What's wrong with their feathers?

[onthespot]

Sorry so slow to answer. One hatched right along with the other eggs. Five I left an extra day. One pipped and I peeled a little bit and a tiny bit of blood so I put it back and it died in the shell. Not stuck to the shell, just didn't finish hatching. Wish I would have left it alone. Teh other four, one died a few days before, probably when I switched bators for lockdown, two others looked full term but did not hatch.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

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Well darn, sorry for the Pip that past.

 

[onthespot]

Well, at least i have one. That is all I really need to get the ball rolling. I am glad to even have a chance. I think with some outcrossing this line will do fine. It is a pretty tight line so far. grandparents were clutchmates, parents were clutchmates from their parents that were clutchmates, so babies were double generations of single family breedings. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get a variety started. Lukily Ameraucanas are a very popular breed with a huge DNA base, unlimited outcross potential here. Hopefully new lines will bring new vigor to this variety. My other olive eggers and Ameracucanas hatch like champs, so should be a good cross there. I am hoping BIG TIME for this to be a roo chick, for obvious reasons.

 

[kathyinmo]

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YAY! You have one! That's a great start!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

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Yes, hope it is a Roo

That is what I will be hoping for with my March Jubaby clutch - just one cockerel would make me very happy. (Course if I get a pullet I will not give her away

)

 

[SteveH]

pips&peeps :

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Did any of the babies make it?

ETA: So what is the hatch rate on these so far?

With three generations of inbreeding it is likely to see some lack of vigor . However all involved are looking at outcrossing , and the good news is no genetic abnormalities such as extra toes have occurred which is a great indication of lack of other unidentified recessive traits being buried in the stock . Tight inbreeding to concentrate a trait along with culling of all offspring showing recessive traits that were hidden is a very old breeding technique ; naturally followed by an outcross . Old time breeders maintained their own seperate lines inorder to do these outcrosses with full knowledge of the genetics behind each line . The outcrosses in their completely closed groups would be comparable to a hybrid due to the concentration of genetic information in each seperate line .​

 

[onthespot]

I agree. The one chick that did hatch is quite vigorous, quick, a scratcher and pecker from the first chance he saw food (he, right?

) and his legs are very straight under him, his body cariage is very normal and balanced. He is a little slighter build than my other Ameraucanas, but they are acutally way over standard for size, to a fault almost, so it is not a fair comparison. I feel completely confident to move forward with the one chick I started. I don't feel like there is any genetics obstacles to overcome other than find unrelated decent stock, of which I have three likely suspects already, all lay nice blue too. The eggs these hatched from were more of a powder blue, very light eggs, but they were blue and not green, so hey, that's another plus.

 

[onthespot]

something else I wanted to add to anyone following this thread and wondering about incubating them. The air cells got bigger than some of the other eggs. I usually keep my humidity around 35% for the marans, but if I was going to incubate these eggs again, I would run them by themselves, or with maybe smaller white eggs, cochins, silkies etc... and keep a higher humidity, closer to 50%. I don't know if it would help or not, I just think I ran mine too dry, and by the time I candled at lockdown, it was too late to do anything about it. Just maybe this info may help another person succeed at hatching.

 

[henney penny]

This Is Quite The Thread,so Interesting And The Chickens Are Beautiful!!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats onthespot! 1 is a good start!