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I've been asked to have my homer pairs foster and raise satinette/homer cross squeakers for a friend who keeps them as pets. Here's the first one; already flying a little and able to eat seeds alone, though papa is still feeding him. "Woohoo, I can balance on the roof of the grit pot!" Teena, his foster mother, just laid more eggs (and so did the satinette hen), so Teena & Big Bar get to raise another round of fosters instead of sitting on dummy eggs. 
The "back story" -- there are 3 "satinettes" that used to be droppers and still live with the "young birds" (from '06 and '07 that apparently were trained but not raced). These have each taken a homer mate, but attempt to keep a "communal" nest with all the 3 pairs piling on. The lot of them are flighty, and either don't sit their eggs, or the eggs get broken in scuffles.
All of these are all-white short-beaked birds; one is surely a hen, because I've caught her laying eggs. I think one of the others is a cock, and the third a hen, but I'm not entirely sure. The known hen has muffed feet, but no frills, crest, etc. The others have "plain" feet, and one of them has a crest. The homer mate of the hen is either a "black" spread, a blue check, or a blue bar (I'm not sure who goes with whom, since they just all pile up in the same place, and I haven't seen them actually mating. They all preen & nuzzle each other when doing the "nesting" thing. I have no idea why the satinettes didn't pair up among themselves, but...
The question is (finally!): Where did the red on the squeaker come from? None of the homers among them, or even in the whole coop, is showing any red. And where did the saddle pattern come from? Pics attached... first one is from 2 weeks ago; the others were taken today. (sorry they are so pixellated; file size limits are, well, limiting.
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The "back story" -- there are 3 "satinettes" that used to be droppers and still live with the "young birds" (from '06 and '07 that apparently were trained but not raced). These have each taken a homer mate, but attempt to keep a "communal" nest with all the 3 pairs piling on. The lot of them are flighty, and either don't sit their eggs, or the eggs get broken in scuffles.
All of these are all-white short-beaked birds; one is surely a hen, because I've caught her laying eggs. I think one of the others is a cock, and the third a hen, but I'm not entirely sure. The known hen has muffed feet, but no frills, crest, etc. The others have "plain" feet, and one of them has a crest. The homer mate of the hen is either a "black" spread, a blue check, or a blue bar (I'm not sure who goes with whom, since they just all pile up in the same place, and I haven't seen them actually mating. They all preen & nuzzle each other when doing the "nesting" thing. I have no idea why the satinettes didn't pair up among themselves, but...
The question is (finally!): Where did the red on the squeaker come from? None of the homers among them, or even in the whole coop, is showing any red. And where did the saddle pattern come from? Pics attached... first one is from 2 weeks ago; the others were taken today. (sorry they are so pixellated; file size limits are, well, limiting.
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