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

HATCH 11/5/16

 Here are the beautiful chicks!

second from left, and far right brown chick were from the same hen. I will single her out for any further hatching's. they had a pretty easy hatch and are a good size.

brown chick f1 + rj is either a

1. e⁺e^b Coco⁺ db⁺db⁺ Pgpg⁺ Mlml⁺ Cha⁺cha Mhmh⁺ di⁺di⁺ Ig⁺Ig⁺ cb⁺cb⁺ i⁺i⁺ Blbl⁺ Lav⁺Lav⁺ C⁺C⁺ Mo⁺mo b⁺b⁺ s⁺s⁺ Choc⁺Choc⁺

2. Ee⁺ Coco⁺ db⁺db⁺ Pgpg⁺ Mlml⁺ Cha⁺cha Mhmh⁺ di⁺di⁺ Ig⁺Ig⁺ cb⁺cb⁺ i⁺i⁺ Blbl⁺ Lav⁺Lav⁺ C⁺C⁺ Mo⁺mo b⁺b⁺ s⁺s⁺ Choc⁺Choc<sup>+

the black and white chicks are either

F1 + goose f2  1.</sup> EE co⁺co⁺ db⁺db⁺ pg⁺pg⁺ Mlml⁺ Cha⁺Cha⁺ mh⁺mh⁺ di⁺di⁺ Ig⁺Ig⁺ cb⁺cb⁺ Ii⁺ bl⁺bl⁺ Lav⁺Lav⁺ C⁺C⁺ momo b⁺b⁺ Ss⁺ Choc⁺Choc<sup>+

2.</sup> EE co⁺co⁺ db⁺db⁺ pg⁺pg⁺ Mlml⁺ Cha⁺Cha⁺ mh⁺mh⁺ di⁺di⁺ Ig⁺Ig⁺ cb⁺cb⁺ i⁺i⁺ bl⁺bl⁺ Lav⁺Lav⁺ C⁺C⁺ Mo⁺mo b⁺b⁺ Ss⁺ Choc⁺Choc<sup>+

not in this hatch.</sup>
dw mo f1 = Ee^b co⁺co⁺ db⁺db⁺ pg⁺pg⁺ Mlml⁺ Cha⁺Cha⁺ mh⁺mh⁺ di⁺di⁺ Ig⁺Ig⁺ cb⁺cb⁺ i⁺i⁺ bl⁺bl⁺ Lav⁺Lav⁺ C⁺C⁺ Mo⁺mo b⁺- s⁺- Choc⁺-
 
^{wellxorsut lt brown} 
orustxwell med brown

4.21.2016

I know i promised gardening photos in my last post, but the lovely Spring days here on the farm has allowed for some wonderful outings for the chicks.

We have a total of eight! Momma hen June, is doing an excellent job raising them. When they get time out in the yard, June teaches the chicks everything about scratching the grass to get to the dirt!

The last chick to hatch was 2 days after the previous. When I candled everything seemed A-OK but during hatch a different story emerged. Last Thursday (today is the following Thursday) I heard the chick faintly peeping. I was relieved to finally have my last one coming! At this point of 2 weeks after the first hatchling i was ready to put away the the incubator (if you are following the blog you know there were several eggs that I had separated from under momma because of the poop on them. This occurred prior to me giving momma June her own coop to hatch in peace from the other fowl. Now i know to move her earlier. So the messy eggs I had to clean and isolate them. In the end, I had 3 'bad' eggs which were developed chicks but died of an obvious bacterial infection, and oh my goodness were the eggs stinky, no need to candle or crack em open!!!! yuck!, and the rest were a successful hatch. I actually buried them because of the stink.)

Well come the next day, on Friday evening, the sound of the peeping was more intense. I checked and made sure the humidity was good, that she was on a dry paper towel, etc etc. I thought we were ready to go. Well, come Saturday morning and fully expecting the chick to be out I was surprised she was not. And when i peered in to study the egg, I quickly found out why she had not yet hatched. She was upside down and trying to hatch out of the narrow end of the egg! Luckily she was strong and she had cracked a weird round area off. The chicken uses its beak under its tiny right wing to guide it in a circumnavigational pattern to hatch off the blunt end. When the chicks hatch on the short pointy end, they can not turn because there is no room or leverage for them to spin in a circle. And even worse, most chicks die from hatching on the short end because the air sac is usually on the blunt end as well.

Well I scooped her up, walked her to the bathroom and ran my hot water. I adjusted so temp it felt just perfect and let the water pool into the palm of my hand. I slowly pulled the membrane back to open the already cracked area. Well, its all she needed, she popped that shell right off onto my hand. She also stayed seated in the shell! So, I did a quick check that the yolk was fully absorbed, that there was no blood either, I supported her and I quick snapped this beautiful photo.

 

              Last But Not Least

She sure looked happy to be finally out! I don’t blame her!

June and the Eights

I hope everyone is enjoying the early spring. We sure are.

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! 

Orusts in the snow.

What incredible camouflage! Some nights these birds do not go in to roost, and it takes putting on the flood lights and using a headlamp to find them. Here they are in broad daylight in the bush looking very much so like mottled leaves against the snow!

Here is a pic of them sunbathing best they can!

Enjoy! And we will post soon again! 

Incubating eggs

Well here we are Day 4 and so happy to announce that the eggs are filled with life! Follow on twitter https://twitter.com/OrustChick.