Thinking of trying an experiment.

[bobbi-j]

Nice that you have mostly two of each breed. With so many breeds might be a problem to keep track of which hen contributed to the next generation. I guess that will be part of the fun. Bought some hatchery Rhode Islands a couple of years back. Save for one dark red pullet, I thought they all could have passed for New Hampshire's.

I realize the hen is 1/2 the equation, but right now I'm not too concerned with that. As I said at the beginning, this isn't very scientific - pretty informal, in fact. Right now my thought is to see what comes out of each batch with the different roosters, then maybe refine from there. Seriously thinking of keeping the NN as one of my roosters just to make keeping track of each hatch easier.

 

[Den in Penn]

The need to know is is just my obsessive side showing.

 

[bobbi-j]

I'm probably driving all the true scientific types out there absolutely crazy!

Let's just say I'm as far from Type A as I can possibly be.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm probably driving all the true scientific types out there absolutely crazy!

Let's just say I'm as far from Type A as I can possibly be.

All the more fun. Farming is the perfect job for someone with ADHD. I can head out the door before getting ready for work. I'll have HONEST intentions of feeding and checking on the birds, then scooting right back in for breakfast and a quick shower. 2 hours later, the birds are fed, I've weeded half a carrot row, then moved on to water the HK bed, check to see if any of the squash blossoms have been fertilized, and ponder what kind of squash they are. Then back to turn the hose off... which is half way to the robin nest on the back of the shop. Gotta check and see if the babies survived the hawk yesterday. Find a blue egg shell on the ground. That reminds me of the beautiful blue delphiniums that are in full bloom around the big rock. Gotta check them, pick some sugar snaps to take in and share with the girls at work... Oh yeah. I gotta work today! Good thing I work per diem, and being there at a set time is not terribly critical!

 

[bobbi-j]

All the more fun. Farming is the perfect job for someone with ADHD. I can head out the door before getting ready for work. I'll have HONEST intentions of feeding and checking on the birds, then scooting right back in for breakfast and a quick shower. 2 hours later, the birds are fed, I've weeded half a carrot row, then moved on to water the HK bed, check to see if any of the squash blossoms have been fertilized, and ponder what kind of squash they are. Then back to turn the hose off... which is half way to the robin nest on the back of the shop. Gotta check and see if the babies survived the hawk yesterday. Find a blue egg shell on the ground. That reminds me of the beautiful blue delphiniums that are in full bloom around the big rock. Gotta check them, pick some sugar snaps to take in and share with the girls at work... Oh yeah. I gotta work today! Good thing I work per diem, and being there at a set time is not terribly critical!

Sounds like most of my days! Unfortunately, when I'm working during the school year, I have to be on time. I have my morning routine that keeps me on track or who knows when I'd get there!

 

[Mrs. K]

Often times when people think of having a rooster covering different kinds of hens, that one is going to hatch all those different eggs. Where as one can truly just pick the eggs they want to hatch, and eat the rest. So in your first hatch, maybe you just want the BO eggs. See what kind of bird you get, the next hatch pick another breed. If you know which bird is producing which egg, then it is not that big of deal.


Totally off subject: I have an EE hen that produces the most beautiful color blue egg, however, the egg itself is very poor quality, thin whites, often times sliding completely off the yolk when you go to fry it. I just use these eggs for baking. Question: would this egg hatch?

 

[bobbi-j]

Often times when people think of having a rooster covering different kinds of hens, that one is going to hatch all those different eggs. Where as one can truly just pick the eggs they want to hatch, and eat the rest. So in your first hatch, maybe you just want the BO eggs. See what kind of bird you get, the next hatch pick another breed. If you know which bird is producing which egg, then it is not that big of deal.


Totally off subject: I have an EE hen that produces the most beautiful color blue egg, however, the egg itself is very poor quality, thin whites, often times sliding completely off the yolk when you go to fry it. I just use these eggs for baking. Question: would this egg hatch?

You never know until you try, but it doesn't sound good. Also, would that possibly be something passed down to the next generation?

 

[aart]

Quote: Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[lazy gardener]

Often times when people think of having a rooster covering different kinds of hens, that one is going to hatch all those different eggs. Where as one can truly just pick the eggs they want to hatch, and eat the rest. So in your first hatch, maybe you just want the BO eggs. See what kind of bird you get, the next hatch pick another breed. If you know which bird is producing which egg, then it is not that big of deal.


Totally off subject: I have an EE hen that produces the most beautiful color blue egg, however, the egg itself is very poor quality, thin whites, often times sliding completely off the yolk when you go to fry it. I just use these eggs for baking. Question: would this egg hatch?

I have a hen who lays HUGE eggs, also of poor quality of membranes inside, thin rough shell. I opt to not even attempt to hatch her eggs. If I could figure out who she is, she'd be on the short cull list, but she's a sneaky one. I just use her eggs for baking or cook them up for the dog or feed them back to the hens. Sometimes will scramble them, if no meat or blood spots. By choosing only the best of the best eggs to hatch, I call that my "soft cull". When I remove a layer from the flock, I call that a "hard cull". Strictly my own terms. But I do believe that it is possible to improve flock quality through hatching egg selection. Of course, if you can figure out who's an inferior layer, she's gotta go if you're not running a charity or geriatric coop.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

With so many types to play with the combinations are endless for potential projects. Silver Penciled Turken could be a fun project for instance. If only wanting to move forward with a meatier bird hands on analysis of keel shape and fleshing of birds would be a good method. Pull out the breeders based solely on performance. Breed, color and naked neck or not would have no bearing in who is selected to breed. Tag those females showing most promise now then re-evaluate again at breeding age. Only use the ones wanting to move forward in separate pen with best cock. Less is more kind of thing when wanting to breed for specific attributes you'd use less parent stock for more gain of wanted meat quality of offspring. If mating solely by breed I'd favor something like Dark Cornish over Pioneer. The faster maturing genetics have historically been paired on the mothers side. That mating would likely produce your best option for meat quality- double breasted quick to mature bird. Down side of that is 50% of egg laying potential would be from the poor laying Cornish. Successive generations would need to be selected by laying performance alongside meat quality to produce a well balanced dual purpose line.

The overwhelming amount of genetic material in such crossings makes for a need to be very selective in future generations to manifest your goal. The plus side of all that genetic material is many generations of inbreeding can occur before implementing line breeding or a spiral breeding program. If the Naked Neck is used and you don't like the looks of those then it's only two generations to breed it out of the flock. Being dominate trait all offspring first generation would be naked but then mating of the F1 onto themselves would result in 25% F2 having feathered necks. F1 birds would be rather consistent ut F2 is where all that genetic material will really separate out- vast array of size and body type. A lot of hatching needs to be done that generation to select down to very few females and best male to carry on.

I guess what I was getting at here is don't overlook the awesome effects of single mating when moving on to F2 and F3 generations. Best cock and female only and hatch every egg she lays. That would leap forward in short order opposed to taking genetics from so so birds for more on the ground.