Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Just got back from dropping off the pair I sold. Man, that was tough, y'all. The birds of course didn't want to go in their boxes, they've never traveled before. And they're such sweet and adorable birds that it's hard not to grow attached. But they went to a nice 4-H family where I'm sure they'll be well taken care of, and I may even be able to see them in the 4-H fair next year. I hope they love them as much as I do!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Pictures as promised last week! Sorry for the delay!

These are all from yesterday, just didn't get around to cropping them until today. I tried to get good shots of some of the ones that are particularly catching my eye these days, but of course I had the camera set wrong or something and half of my pictures ended up blurred with movement or out of focus. It also doesn't help that any time I crouch to get a picture of someone, they all come rushing over to me and ruin the shot!

But, I did my best, anyway.

Here are the June Splash girls. Editing, whoops, on a second look these two pictures are actually both the same pullet

A Blue coop cockerel. As you can see along the left edge of the picture, the cockerels do not like to sit still, so I didn't get many cockerel pictures that were not blurred or smudged.

Splash boys. Pic 1 is my pick to keep as of right now. Second picture cockerel has such great type other than that wing set, but he also has a bad wry tail, so he's out. The third Splash cockerel, I didn't get a clear shot of, but he's lacking the width these two have. Of course, I will still give him ample time to fill in more before I mark him down as a definite non-keeper.

Here is one of the birchen-based Blue pullets. Not bad type (and still a little young to really fully criticize for that), but pretty dark, as seems to be the case for most of these birchen-based Blues. I may end up selecting against birchen just for that reason.

I didn't track which of these girls are from which coop in these pictures (they are all banded still so I can look at their bands for the purposes of assigning them coops later on, just couldn't see those bands in the pictures to label them appropriately! ), but here are some other lookers in the crowd:

A corner coop baby that a friend of mine named Ivy.

The two pullets that Athena raised. First one is a mixed coop girl, and the second is a Gus x Boba baby but I think she has Bl^d, so likely neither will be kept back for breeding. That mixed coop girl is such a sassy little lady; she's always grouching and grumbling at me when I'm out there!

The July babies are too small to judge for type yet, but they're awfully cute anyway.

My birthday baby

Just a couple other shots I grabbed while I was out there. Wyatt's looking pretty sharp after his molt! It's really no wonder his kids have been blowing me away in the looks department. Gotta work on that wing set, though!

Glam shot of one of the Black pullets:

I've merged Boba into the Blue coop for the winter so that she's not all alone in the cold. Here's the merged group all poking at a busted egg I tossed for them. Going around the ring clockwise from the top, that's Wyatt (look how wide that boy is! ), Boba, Ottilie (having dropped half of her feathers at once, poor girl!), Inara, and then the two pullets that Athena raised.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Here are the June Splash girls. Favoring the girl in the first picture just a tiny bit more than the one in the second picture, but both are solid for their age.

What do you like more about her?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Whoops, I didn't really say, did I? She's got just a tiny bit more width to her when looking at her from above, and viewed from behind her tail is a bit less pinched. I also like that her wings are more firmly set higher up on her hips. The two may as well be identical twins otherwise; I can practically not tell them apart at all except for that the first has slightly darker eyes than the second.

Editing, actually, now that I'm looking at those pictures again... Those are both of the same pullet. The other pullet also has a smaller dark splotch on her beak. The pullet not pictured is the one I like just a little bit more, of course.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

This had me cackling last night and it's kind of related to this thread, so... Looks like I've got a great start to a new project: silkied 'Long Cochins'.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I decided spur of the moment last night to go ahead and put the leg bands on the youngest birds, so officially everyone is banded now! I forgot to look for extra bands (such as to mark the birchen-based birds) while I was banding them, so I'll have to look them over again tonight, but they all at least have their coop and year bands on now.


Also hopefully selling another pair this weekend. I finally feel like I'm making some headway on getting my numbers down!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ihave to get numbers down too. This weekend will not be fun with that and the weather

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oof, yeah, it's been pretty cold up your way, hasn't it? Hope things go smoothly for you this weekend regardless!

Mine also have a time limit and they're starting to run out at this point. If I haven't sold a bunch of cockerels, whether in pairs or just on their own, by late November / early December, then I'll end up having to put a lot of them in the freezer, unfortunately. The processor I go through closes for the year in early December, so I can't wait any longer than that. I hate it and it sucks for the cockerels, but I just can't keep them all, especially in the wintertime when everyone's grouchy and cooped up because of the snow, and that really doesn't leave me any other choice. At the very least, without the boys, I should be able to sell pullets much more easily and get some extra feed money in my pocket for the wintertime. Most people around here just want pullets, so the cockerels end up breaking a lot of potential sales.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Oof, yeah, it's been pretty cold up your way, hasn't it? Hope things go smoothly for you this weekend regardless!

Mine also have a time limit and they're starting to run out at this point. If I haven't sold a bunch of cockerels, whether in pairs or just on their own, by late November / early December, then I'll end up having to put a lot of them in the freezer, unfortunately. The processor I go through closes for the year in early December, so I can't wait any longer than that. I hate it and it sucks for the cockerels, but I just can't keep them all, especially in the wintertime when everyone's grouchy and cooped up because of the snow, and that really doesn't leave me any other choice. At the very least, without the boys, I should be able to sell pullets much more easily and get some extra feed money in my pocket for the wintertime. Most people around here just want pullets, so the cockerels end up breaking a lot of potential sales.

Gosh I wish I had someone that could just do mine for me. I'd probably be at least 30 birds less as soon as I could. My chickens can't leave the property though, so I can't do that

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, that would make it tough to find someone else to do it for you. That stinks. I don't suppose there are any area farmers that would come to you to do it, either? At the very least, your birds don't have to be stressed out by a car ride, even if that means you end up having to do the processing yourself.