chameleon
Chirping
I hope this is the right place for this post. My broody's eggs have started hatching today and the colours of the chicks are not at all what I was expecting, so I have some questions on colour genetics. Please bear with me, it's a bit of a long story of how I ended up being uncertain of who the father is.
This is my hen (with some of her chicks from her last hatch). She has slate coloured legs, 5 toes, and lays white eggs. She is bantam sized and as far as I know bantam NN's are not available in my country. I rescued her after my neighbours abandoned her. They say they got her from a breeder who just said she was a NN, and I suspect that breeder bred his own special mix of some sort.
This is her partner, the rooster that usually fathers all her chicks. He is also bantam sized but my neighbour can't remember what breed he's supposed to be. Unfortunately he died about 4 weeks before she went broody on her current clutch.
Here they are with my daughter when she was about 1.5 years old, just as a size reference if anyone wants to guess at breed.
In the time that I have been living here and been able to observe them, all their chicks have been brown chipmunk striped chicks (wild type?) like the ones in the first pic. She has hatched out 20+ chicks in that time, about 50/50 NN and fully feathered. She started laying again 2 weeks after he died, and went broody 2 weeks later on 11 eggs. I did not think any would be fertile but I desperately wanted some chicks for her and can't get fertile eggs here. So I candled the eggs after 6 days, and to my surprise 9 were fertile.
I was away for the first week that she had started laying, but when I got back my landlord's rooster was following her around. He is a large rooster that looks very much like a New Hampshire, but I'm not sure if he is pure bred or a mix. Whenever I saw them, she was trying to get away from him, so I didn't think he'd had any success with her. But then the eggs started hatching this morning....
If you're still reading, thanks for your patience. Now I finally get to my question. Who fathered her chicks?
So far all the chicks that have hatched are solid, not chipmunk striped. 3 buff, 1 yellow, and 2 black. Would it be possible to get these colours from the New Hamshire rooster? Or must there be another rooster that I haven't seen?
Could it be the first rooster that died, but just a coincidence that they never had black chicks till now?
I don't have pics yet of the new chicks, but I will get some as soon as she brings them out of the nest. I also don't have pics of the rooster because he doesn't come around here very often, but I can try to get a pic if necessary.
This is my hen (with some of her chicks from her last hatch). She has slate coloured legs, 5 toes, and lays white eggs. She is bantam sized and as far as I know bantam NN's are not available in my country. I rescued her after my neighbours abandoned her. They say they got her from a breeder who just said she was a NN, and I suspect that breeder bred his own special mix of some sort.
This is her partner, the rooster that usually fathers all her chicks. He is also bantam sized but my neighbour can't remember what breed he's supposed to be. Unfortunately he died about 4 weeks before she went broody on her current clutch.
Here they are with my daughter when she was about 1.5 years old, just as a size reference if anyone wants to guess at breed.
In the time that I have been living here and been able to observe them, all their chicks have been brown chipmunk striped chicks (wild type?) like the ones in the first pic. She has hatched out 20+ chicks in that time, about 50/50 NN and fully feathered. She started laying again 2 weeks after he died, and went broody 2 weeks later on 11 eggs. I did not think any would be fertile but I desperately wanted some chicks for her and can't get fertile eggs here. So I candled the eggs after 6 days, and to my surprise 9 were fertile.
I was away for the first week that she had started laying, but when I got back my landlord's rooster was following her around. He is a large rooster that looks very much like a New Hampshire, but I'm not sure if he is pure bred or a mix. Whenever I saw them, she was trying to get away from him, so I didn't think he'd had any success with her. But then the eggs started hatching this morning....
If you're still reading, thanks for your patience. Now I finally get to my question. Who fathered her chicks?
So far all the chicks that have hatched are solid, not chipmunk striped. 3 buff, 1 yellow, and 2 black. Would it be possible to get these colours from the New Hamshire rooster? Or must there be another rooster that I haven't seen?
Could it be the first rooster that died, but just a coincidence that they never had black chicks till now?
I don't have pics yet of the new chicks, but I will get some as soon as she brings them out of the nest. I also don't have pics of the rooster because he doesn't come around here very often, but I can try to get a pic if necessary.
