Porcelain Project

So, these chicks are obviously not from the BRIR combo right? You have a silkie paint that just kinda gets around?
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I have quite a few splash, 1 is a tri colored sizzle I really like. Im thinking its a roo but nothing definite yet. Im gonna let him breed my porcelain and lavender girls just to see what comes of it. I also have a partridge boy, that I think looks REALLY good, so those will be my roosters for now. Im hoping to get Sheri Minker eggs from her porcelain sizzle project and of course Catdance eggs. I figure Ill have fun with what I have while I wait for the others to do their growing up.
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I passed on the porc rooster for now because Im in the middle of moving and just dont have a good isolation thing set up and Im swamped with moving a family of 7!

Looking forward to seeing pictures! Have you posted a picture of your lavender Catdance? Id love to see her.
The chicks that are paint x BRIR are posted in my paint project thread and my Red Silkie Project thread. Dapper Dan the paint is my only breeding age silkie male. I've rotated him between five sets of different hens. He has been a busy boy. I finally got better fertility. I no longer have a male for the porcelain project so will use these Paint x Lavender chicks for the future porcelain pens. So many chicks growing out right now, it's a good thing I toe punch and keep zips on every body. It would be hard to figure out who is who otherwise.
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Took some pictures of my paint male hanging out with the lavender and partridge hens. The partridge hen is the mother to the F1 six chicks in my porcelain project pen. I have her with the paint now to try and get some nicer partridge chicks to cross back on the partridge chicks from the paint x recessive white hens.

The lavender hen is almost two years old and just started laying eggs a month ago. Her chicks are beautiful. Her type isn't great. Her crest is ok and her feet are ok. Her cushion is *meh* She is a bit of a nut. Her name is Shreek. She shreeks and sqawks all day long.

Dapper Dan hanging out behind the barn in the shade with Shreek (lavender) and Fuzzbucket (partridge).


They hunt bugs on the wood pile.


The newest chicks from this trio.

Moving a family of seven with animals sounds like a challenge for sure! I'm with you on the waiting. I've got sixty chicks growing out and another twenty due in a few days. I'll be waiting to choose breeders from these for a while.
 
The chicks that are paint x BRIR are posted in my paint project thread and my Red Silkie Project thread. Dapper Dan the paint is my only breeding age silkie male. I've rotated him between five sets of different hens. He has been a busy boy. I finally got better fertility. I no longer have a male for the porcelain project so will use these Paint x Lavender chicks for the future porcelain pens. So many chicks growing out right now, it's a good thing I toe punch and keep zips on every body. It would be hard to figure out who is who otherwise. :lau Took some pictures of my paint male hanging out with the lavender and partridge hens. The partridge hen is the mother to the F1 six chicks in my porcelain project pen. I have her with the paint now to try and get some nicer partridge chicks to cross back on the partridge chicks from the paint x recessive white hens. The lavender hen is almost two years old and just started laying eggs a month ago. Her chicks are beautiful. Her type isn't great. Her crest is ok and her feet are ok. Her cushion is *meh* She is a bit of a nut. Her name is Shreek. She shreeks and sqawks all day long. Dapper Dan hanging out behind the barn in the shade with Shreek (lavender) and Fuzzbucket (partridge). They hunt bugs on the wood pile. The newest chicks from this trio. Moving a family of seven with animals sounds like a challenge for sure! I'm with you on the waiting. I've got sixty chicks growing out and another twenty due in a few days. I'll be waiting to choose breeders from these for a while.
He is incredible. A very gorgeous roo! And you have some serious breeding going on. There must be a pretty big set up at your place. I've only started to think about and design my breeding pens which I really won't need until next spring/summer. It's exciting tho, thinking about all these combinations and the possibilities. How long do you watch them feather out before deciding who to keep and who to sell? I really like Shreeks coloring. And my Catdance pullet talks ALL DAY LONG. I really enjoy it tho. Plus she likes me more than the other chickens do so she kinda gets away with anything. :)
 
He is incredible. A very gorgeous roo! And you have some serious breeding going on. There must be a pretty big set up at your place. I've only started to think about and design my breeding pens which I really won't need until next spring/summer. It's exciting tho, thinking about all these combinations and the possibilities. How long do you watch them feather out before deciding who to keep and who to sell?

