One of our pullets (young hens), from our hatch of 4 back in early July, has created a mystery for us! This beautiful young girl (we hope she’s a girl!) reminds me so much of one of our older hens, Anne. I wrote about Miss Anne back in the spring. In that post I stated both that Anne’s eggs were different in shape than others, and also that I did not think she was mating with our rooster, Charlie. When we filled the incubator with eggs, I was careful to only pick eggs that I thought would be fertile, and so did not include any of Anne’s. At least that’s what I thought I did. Since the hatch rate with that bunch was so low, I know that’s at least what I did the second time around!
One bad thing about having a rooster is that they can sometimes be a bit rough with their hens. So the hens that get the most attention are often missing feathers on their backs. Miss Anne is perfect looking so I still doubt she and Charlie have been mating.
Now, from that hatch of 4, meet Annie Oakley…..then look at the following photo of Miss Anne.
The coloring on young Annie is more yellow than Anne’s brown, but those colors tend to change as they grow. She has green legs, and the cheek “tufts” just like Anne. What do you think….is Miss Anne most likely Annie’s real mama? Am I wrong about Anne and Charlie, and whether or not I put Anne’s eggs in the incubator the first time around (trust me, my memory is faulty at best, so that part could certainly go either way!)?
We know zero about chicken genetics, and what the odds are that a chick would end up looking just like it’s Mom and nothing like it’s Dad. With some of them, we can guess well who their Mom is (or which breed anyway), and in those cases we know they are some of Charlie’s “favorites”! If they have green legs, both parents are most likely Araucanas, so pure bred (I guess), but the rest are “mutts” and many seem to favor their mothers’ traits over Charlie’s.
While we’re talking chicks, here’s our second hatch enjoying some of their first days outdoors in the run! They are growing quickly as well! It’s a fun time trying to figure these things out anyway!
Thanks to our friends The LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop. Please visit them and other blogs through the links below!
I think that they are both gorgeous, but I have no idea how much a chick should look like her mom. It is a mystery! Could there be yet another rooster involved? (just kidding!)
If there is, he’s a quiet one! LOL
You’re far more knowledgeable than we are. Fascinating to think about chicken genetics-I’d never really thought about it before. This is good to remember when I get eggs from the market.
Or maybe to try to forget? LOL!
Miss Anne is a beauty. Annie Oakley would be lucky to grow up to be so pretty.
I think she is definitely going to. She looks more and more like Anne every day!
I just learned that females can turn into roosters. Crazy hey?
I’ve heard something like that before, but didn’t really understand it – crazy for sure!!
Whoa! All that thuinking stuff addles my brain cells…Hah!
As long as they are healthy and donig well, for me that would be great. But well, I guess it does make you kind of wonder:)
Science makes my brain hurt too, so I try not to think about it TOO much. Yes, the fact that they are happy and healthy is far more important!
They need dna testing kits for chickens 🙂
Hahaha, you are so right! We’d go broke testing all these birds though! LOL
Hmmmm…Miss Annie does have a lot of the same coloring as Anne.
We’ll keep you posted!
Cute story! You made my day!
So glad! Thank you!
We love hearing stories about your chickens and their coloring and feathers are so beautiful!
I’m so glad you enjoy them! Thank you.
Those chicks are so cute and the chicken DNA will sure keep you guessing!
We have a whole lot of other mysteries with all the new chicks too! 🙂
Miss Anne is a pretty chicken. Keep us up to date on Annie. It would be interesting to see if she ends up looking like Miss Anne. The chicks are cute. Have a good weekend!
I hope to keep you posted, so far she looks more like her every day!
roosters are lazy sometimes, the mama was stunned as they saw that the hens have to carry this guy… (he is tired said her grampy LOL)
Our rooster Charlie is tired ALOT. LOL
We certainly know nothing about breeding chickens, but it is fun to see what pops out of the eggs. We are glad your second try resulted in more chicks. It would be so hard to remember who is who and who is doing what with so many. Maybe the rooster is nicer to the one chicken then to the others, who knows. Enjoy them all no matter where they came from.
That’s a good point, I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Yes, we have fun with them no matter who their mamas are (and they certainly don’t care – LOL).