Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

When I first got my "self blue cochin bantams" from Privett, I was rather disappointed in their type. I should have expected it, hatcheries not being known for breeding to any standard other than laying a lot of eggs to make salable chicks. These could have been lavender orpington bantams, if not for the feather on their feet. Luckily, I had a black frizzle roo a friend gave me and he had much better type (and a truly wild hairdo). He was the first stud in my program to improve the type. The lavender gene (creates the "self blue" phenotype) is a complete recessive, like the hookless gene. F2's from that rooster produced about 1/4 lavender chicks, as expected. They grew up and were considerably better in type than their lavender ancestors, as well as having some lavender frizzles in the group. Careful breeding (frizzle is partially dominant and so somewhat harder tot work with) and selection resulted in a line of pretty nice lavender frizzles. They looked like dirty feather dusters, to be honest, but lavender anything sells in my area.
Then I was gifted a smooth, black mottled cochin roo from chicks acquired from Jamie Matts by a local 4-H club. He was fantastic type and it really showed on him (the frizzle gene makes type a little fuzzier, just like silkied). He became my second stud in this line and because frizzle is partially dominant, I bred back to him to create black mottled frizzles. I really like how those birds are looking, and because the lavender gene is nearly impossible to eliminate from a population, I even started getting lavender mottled chicks, in both smooth and frizzle.
The point of this story is that a single gene recessive, like the lavender or hookless alleles, is easy to work with in an outcross. Both alleles seem to have some deleterious effects that are concentrated by inbreeding. All show breeders working with the lavender gene recommend regular outcrosses to the "parent" color (usually black, sometimes partridge or wheaten) to maintain vigor and improve the line. Generally, the non-lavender lines of any breed are far ahead of the lavender birds in show quality.
If you are still working with BBS silkieds, I think you would do well to invest in a great show line of black cochins. That color is widely shown and often are near perfect in quality. A single bird is enough to work with. I think you will see a dramatic improvement in your silkied line if you do that.

Ah, thank you for that! I actually gave thought to doing just that this year after adding some Chocolates for fun fell through, but I second guessed whether that was the right move at the time and ended up deciding to just stick with what I have. It's a real shame because I went to the Ohio National show in November and that probably would have been a great place to find some nice Cochins if I'd just gone and looked around the sales barn Noted for the future!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Look what I found in the Blue pen last night!!

This picture makes it look like it's huge, but it's actually a tiny, skinny, torpedo-shaped egg, so I suspect it's a pullet egg and not from one of the adult hens.

...Guess I really need to narrow down my breeders quite soon, huh?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Washburne passed away last night. Fortunately I had planned to retire her this year anyway, so this does not necessarily change my breeding plans for the year, but it does make me rather sad. She was not the best example of the breed, but I did quite adore her anyway and was hoping to have a few more years with her in the mixed flock.

I'm still debating on Bella and Coco, the other two hens in that pen. Neither laid a single egg last year, which makes me think it might be wiser to retire them as well for some of the pullets I hatched out of Wash, but they do have pretty nice type so would go a long way to improve that pen, I'd think, not to mention I'd like to breed from some of the older birds just as a means of keeping some longevity in my birds... But if they aren't going to lay anyway, then I suppose it won't make any difference. I guess I'll give them a month or two in spring to see if they actually will lay this year, and if not then I'll boot them to the mixed flock.

I had planned to retire Pete as well and put Zeke in his place for this year's breedings to get more Blues from that pen, but Zeke recently has decided to become rather volatile and violent with me, and I do not tolerate that behavior from my breeding males. So, Pete may just get another year or partial year of breeding while I grow out the cockerels and decide who is better suited to taking his place. And Zeke, he may just end up soup this year instead, as aggressive as he's suddenly become.

I ordered a book about Cochin breeding that should be here this week. Hoping to spend some time reading it, comparing the pictures within to my birds, and making some cuts to my grow outs before the end of the month. Ideally, I'd like to start testing for fertility next month, but of course that will depend on whether the birds get to laying or not, and how fast I can sell off the pullets that don't make the cut in order to make room for new hatchlings.

Oh, and one last thing I'd like to note here. I did finally make a page to track which birds were in which pens each year, just as a reference to look back on. It's nothing that hasn't already been posted here or visible on the page linked in the first post for a long time, of course, but the link to the new page is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pipds-silkied-cochins-breeding-history.79126/

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I ordered a book about Cochin breeding that should be here this week. Hoping to spend some time reading it, comparing the pictures within to my birds, and making some cuts to my grow outs before the end of the month.

