordered a genetics book, and am still waiting for Amazon to get it her. College biology and Punnet Squares and such was like 20 years ago and my memory is just that crisp anymore to remember all of that. I am going to start breeding pens for my FBCM, Cream Legbars and then just for fun and eye candy the Showgirls and Shizzles. My plan is to cull out all of the roos that don't make it to a breeding pen. Although I have one Dark Brahma roo, named Duke that is super sweet at this point and quite pretty. He might get to stay around with my free ranging flock of layers. I have quite a mix of laying hens, nothing show quality or worth breeding other than for personality and egg color.

 

[Cats Cradle]

Well it is now 9 am on day the start of day 21. I still don't have any pips. I am hoping they are all still doing well. Fingers crossed that I will start having some action later today and into the night.

Hope everyone who is hatching got some sleep last night. I woke up around 2 am to let the dog out, grabbed the flashlight and took a quick look, at my eggs. I was thinking about all of you who might be up standing watch over your maternity ward. I smiled at the thought of all the new babies and then went right back to bed. lol

My first pips came at the end of day 21... later than anything I'd hatched before. So hang in there! Let us know when you have a pip!!!

Sleep? I seem to vaguely rember that concept! I am so glad my hatch is done and Smudgie can go longer overnight now! I think tonight I will go to sleep early and tell my DH to not let anyone wake me!!!

Please share the title of the genetics book you ordered!