Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[3KillerBs]

He outwardly doesn't look much different than he did a month ago, a few blotches of white and some white sort-of mossiness on his chest. He's not one of my silkieds, but here was his last 'monthly' picture:

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And an attempt at getting a few better shots of his chest:

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The look of "Why are you doing this to me?"

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He also has this really interesting-looking feather in his tail that came in in the past month:

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But yeah, I don't think he's going to fully change colors or anything. It's almost like he's just decided to be mottled after being not-mottled to start with.

I have read that mottled chickens get more white on them with every molt.

My Mottled Java, Mocha, got her name because she was much darker than her sister, Latte. But now, after her first molt, she's lighter than Latte was (I sold Latte and don't know how she came out after her molt).

 

[MysteryChicken]

He outwardly doesn't look much different than he did a month ago, a few blotches of white and some white sort-of mossiness on his chest. He's not one of my silkieds, but here was his last 'monthly' picture:

View attachment 3419833

And an attempt at getting a few better shots of his chest:

View attachment 3419835View attachment 3419841
View attachment 3419834


The look of "Why are you doing this to me?"

View attachment 3419836


He also has this really interesting-looking feather in his tail that came in in the past month:

View attachment 3419839View attachment 3419840

But yeah, I don't think he's going to fully change colors or anything. It's almost like he's just decided to be mottled after being not-mottled to start with.

He can be Smarty Pants's friend. She's less dramatic than her daughter. He looks nice with his splotches.

The mossiness, is the same with both of my Chameleons.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I have read that mottled chickens get more white on them with every molt.

My Mottled Java, Mocha, got her name because she was much darker than her sister, Latte. But now, after her first molt, she's lighter than Latte was (I sold Latte and don't know how she came out after her molt).

If I remember correctly, I was told that depends on the type of mottling, as there are like 2 or 3 different allelic mutations of mottling. Apparently some do and some don't change with molt. So like my Ancona that I mentioned on Nicalandia's thread, she has the type that doesn't change as she's been roughly the same amount of white and black her entire nearly 10 year life. Mack is under a year old, though, and hasn't experienced a full adult molt yet, so I don't know what's up with that. These feathers started coming in as he was shedding and replacing his juvenile feathering. All I can say is he's an oddball.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Spoke too soon earlier, I guess--Inara laid her first egg today! We're officially 4 for 4 with the pullets! Editing, whoops, Trixie's not laying yet, though! Oddly enough, she's a couple months older than the four that are laying.

It's a tiny, tiny egg, so I have it set aside with the others but I'm not sure if I want to bother setting it as well. I guess we'll see with how many eggs they lay tomorrow and Saturday!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

On your mark, get set... First test batch of eggs is in the incubator!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's early still so I'm not going to pull them just yet, but it doesn't look like there's any development happening in those eggs.

I'm going to do some trimming of the fluff around their vents today and then try setting more this weekend.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It's early still so I'm not going to pull them just yet, but it doesn't look like there's any development happening in those eggs.

I'm going to do some trimming of the fluff around their vents today and then try setting more this weekend.

Lemme know how that goes down. I gotta trim butts once it's warm enough for baths. Never would have guessed that tail bones help prevent poop busts, but my araucanas are proving me wrong. Of course, the weather isn't helping with that either

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Butts are trimmed! That went fairly smoothly, no one was happy about it but for the most part they didn't struggle against me much. And then I got to Gus. Total drama queen! After some flapping and dramatic squawking, I finally got him to sit still for a trim. Poor guy! For the record, I trimmed above the vent for the girls and below the vent for Gus. I didn't want to leave them bare-bootied as we're still getting some cold, so I just trimmed enough so that there's less fluff in the way for breeding while still covering their bottoms when walking around normally.

After I finished, I was getting ready to leave the pen when I noticed Gus hackle up at Boba, who squatted without issue, but then Gussy just turned and walked away without breeding her. So now I'm concerned maybe it's less of a butt fluff problem and more of a libido problem. He's not terribly old, will be 3 years old in April, but I struggled last year to get him to father any chicks as well. I really want to get some solid offspring out of Gus, not only because he's a good looking guy but also out of sentimentality as he and his girls were my first step toward building up stock for breeding after years of thinking the variety was dying out... But if he's not going to do the job, I guess I don't have much of a choice but to switch him out for one of the younger and more virile males.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Some good news: I got the first egg from Pete's group for the year!

...Unfortunately, I've been neglecting moving the cull hens out of that coop and to the mixed flock, and I have no idea whose egg it is. Guess I need to get on that so that I can start testing fertility there, too.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I took a peek in the incubator again and, well, fertility isn't at 0% as I had thought! There's one very clear embryo in one of the eggs! Unfortunately, I saw nothing in any of the others... Tomorrow is day 7 so I'll do a more thorough check than what I have been doing. Hopefully there's at least one more--lone chicks are not fun!!

Yesterday, the group laid a whopping 4 eggs out of the 5 currently laying females. In theory that should have been plenty of time for their butt trimmings to help with fertility, too, so here's hoping! I'll either set those tonight or tomorrow, depending on how many eggs they lay today. Those turner rails do best when totally filled rather than partially so that the eggs don't shift side to side, so worst case scenario I'll just throw one or two of the eggs pre-butt-trimming in as well just to fill it out.