My book is here! I'd seen it here and there online and decided to look into it more thoroughly recently. I'm a pretty visual person; I feel like I've read the text of the standard for Cochin bantams a million times and I just can't fully wrap my head around it all in that format. But this book has lots of pictures of champion row Cochin bantams of different varieties, plus side-by-sides with common defects, faults, and other traits to be selected against compared to birds without those. I've just skimmed through it for now, but already saw some things that really clicked in my brain. Can't wait to really sit down for a thorough read-and-digest this weekend!

Also, I love the picture on the back cover. Imagine that little puffball on the left, but silkied That's the goal!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I went back and forth about posting these because these are birds that I am not keeping or breeding, but I took pictures of some of the culls for a sales ad and thought I'd share them here as well. These are all birds that I've decided not to keep either because I have what I consider to be better birds from the same pens (as is the case for the first cockerel particularly), or because they just are not as typey as I want my birds to be.

Next week is supposed to be pretty nice here, so I plan to start evaluating the older pullets now that I've read through my new book a few times and studied the pictures and info within. I'll see about getting pictures of them then!

I think that I've decided on putting some of the Gus x Blue girls pullets in the breeding program. I had originally planned not to because, of course, they don't strictly belong to any of the clans for my clan breeding program. But I had heard a long time ago about this technique called 'landracing' where you let all of your clans run together at the end of the season and breed as they please, using the best resulting birds from that in your clans despite being a mix of clans. Some of those Gus x Blue girls pullets are stunners, and I feel like they'd add a lot to some of my pens even though they aren't technically from an actual 'landracing' technique, especially in the red and green pens where the birds are a bit weaker type-wise. Wish I had decided on that before selling some of those girls!!

At any rate, I'll update again next week with what I decide on based on how the birds look, and try to get pictures, especially of my picks for my pens.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I went back and forth about posting these because these are birds that I am not keeping or breeding, but I took pictures of some of the culls for a sales ad and thought I'd share them here as well. These are all birds that I've decided not to keep either because I have what I consider to be better birds from the same pens (as is the case for the first cockerel particularly), or because they just are not as typey as I want my birds to be.

View attachment 3748984View attachment 3748985View attachment 3748986View attachment 3748987View attachment 3748988

Next week is supposed to be pretty nice here, so I plan to start evaluating the older pullets now that I've read through my new book a few times and studied the pictures and info within. I'll see about getting pictures of them then!

I think that I've decided on putting some of the Gus x Blue girls pullets in the breeding program. I had originally planned not to because, of course, they don't strictly belong to any of the clans for my clan breeding program. But I had heard a long time ago about this technique called 'landracing' where you let all of your clans run together at the end of the season and breed as they please, using the best resulting birds from that in your clans despite being a mix of clans. Some of those Gus x Blue girls pullets are stunners, and I feel like they'd add a lot to some of my pens even though they aren't technically from an actual 'landracing' technique, especially in the red and green pens where the birds are a bit weaker type-wise. Wish I had decided on that before selling some of those girls!!

At any rate, I'll update again next week with what I decide on based on how the birds look, and try to get pictures, especially of my picks for my pens.

That third one down is adorable.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That third one down is adorable.

This guy?

He is pretty cute. He's bottom of the pecking order in the cockerel pen, so kind of tugs at my heartstrings for that. Can't keep them all, though, and he's lacking for type and has too long of tail feathers sticking out of his cushion.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This guy?

He is pretty cute. He's bottom of the pecking order in the cockerel pen, so kind of tugs at my heartstrings for that. Can't keep them all, though, and he's lacking for type and has too long of tail feathers sticking out of his cushion.

Yep. Just like my Japanese rabbits with white markings. Nothing but cull material, but dang it if they weren't always adorable

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

All right, now time for some potential keepers.

I started evaluating pullets today. Just the blue coop so far, and I decided part way through that some of the pullets in there are too young to properly judge, so not all of them are present in these pictures. But, here's what I have so far along with some notes.

Something to keep in mind... Each and every one of them stretched out their necks when I put them up on my makeshift table to evaluate them and would not pose nicely, so don't judge their head and cushion height too harshly based on these pictures.

