Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

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Personally, I prefer the hens that stay close to the ground like they're still nesting for a day or so while they're showing the chicks where food and water is. They seem more in tune with their chicks and lose fewer than the ones that just walk around and have chicks screaming before they move down to keep them warm.

Oh, that's good to know! I do recall the last hen that I let brood (which was... 7 years ago now I think?) doing the same thing and she did well, though!

 

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The babies are getting a bit more active now that it's lighter in there! Athena's doing such a good job so far! (I think that's the same baby in the feeder as the picture I showed earlier, too )

Okay, y'all, I'm a baby talker with my birds, and maybe I make some squealing noises with the babies when they're being extra super cute. Well, that may or may not have happened while I was taking those pictures, and then I turned around and noticed this in the doorway of the coop--all four of the other hens judging me.

No, they haven't been fully split yet--shoot, I really need to get that done like now! Thinking I'll get these guys split this weekend, set eggs from Pete's group next weekend, set Gus's girls' eggs in two weeks, and go with the hopes that that will be long enough split that Wyatt will be fathering the chicks from the blue girls if I start collecting to hatch from them at that point.

Slight edit for clarity​

 

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The pens are officially split as of this morning! I was a bit nervous about it because, while Wyatt was a gentleman the last time, now it's really spring and I was afraid he could have spring fever at this point or something. Well, just like last time, he's chirping and dancing, but not chasing or being aggressive, and the girls seem just as comfortable with him as they were with Gus.

The coop does feel quite cluttered now with the fence dividing it, but that's mostly because of Athena's corner being fenced off as well with the babies. It should be nice and roomy on both sides once that fence is removed.

Athena's been a bit odd today, almost like she's panicking every once in a while trying to find her eggs to sit on. I was afraid she was going to step on the babies a couple times as she would pace around a bit, but then she'd nestle down and they would all tuck under her again. At one point, she found the egg shells that I'd just set aside out of the nest after the chicks hatched, and she tried to pull them under her to brood, so I removed that distraction. She is taking good care of the babies other than these random moments of panic, so I'm not going to take them away or anything, but I am keeping a close eye on things.

 

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Ottie and Nara are in laying their eggs for the day and the poor guy doesn't know what to do with himself now.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ottie and Nara are in laying their eggs for the day and the poor guy doesn't know what to do with himself now.

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My silkie boys are the same way

 

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I know she's not part of the breeding program anymore, but I feel obligated to update on Juni still. She is currently free-ranging with the mixed flock and seems not to be having any problems at all with anyone! What a relief off of my mind!

Also, I finally got up the nerve to post the chicks I won't be keeping. Some are green band babies, but have some small things I don't like about them, so I decided to make room in the brooder by listing them as well. Listing is here, if anyone's going to be in the area and might be interested or something: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/silkied-cochin-bantam-chicks-northeast-indiana.1577370/

 

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Sorry I've been lousy about updates on the babies! All is well around here, I've just been incredibly distracted lately with things.

This afternoon, I went out to check on Athena and her babies, and one of the babies had gotten through the fence somehow and couldn't figure out how to get back through. After rescuing the little one, I was looking at all the babies and noticed this other little one has a brown spot above her eye, just on one side.

I'm not sure what's up with that, honestly. My 2022 birds did hatch alongside a cockerel with E^R/E^R birchen chick down, which for the purposes of breeding Blues isn't really an issue. Apparently some lines of Blues in Cochins and other breeds are E^R/E^R birchen based because supposedly it allows Blues to have better lacing than E/E extended black does. That's something that doesn't mean much for silkied birds, so I haven't decided if I'll keep such birds should they pop up again or select against it. But my understanding is that the white belly and throat, and that little white spot in front of the eye along the top of the beak, are all signs of a chick that is homozygous E/E. Maybe the brown on this little one is instead an indication of color leakage in the future? This chick is from an unknown mother, so not a breeder anyway, but it's an interesting look nonetheless, and something to keep an eye out for in the future.

I've been so distracted lately I never took individual pictures of Athena's little ones when they hatched, whoops! Mama's pretty chill about me handling the chicks (the chicks aren't necessarily too fond of me, but oh well), so I'll have to try and get good shots of them sometime soon, at least for my records if nothing else.

I've started holding back eggs from Pete's group in the corner coop to set this weekend so I can start testing fertility in that coop. I think only one of the three hens in there is laying as the eggs have all been identical and only one at a time. Not sure which hen, but it doesn't matter a whole lot, I suppose. So glad my birds are all finally split up so that I don't have to worry about figuring out whose eggs are whose!

 

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Well, I don't have a lot going on today, so I got those pictures now.

I have no idea what the hatch order was like for these guys, so they're just in alphabetical order by the file name, which is just based on their characteristics.

Here's our weird spot baby. Looking at it up close in these pictures, I'm wondering if maybe it's a stain off of something and not her true down coloring there.

(Don't mind my fingernails, I had an orange earlier and apparently the peel stained my nails yellowish )


Anyway... the rest of them from under Athena:

Not a one of them was pleased with me in the least.

Oh, and I forgot about this because I didn't feel at the time like any of the pictures turned out any good, but a few days ago I tried to get one chick from each hatch (excluding the very youngest) to pose together just for fun. This was the best I got, but I still think it's kinda neat and wanted to share. From left to right, this is a 4 week old, 3 week old, 2 week old, and 1 week old chick. They were also very much not pleased with me.

 

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The incubator's up and running for round 2 of hatches! I currently only have 6 eggs set back from the corner coop for batch one of this round, but hopefully I'll get one today and one tomorrow to set alongside them. (Edit, make that 7 eggs, I just checked the corner coop!) I plan to set the eggs tomorrow.

I had also planned to start the chicks on going outside for the day today and only coming back into the brooder to sleep, but I had forgotten that today was a friend's commencement and I couldn't miss that. The weather forecast for the next few days isn't looking too friendly for that idea anyway, storms and lots of rain, so I guess they'll start going out regularly later next week when we're finally supposed to see the sun again.

 

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Wyatt successfully bred Inara while I was out at their coop collecting their eggs for the evening just now! That feels like a weird thing to be excited enough about to make a whole post for it, but he's been so much of a gentleman with those hens so far that I was afraid he wasn't ever going to actually breed them!