My eggs are due next week, so I candled last night & removed what wasn’t developing. It looks so far like the new Blue Orp did a pretty good job, but not all the hens would let him mate with them. I removed about half of the eggs from the Blue hens and just a few of the eggs from the Black hens due to lack of development. I haven’t cracked them open, but they look just infertile with the light.
I also received an extremely pricey book on Chicken Genetics, and in it, I read that in order to get ALL blue offspring, I should mate a Splash rooster with black hens! You know, just as soon as I think I get things figured out, I get it wrong. I need to do MORE research because I THOUGHT that Splash Roo on Blue Hens would yield all Blue Offspring, and now I read it’s Splash to Black! Sheesh! So now I have 24 eggs left in the incubator, 7 of which are Blue on Blue.
Here is what I’ve found:
Blue X Blue = 50% Blue, 25% Black, 25% Splash
Blue X Splash = 50% Blue, 50% Splash
Blue X Black = 50% Blue, 50% Black
Splash X Black = 100% Blue
Black X Black = 100% Black
Splash X Splash = 100% Splash
So from my 7 Blue eggs I can expect around 3 Blue, 2 Black & 2 Splash
And from the remaining 17 Blue on Black Eggs I can expect around 8 or 9 Blue and 8 or 9 Black.
Now the only thing to figure out next is, how to arrange my breeding pens for long term. I want a pen that yields all blue and one that yields all black.
Well, I have to get going. A gentlemen from nearby Sevierville is on his way to pick up a couple of White Orpington pullets and I should be ready when he gets here.
Today I sold my Blue Rooster. He was my favorite for quite some time with his special silver coloring as a chick and perfectly sweet eyes. He was picked on, the outcast for quite some time. And one day, I came home and he was gone! I couldn’t find him anywhere, and so I promised that if he came back home I would keep him safe. He did come back the next day, must’ve spent the night out in the woods. And I put him in the hen house with my flock of ladies and hoped he’d get along with the immature cockerel already there and he did. He made a home, took care of all the hens all winter long, some more than others and now, he is off to live in a new home. I had to do it! I want to make room for the White Orpingtons I want and I’m waiting waiting waiting for some new Blue’s that won’t leak with the rust like my guy did. He went with 5 SLWs that he enjoyed spending time with very much. They will all be very happy together I suspect. We had to move our first hatch of 09 into the living room due to freezing temperatures. After the first night I just go too worried that the lamp might go out and they would freeze to death before I even noticed anything happened. So we now have a jumbo XL dog crate in the living room with 7 adorable and active baby chicks in it. The cats & dogs don’t seem to mind too much although they aren’t used to the randomness of chick behavior. They sleep for 10 minutes, hop around like popcorn for 10 minutes cheeping and chirping and then suddenly they are asleep again! It’s funny really and something everyone should experience at least once, chicks are unique.