These are the ones that I evaluated before deciding they need a bit more time to fill out:

Younger pullet 1:

What I like about her: Roundness, back, foot color and feathering, height and width of head, width of back, comb is decent
What I don't care for: Wing set low and wings are slipped, tail is a bit iffy, earlobe color, beak a bit straight

---

Younger pullet 2:

What I like about her: Back, chest, wings are not slipped, earlobe color
What I don't care for: Cushion and tail are iffy, head is a bit narrow, foot color is lacking, wing set too low

For both of them, I expect they will improve at least some with a few more weeks of growing.





The rest of these birds I feel are old enough to more thoroughly evaluate.

These I believe are my definite keepers:

Splash pullet 1:

Just to show the type difference between on the table and on the ground, here is the same pullet on the ground. They are all like this n the ground, with heads better set compared to their cushions.

What I like about her: Roundness, broadness, back, wing set, broad head, short and curved beak, foot color, ugh, just everything honestly
What I don't care for: Okay, fine. Her comb is not the greatest, cushion needs to fill out more, and she has some white in her earlobes.

---

Black pullet:

What I like about her: Roundness, broadness, wing set, broad head, back, cushion, fullness of stern, foot color and feathering
What I don't care for: Chest is not as full as I'd like, poor comb serration, earlobe color

---

Blue pullet 1:

What I like about her: Roundness and broadness, back, cushion, broadness of head, fullness of chest and stern, shank coloring and feathering
What I don't care for: comb serration, those darn earlobes, wing set is juuuust a tiny bit low




These last two are 'maybes', not sure if I'll keep them or not:

Splash pullet 2:

What I like about her: decently round and broad, back, wing set, earlobe color, foot color and feathering
What I don't care for: Lacking fullness in the chest and cushion, head is a bit narrower, tail is a bit high, a little bit of slip in the wing

---

Blue pullet 2:

What I like about her: roundness and broadness, broad head, even wing set, foot color and feathering
What I don't care for: Pinched cushion, abrupt transition from back to cushion, lacking fullness in the chest, could use more fullness in the cushion as well, wings are a bit low, wonky comb serration, beak too straight, earlobe color



Hopefully this was not too scattered of a way of posting! If there's anything I may have missed in my evaluations, feel free to mention it!

Earlobe color seems to be the big thing in this coop, but they're pretty solid birds otherwise. Pretty happy with them overall!

I'm going to try to get the pullets from the other two coops and the Gus x Blue girls pullets evaluated tomorrow or Wednesday. Will post with them once I've finished. Hopefully I'll have my breeding groups mostly sorted by March!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Got the rest of the pullets evaluated today! I... didn't take very good notes today, though. After fighting for two hours with around 15 pullets to pose decently for a picture, I was pretty wiped out. But I did leg band some of them as definite keeps, and noted down others as maybes. A lot of them need more time to fill out, I think, so not all are pictured. Some of the 'maybes' are younger birds that I grabbed and took a picture of before realizing as well.

Once again bear in mind that these pictures don't accurately illustrate their head and cushion height because they all want to hold their heads as high as possible when I put them up on my makeshift table to evaluate them.

We'll go coop by coop as before, starting today with the green banders. Each picture is a different bird.

Here are my keepers at the moment:

Here are my maybes:

This pullet I'm thinking is a cull:

---

Next up are the red banders from the corner coop.

These are my keepers:

This pullet sustained an injury to the top of her head a couple weeks ago, so is a sentimental keeper either way, but she is shaping up nicely for her age so likely will be a breeder as well. She's a younger pullet, so has some filling out to do still. Her name is Nora.

These are my maybes. These are all maybes because they are younger and will likely fill out more.

This young lady is again a keeper either way because a friend picked her to name, but is a maybe as a breeder because of her age. I think I've posted her before, this is Ivy.

These two I'm pretty sure are both culls:

This is the pullet I posted before with the cull cockerels:

---

Lastly, the pullets with no leg bands.

Duckling is a keep. Look at how well she's filled in!! She's come a long way since her excursion for a swim in the duck pool! She does have a tiny bit of a curve at the back of her comb, but she's pretty solid otherwise.

This pullet I've gone back and forth on keeping. She does have lovely type, despite how she posed for her picture. But she also has that strange tuft on her back, and her cushion is a bit undersized.

This pullet I see some potential in, but couldn't really judge her well today because she's mid-molt.

This pullet I think is not going to be a keeper:

And that's all for now. PHEW!! I'm ready to hit the hay after all that!