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

Two weeks old!

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

jina and Goose

Garden Time

ground cherry

next..a trimming for even height

finished product!

Mintaka

Sadly I lost mintaka in the most vicious Raccoon attack I've had. Two raccoons chewed through my fencing and devoured 10 chickens.   The chicken wire I was using was the typical wounded wire. No longer will I use that stuff.  Now I use hardware cloth. The raccoons do not chew as easily through this. Galvanized Hardware Cloth

He was a great bird. Always herding and guiding the young ones. Would help me get the babies into the coop at night. Definitely in charge but with a sweetness to humans.

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Look below at this beautiful cross between an

Orwell  x Splash Laced Red Wyandotte.

As a chick

...now older...

You can really see the bl dilution now. and so cute the tips of yellow lined with dark on the end of the feathers. Shows the mo gene working!

Stay cool in this heat!

SpotOnFarms

Silver x Splash

Hey all!!! hatchlings have arrived. My first f2 hatchling event! There are seperate breeds that i hatched under one mama hen.

Wyandotte. In short, the way genetics go in poultry, this chick will be silver female, S/- , or S/s+ spilt silver male. (the other spilt/half will be the red splash gene from father which is not phenotyped)

 Here are my other f2 hatchlings. There are orust x welsummer f1 crossed back with the orust or welsummer or with the wyandotte male. I just love love the wyandottes. We can get some extreme winters here and they just seem to know how to stay warm! I never have to worry about frost bite on their combs either. I do not heat my coops in winter (ill just bring them in if its that crazy out) Plus the size of RJ is just amazing. He is so calm and tolerant of kids and adults. Not a aggressive bone in his body. He does stand up for himself but would rather go scratch around the corner or be the last in the coop then to pick a fight with the other roosters. I feel very lucky I am able to free range all three roosters at once without blood shed or death. (in the beginning it was rough. baby steps to get them to house within sight without attacks, and then baby steps policing one male or the other with him in the yard at a time with the hens without attacks. Then all three all together while policing. And a lot of time i left him with the hens and kept my other two males in for the day. This gave him a ego boost and a sense of belonging to the coops and yard)

I know there were more chicks and several unhatched eggs still under mama hen, but she was getting quite frustrated with my intrusiveness so i decided that was enough for one evening. ;)

SpotOnFarm