The Pita Pinta Asturiana

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

What a cute idea! I'm realizing that I should probably be singing to the girls, too....

Haha, yep I'm sure they'd enjoy that. Music supposedly helps cows produce more milk

, So why not help chickens lay more eggs?

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Haha, yep I'm sure they'd enjoy that. Music supposedly helps cows produce more milk

, So why not help chickens lay more eggs?

LOL! Probably not my singing, though....

 

[ShadyGroveFarm1]

LOL! Probably not my singing, though....

Not mine either XD

 

[PetRock]

Pita pintas and garnet verbena:


And the coop and run with flowers:

Very cute set up! Of course, cute chickens deserve a cute place to live!

 

[PetRock]

I have my 2 Pita Pinta breeding pens set up at the farm. Zorro is in one pen with 6 of his daughters. Zorro's son Don Juan is in another pen with the 7 mother hens. I have 2 fertility runs in the incubator right now and they look good for both pens. I am taking eggs to Dawn on Saturday.

I have hatched 37 Pita Pinta chicks so far this season. Zorro is the father and the mothers are a mix of the hens and pullets. The male force is strong this year! With my first 21 chicks, 14 are cockerels and 7 are pullets.

Last year, more than 60% of the chicks were females.

So far this year, I have had 2 chicks with developmental or genetic defects and, of course, they are girls. One little one has a kink in her neck. I'm giving her vitamins but she will probably join her brothers at freezer camp. The other little pullet has a beak defect. The bottom is straight but her top beak is growing crooked. She is around 6 weeks old and so far the two halves are still together but they probably won't stay that way. These two are the only Pita Pinta that I have hatched with these particular problems.

 

[ronott1]

I have my 2 Pita Pinta breeding pens set up at the farm. Zorro is in one pen with 6 of his daughters. Zorro's son Don Juan is in another pen with the 7 mother hens. I have 2 fertility runs in the incubator right now and they look good for both pens. I am taking eggs to Dawn on Saturday.

I have hatched 37 Pita Pinta chicks so far this season. Zorro is the father and the mothers are a mix of the hens and pullets. The male force is strong this year! With my first 21 chicks, 14 are cockerels and 7 are pullets.

Last year, more than 60% of the chicks were females.

So far this year, I have had 2 chicks with developmental or genetic defects and, of course, they are girls. One little one has a kink in her neck. I'm giving her vitamins but she will probably join her brothers at freezer camp. The other little pullet has a beak defect. The bottom is straight but her top beak is growing crooked. She is around 6 weeks old and so far the two halves are still together but they probably won't stay that way. These two are the only Pita Pinta that I have hatched with these particular problems.

That is great news!

I have Pepe with two daughters and two sisters. Eggs should be fertile today so I will crack one open tomorrow to see. I will run a test hatch soon too.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Very cute set up! Of course, cute chickens deserve a cute place to live!

That's exactly what I thought!

 

[dldolan]

I have my 2 Pita Pinta breeding pens set up at the farm. Zorro is in one pen with 6 of his daughters. Zorro's son Don Juan is in another pen with the 7 mother hens. I have 2 fertility runs in the incubator right now and they look good for both pens. I am taking eggs to Dawn on Saturday. YIPPEE!!

I have hatched 37 Pita Pinta chicks so far this season. Zorro is the father and the mothers are a mix of the hens and pullets. The male force is strong this year! With my first 21 chicks, 14 are cockerels and 7 are pullets.

Last year, more than 60% of the chicks were females.

So far this year, I have had 2 chicks with developmental or genetic defects and, of course, they are girls. One little one has a kink in her neck. I'm giving her vitamins but she will probably join her brothers at freezer camp. The other little pullet has a beak defect. The bottom is straight but her top beak is growing crooked. She is around 6 weeks old and so far the two halves are still together but they probably won't stay that way. These two are the only Pita Pinta that I have hatched with these particular problems.

Interesting. I have wondered if "line breeding" brings any chromosomal faults too close to each other after awhile. My biologist teacher sister says yes. Could that be the issue, since the PP stock you all have is related?
Bummer on the dude ratio! Some years are like that. I guess over 50 years you'd get 50% girls. Keep working!

I'm batting 100% on my two PP...dudes. Hoping for a more even ration on this next hatch! See you soon!

 

[PetRock]

Interesting. I have wondered if "line breeding" brings any chromosomal faults too close to each other after awhile. My biologist teacher sister says yes. Could that be the issue, since the PP stock you all have is related?
Bummer on the dude ratio! Some years are like that. I guess over 50 years you'd get 50% girls. Keep working!

I'm batting 100% on my two PP...dudes. Hoping for a more even ration on this next hatch! See you soon!

I'm sure that we will be dealing with some issues like that if we don't find some new blood. Hopefully, with several of us breeding them we can exchange birds or eggs a few generations down the road. If anyone has a better idea on how to breed with such a limited gene pool, I would love to hear it. I kind of feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark and I want to do the best job I can with these birds. Zorro is in with his daughters. His son Don Juan is in with my 7 hens so his mother and 6 aunties. I'm not sure if my original flock all came from the same rooster or if Megan had 2 roosters. Ron, do you know? I'm having a hard time getting in touch with her.

 

[ronott1]

I'm sure that we will be dealing with some issues like that if we don't find some new blood. Hopefully, with several of us breeding them we can exchange birds or eggs a few generations down the road. If anyone has a better idea on how to breed with such a limited gene pool, I would love to hear it. I kind of feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark and I want to do the best job I can with these birds. Zorro is in with his daughters. His son Don Juan is in with my 7 hens so his mother and 6 aunties. I'm not sure if my original flock all came from the same rooster or if Megan had 2 roosters. Ron, do you know? I'm having a hard time getting in touch with her.

She had more roosters but a fox or coyote got them. She had one when we picked up our hatching eggs from her.

Since chickens are the opposite of us regarding sex linked genes, It seems likely that more genes come from the hens than the rooster. Of course there is only one rooster in the first generation.

We should be fine for the future but need to breed fathers to daughters more. Sibling mating will cause problems faster. Every 3 to 5 generations needs to be an out cross so that would be this year or next for me.

I really hope we can get that import from the facebook person this year!