Breeding Project Recipes: show & tell

I am fixing to start a couple projects, just to see what colors I can get from what pairings. I'm new at the genetics part of breeding, so I have no clue what I'm doing...lol. I love odd breeds/colors. I have a few different breeds on hand, mostly picked by my kids because they were "so cute" when they were babies. Trying to explain to a kid of any age that they won't look like that when grown is impossible :/ So, I have ees, brahmas, buff orps, slw, red comets, silkies, barred rocks, and a red (something?). My breed of choice is pphoenix. I have an undetermined breed (color) roo and hen with 4 chicks. I also have 8 golden phoenix and 3 white phoenix eggs due to hatch next week. I think I may breed my barred hen to my (undetermined) phoenix roo. What do you think? Anyone have pics of their favorite beautiful crosses? Please tell your story! Maybe it will help me and other newbies understand the complex genetics that it takes to get cuckoos, crele, slash, double laced, ...........

What a great idea for a thread. I'll play! My project pens started this year. Not by choice but by necessity.

I brought home a couple dozen Silkie eggs of matched varieties from Catdance Farm in Feb. 2013. I kept a half dozen to put into breeding programs. I don't have the room for two dozen separate trio pens. The four cocks I decided to use this Spring were two White pens, one Partridge/Porcelain pen, and a Paint cockerel with a White quad. The Partridge/Porcelain Pen hatched out eight healthy chicks. Two of a Lavender Blue chipmunk pattern similiar to a light Partridge. Six darker Porcelain type coloring. This was a total unexpected result. I only have one Partridge Silkie (the hen) and no longer have the Porcelain cock. They are not only healthy but robust and look excellent. One is pet quality with four toes on one foot. The other seven so far look good.


The Catdance Porcelain Cock.

The Catdance Partridge hen with split chicks.

The last two hatched.

The first two hatched. These four chicks from this project pen are representative of an unexpected match up.

The second project pen was the one and only Catdance Paint cock I had. He has nice type and lovely paint coloring but I didn't breed him until now because I had nothing to pair him with. No blacks. No Paints. So I tossed him in a pen with my third string White Silkie pullets from F1 Pen 1 breeding. The eight chicks that resulted have knocked my socks off!

Two Paint chicks with obvious spots. Two Black chicks. Two chipmunk/Partridge colored chicks with brown predominant. Two chipmunk/Partrridge colored chics with black predominant. All from White pullets from all white pens that go back generations! Totally a Project pen that has me estactic!


Daper Dan. My one and only Catdance Paint cock.



Each black feather is black all the way to the skin. A true Paint.


The two white chicks have obvious Paint spots.



The brood pullet is from an all white Catdance breeding going back many generations.

This is the first time I've put together project pens and the results are thrilling for me. I've been raising chickens for decades. I'm sixty years old. This is a lot of fun. Thank you for starting the thread. I'm looking forward to more posts from those that like to cook from scratch.

MumsyII said:

What a great idea for a thread. I'll play! My project pens started this year. Not by choice but by necessity. I brought home a couple dozen Silkie eggs of matched varieties from Catdance Farm in Feb. 2013. I kept a half dozen to put into breeding programs. I don't have the room for two dozen separate trio pens. The four cocks I decided to use this Spring were two White pens, one Partridge/Porcelain pen, and a Paint cockerel with a White quad. The Partridge/Porcelain Pen hatched out eight healthy chicks. Two of a Lavender Blue chipmunk pattern similiar to a light Partridge. Six darker Porcelain type coloring. This was a total unexpected result. I only have one Partridge Silkie (the hen) and no longer have the Porcelain cock. They are not only healthy but robust and look excellent. One is pet quality with four toes on one foot. The other seven so far look good. The Catdance Porcelain Cock. The Catdance Partridge hen with split chicks. The last two hatched. The first two hatched. These four chicks from this project pen are representative of an unexpected match up. The second project pen was the one and only Catdance Paint cock I had. He has nice type and lovely paint coloring but I didn't breed him until now because I had nothing to pair him with. No blacks. No Paints. So I tossed him in a pen with my third string White Silkie pullets from F1 Pen 1 breeding. The eight chicks that resulted have knocked my socks off! Two Paint chicks with obvious spots. Two Black chicks. Two chipmunk/Partridge colored chicks with brown predominant. Two chipmunk/Partrridge colored chics with black predominant. All from White pullets from all white pens that go back generations! Totally a Project pen that has me estactic! Daper Dan. My one and only Catdance Paint cock. Each black feather is black all the way to the skin. A true Paint. The two white chicks have obvious Paint spots. The brood pullet is from an all white Catdance breeding going back many generations. This is the first time I've put together project pens and the results are thrilling for me. I've been raising chickens for decades. I'm sixty years old. This is a lot of fun. Thank you for starting the thread. I'm looking forward to more posts from those that like to cook from scratch.

