Fat chick

The remaining splendid chick is fattening up nicely. I think Marge is doing all the feeding, which is a bit unusual has the dad should be doing most of the work now.  I don't think it's Barney's fault, I just think Marge is being over-protective.

I hope they do get together for a second round as I really want to have some success with Lutino's.

Marge is a lutino and Barney is split for lutino.  Lutino is a sex-linked mutation, which means the mutation can only be carried on the male chromosome.  In birds a male has two male chromosomes and the female has a male and female chromosome (which is totally the opposite to us humans and the rest of the species on this planet, apart from reptiles....oh! birds evolved from dinosaurs?).

The sex linked mutations can only be carried on the male chromosome.  Therefore if the hen carries it, it has to show in her plumage.  However, the cock can carry it on only one of his male chromosomes, i.e. he is split for the mutation and then it doesn't show in his plumage.  To show in his plumage it he has to carry it on both chromosomes.  Consequently male sex-linked mutations are not as common as female ones.  Look at the genetic link on my website for more details.

For Barney and Marge I expect their offspring to be:-

Cocks, half lutino and half split lutino

Hens, half lutino and half normal.

Barney has bred with other non-lutino hens, which resulted in some lutino babies (all of which had to be hens).

My new remaining bourke is a hen, as she has laid some eggs.  Unfortunately some ended up smashed on the aviary floor....don't know why.  Let's hope she gets the rest in the box. Not sure what to call her yet!

The other pair of bourkes, Rocky and Rosie left their eight eggs (she didn't sit on them day or night for over a week).  All of them were fertile....frustration.  It may be that I disturbed them too much, as the shed that these breeding cages are in, also serves as my garden shed....it's not the best set up and I really would prefer them in the aviaries.

The Turks however, are behaving like proper birds.  Goldie is still sitting tight on her six eggs.

Apologies about the quality of the picture on the nest box camera.  The problem is that now that the weather has warmed up it tends to over-heat producing a hazy image.