potluck silkie babies

[kayjuggler]

Picked up eggs from Turtlefeathers and we had a great hatch. 24 eggs: 23 developed and put in lockdown. 17 piped and hatched, 1 died inside incubator after hatching. So, we have 16 fluffy chirpy guys and girls. Love the range of colors of the sikies. We also have two cute polish and 3 little cochins. Not sure if we have some blue cochins in there too. Here are some pics.

This one looks like a little cochin silky mix. It's got silky feet and is very tiny!

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Hi Kathy -

I'm SOOOOO glad you had a good hatch!!! There is something to be said for picking up eggs when at all possible!!!

There shouldn't be any cochin/silkie mixes in your group - although my birds are not separated by color right now, I've got them all separated by breed, and there hasn't been any "intermingling" going on.

This will be sorta hard to follow, but it should make sense as long as you know which chick hatched from what color egg:

You may get some "flat feathered" babies or *maybe* a frizzle or two from the silkie eggs - there are 3 hens in my silkie pen that are silkie/EE mixes (they hatched from blue eggs and were fathered by silkie roosters - these hens are the ones that laid the blue eggs), and a frizzled, barred, feather footed hen with a rose comb of unknown origin (seems to me this hen was broody when you were here, so I don't know if any of your eggs came from her or not). The rest of the hens in that pen are all pure silkies, as are the roosters.

So any chicks *with crests* that hatched from the blue eggs are 3/4 silkie and 1/4 EE - these could be silkie feathered or flat feathered. Any frizzled chicks *with crests* (or flat feathered chicks *with crests* from cream colored/tinted silkie eggs) would be 1/2 silkie and 1/2 "whatchamacallit".

HOWEVER...

Did you get any of my bantam cochin blue eggs? Those would have come from 3 hens in my cochin pen that are, for all intents and purposes, cochins - they LOOK just like cochins, but they each have a pea comb and lay blue eggs. I don't know where they came from or anything about their background, as a friend got them at an auction last year. Their chicks will be flat feathered, but they shouldn't have crests, because the roosters they are penned with are all pure cochins. One of the roosters is a frizzle tho, so you could get frizzled cochin chicks.

Keep me posted on how they do - would love to see pics as they grow!!!

 

[kayjuggler]

Hey, I went to look and realized that all the hatched egg shells are gone. I threw them away but kept the unhatched eggs for a few extra days just to be sure we didn't have any late bloomers. Those quitters were almost entirely blue silkie eggs..wierd how they developed but didn't hatch. I wish I could remember whether I had any blue tinted cochin eggs but I don't think I did. I had three cochin eggs and they all hatched out as black or blue. The silkies have a wide variety of crest shapes and sizes. I've got one partridge with a very Polish looking topknot. I'll see if can post a pic. I'll try the thumbnails and see if they allow clicking to make larger.



In this second pic you can see the difference in the crest betweent the two silkies. I'm going to watch and see how they develope once they feather out to see if this difference translates into different crests. So fun.

 

[BloominOrchid]

Can we say road trip in the spring??

Currently waiting on my pot lucks to hatch

My first try didnt go to well But I blame my mail man & me being new to hatching...
keep posting chicks Id love to see my chicks siblings

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Quote:
Come on down!!! LOL! Just give me a few days notice so I can be here!

Fingers crossed for a good hatch this time around!

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Quote:
I've had a few hatch here like that too, Kathy - I've got one beautiful little flat feathered black pullet in particular, and she's growing the prettiest crest! I guess thats what they call a "vaulted skull"...

 

[mothersin2ition]

awww, whatever they are, they are adorable

Congrats on such a great hatch!