Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[JacinLarkwell]

Wow!

And with silky feathers you can't really tell by the lacing, right?

Lacing is how I know a couple of my darkest girls are actually blue.

Yeah. Make poor blues lacingwise, but you can also do lavender and not worry about shredding when it comes to silkies

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Wow!

And with silky feathers you can't really tell by the lacing, right?

Lacing is how I know a couple of my darkest girls are actually blue.

Yeah, no real lacing with the silkied feathering. I can sort of see lacing in the hackles on a couple of my Blue boys, but overall it's just not visible in their feathering.

Instead I compared her down feathers to my known Black hen, Zinnia. Zinni's down is sort of a charcoal gray color, while Boba's is more of a slatey gray, just a hint of blue to it. When I backed up and looked at them side by side at the feeder, now that I know, I could see a slight difference in their feather colors on the outside, too. I'm still baffled that I never noticed before!

Her baby takes after her, too! It's just enough grayish that I can tell it's not quite right for Black, just like Boba was as a babe. I went ahead and put a green leg band (green for Gus's group!) on that baby, just in case it gets harder to tell from the other hatchling. The other baby is a light Blue, so most likely I won't have any trouble knowing which is which, but I like to be cautious with these sorts of things. I do strongly suspect that the other baby is Athena's, but can't confirm beyond just having a hunch.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here are the babies this afternoon! I set up their feeder and waterer and tried to show them the water, but they're still sleepy babies and weren't having any of it yet.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Instead I compared her down feathers to my known Black hen, Zinnia. Zinni's down is sort of a charcoal gray color, while Boba's is more of a slatey gray, just a hint of blue to it. When I backed up and looked at them side by side at the feeder, now that I know, I could see a slight difference in their feather colors on the outside, too. I'm still baffled that I never noticed before!

I had to do the same when I somehow hatched out a blue paint laced red Cornish boy (well, two, but at the time I thought I only had one). Turns out one of my hens was blue laced, not white laced like I thought. Blended in for 2 years, without ever giving a clue until I knew I had to have a blue laced hen somewhere. Now that I know, I can point her out immediately

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Some baby pictures today! We're starting to get more active, but still not all that interested in eating or drinking yet. Set of cuties

First to hatch, possibly Athena's baby:

Second to hatch, Boba's baby:

And a couple shots of both of them:

They're just so tiny!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ugh, I love when they're new and their combs are flopped over still

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Athena's gone broody and, honestly, I'm tempted to let her set. Just, she's still pretty young and she's never gone broody before, and I'd rather not have to deal with half-incubated eggs or abandoned chicks if she decides it's not for her... I didn't set eggs this weekend because of brooder space constraints. (Editing to clarify, it's not so much that I am out of brooder space already, it's that I will have active 3-week-olds occupying some of that brooder space, and 2-week-olds, and 1-week-olds, and I don't know how well tiny wobbly day-olds would do in that situation.) The plan was to skip a week or two so that the oldest would be old enough to go outside at least during the day before the newbies needed that brooder space. If Athena would take care of some of them, though, that would let me continue to test fertility and hatch at least some more chicks without that complication... Maybe I'll let her sit for a few days and see how dedicated she is first...

Anyway, here some cuties finally figuring out the waterer this evening. They're really starting to get active now!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Athena is still wanting to brood today despite that I put her on the perch to sleep last night. After reflecting more on the chick ages, I think they'd probably actually be okay with the way my brooder is set up; it is divided, so I can put the older chicks in one side to be less of a danger for the younger chicks. So, I think I am going to go ahead and set eggs today, just a couple days late for my hatching schedule. If Athena commits to brooding this week, I can just transfer the eggs to her to finish up, but if she decides she doesn't want to anymore, I should still be okay hatching them myself and putting the resulting chicks in the brooder, I think.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, batch 5 is in, for better or for worse.

 

[3KillerBs]

If Athena commits to brooding this week, I can just transfer the eggs to her to finish up, but if she decides she doesn't want to anymore, I should still be okay hatching them myself and putting the resulting chicks in the brooder, I think.

I have a large fowl Cochin who, disappointingly, has failed to go broody over 2 years.