Buttons due tomorrow, Rhode Island Reds due on friday, and Coturnix chicks due on Saturday! I'm excited about all three, the buttons are going to be grown up for a BYCer who wants them shipped to her, the RIRs are being hatched and taken on saturday to a gentlemen who wants them for his wifes future egg laying flock, and on that same day (saturday) 100+ coturnix are due! Fifteen of the coturnix are being kept for another lady who wants them grown up some and shipped out, another 25 are being held for a guy who wants them for flush training, and the rest are for me to grow out and keep woot!
A hen I had and sold a few weeks ago, I hatched out her last eggs, but sadly only one chick made it (I have several older birds from her from different sires). The chick that made it may be a red tuxedo according to a breeder I am blessed enough to converse with! :) We'll see though. Heres the cutie (on the left). Its very dark with two red lines going from it's head to it's rump which none of her other babies looked anything close to that. My goal for tuxedos right now is mostly just a VERY nice uniform bird, with as much white on the wings as possible and with nothing but a white belly. I'm slowly making headway in this area, but not 100% there yet. I am interested to see what this chickie turns out to look like white-markings-wise. Already I can tell that it's wings will not be entirely white as they'd have much more yellow on them. But the yellow on the face is REALLY nice, as is it on the chest. Every hatch I do, I am expressing more and more white so I'm actually not having to try too too hard to get where I want. This is a 3rd generation chick with a pedigree I can actaully trace back from my birds. All started with an A & M hen, she produced a Brown hen, I bred that brown hen with a not very nice marked tuxedo roo, that pairing produced a nicer marked tuxedo roo, who I bred to this chicks mama....and this chicks mama MAY have been a solid red, but I am unsure I was just calling her a rosetta but according to my breeder friend rossettas look entirely different than I had once thought. Speaking of rosettas, I will be getting TRUE rosettas in my next purchase of eggs. These birds are supposed to be IDEAL birds for pets, bred for docile temperment (specifically bred for a mans daughter to hold) and from what I remember also very large! I am really anxious to get them! :)
I collected only two eggs today but it's not really suprising to me. Nothing but snow and clouds yesterday. I got a golden and an A& M eggie. Tomorrow I should get some more I'd think as it was deciently sunny. Some people don't realize just how much sunlight effects egg laying (atleast in coturnix quails).
Next week my Black Copper Marans from another breeder are due on thursday, you can BET I am happy! Then on the 18th almost 100 rhode island reds and rhode island red crosses are due to hatch they will be going to fellow BYCer friends of mine for them to resell since they get more customers than me. They wanted 100 but some eggs failed but theres like 97 or so eggs so not too bad as long as they all hatch haha. I shouldn't laugh though my incubator has been doing wonderful with high percentage hatches lately atleast with chickens. :)
You'd probably laugh if you saw our bedroom right now. I have two "grow-out brooders" in my room, that have mostly bc marans in them. They are mostly feathered birds but still mostly just blood feathers so they got to stay in still for a while atleast until it quits being so cold out. These birds are REALLY important to me so in here they stay. Cleaning their brooders atleast once a day is a chore though! Anywho what's funny is both brooders are actually just dog crates! LOL! 2 medium sized dog crates. They work really well as brooders actually. One is on top of my dog "Kodas" crate and then beside Kodas crate is the other brooder. Koda must think shes' a golden chicken mix instead of a golden retriever mix ha ha. Then the other brooder is a rabbit cage we bought specifically as a brooder, with 6 bantam chicks and 2 ducklings...and my 10 gallon brooder is empty as of right now. The one grow out brooder has two of Rosies older tuxedo chicks in it boy are they nice! "Flea" and another one I never named yet. I need to name the youngest one of Rosies. I'm thinking Clown. As he looks like he's got clown tears on his face. :)
Well, I think I'll end this here and type up some more pedigrees so I don't forget which birds come from which.
:)
