Family Tree

Here we have a simple chart of Roo, Hen and resulting chick. I expected all chicks to turn out the color and pattern of their hen. We will see if I am right.



SpotOnFarm

Eight Weeks and Genetics

Nothing quite like the cuteness of these chicks. I have been cross breeding them for a year now. Mabon and her sister are my f1's. mabon is a male orust with a female wells, and sister is a male wels with a female orust. you will see below with opal(f2) she has recessive traits already. Orust, though striking, is subjected to inbreeding, whereas other chickens of Sweden have a larger genetic pool to play with. Photos are surfacing of beautiful black dominated plumage. A contrast from the White dominated that Green Fire Farms has. Hopefully they are able to import a 3 genetic line. Native Swedish Chicken Link or Genetic Diversity of Five Swedish Chickens and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Analysis.

Iggi is heterozygous for the bl dilution gene. Though she has 'black' plumage on her head and neck, the rest of her feathers on her body are significantly more diluted. This is normal to see on a heterozygous bl.

here are the side shots  (not as beaut and dramatic as those above)

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opal

sophie looking a very proper hen

iggi again, bl dilution is seen very nicely

4/9/16 Five chicks and a hen.

Did you say snow? Pretty late season snow came today. Still flurrying as i type. So I seized the moment and went out and took some photographs of the yard. Sure was pretty!

The backyard: a view from the coop.

You can easily guess the age of the chicks by how Yellow their down is. They are born very yellow and loose that colouration within a week. So, from the photograph concerning the two chicks directly in front: The front left is 9 days old. The front right is 4 days old.

backyard beauty! with the temps hovering around 33 degrees, the snow fell very wet and clung to all the branches. Sure did make for an epic photo!

This is my road out front. Sometimes during bad weather I can not even leave my driveway!

I hope you enjoyed my pretty photos! Next up... Gardening!


SpotOnFarm

3/31/16 June's first hatch

What a lovely surprise! I moved June three nights ago to this hutch so that she could be alone to brood. Her coop mates were stressing her out so much and kept laying eggs into her nest. This lead to some dirty pile ups and 14 eggs under her. I currently have 5 of the dirtiest eggs in a brooder in my house. And left 9 under her. Not sure if the dirty 5 will make it, but i wiped the eggs best I could with warm water. For June I now use tiny containers for water and food. I have placed them nearby on a ledge. I made sure she was off layer feed and back onto regular food. I was definitely very nervous to move her since I knew the due dates started tomorrow, and ran till the 7th of April. Moving her at night seemed to be a good trick and she laid right back down on the nest.

Here is June looking all happy! She is no longer as pale as she was last week.

 The best news is, we already have 2 chicks. Here you can see a very healthy one peeping out from his mom. I bugged her three times, and so now ill give her another day till i check under her again. :)

Spring is definitely here! What loveliness to bear witness too. I enjoy having a broody hen far more than an incubator.

Happy Spring! 

Mabon and the curious egg..

Hello everyone! The last 2 hatchlings just appeared this morning. The pips last night were the giveaway of their arrival. I slept right through the hatch, well, for these last two at least. I have been waking up at 2am for the other 4 hatches and coupled with work and home life schedules, I am beat!

mabon

mabon

All my hatches went according to plan except for one little guy whom i was EXPECTING a welsummer. I collected an egg i assumed was an egg from the Welsummers. It was in the Welsummer coop, it was a brown egg, and it was very large, even a little bit larger than the normal welsummer eggs i had been getting. For sure it was a welsummer egg!


 But when this little guy/girl started to hatch i saw the color of the down was NOT a welsummer. It was black. link to my welsummer parent flock.

After he pooped out it reminded me of my silver-laced pullet i have whom at the time of lay, would have been only 19 weeks. So, Is it possible on of the Orusts got to her on my watch for those couple hours the boys got out on the 16th of Sept?? And then is it possible for the Silver-Laced Wyodette, named Samantha to go up to the nesting boxes in the welsummer coop to lay an egg the very next day instead of the only coop she has known?? Oh the webs we weave!


As i can not be certain why or whom or when, BUT I am so very curious (and enthralled by this cuteness) to attempt a second hatch of this colouration. :) So, as soon as my incubator is disinfected and dry. I will be looking to plan out a November hatching date :)

Enjoy!