The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Hens and Roos]

welcome all those who found the thread and have joined us

!

question for anyone who might know the answer... back at the end of Jan. 2011 we hatched out a group of babies and the one which I posted pictures of feathered out differently and turned out to be a boy.

Here is a picture from before:

At the time of hatch, the eggs were from the 2 older Wellie girls we have and we only have 2 roosters. How would we go about test mating to see who might be throwing the odd one? How would one know if it was the hen or the rooster? Thanks

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:

We sucked you in, didn't we???? No one could resist those wonderful Wellies!

Fo sho!

I feel like I've been here this entire time, though...I've found the comfy chair at the party and I'm not moving!!!

I have a beautiful pair of Wellies from Whitmore farm, and most recently my friend gave me 2 Wellie Hens and 2 Wellie chicks (looking like pullets

) she said she got them from fellow BYCers. I'm waiting to hear who's line they are from. They could be from someone on this thread!!!

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:

We sucked you in, didn't we???? No one could resist those wonderful Wellies!

Fo sho!

I feel like I've been here this entire time, though...I've found the comfy chair at the party and I'm not moving!!!

I have a beautiful pair of Wellies from Whitmore farm, and most recently my friend gave me 2 Wellie Hens and 2 Wellie chicks (looking like pullets

) she said she got them from fellow BYCers. I'm waiting to hear who's line they are from. They could be from someone on this thread!!!

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
This could be a long, drawn out experiment, but worth it if you want to locate the source. This is what I'd do:

First, you'd need to separate the hens for close to one month to make a clean "control", where they wouldn't retain leftover rooster semen. Then you could separate them into 2 breeder pens. Let the separate pairs breed for 2 weeks (hoping this swap around doesn't mess up the hen's laying cycle). Set all of the eggs and label them clearly. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen X and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen Y. When they hatch, zip tie a color on the X pen chicks and another color on the Y pen chicks.

Take the hens out for another month to make certain the rooster's semen has gone. Then switch the hens into opposite pens. Breed them for two weeks. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen Y and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen X. Set all eggs and label them clearly. Again, when the chicks hatch, put a colored zip tie on the legs of the X rooster Pen 1 and a different color on the legs of the Y rooster Pen 2.

If the first set of eggs yields an "off" chick, you'll know if it came from the X pen or the Y pen. And after the second set, if you have "off" chick, you will be able to narrow it down to a rooster or a hen passing that on.

So if you have off chicks from X/X Pen 1, and the following set have off chicks from X/Y Pen 1, you know it is the rooster throwing "off" chicks.


I haven't had my coffee yet, so if this doesn't make sense, I blame it on a lack of caffeine!!!

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
This could be a long, drawn out experiment, but worth it if you want to locate the source. This is what I'd do:

First, you'd need to separate the hens for close to one month to make a clean "control", where they wouldn't retain leftover rooster semen. Then you could separate them into 2 breeder pens. Let the separate pairs breed for 2 weeks (hoping this swap around doesn't mess up the hen's laying cycle). Set all of the eggs and label them clearly. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen X and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen Y. When they hatch, zip tie a color on the X pen chicks and another color on the Y pen chicks.

Take the hens out for another month to make certain the rooster's semen has gone. Then switch the hens into opposite pens. Breed them for two weeks. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen Y and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen X. Set all eggs and label them clearly. Again, when the chicks hatch, put a colored zip tie on the legs of the X rooster Pen 1 and a different color on the legs of the Y rooster Pen 2.

If the first set of eggs yields an "off" chick, you'll know if it came from the X pen or the Y pen. And after the second set, if you have "off" chick, you will be able to narrow it down to a rooster or a hen passing that on.

So if you have off chicks from X/X Pen 1, and the following set have off chicks from X/Y Pen 1, you know it is the rooster throwing "off" chicks.


I haven't had my coffee yet, so if this doesn't make sense, I blame it on a lack of caffeine!!!

