Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Splash Squad! What a set of cuties!!

And their cute booties

I also grabbed pictures of Peanut Butter's babies.

Little Blue baby has this streak of brown, but only on her right wing. I believe this is also staining like the spot on the other Blue baby that Athena raised.

A little extra cuteness, Blue baby and her mama

It also occurred to me that I never really took my usual side-profile pictures of Marka's babies when they hatched, just the cute shots of them under her chest. Well, they're active little squirts now, so this was the best I could do. It shows them pretty well at least!

 

[kurby22]

Splash Squad! What a set of cuties!!

View attachment 3548451

And their cute booties

View attachment 3548450


I also grabbed pictures of Peanut Butter's babies.

View attachment 3548452View attachment 3548453

Little Blue baby has this streak of brown, but only on her right wing. I believe this is also staining like the spot on the other Blue baby that Athena raised.

View attachment 3548454


A little extra cuteness, Blue baby and her mama

View attachment 3548455


It also occurred to me that I never really took my usual side-profile pictures of Marka's babies when they hatched, just the cute shots of them under her chest. Well, they're active little squirts now, so this was the best I could do. It shows them pretty well at least!

View attachment 3548456

Oh my goodness!! Those splash babies are gonna be show stoppers So many adorable babies

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I haven't updated on the April hatch babies in a long time, so since I have some free time this afternoon I decided to go ahead and grab some pictures of them. I unfortunately have no idea which chick is which now from their baby pictures. I kind of sort of can tell that one of the pullets is a little younger than the other two and I think one cockerel is older than the other, but beyond that I don't really know their ages other than that they're about 2-3 months old. I really dropped the ball on keeping track of these kiddos!

I also feel like I had more banded as keepers, but these five are the only ones with their bands still... Unfortunately, I don't really have a way of saying which could be the proper Gus x Boba babies to pick them out if some have lost their bands along the way, other than the obvious Blues are definitely not from them. But, as I am reading and learning more about breeding techniques, I'm finding that perhaps keeping chicks that are potentially of a cross between pens (in this case, Gus over the girls in the Blue pen) can be beneficial as well, so if it turns out that some of the others without bands grow out nicely before anyone reaches out to buy them, maybe I can find a place for them in my breeding program, too. I did go ahead and put the ring leg bands on the ones that still had their baby bands, so they should be more permanently marked now. The advantage of those feathered feet is that I can put big leg bands on them much sooner than on a clean-legged bird!

Anyway, here are the five marked as keepers from the April hatches, offspring of Gus and Boba:

I like the middle pullet's shape best so far of the girls. The first pullet isn't bad, either, but would not pose so it's hard to see in that picture. The first cockerel is very reminiscent of some of my better-looking guys at around this age, too, so he's one to keep an eye on.

Also it occurs to me now that I do have two more potential keepers among Athena's babies that I didn't grab pictures of, so I'll have to run back out and see if I can get some good shots of them. They are kind of wild children, so, uh, that likely is easier said than done.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The two Gus x Boba babies that Athena raised. I do know their exact ages as the youngest of the April babies; they will be 8 weeks old this Friday.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I nearly lost one of my birds yesterday. I had rounded the April kiddos up to put them in their overnight cage, and I always count them as I put them in, but I came up short. Let them out again, put them back in to see if I just miscounted... nope, still short. So I took stock, and of course it's one of the pullets missing--not one of the potential keepers pictured above, fortunately, but one of the Gus x Blue girls pullets that's for sale.

After hunting around for a bit, I eventually spotted her, standing in the chest-deep (for her) water of the duck pool. I have no idea how she got in there short of her simply squeezing through one of the 2x4 inch openings in the fence. She was absolutely frigid, soaked to the bone, and shaking so hard. I was so sure she was a goner, poor baby! Thankfully, after drying her off with a hairdryer and wrapping her in a towel to help her warm up, she perked back up and even ate a little bit before roost time. I kept her in overnight just to be sure she'd be okay, and she's back with her broodmates now this morning.