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Wow! I can't wait to see pics when they get their big girl feathers. You've got me itching to get started! My (someone else's project) phoenix roo is old enough, but my barred rocks haven't started laying yet. I'm going to try do a crele - like color. Your silkies are beautiful. I love surprises like that. I wanted to make this thread to try and learn the "mix this with that and get something new and better" genetics. I hope it takes off. I love reading others experiences with mixing it up a bit. I need a hobby. I'm only 36, but my health isn't great, and my chickens have been very therapeutic, emotionally and physically. I love my fuzzy butt mutts, but I'm starting to take it a little more seriously now. Not for money or shows, but for me. My goal, other than to get a phoenix with at least a 6 foot tail, is to get a roo that would make beautiful tied flies...I love to fly fish. Thank you so much for sharing btw!

Yes! You've got the right idea. Breeding for the pure pleasure of it and enjoying the surprises along the way. There is an old saying. You've got to build the barn before you paint it. So what ever breed you are working on, get the type first. Work on the color last.

I used to breed Black Breasted Phoenix many years ago. I have a lot of old articles from Japanese breeders collected over the years. If you want to work on those tails, you need to build the roosters special pens with high perches. The tail feathers can be tied up as they grow. If you keep the tail feathers off the ground, they will grow longer. American Phoenix do not generally grow as long a tail as those in the Asian countries. The strains are different. But...That was what I knew twenty years ago. It could all be changed these days. Just like Silkies of today do not resemble those I raised twenty years ago. For better or for worse. Who knows?

Here is the hen I am going to try. She has two other sisters too.

This is the roo. He looks rough here because he kept getting into it with my silkie roo. The barred hen has 2 sisters i will breed to him too. Ill keep the best from those and then try and figure out what to do from there. Now, just gotta hurry up and wait for her to mature!

Nice thread. So, do any of you have advice on setting up your project breeding pens? How do you separate your cock birds when they are not breeding? Are you able to have a cockerel/cock bird pen and reintegrate the breeders when you are done breeding them? I've got a pretty good idea how I want to set mine up, but I'd love to see ideas from you guys as well.

bumpercarr said:

Nice thread.  So, do any of you have advice on setting up your project breeding pens?  How do you separate your cock birds when they are not breeding?  Are you able to have a cockerel/cock bird pen and reintegrate the breeders when you are done breeding them?  I've got a pretty good idea how I want to set mine up, but I'd love to see ideas from you guys as well.

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I only have the one roo for now, so they aren't separated right now. I would like advice on how to set up too...lol. I've never selectively bred before. I have the option for another entire coop and run set up, so I'm hoping that will suffice.

Tabatha said:

I only have the one roo for now, so they aren't separated right now. I would like advice on how to set up too...lol. I've never selectively bred before. I have the option for another entire coop and run set up, so I'm hoping that will suffice.

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I currently have a 3 apartment coop which could be expanded to fit 2 more apartments if I needed them. The apartments are really just big enough for either roosting of 15 birds or full time for 2 birds. So, theoretically, I could divide the 2 expansion apartments into rooster pens to hold them until they are needed for their work. When I planned the coop, I planned for two hen apartments (one for the breeding birds and one for the layers) and runs and one apartment and run for the cockerels. I had planned on keeping my breeding cock birds in the apartments that I haven't build yet. Unfortunately, only one of the current apartments/runs are out of site of the other two, so that is the one that the cockerels have to be in. I think though, if I move cockerels to the freezer in October, I should be able to use their pen for breeding until end of March maybe? I can keep all of the chicks in with the hens until they are about 4 months old. After that, the cockerels start thinking that it is time for them to breed. I suppose I could also put a barrier in between the two hen pens and breed in one of those. Anyway, just wondering what anyone else is doing to separate out your project breeding.

I had neighborhood dogs that decimated my flock about 2 months ago, so I'm rebuilding right now. Don't have any mature cockerels yet to worry about, but the day is moving in on me pretty quickly.

Luckily my dogs guard my chickens from everything. I had a raccoon snooping around and breaking hatching eggs from under my hens, but the dogs have pretty much nipped that problem. Sounds like you have a great set up. My set up is basically a shed halved and one side turned coop. I store the feed and bedding and supplies in the other side, but I'll soon have to expand into that side too. I have 8 phoenix chicks hatching as I type this. All my chickens currently free range during the day, but I've purchased fencing for a breeding run. I have the one roo to play with right now...just to work out the kinks of my thought process.