OR, you could take one rooster out of the pen...and after 3-4 weeks start keeping track of both hens by putting food coloring in the vents of the hens...Blue for hen X and red for hen Y. Set the eggs. Then after 2 or 3 weeks of that pairing and egg setting, take out that roo. Put roo #2 in with them, wait 3 to 4 weeks to make sure there is no semen from Roo #1 leftover and start another set of eggs. Put food coloring in the vents of the girls (a few drops near the outside and they will suck it up in the vent)...Again Blue for hen X and Red for hen Y. Set those eggs.

This may give you a better leg up on always having fertile eggs (the inbetween test period) if you need them. Make sure you label your eggs clearly from which hen laid which, and from whichever rooster was with them. You could also only do one hen with the vent food coloring method if you are only working with two hens, they would be easy to keep track of.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
Muggs-How often do you add the food coloring? Also, how much?

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
This could be a long, drawn out experiment, but worth it if you want to locate the source. This is what I'd do:

First, you'd need to separate the hens for close to one month to make a clean "control", where they wouldn't retain leftover rooster semen. Then you could separate them into 2 breeder pens. Let the separate pairs breed for 2 weeks (hoping this swap around doesn't mess up the hen's laying cycle). Set all of the eggs and label them clearly. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen X and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen Y. When they hatch, zip tie a color on the X pen chicks and another color on the Y pen chicks.

Take the hens out for another month to make certain the rooster's semen has gone. Then switch the hens into opposite pens. Breed them for two weeks. Pen 1 Rooster X/Hen Y and Pen 2 Rooster Y/Hen X. Set all eggs and label them clearly. Again, when the chicks hatch, put a colored zip tie on the legs of the X rooster Pen 1 and a different color on the legs of the Y rooster Pen 2.

If the first set of eggs yields an "off" chick, you'll know if it came from the X pen or the Y pen. And after the second set, if you have "off" chick, you will be able to narrow it down to a rooster or a hen passing that on.

So if you have off chicks from X/X Pen 1, and the following set have off chicks from X/Y Pen 1, you know it is the rooster throwing "off" chicks.


I haven't had my coffee yet, so if this doesn't make sense, I blame it on a lack of caffeine!!!

Thanks this makes sense, I have 2 individual pens that each girl could be separated into, they have been probably been in the all girl pen since the begining of March 2011. I can also watch when we crack open eggs. Now just to figure out how to shift birds again!

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
Muggs-How often do you add the food coloring? Also, how much?

Once a week should work. If you put it just outside of the vent, they will draw it into themselves. I have been waiting to use this trick for myself to see which girls are laying in the breeder pens...one girl lays a PUNY lil egg...I need to find her and weed her out of my Lav Am pen. A few drops will do (2-4).

And hopefully your chicks don't hatch looking like this!

Totally kidding!

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
Muggs-How often do you add the food coloring? Also, how much?

Once a week should work. If you put it just outside of the vent, they will draw it into themselves. I have been waiting to use this trick for myself to see which girls are laying in the breeder pens...one girl lays a PUNY lil egg...I need to find her and weed her out of my Lav Am pen. A few drops will do (2-4).

And hopefully your chicks don't hatch looking like this!

Totally kidding!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/45758_easter_chicks.jpg

Darn, I should have done it 3 weeks ago for the Easter hatch!

 

[EweSheep]

Darn nab it! Lost one of Nate girls this morning. Very stiff. Looked like she broke her neck during the storm last night. One heavy bird too! Picked her up and felt her neck, there was a break. Now I only have two of Nate girls left and Summer. At first I did thought it was my oldest hen, Summer but fortunately it wasn't. I think she was the dominant hen so pecking order will be on the move this morning.

The rest of the girls looked fine. Just really ticked me off that I lose one to a storm. Dumb bird!

Oh well I can always get more!

Sarah broke her broodiness and hopefully within two months, she will go right back into it. I didn't want to let her raise any chicks at this time of the year because of space issues and seesaw weather.