Tuesday, June 06, 2006

no more!

I put the last batch of eggs in the incubator today. That's it! No more! I have way too many! I just needed a few more from the Silver Duckwing experiment, so that's all I set today.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Cuckoos and Creles, and decided... I don't know what to do. The Cuckoos really aren't the right color. Of the ~34 Cuckoo colored chicks I hatched, there are 2 pullets (I expected this low number) and all but maybe one are two (of cockerels and pullets) are WAY too dark or WAY too washed out (or both!) So I'm looking at narrowing this down to one or two cockerels, maybe the pullets if they turn out good (doubt it) and one of last year's hens. I don't have particularly high expectations. Then there's the question of whether to use the Black offspring from the Cuckoo breedings (as in, breed those to Cuckoo birds). They should be carrying the genes for Cuckoo, I think.. dang, I get so mixed up.

I don't think the Creles are going to work out. Some of the pullets may have half decent body color but nothing out there has wing or tail barring. I think I would need to have really well marked barred/cuckoo Rosecombs before working on them, because now with them being only partbred, I'm dealing with poor type AND poor color all in one package. I never had high hopes for that, I'd only started it because the BBRed hens were laying and the Black hens weren't. :-)

I think the Silver Duckwings have potential though, especially with two pullets already being the right color. Hmm, what to do next year...

Anybody want some pet chickens? OMG I so need to go to auction! They may not be big enough for the next one though so I might have to wait til mid July. Ugh!

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