The Calico/Aloha/Mottled Naked Neck Thread

[alohachickens]

I got some eggs from alohachickens as a shipping and fertility test before the auction (earlier than the three week waiting period, so there may be some non-NN daddy parentage) - and while the post office was VERY VERY VERY VERY mean to the package, 12 eggs survived to make it into lock down. While nothing is for sure, because of the shipping damage to the air cells...

Ladies and Gentlemen, WE HAVE A PIP!!!




I'm trying not to get too excited/get my hopes up, but it would be VERY cool to get some healthy chicks out of this batch...
- Ant Farm

Oooh, so egg-citing!!!

I can't wait! Crossing fingers and hoping for good news tomorrow . . .

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Oooh, so egg-citing!!!

I can't wait! Crossing fingers and hoping for good news tomorrow . . .

Me, too! I think if I go to sleep and stop trying to stare a hole through them, they might actually pip and zip...

I had a HORRIBLE nightmare last night that all the eggs had pipped, but then two small children got hold of the incubator and started playing with it and throwing it around - I woke up when they dropped it down a flight of stairs. It was vivid, so I'm more nervous than I should be... (especially since there are no children here!)

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I should add that I'm on day 21 with only one pip, one of the reasons I'm nervous...

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Welcome to world the newest little Aloha Naked Neck:



He greeted me when I woke up. (Number two, the one that first pipped, is zipping now.) I hope he doesn't mind waiting for the other kids...

- Ant Farm

 

[draye]

Can't wait to see the spots!

 

[alohachickens]

YAY!!! Calico NN Peeps in a new state! Whoooot!

 

[draye]

Welcome to world the newest little Aloha Naked Neck: He greeted me when I woke up. (Number two, the one that first pipped, is zipping now.) I hope he doesn't mind waiting for the other kids... - Ant Farm

How many have hatched?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I think I can report final (or near final) results. 12 went into lock down. 7 babies in the brooder, one was weak and had to be euthanized (after I helped it - one day I'll learn not to assist). 4 unzipped eggs left. Tomorrow is Day 24, so I'll wait until after work then pull the plug. I got a huge amount of help over on the Incubating with friends thread...

The seven chicks in the brooder seem to be doing quite well so far, no chicks that seem particularly weak, all getting around ok - next couple days will tell (as always). Very sweet and friendly (as all NN chicks are, I think). NN chicks are SOOOOO cute!

With regard to the features of the chicks, they've been sleeping a lot (today is day 1-2), and I've been super busy, so haven't gotten the full tally. Two with yellow down, and 3 with more reddish brown down, 2 (I think) sort of chipmunky looking. But I honestly don't remember for sure (It's been a long day). I didn't get hatch weights - too much going on. I'll get week 1 weights and band them at that time. Six are Naked necks, one ended up fully feathered (a chipmunky looking one, I think). At least 2 full NN phenotype (I think - not always easy to tell), but I need to check more carefully later.

Here are some cute photos. First one is a baby I caught on the way out (hatched upright because of the air cells). And the last one is so cute - one of the little yellow ones got up on top of the Mama Heating Pad and had burrowed up under the baby diapers (like mama's feathers, very soft) - he peeked out to see what I was doing.

- Ant Farm

 

[draye]

Full of cuteness. Congratulations.

 

[alohachickens]

This is so wonderful! With seven babies, I'm sure there will be enough spots to get a good program going!

And since these eggs were shipped early - before the DNA was really "set" on the Ebay pen - that means you'll see more genetic diversity.

The NN hens were running with 6 different Aloha roosters, before I penned them with the one NN boy. So it's possible there could be several dads to these babies!

Although with such a high rate of NN peeps, I'd say some must surely be his! Only one hen has two copy of the NN gene. All the others have one copy. So anything that appears to be homozygous N/N and not heterozygous N/n would probably be by the large, darker rooster.

Anything with one copy of the gene (a "bow tie") could be by one of the Aloha boys, and none of the Alohas were that dark mahogany color, so if it is a very light colored chick with a bow tie it could be unrelated to the darker chicks with true naked necks. Just a couple hints for trying to figure out "Who's the Daddy". Ha ha!