Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The last two hatched around midnight last night! 6 out of 6!

I have a lot going on today so I don't know if I'll get pictures of them today, but tomorrow for sure if not. That's one busy brooder with 11 chicks in it now!

 

[3KillerBs]

Posting to re-follow because I totally lost track of this thread during my very stressful past month at work.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Sorry to hear you've been going through a stressful time, 3KBs! Glad to see you back, though! I had just been wondering how you were doing as I hadn't seen a post from you in a while.

 

[3KillerBs]

Sorry to hear you've been going through a stressful time, 3KBs! Glad to see you back, though! I had just been wondering how you were doing as I hadn't seen a post from you in a while.

Work was in a very bad place with a third of the crew quitting (mostly young people moving on with their lives so we can't blame them). I still only worked my usual part-time, but had extra responsibilities shared and less time to do my own work so I was exhausted.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oof, that's rough! I hope things have since improved?

 

[3KillerBs]

Oof, that's rough! I hope things have since improved?

To some extent.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hopefully things continue to improve and you're able to get some rest after all that.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here are the newbies! These are Gus x Boba babies, though I think I only got one of the dark Blues in the mix this time around. These guys were all over the darn place, so not as nice of a group picture for these guys.

I... think this is all of them, but four are SO hard to tell apart... So hopefully there aren't any repeats here. Guess I need to ID band these guys, too, if I want to tell them apart.

And here are the one-week-olds as well! (Some were less pleased about picture day than others. )

 

[kurby22]

Here are the newbies! These are Gus x Boba babies, though I think I only got one of the dark Blues in the mix this time around. These guys were all over the darn place, so not as nice of a group picture for these guys.

View attachment 3529870

I... think this is all of them, but four are SO hard to tell apart... So hopefully there aren't any repeats here. Guess I need to ID band these guys, too, if I want to tell them apart.

View attachment 3529871View attachment 3529872View attachment 3529873View attachment 3529874View attachment 3529875View attachment 3529876


And here are the one-week-olds as well! (Some were less pleased about picture day than others. )

View attachment 3529889View attachment 3529890View attachment 3529891View attachment 3529892View attachment 3529893

That last one is really pretty! Just has an air about it!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Boba has decided she wants to go broody. Add her to the collection of random broodies in my mixed flock that I don't have enough space or eggs for! Thing is, I could let her hatch or graft chicks to her from the incubator, but her being the only hen in that flock laying fertilized eggs means that I'd likely not be able to hatch any more from Gus and his group this year. Her brooding means a minimum of 6 weeks if chicks are grafted to her, 9 weeks if not, based on that Athena's still mothering her roughly 6-week-old babies. I can't really set any later than mid-August because I want chicks to be minimum 3 months old before December to give them a good shot at being able to tolerate our winters here. I know, they could be okay a little younger than that at that point, but I'm much more comfortable with them being 3 months old minimum by then. I do not want to have a whole flock of chickens in the house until March!

I have considered perhaps letting broodies hatch and rear chicks after that mid-August cut off, though... Maybe those chicks would be hardy for winter even if they aren't 3 months old by December just because of being exposed to the cool fall air much sooner than brooder babies would be? We'll see when we get there, I guess.

But as it stands right now, I think I'm going to have to bust Boba in the interest of having her eggs available to set when I need them. Fortunately, I already have a bunch of Gus babies on the ground, so a little delay in setting from that group won't hurt too much.


Regarding eggs, the first batch from the Blue group goes into lock down today. Everyone send all your Splashy vibes my way, I want me some Splashes!! Since there are 11 eggs going strong in this batch, I may try to graft some of these chicks to broodies in the mixed flock... but any Splashes are mine for the brooder!

Marka's eggs should hatch this weekend as well. She's sitting on corner coop eggs, so most likely Blues and Blacks.


Reasonably sure I had something else I wanted to say, but I've forgotten it in typing the above, so I'll end this post here, I guess.