I had my sister hold her wrapped in the towel while I finished closing up coops last night, and now she wants me to keep her. She is an awfully cute little pullet... But, of course, they all are. Hopefully she's learned her lesson about squeezing through fences!

Slight edit for wording​

 

[fluffycrow]

I nearly lost one of my birds yesterday. I had rounded the April kiddos up to put them in their overnight cage, and I always count them as I put them in, but I came up short. Let them out again, put them back in to see if I just miscounted... nope, still short. So I took stock, and of course it's one of the pullets missing--not one of the potential keepers pictured above, fortunately, but one of the Gus x Blue girls pullets that's for sale.

After hunting around for a bit, I eventually spotted her, standing in the chest-deep (for her) water of the duck pool. I have no idea how she got in there short of her simply squeezing through one of the 2x4 inch openings in the fence. She was absolutely frigid, soaked to the bone, and shaking so hard. I was so sure she was a goner, poor baby! Thankfully, after drying her off with a hairdryer and wrapping her in a towel to help her warm up, she perked back up and even ate a little bit before roost time. I kept her in overnight just to be sure she'd be okay, and she's back with her broodmates now this morning.

I had my sister hold her wrapped in the towel while I finished closing up coops, and now she wants me to keep her. She is an awfully cute little pullet... But, of course, they all are. Hopefully she's learned her lesson about squeezing through fences!

View attachment 3550557

It's always the silkieds that take a liking to the water...

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It's always the silkieds that take a liking to the water...

My frizzled cemani was that way too. I think I got her from the trough 3 times over the 8-10 months I had her

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

This is a first for any of these guys, though, yes, they do tend to hang out in the rain more than the smooth-feathered birds I own. Crazy birds! My sister's really pushing for me to keep that pullet, so I went ahead and put a leg band on her to distinguish her (purple, so I know she's not from any of the specific coop hatches), but I'm making no promises beyond that.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I've got another broody set up to take these last three eggs in the incubator once I'm sure she's settled in and returning to her nest properly.

A few notes I'd like to have put down somewhere with regards to the breeding program.

Current hatch tally is as follows:
7 chicks from Gus crossed to the Blue girls
19 chicks from Gus over Boba (and Zinni, but her eggs have not been hatching)
14 chicks from the Blue group
11 chicks from the corner coop (not including the three on the way, of course)
51 chicks in total as of right now

My goal had been to hatch roughly 30-35 chicks from each breeding group to weed down to the very best 2-3 to add back to each group. Unfortunately, I no longer believe I will reach that goal simply because I am now learning what my current brooder setup's max capacity is with regards to making sure my chicks are comfortable while they reside in it. That batch of 10 chicks from the Blue group a couple weekends ago kind of pushed our limits here! Between that and the hiccups getting going in the spring, the two pens being mixed until another pen was built, and not wanting to set any eggs after mid-August in the interest of all chicks being winter-ready, I just feel it's best not to sweat it this year and back off of that original goal. I have several changes in mind for next year so that hopefully things will go a little bit smoother.

So, after this last batch, I'll be taking a break from hatching for a couple weeks to let the current brooder babies grow enough to go outside. Then, I'll start up the incubator again with a focus on hatching from the corner coop mainly since eggs have been so scarce from them, plus maybe one more batch from the Blues in there somewhere, aiming for around 20 chicks per pen instead for this year. Fortunately I am at that goal with Gus's group because between Boba going broody a while back and being broken, and Zinni starting to brood as well, I'm getting no eggs from them now, either.

Anyway, that's where we're at here.

 

[3KillerBs]

You must have very gentle broodies that you can get the babies away from them for inspection, photos, and banding.

It took me a week to get Superboy -- the little guy who showed his comb at 2 weeks old -- away from Mocha and Auntie (formerly Black/Yellow), without getting bitten so that I could band him.

I'm not sure if Auntie would draw blood, though she does an impressive puffed-out charge, but I know that Mocha would.