The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[chicken pickin]

Hmmm it is quite hard to tell from the pictures.

 

[nate1the1great1]

Im almost done getting my eggs becuase i only grab the ones I want out of the box so it's ok I'll have enough but I hope my silkie was doing the job becuase i have 4 OEGB eggs and im hoping Blue the silkie did his job becuase I really want to see those but im still getting my incubator ready last night it dropped a half a degree but that's not bad im just trying to ge the humidity right and mark it because im going away next Friday through Sunday for a 4h retreat but by that times teturner will be in and they ad eggs out and i think that my parents could handle turneing 7 duck eggs and putting humidity in and make sure everything is going good witht rhe ones in my turner so FINGERS CROSSED my parents never did it before and i hope they don't forget

 

[Gidgetgirl94]

I'll be setting some of my own "barnyard mixes" as well!! Hoping for a good cross for laying hens next year!

 

[paris_r]

yes gender is determined genetically, what cant be figured out is how amphibians gender happens...BUT some animals (fish and amphibians) can gender switch, AND female amphibians and birds have vestigial testes, so in theory if the female organs stop they will serve as a male. this has been REPORTED in chickens, even to the point of being a reproductive rooster but I really question the account as it would be hard to prove. if the female organs fail the hormones they make will stop and then the animal will change phenotype-just as humans do if they take hormones from the opposite gender.

there is reporting that temp spikes can skew gender of hatchlings in chickens--but you have to read the caveat there! what they really mean (by the papers results) is that the undesired gender does not hatch as much--NOT that the gender of the eggs was 'switched'. now the breed of chicken can play a major role though-as the turkeys in the article below the quote do. for broilers though, temp does not work to select hatchling gender
http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/12/3096.full (and yes this article opens saying amphibian gender is effected----but note they dont cite it!!!)

Quote:
parthenogenesis happens in turkeys, selectively. read this account
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/4hpoultry/t02_pageview/The_Tremendous_Turkey_10.htm

 

[JekkaLynn]

I can't tell you for certain if it is fact or fiction because I have never tried, but I have read several stories about where they tried it and it actually worked. It seems to me that the people who say it doesn't work have never tried...

Oh please let that be true!! Most of my Marans eggs I set were so rounded I had to candle to find which end had the air cell!!

 

[ronott1]

yes gender is determined genetically, what cant be figured out is how amphibians gender happens...BUT some animals (fish and amphibians) can gender switch, AND female amphibians and birds have vestigial testes, so in theory if the female organs stop they will serve as a male. this has been REPORTED in chickens, even to the point of being a reproductive rooster but I really question the account as it would be hard to prove. if the female organs fail the hormones they make will stop and then the animal will change phenotype-just as humans do if they take hormones from the opposite gender.

there is reporting that temp spikes can skew gender of hatchlings in chickens--but you have to read the caveat there! what they really mean (by the papers results) is that the undesired gender does not hatch as much--NOT that the gender of the eggs was 'switched'. now the breed of chicken can play a major role though-as the turkeys in the article below the quote do. for broilers though, temp does not work to select hatchling gender
http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/12/3096.full (and yes this article opens saying amphibian gender is effected----but note they dont cite it!!!)
parthenogenesis happens in turkeys, selectively. read this account
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/4hpoultry/t02_pageview/The_Tremendous_Turkey_10.htm

The genes are very different between reptiles and chickens. They are not the same, like we are not the same as chickens.

The hen determines gender in chickens but the man determines gender in humans.

Watch out for reports on the internet. It is like the article about determining gender by egg shape. The gender is determined long before the egg is shaped and the shape is determined by the hens egg shell gland.

In chickens, parthogeneic development is almost 100% lethal. They usually die within 5 days of development.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

So at midnight tonight (Friday March 13th)  Yahoo on Freaky Friday, I will be setting 48 eggs for my sister.  I'm setting early because we are leaving on April 6th, and I want to make sure everyone is out by Saturday, Sunday the latest.  Yikes, because if they hatch I have 48 babies to take on a 9 hour road trip...  I haven't hatched since the last Easter Hatch Along, since my Broody's did the dirty work for me over the summer.  Here is hoping I don't screw up the incubator. 

12-BLRW
12-Ameraucana

8-Silkies
2-Sizzles (with all fingers crossed)
2-Silkie/OE Mix
6-Hamburg-test run, so who knows
6-Houdans.-test run, so who knows.

OMG that is a lot of eggs..  yikes....

Where did you get the Houdans! Are they purebred?

 

[sillycmoy]

Some guy in Pleasant Grove gave me the Houdans. He has a bunch of different runs with about 4-5 hens with 1 Roo. They looked good to me, but I don't know anything about show quality. He's an older gentleman, and does it to keep busy, I would say he is in his 80s. He said he used to show birds years and years ago, and that his daughters started making him get into chickens again a few years back to keep him busy. He had some really neat looking swedish flower hens too. Was tempted to ask about those eggs too.

If they hatch you want them? I might keep one our stupid Houdan is 2 this year, and I don't think I've had a white egg since like July. She really is a stupid chicken, but shes my daughters favorite.

 

[draye]

Last box of shipped eggs picked up this morning. Got them home unwrapped and set in incubator turning trays and resting until late this afternoon. Will be setting an additional 35 eggs.

112 eggs total. I think. Lets see:

77 + 35= 112. Yes, that's it. Most I've ever set at once.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Reposting this for anyone who is not sure what eggs to set....