Guide to Egg Scribbles

Sparky's Guide to Egg Scribbles

Late Feb / Early March 2013 Mixed & Assorted Sets 

Caveat: We hatch continuously so flock improvements are happening pretty much year round with surges in the Spring and Fall. This means there are slight changes and tinkering here and there.
I'll try to update this as new breeds and codes get added to mixed & assorted boxes.   

Misc Scribble Generalities:

~*~ There will typically be a number to represent the collection date and a phrase or letter code. 

~*~ If the phrase ends with "House" or "HS" it means there may be non-project birds residing with the project birds or I'm simply not sure if the eggs are purebred.  (This happens because flocks and projects are specific to either SparkyCrows or BeakHouse so they're managed by different people. We share responsibilities across the entire operation BUT we've each sort of developed our own shorthand.  We try to be consistent but between us we've got 25 or so "Houses" : )

~*~"PB" stands for PUREBRED.

~*~ An "X" after the main egg type means this is a mixed egg.

~*~ Also, sometimes a name is used but it actually refers to several hens in the same project.  Roosters are typically given unique names.  

~*~ I keep pretty tight records regarding what was included in each egg set.  Sometimes I follow up to find out how different project birds are doing.

And without further adieu.....and in no particular order for the time being...

The Codes

Aikiko - This is one of my projects.  I'm breeding towards small, rumpless birds that lay blue eggs and have dark skin.  Currently eggs are coming from two hens, Orchid and Yukidama. 

Jenny & Leopold or "BBR" or "B/B/S Rock" - These birds are part of my blue barred rock project. There are actually 4 hens named "Jenny", all solid blue.  Leopold is heterozygous for barring so his offspring will be either solid or barred.  He's blue so matched to Jenny's blue, their offspring could be blue, black, or splash.

PWP or  "Painted White Plume"  - This project is essentially an exploration of silver & gold genetics on a wheaten base. However, these get overridden to some extent by interactions between white and black genes.  The hens all have this white with black spots look going for them....very cool with their crests!  There are two roosters in with the White Plume girls.  One is an F2 PWP rooster (TwoRoo) - white beard and tail, golden body with faint red barring in his hackles and wing bow.   The other is a blue and cream rooster from the South American composite house.  His comb is even more extravagant than Sicilian Buttercups and so far none of his offspring have had even remotely boring combs.  I call him "Castle".

BH or Banty House - This is NOT actually an area where I keep banties but over time the name has stuck.  Essentially this housing for my retired hens and otherwise un-attached females.  If I know which hen laid the egg I make a notation. The roosters in the house include a purebred ameraucana split to silkied feathering, a barred rock split to chocolate, an easter banty, a rumpless Aikiko rooster, and a Tamotsu silchin.  The ameraucana and rock have been far and away the most prolific thus far this year. Chocolates hatched from the mixed sets have primarily come by way of the banty house.

Silchin or Tamotsu - This is a special silchin project centered around breeding for broodiness. Silkies and Cochins are inherently broody but this extends beyond hatching and brooding for a month or so.  The males in this flock are so into their chicks they'll stay with the brood long after the mother hen loses interest.  Additionally, these males have an unusual floppy straight comb instead of the expected dominant silkie walnut comb.  The F1 hens have very dark faces but the F1 roosters are much pinker.  It takes another generation for the dark to resurface in the males.  We anticipate adding in some silkie x chantecler hybrid pullets and roosters to the flock in a few months. 

PB d'Uccle (or "duc") - Purebred d'Uccle egg from my lavender isabel partridge rooster over my mille fleurs and a white d'uccle.  At this time eggs from the SparkyCrows side of the farm will either be gold columbian or mille fleur.  More exotic colors are available through BeakHouse.

Lulu - These eggs are from F2 blue barred hens.  During the end of February, the Lulus were housed with a standard barred rock, a split to chocolare barred rock, and a DF splash barred rock but they had free range during the day. It is more than likely this will be a purebred rock but there are many, many potential color variations possible.

Zoey - These two girls are being housed with two purebred ameraucanas with dark skin.  We're expecting the offspring to be first generation olive eggers.  One of the roosters is a splash blue wheaten and the other is black with a green sheen and orange streaks.  The latter is extremely dark skinned.  When the time is right the splash blue will be moving along to elsewhere but for now the black rooster is rather young and timid.  The point of this house is to experiment with melanotic traits and hopefully increase the carnosine levels in meat. The long range target is a dual purpose novelty egg layer with meat that is highly sought after as a delicacy.

Lemon Cuckoo x Red Sex Link or RSL or Lemon Orp HS - I have a red sex link hen who desperately wants to be an orpington!  Every time I move her out of the BeakHouse Lemon Orp House, she finds her way back. I've given up for now. This particular rooster is heterozygous for barring so his offspring could be barred or solid, most likely red. (This is all book learned conjecture so I'll be interested to know if I'm anywhere close to correct :)