Turquoisine chicks...maybe

I thought I could hear chicks in the turks nest box today.  When I looked in a few days ago none of the eggs had hatched and lot of the eggs looked infertile.

Feeding

Marge feeding her chick.

I think I need a new camera. To get this video I had to switch the camera off for five minutes to let it cool down and get rid of the haze. I used to get much better footage when the camera was new!

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.

..no, it's going wrong!

The two chicks died.

Apologies for posting this picture but breeding birds is not always nice!

Judging by the eyelid colour these two birds are lutino's.  So out of the 4 chicks, the 3 that have died have all been lutino.  The surviving chick has black eyelids and is probably a normal.

I'm starting to think that lutino's are genetically weak. I'll have to see if this happens again if I get a second round.

I had loads of problems last year with sick adult lutino pairs, that I eventually gave up on them. Why did I not just stick with normals?

..or perhaps it's all going right!

Marge has another two chicks.  I actually saw one hatching on camera.  These eggs have hatched 9 days after they were due and 4 days after the first chick hatched.  It just shows that the incubation period can vary significantly between eggs...particularly when it is a large clutch.
The bourkes also appear to back incubating. The eggs were fully cold yesterday, so I don't know if they will still be viable.  However, after the surprise hatchings above I thinks it's best to just let nature take it's course.

It's all going wrong!

One of Marge's chicks has died.  I don't know if it's the un-seasonal weather (frost in May?) or lack of feeding by Barney or Marge, the crop did look empty.  Even more upsetting it appeared to be a lutino.  I was starting to worry that the remaining chick was not being fed, however I have now seen Marge feeding it.  Seven eggs...one chick (normal I think), oh well it's better than nothing.
Just to get me even more frustrated the bourkes (Rosie) may have abandoned her eggs...not sure what is going on, apart from there are now 8 EGGS.
The hecks have had to be removed from the aviary as they are terrorising the other pair of bourkes, pulling out feathers and at one stage preventing them from mating and unbelievably attempting to mate with the hen bourke whilst she was still in position!
Thankfully at least the Turks are behaving normally and Goldie remains to sit on her eggs.

Better late than never

Two of Marge's eggs have finally hatched.  I was starting to think that they were all dead in the shell as they were so overdue. When I looked at the eggs a few days before they hatched, 2 eggs out of the five remaining eggs looked as if they may also have chicks inside.  However, they are now 4 or 5 days overdue.

I hope Barney now starts to help feed the chicks. He's still got a swollen foot which has not responded to the antibiotics in the drinking water, which I've now stopped because of the chicks.

Not the best video quality...poor light. It's usually better at 8 to 10am BST when some sunlight filters into the box and flicks of the camera's infra-red.

Goldie the turk is sitting on her eggs and probably has been for the past two days, so they should be due about the 26th May.

The Hecks yet again threw out a newly hatched chick and the other eggs failed to hatch.  I've replaced their small nest basket with a larger nest box and they have already started to build another nest in it.  Hopefully this bigger space will make a difference.

Turqs have eggs

Turquoisines: Goldie has started laying...2 eggs.

Rosa Bourkes: I think Rosie has started sitting tonight on 5 eggs.

Buster has been stripped

Border terriers have a wirey top coat and a soft undercoat.  The top coat has to be stripped twice a year, which is best done by hand.  I used to do it myself, however I now leave it in the hands of a professional as Buster does not like the hairs being pulled out of his bum....does anyone?

Before

After

Before

After