The numbers are the month/day. And I did hatch out 3 breeds. I made the mistake of hatching blue copper marans with blue EE's. I had to wait till they where 3-4 months old before I could tell who was who. And I still got a couple wrong.
So, next time I will only hatch 1 type at a time. I also saw someone made little hatching baskets to keep them apart.
I only had 1 roo a splash maran, so I knew who was covered. I have black,blue coppers and splash marans as well as EE"s. I used the 1 roo to cover both breeds. The out come was pure marans and blue EE Olive eggers. But with the maran I culled the EE's hard for feathered feet. Hind sight I might have gone Welsummers they have clean legs. Then again I wouldn't have gotten the pretty blue's.
Next spring I plan on having 2 flocks. One EE and one maran. I will not let them run the yard together. Every other day will be free range.
You could make it easy hatch breeds that look nothing alike as babies. BCM look nothing like RIR ect..
Blue copper marans and Blue EE's look a lot alike when dad is a feather footed maran ;-)
probably one of my favorite things!
