Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[JacinLarkwell]

Oooh, good luck! What are you hatching?

Pheonixes, pheonix mixes and sexlink mixes. Everything ran together and I had some broodies hide a nest that I didn't find until it was too late. So now I'm just moving eggs under broodies as they appear to try and keep the hatch from being too staggered

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

First baby of this batch is out as of about an hour ago. She had a tough hatch, zipped around the egg twice before she finally got it open.

Second baby just hatched and had a much easier time of it She's in a difficult spot to get a good angle for a picture, though, unfortunately.

Both non-keepers, but cuties nonetheless. The two yet-to-hatch eggs should be our potential keepers in this batch. I'm going to try to move these two out just as soon as they're mostly dry so that they don't suck all the humidity out of the air for those two.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Phew, I was tired last night, y'all! Hit my pillow and out tired! I went on a hike through the woods with my niece and nephew yesterday afternoon and apparently I was beat!

I did wake up enough to register the last two babies hatching, one at just after midnight and one at around 1:30 am, but I didn't really take pictures or anything. I've leg banded the two Boba babies and popped them under the EcoGlow, too. It's still darkish here so I'll get some good pictures of the four newbies a little later, after I've opened the coops for the adults.

Interestingly enough, these chicks should have a 50-50 shot of being either Blue or Black, yet all 6 of the ones hatched so far are Blue... I wonder if I'll see any Blacks in the upcoming batches!

 

[3KillerBs]

Interestingly enough, these chicks should have a 50-50 shot of being either Blue or Black, yet all 6 of the ones hatched so far are Blue... I wonder if I'll see any Blacks in the upcoming batches!

Statistics are so weird. It took me 5 hatches last year to get my first splash.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Very true! I'm still waiting on my first Splash.

 

[NanaK]

It always seems the one we want most is the most elusive.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That's for sure! But, to be fair, I don't have any pens set up at the moment that could produce Splash chicks, so I'll be waiting a bit longer still for any of them.


Anyway, here are the newbies! I think I've changed my mind, I do think one of the Boba babies is Black. I don't know if it's just me, but one of the dark ones looks 'blacker' than the other two. Those two, like the one that hatched a week ago, just have a hint of bluishness to their chick down, so I'm pretty sure they're dark Blues.

First to hatch baby, pretty sure this one is a dark Blue. She's been holding her left eye shut quite a lot (you can see that in the above picture, she's the one crouched in the middle), but seems energetic otherwise. I suspect someone got a little too curious and pecked her in the eye, but I'll be watching for any further signs of a problem there.

Second to hatch baby, definitely a Blue and such a pretty baby! She actually appears to have stripes on her back, like faint chipmunk striping, which is... odd for what should be an E/E extended black based chick

Third to hatch, a Boba baby and looks like another dark Blue.

And the last to hatch, another Boba baby and the one I am now suspecting is Black.

And here are the older siblings, one week old now and just starting to get some feathers going

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's day 7 for batch 5 so I've candled and marked air cells again. It's odd, we've gone backwards again on fertility with these ones. Three clears (two of which are Boba eggs), two blood rings (one of which is a Boba egg), and just three embryos still going strong (two Boba, one from someone else). Only thing I can figure is that during the week before I set those, it was colder and we dipped down into the 20's again overnight. Maybe the cold affected how much the birds were breeding? Either that, or the fact that I've been distracted with the chicks and not been peeking at the eggs as much has had some kind of effect on them! I would like to think that my peeking was positive, at least.

Oh, I don't think I updated on batch 4, either, when I did their day 14 candling on Saturday. One quit at around day 10 it looked like, but we've still got 6 embryos going strong in that batch.


We're planning on picking up the lumber and other supplies for the pen build tomorrow and getting started then. Should be pretty simple to put together so I expect it will be done tomorrow as well! Very excited!!

 

[kurby22]

That's for sure! But, to be fair, I don't have any pens set up at the moment that could produce Splash chicks, so I'll be waiting a bit longer still for any of them.


Anyway, here are the newbies! I think I've changed my mind, I do think one of the Boba babies is Black. I don't know if it's just me, but one of the dark ones looks 'blacker' than the other two. Those two, like the one that hatched a week ago, just have a hint of bluishness to their chick down, so I'm pretty sure they're dark Blues.

View attachment 3460180

First to hatch baby, pretty sure this one is a dark Blue. She's been holding her left eye shut quite a lot (you can see that in the above picture, she's the one crouched in the middle), but seems energetic otherwise. I suspect someone got a little too curious and pecked her in the eye, but I'll be watching for any further signs of a problem there.

View attachment 3460169

Second to hatch baby, definitely a Blue and such a pretty baby! She actually appears to have stripes on her back, like faint chipmunk striping, which is... odd for what should be an E/E extended black based chick

View attachment 3460172
View attachment 3460173


Third to hatch, a Boba baby and looks like another dark Blue.

View attachment 3460174

And the last to hatch, another Boba baby and the one I am now suspecting is Black.

View attachment 3460171


And here are the older siblings, one week old now and just starting to get some feathers going

View attachment 3460187View attachment 3460190View attachment 3460188

So adorable!! I’m currently incubating bobtail eggs and not having the greatest success! Out of 12 eggs, only 3 developed and today when I candles I discovered that one had quit . Are your silkied Cochins good fertility wise? The bobtails seem to struggle more with fertility and fragility I’m finding! I’ve seen some silkied Cochin eggs on eBay, but never seen them in person! They look so pretty love seeing your baby chicks!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Are your silkied Cochins good fertility wise?

They've been a bit hit or miss in the fertility department, honestly. The girls just seem so picky about the roosters they'll breed with! Last year I had almost no fertility with the girls that I had with Gus. This year he has some new girls and he's producing a decent number of chicks finally! But, they also seem to be sensitive to temperature swings based on the batch 5 eggs laid during a cold snap getting spotty after fertility being decent in the batch before it. It'll be interesting to see if the eggs under Athena are doing any better, as they were laid after that cold snap.

I’ve seen some silkied Cochin eggs on eBay, but never seen them in person!

Was that Triple Creek Farm or someone else? Always looking for more farms to add to my list of places to get them.