HOWLING HILL FARM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
  • Home
  • Alpacas
    • Our Program >
      • Breed Standard
    • Our Herd >
      • Herdsires
      • Foundation Females
      • Our Production
    • Alpacas For Sale
  • Harlequin/Babydoll Sheep
    • Our Flock
    • Available Lambs
  • Poultry
  • Alpaca Yarn
  • Photography
  • Blog
  • Contact

7/4/2014

Pumpkin Chick

0 Comments

Read Now
 
So, we have not had the best year for poultry hatching. Chicken eggs are, as it turns out, quite a bit different from reptile eggs, which are very simple to hatch, and the learning curve has not been kind. While I realize that hatching eggs should be easy enough that a chicken can do it, the specifics seem to have somehow evaded me.

Thus, we have produced, so far, a grand total of one chicken. Luckily, it's an interesting one.

Most of our chickens are Cochins -- the round, puffy chickens with leg feathers that make them look like they are wearing bell-bottoms. I love Cochins. They are poofy and cute enough to be good eye candy, as well as being super friendly, but they are also hardy and do well outside in a farmyard situation. (Some fancy breeds are so specialized that they don't do so well in a farmyard -- they're better off indoors.) They also lay plenty of big, brown eggs. My Cochins aren't show quality, but they at least look like Cochins, and they lay well.

Since I am not aiming for show quality, I haven't cared about the color. Most of our Cochins are blue or splash, but there is a buff hen in there. Most people apparently don't breed blue to buff, or mix the colors at all, but apparently you can get some funky results doing that.

This is the mama hen -- she's a buff.
Picture
Mama hen - Buff Cochin
This is the rooster. His name is Penguin. He is a blue Cochin.
Picture
Penguin, the rooster -- Blue Cochin
... And this is the baby. I was expecting that a buff blue would be a pale bird -- both genes appear to dilute pigment, after all.

WRONG! This is totally not what I was expecting. Buff chest, (bright orange, actually); orange back with black lacing. The blue is nowhere to be found. I am calling it Pumpkin Chick.
Picture
Pumpkin Chick - mystery Cochin
Picture
Picture
Now, I know that Penguin is heterozygous blue (otherwise, he'd be a splash), so maybe Pumpkin Chick didn't get a copy of the blue gene. If that were the case, though, I would expect her to be solid buff.

Chicken color genetics -- what the heck?

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    Author

    K writes this stuff, for some reason that has yet to become apparent.

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    Alpacas
    Articles
    Bunnies
    Cows
    Goats
    Ozwald The Lucky Kitten
    Pigs
    Poultry
    Sheep

    RSS Feed

All text and images copyright H. K. Hollister, DVM ~ 2020

  • Home
  • Alpacas
    • Our Program >
      • Breed Standard
    • Our Herd >
      • Herdsires
      • Foundation Females
      • Our Production
    • Alpacas For Sale
  • Harlequin/Babydoll Sheep
    • Our Flock
    • Available Lambs
  • Poultry
  • Alpaca Yarn
  • Photography
  • Blog
  • Contact