Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[3KillerBs]

Something of interest with the Splash babies. I noticed today that, like the older chick, two of the younger chicks are getting darker / more heavily 'splashed' wing feathers in, and the remaining two are just getting grayish-white wing feathers. The two with darker wing feathers have suspicious combs like the older chick as well, who at this point is confirmed a cockerel as his comb has gotten even bigger and started to flush. I have only ever had two other Splash-patterned birds before these chicks, both females, and they both feathered in whitish to start and got their splashes later. So now I'm wondering if this is an early indication of which are pullets and which are cockerels with the Splash coloration. At least that would mean I definitely have two pullets, right?

I haven't noticed this in the Australorps, but I'm not tracking individual birds intensely either.

I have noticed that the "splashiness" changes with each set of feathers as they mature.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hmm, that's a point in the 'probably a coincidence' column, then... I'm having a hard time finding much of anything for Splash chicks at this age in order to compare. I did find a Silkie chick who had Splash-like chick down, but started out growing dark wing feathers like some of my chicks... and ended up being Blue after all. Wouldn't that be a disappointment after all this!!

 

[NanaK]

Would be good to be able to talk to someone who has hatched maybe 100 or so splash chicks over time. Probably wouldn't matter what breed??

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I wouldn't think it would matter the breed, the plumage genetics should be pretty much the same either way. I do think I know of at least one person I could ask, too...




In other news, I have transferred the last batch of eggs in the incubator out to Amaretto, Peanut Butter's sister, who has settled in to her broody pen nicely. I had planned to do so yesterday, day 14 of incubation on them, but we had thunderstorms that were gearing up to possibly be severe, so that was postponed. They are due to hatch this weekend. All three look good as of today! Next batch will probably go in the incubator this weekend as well, or possibly next weekend just for good measure. That would make the youngest chicks in the brooder right now 5-6 weeks old by the time the next batch hatched out, plenty old enough to have moved outside in the summertime and made room for more chicks in the brooder.

 

[3KillerBs]

Hmm, that's a point in the 'probably a coincidence' column, then...

Like the way that the white chicks hatched from my California Whites' eggs that turned out to be specked were male and paint were female -- until the last hatch where I have a paint male for the first time.

In fact, for the first half-dozen, all the white chicks from those eggs were male and the blacks were female -- even though there is no genetic basis for that (though a barred chick from Australorp x California White could only be male).

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yes, a lot of people don't seem to understand this, but just because something happens a certain way with a small number of inputs does not mean that it's 100% guaranteed to work out that way the rest of the time. This is what bothers me with things like wing sexing. Most people are getting a small batch of hatchery-grade chicks that are predisposed to wing sex properly, either because that's how they're bred to be sexed at the hatchery or because people are buying sexed pullets and the most common breeds are fast featherers, so of course all of them will sex as pullets and turn out to be mostly or completely right. But that still doesn't mean every single chick ever can be wing sexed, not even every single hatchery chick! When you start to get into the less production-quality and more fancy breeds, wing sexing stops working with any consistency. My BBS Cochins, for instance, mostly wing sex as males because they're slow to feather in. I do get the occasional faster featherer (not as fast as, say, a Leghorn, but faster than the other Cochins anyway), but to my memory not all of those are female, either. When I was still hatching the Reds, they all wing sexed as pullets because they were all fast featherers, and the majority I hatched of them were males.

Statistics was definitely not my favorite class in college, but I do love what I learned from it and how it applies to so much. And the most basic concepts of statistics are pretty easy to grasp if you really think about it, especially if you look at it in terms of flipping a coin, for example. You can flip a coin 3 times and get heads every time, but that doesn't mean that the coin will always flip heads. If you flip it 10 times, you'll probably see both heads and tails, but you still might get a majority of one or the other. Flip it 100 times, though, and unless something's very wrong with your coin you've almost certainly had close to equal heads and tails in your flips. The same applies to things like my Splash babies. Yes, at the moment, it seems like the males feather in darker than the females, but I've only flipped that coin 5 times. I'm excited at the possibility that this works and to gather more data on it, but I won't be selling sexed week-old Splash Cochins or going around and telling people their Splash chicks are definitely female if their early wing buds are mostly whitish just based on these five chicks.