I really like Shreeks coloring. And my Catdance pullet talks ALL DAY LONG. I really enjoy it tho. Plus she likes me more than the other chickens do so she kinda gets away with anything.
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Thank you. And now I must be totally honest. I never thought much about Dapper Dan from the day he hatched. He was all white with just a tiny black speck on top of his head. I had no other paints and didn't think about breeding him. In fact, I nearly culled him (chicken stock pot) numerous times. He was always fighting with every other male on the place. He always lost and was a bloody mess much of the time. But...He was so plucky, I kept him around. Never knowing he would be the only silkie male to survive a horrible late winter predation of my pens. I test mated him with my cast off recessive white hens that had no place in any other white pen. The rest is history. He is stamping his chicks with good feet and crests. Better than his own on most chicks. His daughters and sons are easy to pick out at an early age. The colors are all over the place and keep surprising me. I'm keeping all his progeny until at least six months of age to get a good grasp of their quality. I need to keep males as long as possible because they take so long to mature.

My property is only a half acre but it's divided in half and completely fenced and double and triple fenced in some areas. It's been easy to rotate Dapper Dan because I keep the breeding silkies in separate groups as well as the bantam RIR girls. So all I do is scoop Danny up and move him from pen to pen or cage to cage. I was rotating him every third day or so. Resting him in alone time and giving him a can of all meat cat food once a day to keep him energized. It worked. His fertility went from one fertile egg in five to one infertile egg in five. He is going to get a long rest starting in September. His feathers are ragged and he lacks in weight.


My white pen last year. The male is gone but I have lots of his progeny growing out.

One of the breeding condos inside the barn.

The bachelor condo.

One of my yards fenced for free ranging.

One of my chick houses.

This flower garden is part of the chick run. They get full use of it in fall.

Inside the old chick house.

One of the silkie runs with cottage.

My darling Grandson helping feed chickens last year.

My barn yard.

Half of the barn.

In winter.

My barn and most pens are old. Built in 1988. Using recycled materials mostly.

I've raised many hundreds of chickens here over the years. Dapper Dan is giving me the best silkies I've ever raised. I'm so very glad I kept him around. He is paying me back in spades.
 
Thank you. And now I must be totally honest. I never thought much about Dapper Dan from the day he hatched. He was all white with just a tiny black speck on top of his head. I had no other paints and didn't think about breeding him. In fact, I nearly culled him (chicken stock pot) numerous times. He was always fighting with every other male on the place. He always lost and was a bloody mess much of the time. But...He was so plucky, I kept him around. Never knowing he would be the only silkie male to survive a horrible late winter predation of my pens. I test mated him with my cast off recessive white hens that had no place in any other white pen. The rest is history. He is stamping his chicks with good feet and crests. Better than his own on most chicks. His daughters and sons are easy to pick out at an early age. The colors are all over the place and keep surprising me. I'm keeping all his progeny until at least six months of age to get a good grasp of their quality. I need to keep males as long as possible because they take so long to mature. My property is only a half acre but it's divided in half and completely fenced and double and triple fenced in some areas. It's been easy to rotate Dapper Dan because I keep the breeding silkies in separate groups as well as the bantam RIR girls. So all I do is scoop Danny up and move him from pen to pen or cage to cage. I was rotating him every third day or so. Resting him in alone time and giving him a can of all meat cat food once a day to keep him energized. It worked. His fertility went from one fertile egg in five to one infertile egg in five. He is going to get a long rest starting in September. His feathers are ragged and he lacks in weight. My white pen last year. The male is gone but I have lots of his progeny growing out. One of the breeding condos inside the barn. The bachelor condo. One of my yards fenced for free ranging. One of my chick houses. This flower garden is part of the chick run. They get full use of it in fall. Inside the old chick house. One of the silkie runs with cottage. My darling Grandson helping feed chickens last year. My barn yard. Half of the barn. In winter. My barn and most pens are old. Built in 1988. Using recycled materials mostly. I've raised many hundreds of chickens here over the years. Dapper Dan is giving me the best silkies I've ever raised. I'm so very glad I kept him around. He is paying me back in spades.
Sounds like you lost alot to predators last year? Was it all at once? I'm so sorry, I imagine that it would be devastating. Looks like you put alot of time and thought and money into your breeding. I'm glad you're getting more boys growing out and I must say most of the ones I've seen pictures of are beautiful! Is Dapper Dan a Catdance? I love your yard. The flower garden looks incredible. I lived in Olympia for awhile, it was amazing. I didn't mind the rain one bit, everything was so lush and green. About your bachelor pads; when do you seperate boys from girls? Also after you decide to retire a boy does he go into the stock pot? I've processed my own boys before but never any so old. I have no other plans as far as rooster retirement though. I don't want to make any enemies with my neighbors by having 20 roosters :oops: Having spent alot of time at the place we are moving to (9 acres) I know there are zero roosters around. I'm planning to have 2 silkie Roos and 1 swedish flower hen roo at all times, and possibly expanding in the future. Hopefully it won't be an issue. You have definitely made the most out of your lot! I'm impressed. Everything looks nice and clean too. How long have you been breeding silkies?
 
