Saturday, March 20, 2010

The first hatch of 2010

The first test hatch of my Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas hatched out on St. Patrick's Day. None came out green, but all should lay green eggs one day. That's somehow appropriate, don't you think?

All six of these babies are Easter Eggers. The two blue chicks are from Horatio the blue ameraucana roo and Pooh the white/buff EE. They are both blue with random white spots. The black chicks are from Hamlet and the girls in the large fowl pen. I'm never sure who has laid which brown egg, so there is no telling who the exact mother for each is. That pen is a mix of wyandotte, buff orp and Easter Egger.
This baby is one of the blue EEs.

Genetically, all of the babies from Hamlet's pen should have been black. All were black except for this baby. She popped out brown with yellow legs. Won't it be interesting to see what she turns into!


The pale chick in the back is the lone ameraucana to hatch. I think she is a splash. She was the second baby out and she is FULL of personality!

Another shot of the EEs along with the week old barred rocks. It's amazing how fast they grow!! A week ago the barred rocks were the same size as these new babies.
All in all it was a successful hatch. There are three more ameraucanas under a broody. I figure at least one of the silkies should broody up here any day now. I'll slide more ameraucanas under the next couple of broodies and we'll see what we get.
Spring is here!

2 comments:

Jen said...

Congratulations... they are sooo cute! It is exciting to see who they will turn out, I hatched out 19 chickies in Feb. Mixed BO, RIR, EE, Bantam they are turning out pretty, cant wait to see how they turn out.

AW said...

That's fun! I used to have a BO roo. Last year I hatched out a bunch of BO mixes. Those buff genes are strong! :)

I'm so excited about this hatch. I've been working towards this hatch for about a year now, so it is exciting to have them out. I kind of know what the ameraucanas will look like, but the EEs are a wild card. I am very excited about these babies. I'm also excited to see such a high fertility rate and such a great hatch rate. I think the two duds are my fault for opening the incubator to get the first round out.