Awe, bummer about the hatching. :-(
So are you thinking you will keep any F1 males at all? I keep waffling on this because really none of the F1s "appear" to have wheaten, although we know they are all half. So identifying the BC1 who do and do not have eWh will be impossible unless we want to raise them to pol and hatch their offspring in several different pens to see who is what. And THAT sounds like a major undertaking.
I guess I expected more F1 to look a little wheaten.
Also I was curious... You mentioned switching cocks... is this busy for early on genetic diversity or did you have another reason? I have hatched some purebred RB this year too in hopes of getting an even better RB cockerel for my BC1 cross. Because the ones I hatched this year are totally different genetics than the one I'm using for my current F1s I figured that would be a good idea in more ways than one.
I'd like to hatch BC1s this fall.
		
		
	 
Sheri I am really thinking that my one F1 that I plan on keeping is a male, so that would give me 2 females and 1 male out of first hatching that had very good stripes, decent beak and leg color at hatch. I think most of that first hatch are male, based on behavior and feather growth. Some of the lighter ones in that hatch have really nice wing barring, especially one but their coloring is much lighter then I am trying to get.
I only have the 1 Rhodebar cock. I am thinking of switching out my hens that are with him for 2 others to see what I get. The 2 that are in with him now are a few generations from Gary's farm. The 2 I will put in will be ones straight from Gary. That will give me a more diverse genetic base and if I get anything awesome from either group I can cross them.
My SC HRIR rooster has a bad leg, he and Rhodie had a battle as a youngsters and he twisted it some how. He is still very mobile but he does have a hard time balancing when breeding, so he is going to have to be replaced. I am hoping that the orphan chick is a male, super mellow bird, but since a lot of it's tail was ripped out by that opossum I can't really tell yet. It is really sweet though, never picks on the smaller birds and tolerates them using him/her for a launching pad.
Penny