Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Duck Drover]

Most blue birds are silver based if that helps.

Yes, that much I know. So what about a red bird with a blue tail? I am assuming he is red with blue leakage but I have only dealt with red leakage before.

I had a couple of black hens from hatching eggs I bought from a breeder that developed red leakage and she bought them back stating that her daughter must have mixed up their Red Star eating eggs with the Orpington hatching eggs. I had some oops hatches of my own when my "guaranteed colored egg layers" from a breeder layed beige eggs instead (after I culled all the chicks with yellow legs and kept the ones that at least looked correct before I realized that the breeder lied). I never would have hatched mixed breed chicks on purpose but I thought my Easter Eggers would lay colored eggs for eating instead of beige eggs for hatching. Now I know better than to trust raising chicks into hens and not getting what I expected so I only hatch my own and know that what I am getting is exactly what I wanted.

 

[vasher]

I am looking into this incubator: https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Digital-Incubator-Poultry-Chicken/dp/B01H1S1NZE/

One of the cheap Chinese ones, but good-ish reviews and supposedly fully automated. And if I decide that it is too much trouble, not a big investment compared (to the nicer incubators). At least, that is my reasoning.

 

[junebuggena]

I am looking into this incubator: https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Digital-Incubator-Poultry-Chicken/dp/B01H1S1NZE/

One of the cheap Chinese ones, but good-ish reviews and supposedly fully automated. And if I decide that it is too much trouble, not a big investment compared (to the nicer incubators). At least, that is my reasoning.

Save yourself $100 bucks and get an Incuview straight from Incubator Warehouse. You won't be sorry.

 

[Leigti]

My Excequer Leghorns  have reached POL, and so far have given me 3 little eggs.......COOL!
In the darkest  part of winter too!

A few days ago, I was in the cabin working & looked out in the garden and saw birds running, and 2 of the Excequers blasted straight up in a bare alder...........
I ran out to hear ALL of my birds going ballistic and  Jack was slathering & barking & snarling...foam spit going everywhere as he starined on his chain.and I looked up & saw the pullets in the tree looking straight down at something, and there in the middle of my garden, 10 feet away was the Bobcat.and he was paying no attention to either me or Jack my dog !

So now I have a shotgun IN THE CABIN....and at every door of the house !
This cat is getting far too friendly & not the least bit afraid of us or the dog!

The bobcat knows the dog can't get to it. Can you have your dog off the chain? What kind of dog do you have?

 

[Duck Drover]

He was likely the only boy produced by the silver hen, some of the gold pullets could be his sisters. Silver is dominant over gold, but if a male only has one silver gene and one gold gene, the gold will express as leakage through the wing/shoulder area. 

So he has a silver base with red leakage? What about his father? Can he still have a red base with a blue tail or do red base roosters only have black tails with the beetle green feathers without any blue (dilute) genetics?

 

[junebuggena]

So he has a silver base with red leakage? What about his father? Can he still have a red base with a blue tail or do red base roosters only have black tails with the beetle green feathers without any blue (dilute) genetics?

The blue dilute gene operates independently from base color genes. It only affects black pigment. For a good example of what I mean, look at Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. It's the same BBS gene affecting the black patterning, but the gold/red base color is unaffected.

 

[Hinotori]

Most blue birds are silver based if that helps.

Yes, that much I know. So what about a red bird with a blue tail? I am assuming he is red with blue leakage but I have only dealt with red leakage before.

I had a couple of black hens from hatching eggs I bought from a breeder that developed red leakage and she bought them back stating that her daughter must have mixed up their Red Star eating eggs with the Orpington hatching eggs. I had some oops hatches of my own when my "guaranteed colored egg layers" from a breeder layed beige eggs instead (after I culled all the chicks with yellow legs and kept the ones that at least looked correct before I realized that the breeder lied). I never would have hatched mixed breed chicks on purpose but I thought my Easter Eggers would lay colored eggs for eating instead of beige eggs for hatching. Now I know better than to trust raising chicks into hens and not getting what I expected so I only hatch my own and know that what I am getting is exactly what I wanted.

With a cross color it could be gold based carrying a copy of the blue gene.

Solid blue looks better (and hides minor leakage) when it's silver based. A lot of the patterned blue are gold based. Example blue wheaten Ameraucana.

Blue doesn't leak. It's not a color. It's a modifier gene to black. Anything black turns to blue (or splash with 2 copies since it's incomplete dominant).

 

[Hinotori]

Ack forgot to add. Black tails happen when crossing colors. The genes lined up for a black pattern.

 

[Duck Drover]

Save yourself $100 bucks and get an Incuview straight from Incubator Warehouse. You won't be sorry.

I have read good reviews on these. If I did not already have so many Little Giant incubators this is what I would buy. We made a huge cabinet incubator to hatch duck eggs but then with my injury and surgery we have not even tested it yet. If the cabinet tests out well I may give up all my individual styrofoam incubators but I have actually done well with them since they are the only ones I have used all these years.

I think that people can do well with any incubator as long as you figure out what works and keep doing what works. I had the worst hatches ever when I tried to monitor heat and humidity according to what worked for others. I like the fact that my incubators don't have gages to measure anything because then I don't mess with what works. I use the worthless thermometer to get the temp stabilized when I first set up an incubator. If the hatch is too early I drop the temp slightly and if it is late I raise it slightly. Once the hatches are on schedule I leave them alone.

I never used to candle eggs, just throw out any that did not hatch, but now I use a candler to identify the clear eggs and quitters (more of an issue when I bought eggs and less of an issue with my own) to make space for more eggs. I think that my method of moving them from back to front as I move eggs to the hatching incubator counters any hot or cold spots in the incubators.

I use a separate incubator for hatching that is slightly cooler and slightly more humid (I dry incubate since this area has such high humidity compared to Colorado where I added water to the trays) but I don't go as high as most people recommend, even with ducklings that need more humidity than chicks. When I raised the humidity I had babies drown in the shell (misting duck eggs was the worst mistake ever) so I prefer to dry incubate and only add enough humidity to keep the membranes from shrink wrapping after pipping. The hatching process is so wet that it always increases the humidity naturally and I have even had eggs hatch fine without any increase in humidity for hatching. The hens get up less frequently close to hatching but they don't add humidity by artificial means.

Once you get good hatches don't listen to any advice, lol. I had 100% hatch rates until I tried following the directions I read online. Now I am back to leaving things alone unless the house heats up too much during the summer and cooks my eggs. I have to open the incubators frequently during hot days because I have lost hatches due to heat spikes. Lower temps will delay hatches but they are less fatal than high temps.

 

[Duck Drover]

With a cross color it could be gold based carrying a copy of the blue gene.

Solid blue looks better (and hides minor leakage) when it's silver based. A lot of the patterned blue are gold based. Example blue wheaten Ameraucana.

Blue doesn't leak. It's not a color. It's a modifier gene to black. Anything black turns to blue (or splash with 2 copies since it's incomplete dominant).

So the father is a solid red (gold base) rooster with a black tail that is diluted to blue, due to one copy of the blue gene. He has no silver base since silver is dominant over gold and he is solid red.

The son has a combined (mixed) gold base and silver base which is expressed as mostly black and white feathering (silver base) with red (gold base) leakage on the wings.

A solid blue bird is a dilute of a solid black bird that is most often silver based but in mixed colors black can be gold based that is expressed as red leakage.

Blue genetics in any mixed color dilutes the black markings only to blue without diluting the other colors. It usually signifies a silver base but not always.

Do the harlequin genetics effect the background color without effecting the color of the markings? I have seen harlequin Great Danes with a black and white color pattern but is hair color different than feather color or is it the same?