This is just so cool , it had to be posted........
So we successfully hatched out about 6 eggs from an incubator. (First time----yea!)
One chick in particular was of real interest for this reason. The mother hen of this chick is a Dominique, or at least looks like one. Somewhere along the line momma was crossed w/ an auricana/americana because she lays green eggs. I know this as fact b/c I have seen her lay on her own and she is cooped up with 2 older silkies who I know lay regular eggs. So to make things even more interesting, I purposly bred the dominique momma to our bearded white silke rooster.
The chick that hatched from the green egg as 5 perfect silkie toes and what appears to be the classic beard for a bearded silkie. It's legs are greenish, not the purple/blue. And what tiny feathers that have started to emerge on the wings, appear to be barred like the Dominique. The chick's fluff is an off white/buff-ish color with a small smudge of black on top of its head and an aborrant faded black mark or two on top of its back
I'm hoping like anything it will look like a fuzzy Dominique. And if its a hen, perhaps it will lay a tinged egg of some sort. Too soon to tell.
Might want to enter it in the stae fair this year just for kicks!
Even if its a rooster I may keep it for the novelty too.
I went ahead and splurged and bought a Hovabator with the automatic egg turner and digital battery operated thermometer / humidity sensor.
Didn't want to leave anything to chance or skimp.
Went on E-bay and got it for about 110.00 which for all the "extras" was worth it I think
And advice for anyone thinking about making a similar investment--do leave yourself a day or two to figure it all out and get the readings where you want them without worrying about the eggs. It took an entire day to finally tweak the temperature and figure out how it worked. The humidity part is a no brainer thank goodness.
For egg candling..........especially on brown eggs? I killed 3 chicks 11 days into the process just b/c I couldn't see very well.
It's all very much a part of the learning process, and certainly not worth potentially exploding a dud egg.
Also too, just to try and test the theory. All eggs chosen were oblong. I have heard that the rounder eggs are roosters and the more oblong ones are potential hens. We'll see.........
funky chick
Posted - Mar 07 2011 : 09:42:28 AM