Ahem, sorry for the early morning word vomit there! It's one of those things I am passionate about, I guess.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Sad news this morning. I had noticed a week or two ago that Zinnia's right eye had gone foggy and gray, and that she was favoring her left eye, so she's either fully or partially blind in the right. Well, this morning I'm noticing a slight fogginess in her left eye now, too. I've got to figure out some things to see if maintaining her as a blind chicken will even be sustainable, but if not... Tough choice, she's a bird with a lot of sentiment for me. She's effectively out of the breeding program already because none of her eggs have hatched this year, but as of right now she's still in the pen with Gus and Boba.

I think Gussy might have gone into molt, so I guess it's a good thing I decided I was done hatching out of that pen because I think that's it for the year. Either that or the air quality from the smoke the past few days has taken a toll on the old man. Regardless, he doesn't seem to be breeding his hens anymore. He doesn't act ill or anything, but he does look a bit scruffy in the tail this morning.

I have eggs put aside to set this weekend but I am again torn between setting the corner coop eggs or the blue coop eggs first. Inara has gone broody so if I wait another week to hatch from that coop then it'll pretty much be all Ottilie eggs I'm working from, with a hand full of Athena eggs in there. But if I wait on the corner coop, who knows if they'll just quit laying altogether and leave me with nothing to set. Thinking maybe I'll invest in another small incubator next year so that I have two to hatch in for these kinds of situations.

Last thing I want to mention, the three eggs I moved under Amaretto are looking good still and should be hatching this weekend.

 

[NanaK]

Sad news this morning. I had noticed a week or two ago that Zinnia's right eye had gone foggy and gray, and that she was favoring her left eye, so she's either fully or partially blind in the right. Well, this morning I'm noticing a slight fogginess in her left eye now, too.

Sorry Zinnia is having a problem. Do you think it possible she has an eye (cornea) infection? You could try Terramycin Eye Ointment or plain Neosporin in the eyes 2 times per day for a few days to see if it helps. There are many things that can cause gray/foggy eyes in chickens but bacterial infections can happen.

FDA has pulled all food animal antibiotics except with a vet prescription but Terramycin is also sold for dogs. On the label it just says "for animals". Neosporin is probably cheaper and should help as well. Make sure it is the plain not the type with pain reliever.

Hope she improves. Oh, Zinnias are one of my most favorite flowers! Love the name!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I don't honestly know, I didn't think of anything like that. I believe I have some plain neosporin around, either in the human first aid kit or the chicken one, so I'll give that a shot. Just dab it on her eye, or do I need to water it down and drip it in or something?

Someone on another site suggested Marek's at first, but then withdrew the suggestion. I don't think it's ocular Marek's as that tends to make the iris go grayish or pale greenish and misshape the pupil without the fogginess I'm seeing in Zinnia's eyes. Zinni's eyes are remaining the normal color (until obscured) and the pupils don't look misshapen, they're just going foggy.

I don't remember why I chose Zinnia for her name, just that all three of the hens in that batch were given flower names. Since they were grouped with Gus, even though I always call that Gus's group here, I've internally always referred to that group as the 'flower girls'. Boba kind of broke that trend in a way, although her full name is a flower, Hellebore.

 

[NanaK]

Just dab it on her eye, or do I need to water it down and drip it in or something?

I would use something like a saline eye wash to wash it out good. Then try to work a bit of the ointment under the bottom lid. She will obviously close her eye when you try to do this and that will smear it inside. You might could use a q-tip if you are really careful. A helper could be good. If she is easy to handle that will be a big plus. I don't think I would try to dilute it.

Some time ago, I had a hen I suspected had some grit in her eye. She was doing a lot of blinking especially with that little membrane eye lid.
It was kind of red too. She is very easy to handle. I sat in a lawn chair, took my time and washed it out, applied the ointment with a q-tip. Tried to be really careful not to poke her. Then I took my finger and rubbed gently from the inner corner to the outer corner of the eye lid. It was easier than I thought it would be but she is a lap chicken. They expect treats when you do this stuff too.

As for Marek's, it can present many ways. I try to look for the simple solutions first. Things I think I can treat. There are sooo many things that can happen with birds. I just will not look at the worst until I try everything else first!