The Story of Luna and Why is this chick black??!!

[woman_in_shoe]

Ok for starters, last year my daughter and I built an incubator out of a styrofoam cooler. We were told it would not work. The biggest struggle was keeping the temperature consistent. But 19 to21 days later we were rewarded with 7 out of the 10 eggs we started with hatching. They are a Black Copper Maran and Americana x. The last one to hatch was having a very hard time and had worn herself out. The membranes inside the egg had started to dry out and harden. I figured that if she (it) stayed in the egg, she would die, if I carefully helped her by removing the remaining membrane and shell around the egg, but leaving the top of the egg on, that she might have a chance at living. I sat up until 2 a.m. helping this little chick. The next morning when I woke up I found the homeliest looking little chick who was still to weak to stand. She looked terrible for several days, her feathers all stuck to her body and poor balance. That homely little chick who nearly did not make it has turned into a beautiful and sweet hen. She was named Luna because I had sat up half the night with her.

About a month ago this beautiful slate grey lady decided to become broody so off I went and bought her a dozen eggs.
Well after 3 weeks of being a very patient and dedicated mama, our Luna has been rewarded with 12 little chicks. The breeder only had 10 Barnevelder eggs, so they threw in 2 Production Red eggs. I think we have got possibly 7 or 8 barnevelder females and 2 or 3 males and of course we are not sure about the other two production red eggs. I am wondering though about one of the production red chicks, the one is buff coloured like in the photos that I have seen and the other one is totally black. Why is that?

 

[NancyP]

I have no idea, but thanks for sharing such an awesome story.

 

[woman_in_shoe]

You are welcome. I will try to figure out how to post a photo of this beautiful young lady.

 

[woman_in_shoe]

I have figured out how to upload photos of my ladies and Luna's babies to my page. If you look carefully you can see the one buff one off to the side and a black one hiding in the middle.

 

[Thegrayeyedgirl]

What a lovely story! It's wonderful how far some of these little creatures come in life. It sounds like she will be an excellent mother

Hm..not sure about the black chickie though, hopefully someone more experienced with chicken genetics can answer this one.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Cute story! Congrats on the babies!

The black chick.....he gave you the wrong egg. Or maybe the wrong roo got in the reds pen. What other breeds does he have?

 

[woman_in_shoe]

mystery solved ... they also have a Black Austalorp roo who was in with the Production Reds.