Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[JacinLarkwell]

Marka stayed in her nest from the time of my last post until early this morning, when she popped out for breakfast after I'd dished out feed to everyone. I left her be in the hopes she would return to her nest since she stayed there dedicatedly overnight. Several hours later, there she was, sitting next to the nest box again. View attachment 3512297 I moved her niece, Amaretto, and a second nest box into the sectioned off broody pen as well, with the hopes that one or the other would figure it out and the other would follow suit, but nope. Marka wants to sit next to the nests, and Amaretto just wants out of there.

So, as a last-ditch effort to get them where they need to be, I put an egg in both boxes and moved the food dish over to block the spot Marka wanted to sit. Finally, the light bulb came on and Marka went into a nest on her own! Amaretto, she still wants to pace along the fence to get back to the laying nests. Unfortunately, the two Red hens, for the first time in their lives, are acting a bit wishy-washy about brooding now, so it's Amaretto or no second broody this weekend. I suppose just running one for now would be fine, though. Despite that I still only have three eggs from the corner coop and am up to 5 from Gus's group now, I'm leaning more toward putting the corner coop eggs under Marka tomorrow. I apparently quite desperately need a fresh pullet or two for the corner coop at the rate those hens are laying.





How are things looking today? Any more hatched?

The 2nd one had a very rough hatch, he wasn't ready when he forced his way our and was bleeding. It stopped almost entirely after a lot of panic on my end, and he went out with Cheese last night. I didn't see any bodies this morning, so I'm hoping he did okay, but I was in a rush and couldn't hurry and lift her because of the chicks under her.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The rest look like they quit unfortunately. I think the aircells were just not right when they went to hatch.

So, fingers crossed at least one of the 2 is a girl

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The 2nd one had a very rough hatch, he wasn't ready when he forced his way our and was bleeding. It stopped almost entirely after a lot of panic on my end, and he went out with Cheese last night. I didn't see any bodies this morning, so I'm hoping he did okay, but I was in a rush and couldn't hurry and lift her because of the chicks under her.

The rest look like they quit unfortunately. I think the aircells were just not right when they went to hatch.

So, fingers crossed at least one of the 2 is a girl

Ah, I'm so sorry to hear that! And I hear you on panicking about something like that--I probably would have done the same. Hopefully the little one is doing just fine with its new mama today--and hopefully you get your pullet.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ah, I'm so sorry to hear that! And I hear you on panicking about something like that--I probably would have done the same. Hopefully the little one is doing just fine with its new mama today--and hopefully you get your pullet.

Yeah. Preferably both are pullets and make it. Since I'm a bit attached to my current males. But I can make it work if one is a male. I mainly wanted some new blood from a different source, so pullets should still work for that a bit. Neither are tufted either, of course

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You never know! I had just two chicks hatch for Easter last year, and both of them ended up being pullets!

Tufts are complicated, being a lethal gene and all. Stinks that neither of them have them, though. Do you have tufted birds to breed them to?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You never know! I had just two chicks hatch for Easter last year, and both of them ended up being pullets!

Tufts are complicated, being a lethal gene and all. Stinks that neither of them have them, though. Do you have tufted birds to breed them to?

I have a single tufted hen. So a pair would be okay in that aspect. And once I seperate them from the main flock, I can always just hold back any of her tufted chicks.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Amaretto, in true Amaretto fashion, laid an egg overnight. Not in a nest, of course, just on the ground.

So apparently she is broody but hasn't quit laying. That's a deal breaker for me even if she does figure out the nests in the broody pen, as I do not want any more Silkie mixes if she happens to lay an egg while brooding my silkied Cochin eggs.

The silkied Red girls have both decided maybe they don't want to go broody yet, a shocking twist on their usual routine of going broody early summer and never quitting until the fall.

Gwenyth, my naked neck bantam, is looking like she wants to brood, but not yet committed to it.

So, I guess Marka will get eggs today and that's that. There was a big ol broody poop in the broody pen this morning that wasn't there last night, so she apparently left the nest for at least long enough to do that and then returned to the nest without getting lost. A comforting sign! I do think I'll give her the eggs from Pete's coop even though there are still only three of them. I've already hatched quite a few of Gus's babies, but Pete's girls are slacking bad on egg laying, so I want to prioritize getting as many chicks from that coop as possible with the hopes of getting a pullet or two to help pick up egg laying next year. Worse comes to worst and none or few hatch, I can always graft some chicks to her from the incubator, keeping any Splashes for myself, of course.

I have 11 eggs from the Blue coop saved back to set in the incubator today. Fingers crossed there's a Splash in the mix here, and preferably a pullet!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I gave Marka the three corner coop eggs and she seems pretty pleased with herself in there. If, by chance, anyone lays an egg or two in the corner coop today, I'll go ahead and give it to her as well. Needless to say, I am not holding my breath.

I also candled the incubator eggs and removed all the clears. Normally, I wait until the day 14 candling to remove clears just in case, but it was pretty apparent that there were clears in the Gus eggs at day 7 and I needed the space for the Blue group eggs. Every Boba egg is developing, but none of Zinnia's eggs developed at all. So, I guess as soon as I have a solid pullet or two grown out enough to join that flock, Zinnia will be retiring to the mixed flock. Despite all this, she's still a pretty special hen to me, so she'll remain here just as a pet and layer. I will continue to set her eggs in the interim just in case something happens to change.

As indicated above, all 11 eggs from the Blue group went in the incubator as well. I have one last slot left in my turner rails, so if I get another egg from the Blue group today, I'll go ahead and set it as well. Really pulling for that Splash baby! (EDIT: 12 eggs in, and the incubator is full ) These eggs were collected after those hens had been separated form Gus and covered by Wyatt for a little over two weeks, so hopefully they're all Wyatt's chicks that hatch. I unfortunately have no way of knowing positively other than if a Splash chick hatches, as Gus is undoubtedly Black so could not father a Splash.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I heard a commotion in the corner coop and went out to check. Sure enough, it was an egg!! Marka now has 4 eggs underneath her. Between that and the 12th egg set in the incubator (as mentioned in an edit of the above post), I'm up to 16 eggs set today!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I peeked again

But I see early signs of life in the eggs from the Blue group! Come on, Splash baby!!


Pete's babies go into lock down tomorrow, too, so that's exciting! Unfortunately, I have yet again not gotten any eggs from them since Sunday. I'd planned to set them next since I have a ton of Blue eggs in now and a bunch of Gus babies on the ground already, but it looks like I'm going to have to pick a different coop's eggs to set next.