Progeny from heroic rooster

[sakerobot]

On January 10th, our rooster Arthur gave his life protecting his flock from a hawk. He was about 9 months old and had been fantastic to all of his 15 ladies, always calling them for food, maintaining discipline, calling out danger and using himself as the shield, he never attacked people basically everything was prefect. (We have since then covered the entire chicken yard with poultry wire.)

After it happened, we decided to try incubating all of the eggs that were fertilised by him. We got a Nurture Right 360 and loaded it with 16 eggs, 15 of which were fertile, and 9 of which made it into day 18. Today is day 20 and just an hour ago, 3 of the eggs have started to crack.

We also kept collecting more eggs after he passed, and we put 11 of those into a second incubator, of which 6 were fertile and going on day 9. Their hatch date will be February 13th.

We're hoping to get at least one rooster, or hopefully 2 or 3 for making a larger flock. If they take on after him, we will be very happy.

He was a Delaware from a great local breeder, we got him to join our hens when he was about 16 weeks and our pullets were a week younger.

The potential mothers are: 6 BRs (2 years), 2 Buff Orpingtons (2 years), and last year's pullets are 2 silver and 1 blue laced Wyandottes, a lavender Orpington, Dark Brahma, Bielefelder, and a Speckled Sussex although we think she's unlikely as we've never witnessed him even trying to mate her probably due to her smaller size (as would be expected of a true gentleman).

One notable mother is a Buff Orpington named Tsunade - last year she was snatched by a raccoon that was crawling up a pine tree with her until I yelled profanities and the raccoon fell and dropped her. She had lost a lot of feathers, but did not suffer any critical wounds, just some bruises. Eventually she made a full recovery and has been one of the most frequent layers this winter. (She also once almost died from a comb injury, or at least it would not have turned out well but luckily I witnessed it and was able to bring her inside for treatment right away.) She has at least two or three eggs that are currently incubating, one in the first incubator and two in the second. We didn't keep track of the "kitchen egg" batch, so aside from the 1 Tsunade egg, we don't know who the mothers are.

I'll update this thread with additional developments.

 

[sakerobot]

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful hatch.

 

[sakerobot]

All 9 eggs have hatched successfully! Here are some of them near the brooder:

Six chicks are yellow, while three are black with a white dot on their heads; one of them seemed to have a Wyandotte face pattern. We're new to how genetics work, so not fully sure what to expect. Will the yellow ones look like Arthur, are they all from the two Buff Orpingtons or are some from younger hens? Fun questions, and I'll try to update this thread as they grow.

Next 6 eggs are due to hatch on the 13th, all were alive during candling last night.

 

[NatJ]

Six chicks are yellow, while three are black with a white dot on their heads; one of them seemed to have a Wyandotte face pattern. We're new to how genetics work, so not fully sure what to expect. Will the yellow ones look like Arthur, are they all from the two Buff Orpingtons or are some from younger hens? Fun questions, and I'll try to update this thread as they grow.

The black ones with a white dot will grow up to be black with white barring (look like Barred Rocks.) They could come from the Barred Rock hens, or from the Lavender Orpington hen.

The yellow chicks came from other hens. If any chick has a rose comb (like Wyandottes) or a pea comb and feathered feet (like Brahma), that chick has the mother with the same trait.

I would expect all the yellow chicks to look similar to Arthur the Delaware father. Some might have more or less black in various areas of their feathers. As the chicks grow up, you might start to see some other colors: gold or red in the breasts of pullets, red in the shoulders of cockerels, a general yellowish or dingy tone in the other white areas. These are more likely in chicks from the hens that show buff or gold or red colors, and much less likely in chicks from the hens that have silver in their own coloring (like the Silver Laced Wyandotte hens).

All of the chicks should have white barring across their other feathers, just like Delawares do, but of course the barring is more obvious on darker colors and less on lighter colors. So you will probably only see it on any dark areas in the feathers, like how it is visible in the hackles and saddles of Delawares but not on the white areas of their feathers.

 

[sakerobot]

The black ones with a white dot will grow up to be black with white barring (look like Barred Rocks.) They could come from the Barred Rock hens, or from the Lavender Orpington hen.

The yellow chicks came from other hens. If any chick has a rose comb (like Wyandottes) or a pea comb and feathered feet (like Brahma), that chick has the mother with the same trait.

I would expect all the yellow chicks to look similar to Arthur the Delaware father. Some might have more or less black in various areas of their feathers. As the chicks grow up, you might start to see some other colors: gold or red in the breasts of pullets, red in the shoulders of cockerels, a general yellowish or dingy tone in the other white areas. These are more likely in chicks from the hens that show buff or gold or red colors, and much less likely in chicks from the hens that have silver in their own coloring (like the Silver Laced Wyandotte hens).

