okay Boys and Girls. I have a little bit of a puzzle for everyone which might be a bit of fun!

 

I did a mad egg and chick swap around at the start of this round for various reasons. I noted all the nests that the chicks came from and think I've got it well figured (or as well as possible) but I thought it was a kinda neat way to have a little puzzle session on BBC.

 

 

 

So to start with we have all the possible parents and their genetics as well as I know them........

 

Pair One:

Normal Dark Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Yellowfaced (M2) Skyblue Hen

 

Pair Two:

Normal Dark Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Normal Grey Hen

 

Pair Three:

Normal Grey Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Opaline Spangle Grey Green Hen

 

Pair Four:

Normal Light Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x DF grey DF M1 Yellowface Spangle Hen

 

 

 

So the two babies in question are:

 

Opaline Dark Green

 

Cinnamon Spangle Grey Green

 

Tell me which pairs MIGHT be the parents of either chick and why!

Edited December 29, 201014 yr by nubbly5

Gosh Nubbly, either pair 1 and 2 could have sired the first chick and either pair 3 or 4 could have sired the second chick lol. I suppose you'll only find out from breeding, if chick # 1 ever throws a yellowface you know it was pair 1 that sired it. If not then its anybody's guess. Same with chick two and the DF YF mother (potentially). Breeding will clearly sort that out!

after listing out possible outcomes for all the pairs in my head (ouch haven't done that thinking for a while lol) I came to the same as Dean.

 

Then i looked at the babies. Baby 1 looks to be male to me which then makes pair 3 as the parents as that is the only Opaline hen available from the outcomes.

So unless the chick is a hen then it is back to what dean states either pair one or two

 

baby 2 is harder I can see the defining factor between the last two pairs.

Both chicks are definitely hens. Those tricky ones that only show white around the very edges of their nostrils.

 

Thanks Dean and Nerwen for giving it a bash!!!

 

So for the benefit of others I'll explain what the possibilities are and why.

 

Baby 1 (Opaline Dark Green Hen) has 1 dark factor so MUST have a dark factor parent. Therefore pairs one and two are the OBVIOUS choice, however pairs 1, 2 or 3 could all be the parents of this baby, although it is less likely with 2 grey parents that the baby will be a non grey. The issue being that dark factor in grey is impossible to tell for sure. Pair 4 could not be the parent of this chick as a double factor grey will ALWAYS produce grey chicks. If the baby were indeed a cock then it would HAVE to be pair 3 due to the opaline just as Nerwen suggested. Alas he is a she! More detectoring by me is required.

 

Chick 2 however is a bit easier. Being a spangle she MUST have at least one parent who is a spangle so either parent 3 or 4 as Dean and Nerwen say, could be the parents. Happily for me, I transferred only 1 baby from pair 4 into this nest and this pair 4 is my feather duster breeding pair and low and behold there is one grey green feather duster in this nest so that takes care of the chick from pair 4 so the only option here IS pair 3 (well apart from some risk that pair 3 could also produce feather dusters (but have not once so far)).

didn't think it would be easy as that. So you are still not sure which pair produced chick 1??

The short answer is ummmm NO

 

Sometimes it's easy to pick which parents a chick comes from just from the features of the bird but unfortunately the 2 dark greens in question are full brothers. I have to delve a bit further and do some deductive reasoning me thinks.

The short answer is ummmm NO

 

Sometimes it's easy to pick which parents a chick comes from just from the features of the bird but unfortunately the 2 dark greens in question are full brothers. I have to delve a bit further and do some deductive reasoning me thinks.

i think baby one is from the dark green and the m2yf blue hen yes two greys can produce a dark green but mosty blue if not grey babys so i think its safe bet to say not theirs but then never really know and being hen wont have the splits to fall back on i say one as its more likly a dark green n a sky produce dark green chick than the greys good luck hun thats all i can sayi always work it out even if it takes till second molt hope you do too

okay some more information for those with better deductive reasoning than mine.

 

The nest occupants are:

 

049 Normal Grey

050 Normal Grey Green (feather duster)

051 Cinnamon Grey Green Spangle

052 Opaline Dark Green

055 Normal Grey

 

There were 3 fertile eggs from nest #22 Normal Grey (Holy Cr*p) x Opaline Grey Green Spangle

All 3 hatched 16/11, 18/11 & 19/11

I added one baby from nest #11 Dark Green x YF M2 hatched 19/11

(one baby died) - it was either the last baby from #22 or the recently added one from #11

I then added one baby from nest #11 Dark Green x YF M2 hatched 22/11

I then added one baby from nest #20 Dark Green x Normal Grey hatched 21/11

I then added one baby from nest #24 Normal Light Green x DF Grey DF YF Spangle hatched 19/11

THEN one older chick ring 056 died but too early to know what it was so NO idea who it was from.

 

So I know 050 is from #24 as they are the only pair that I have EVER had breed feather dusters.

Therefore by deduction 051 is from nest #22 (the only other spangle parent).

I would be happy guessing that 049 is also from #22 given that it's grey AND hatched first AND was most likely rung first.

So the only 2 left are 052 and 055.

 

Considering 055 is grey and could not have come from #11 it's either the 3rd chick from nest #22 OR it's more likely considering it was rung last to be from nest #20 which hatched 2 days after the last chick from #22, so I'm going with that (BUT it really could have been from either nest).

 

That still leaves the chance that 052 is from either #11 or #22 but considering that Holy Cr*p comes from grey/grey green parents that never bred anything other than greys and grey greens, odds are on that he is probably a DF grey AND he is also paired with a grey green so it's unlikely (although still possible) that the Opaline Dark Green is his chick.

 

So like GB, I'll pitch at her parents being Dark Green x YF M2 Skyblue.

 

So the 2 chicks that were lost were 1 from #22 and 1 from #11.

 

Anyone see anything that I missed here? Or have a different take on this?

Edited December 31, 201014 yr by nubbly5

i can see it fitting, and it is more probable to get a dark green Opaline from that pairing. Your only change of proving it is if she is split YF blue and throws a YF baby.