Sounds like you lost alot to predators last year? Was it all at once? I'm so sorry, I imagine that it would be devastating. Looks like you put alot of time and thought and money into your breeding. I'm glad you're getting more boys growing out and I must say most of the ones I've seen pictures of are beautiful! Is Dapper Dan a Catdance?
I love your yard. The flower garden looks incredible. I lived in Olympia for awhile, it was amazing. I didn't mind the rain one bit, everything was so lush and green. About your bachelor pads; when do you seperate boys from girls? Also after you decide to retire a boy does he go into the stock pot? I've processed my own boys before but never any so old. I have no other plans as far as rooster retirement though. I don't want to make any
I just did separate the first two hatches. I try to put them together by age and size. I keep smaller boys with the girls until they catch up. Three months or so seems to be a good time. They are getting more into the mock fighting and tend to pick on the smaller ones more often. Boys all together still mock fight but one becomes a clear leader and it is pretty much peaceful in the boy grow out pen. My flock is fairly young still. The olderst birds are only two and a half years old. Hope to keep breeding the old ones for as long as they are able and fertile.
I give eggs away to many of my neighbors. Those folks haven't complained. The one neighbor that might has teenage children that play drums. They also have chickens, goats, and a rooster. They don't dare complain! Hah! My husband and I work at keeping things tidy. In the winter I keep hay strewn in the barn yard and paths from the house to barn to keep mud down. I use deep litter in the barn and runs. I use shavings in the smaller breeding pens. Leaves, grass clippings, and peat moss are also used once in a while. All that goes into the garden when I clean up. I clean out the barn and pens every two or three months. Sometimes longer if it's dry like now.
I raised silkies back in 1990 through 1998. When my children were young. I quit chickens until just three years or so ago. Brought some silkie eggs home from a show in 2012 and hatched out whites. In Feb. 2013 I went to Karen Larson's Catdance farm and bought a white trio and two dozen hatching eggs. I'm hooked all over again.

My youngest daughter Faye and her champion white silkie pullet 'Gorgeous". 1996
 
I just happened upon this thread I loved reading thought I would share some pics of my porcelain project birds most are from catdance and california country ranch. I've been breeding for about 2 1/2 years they are so much fun.



















Hopefully people keep posting I love all the pics I also love your garden thread mumsy! Cant waiy to see everyones updated photos.
 
I'm back. It is impossible for me to reactivate my old accounts for unknown reasons. New computer recently so here I am again. Mumsy III no less. My silkie projects are entering F2 phase and the breeding pens are active and producing eggs regularly. The incubator and broody hens are humming.
To catch you up to speed in the Porcelain (Self BlueCream) project, here are my pens for 2014/15.


He

He is nearly a year old now and my best surviving male from my Catdance Partridge female to Catdance Porcelain male. I named him Blue Boy as a chick because he was so evenly Self Blue Cream as a chick. He's been renamed Boo-Ball. The way my friends toddler pronounces football. Cute. The name stuck.

He has been set up with a trio twice now. Waiting on eggs to hatch in the next month.

Two hens from my Catdance Paint to Catdance Lavender and Partridge hens.



Here he is with the two sort of Porcelain pullets and one Lavender pullet. The three girls are half sisters to my Paint male.



#13 is my favorite.



#73 is my second favorite.

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#72 is my only Self Blue pullet.
 
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I took pictures outside the barn today of the two Blue Cream sisters. One is in pen A and one is in pen B for test hatching.

The above pullet has dun with the buff. Her mum was a Catdance Lavender/Self Blue and her dad was my Catdance Paint.



Her full sister below has stronger buff. I suspect my Paint male has a Self Blue gene. His offspring crossed with the Lavender and the Partridge hens I hatched from Catdance eggs produced diluted offspring.

I've also crossed a full brother and sister Partridge together from this Paint male and a recessive white hen. One in five of their chicks are very diluted Self Blue.
 
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I hatched a test batch of eggs from a full brother sister Partridge match. They are both out of a recessive white female and my Catdance bred Paint father. .
Two out of five chicks were self blue cream in color.



In the test pen I also had a couple Bantam Rhode Island Red hens. The resulting chick was not what I expected.

T
This chick is a barney (half silkie half BRIR.) It's wing feathers are coming in self blue. Even the shaft of the feather!


My feeling is that my Catdance Paint is passing the lavender gene. The full brother to sister mating of the partridge progeny of my Paint paired up and brought it out. But how did the lavender gene pass to the BRIR?
 
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