All of the chicks should have white barring across their other feathers, just like Delawares do, but of course the barring is more obvious on darker colors and less on lighter colors. So you will probably only see it on any dark areas in the feathers, like how it is visible in the hackles and saddles of Delawares but not on the white areas of their feathers.

Thank you, reading that was music to my eyes, very exciting to think about. We noticed that some of the yellow ones have some faint dark marking on their heads, does that carry any potential correlation at all? I saw the Buff Orpington's chick as she hatched first, and she's one of the unmarked yellow ones.

We got some group pictures with every member of the band present, where some of these markings can be seen:

The three BR chicks seem to look almost the same as each other now that they're dry and adequately fluffed.

 

[NatJ]

We noticed that some of the yellow ones have some faint dark marking on their heads, does that carry any potential correlation at all? I saw the Buff Orpington's chick as she hatched first, and she's one of the unmarked yellow ones.

Maybe, but maybe not. I don't know for sure. If the darker markings on yellow heads have a correlation to anything, they might come from the hens that have some kind of multi-color patterning on them (Speckled Sussex, Bielefelder, laced Wyandottes, Brahma) rather than from the solid Buff hens. Or they may not correlate with anything. You could look for fluffy feet (Brahma mother) and little flat rose combs (Wyandotte mother), but I can't think of any real distinguishing trait for chicks with a Sussex or Bielefelder mother at this point.

Rose combs would be relatively easy to identify even at this age, and I don't see any on yellow chicks in the pictures, but there is always at least one turned away from the camera, so I can't be sure I've seen them all. I'm sure there are at least some single combs, not sure about pea combs. They can look pretty similar at this age. Any pea combs would be from the Brahma hen, and her chicks should also have feathered feet, so you could check for fuzzy toes and shanks, which is much easier than scrutinizing comb type on chicks this young.

The three BR chicks seem to look almost the same as each other now that they're dry and adequately fluffed.

Barred Rock chicks can often be sexed by coloring: males have bigger headspots and lighter shanks, females have smaller headspots and darker shanks. That should work for Delaware/Barred Rock too, but not for Delaware/Lavender Orpington. The practical effect in this case: lighter barred chicks would be males, darker barred chicks could go either way and will have to grow up a bit before anyone can tell.

I think I see at least one male-type headspot among those chicks, so that would be a male with the Delaware father and a Barred Rock mother.

 

[sakerobot]

There don't seem to be any that would be from the Brahma or the Wyandottes. In the weeke after we lost Arthur, I set a trailcam on the nesting boxes. We were getting 1-2 eggs per day, and they would be either from Tsunade the Buff Orpington, or from a BR we call B-Chicken being responsible for most of the eggs, with other BRs about 15% of the time. It's possible that the younger hens stopped feeling secure enough to lay after losing him, as they were especially close and he would often guard the coop door while the young ones laid their eggs. So from the best batch of 6 that's due on the 13th, only BRs or Orpingtons will be the mothers.

Some images from day 3:

Everyone seems healthy, they're starting to grow their wing feathers and already believe that they can fly.

 

[NatJ]

Some images from day 3:

View attachment 4045603

The first image in this post, the black chick that's drinking (bottom/left compared with teh other chicks) has a light headspot that smears partway down the neck: I think you probably have a male there. I remember you were hoping for at least one male

There don't seem to be any that would be from the Brahma or the Wyandottes.

I agree, based on what I see of the combs (no rose) and the feet (no feathers). You got some nice comb photos on some of those, especially where the chicks were looking at the camera like they might want to eat it

In the weeke after we lost Arthur, I set a trailcam on the nesting boxes. We were getting 1-2 eggs per day, and they would be either from Tsunade the Buff Orpington, or from a BR we call B-Chicken being responsible for most of the eggs, with other BRs about 15% of the time. It's possible that the younger hens stopped feeling secure enough to lay after losing him, as they were especially close and he would often guard the coop door while the young ones laid their eggs. So from the best batch of 6 that's due on the 13th, only BRs or Orpingtons will be the mothers.

Cameras definitely help figure things out! If those are the only possible mothers for the later batch, it should be possible to sex the black ones the same way as Barred Rock chicks, if you're confident no Lavender Orpington eggs could be involved.

 

[sakerobot]

Here are some week old pictures of the BR that is not like the other two BRs:

By comparison, here are the other two:

The two have dark legs, the one is less dark, still has a puffy rear while the two are growing tail feathers of equal length to most (but 1 maybe) of the yellow ones. The one also tries to fly a lot, despite having least developed wing feathers. Also makes eye contact and has been seen contemplating flying out of the brooder.

Meanwhile, the 6 eggs in the second incubator were all looking healthy and moving on day 18 and are now in lockdown. Having reviewed the notes and trailcam photos, 4 of the 6 are from Tsunade (the Buff Orpington who survived a raccoon) and the other two are from BRs, possibly both from BC. With these results, it's interesting to wonder how many of these yellow ones are from her.