Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It took allll day, but Blue mama finally brought her babies out this evening for me to see. Three Splashes and the prettiest little Blue baby, all out of Wyatt's group

Look at this gorgeous little Blue baby! In love with that color!

She and baby were NOT happy with me for picking the little one up Like mama, like baby, huh?

One last picture from Blue mama and babies, because it was too cute

Splash mama didn't want to come out on her own, but it's been so hot today that I wanted her to get at least a drink before bed. So I pulled her from the nest and she and babies drank for a bit. She has 5 babies that all appear to be Blue, all out of Buck. So that's now a total of 10 Buck babies, I believe, that are all Blue as expected.

 

[NanaK]

Adorable!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Been a while since I updated here, whoops!

We hit 35 chicks hatched this year as of this past Monday, exactly half of last year's hatches. I have decided to stop hatching for the year for a few reasons. Mainly, I don't want to have juveniles growing out so late for assessments like I did this year. I also did not want to hatch as much this year because I will be going back to college full time this fall. And I had some issues with fertility and the chicks out of one pen anyway, so it seemed like it would be best to stop for the year here.

Fertility was pretty terrible this year, about 60% overall. I suspect this may be because this year I had 6-7 hens per rooster in two of the pens compared to 2-3 hens per rooster and upwards of 100% fertility around the same time last year. So, next year I will be cutting the population in my pens back a bit. I am thinking that I'll cut back to around 4 hens per rooster and see if that has a positive change on fertility.

I also hatched some very strange chicks from the corner coop (the red banders). Of the 8 corner coop chicks, 5 were perfectly normal and healthy, but 3 had very short, brittle down, and they just looked strange, I'm not sure how to describe it. I looked into it a bit and all I could find was clubbed down syndrome, which didn't really fully fit what was odd about these chicks. CDS is also caused by a nutritional deficiency in the parents, but all of my birds are on the same diet and only this pen had the issue, so I don't think that's it. I did realize after I'd settled on pens and put them together that Gus III, Priscilla, and Duckling are all out of Gus with different mothers, so it being genetic or a result of inbreeding did cross my mind. I hope not, as I'd rather not have to cull the pen and start it over... But, if I have to, then I will.

Since the corner coop rotates to the blue pen and I don't have any chicks out of the corner coop that I'm comfortable putting forward until I figure out if those weird chicks are caused by something genetic, it looks like Wyatt will be staying at least one more year for breeding in the blue pen. I may hold back the pullets from this year's blue coop hatches and not put them back in the pen until he does retire, though, as some would be simultaneously daughters and granddaughters of his at that point.

It's also looking like a pretty cockerel heavy year for me, just for an added kick to the slats. I do still have some chicks under broodies that are not old enough to be sure of sex on yet, so hopefully they bring those numbers closer to even at least.


Anyway, just a few pictures of the birds from over the past couple weeks or so to wrap up the post.

Wyatt and four of his girls, Zoe, Georgia, Margot, and Maisie. The other two of his ladies are co-broodying a couple babies right now.

The co-broodies, Inara and Morena, and their two babies. We lost Judy a few weeks back, so I popped what I suspect was her last egg under one of these broodies. Since both hens were wanting to brood, I went ahead and put eggs under the other as well. Only two hatched (including the suspected Judy egg, thankfully!), but they're happily sharing their babies with one another.

Last picture for now is of the youngest incubator-hatched babes. These are the healthy / normal chicks out of the corner coop. They're still in the brooder inside, but hopefully will be moving outside in the next week or two.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Been a while since I updated here, whoops!

We hit 35 chicks hatched this year as of this past Monday, exactly half of last year's hatches. I have decided to stop hatching for the year for a few reasons. Mainly, I don't want to have juveniles growing out so late for assessments like I did this year. I also did not want to hatch as much this year because I will be going back to college full time this fall. And I had some issues with fertility and the chicks out of one pen anyway, so it seemed like it would be best to stop for the year here.

Fertility was pretty terrible this year, about 60% overall. I suspect this may be because this year I had 6-7 hens per rooster in two of the pens compared to 2-3 hens per rooster and upwards of 100% fertility around the same time last year. So, next year I will be cutting the population in my pens back a bit. I am thinking that I'll cut back to around 4 hens per rooster and see if that has a positive change on fertility.

I also hatched some very strange chicks from the corner coop (the red banders). Of the 8 corner coop chicks, 5 were perfectly normal and healthy, but 3 had very short, brittle down, and they just looked strange, I'm not sure how to describe it. I looked into it a bit and all I could find was clubbed down syndrome, which didn't really fully fit what was odd about these chicks. CDS is also caused by a nutritional deficiency in the parents, but all of my birds are on the same diet and only this pen had the issue, so I don't think that's it. I did realize after I'd settled on pens and put them together that Gus III, Priscilla, and Duckling are all out of Gus with different mothers, so it being genetic or a result of inbreeding did cross my mind. I hope not, as I'd rather not have to cull the pen and start it over... But, if I have to, then I will.

Since the corner coop rotates to the blue pen and I don't have any chicks out of the corner coop that I'm comfortable putting forward until I figure out if those weird chicks are caused by something genetic, it looks like Wyatt will be staying at least one more year for breeding in the blue pen. I may hold back the pullets from this year's blue coop hatches and not put them back in the pen until he does retire, though, as some would be simultaneously daughters and granddaughters of his at that point.

It's also looking like a pretty cockerel heavy year for me, just for an added kick to the slats. I do still have some chicks under broodies that are not old enough to be sure of sex on yet, so hopefully they bring those numbers closer to even at least.


Anyway, just a few pictures of the birds from over the past couple weeks or so to wrap up the post.

Wyatt and four of his girls, Zoe, Georgia, Margot, and Maisie. The other two of his ladies are co-broodying a couple babies right now.

The co-broodies, Inara and Morena, and their two babies. We lost Judy a few weeks back, so I popped what I suspect was her last egg under one of these broodies. Since both hens were wanting to brood, I went ahead and put eggs under the other as well. Only two hatched (including the suspected Judy egg, thankfully!), but they're happily sharing their babies with one another.

Last picture for now is of the youngest incubator-hatched babes. These are the healthy / normal chicks out of the corner coop. They're still in the brooder inside, but hopefully will be moving outside in the next week or two.

I’m sorry about your babies and your breeders. Hopefully you can figure it out! Cute babies!!

 

[NanaK]

Good luck with your college adventure!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks both!

Just a couple of quick pics from this morning of some of this year's grow outs. This is the only potential keeper pullet from Easter, starting to shape up nicely. She's standing kind of awkwardly here because of where she's standing, but I didn't have anywhere else to sit her for a picture

Terrible lighting, but here are the two potential keeper cockerels from Easter (with the above pullet standing between them in the back). That one on the left is really catching my eye a lot lately

And this is a Splash pullet from... Late April, I think?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Looks like Birch is out of the program. I had noticed a while back that he had a brown patch on one shoulder and assumed he'd just been pooed on by one of the other boys in his bachelor group. Noticed yesterday that it was on both shoulders so I took a closer look and, sure enough, it's color leakage.

Buck does not appear to have any leakage and near as I can tell Wyatt, their father, does not either, nor did any of the hens that are possible mothers of them, so I have no idea where that came from. Guess it's a good thing I last minute decided to go with Buck as my breeder this year, huh?

On the plus side, I'd been planning on crossing one of the boys to a couple of my mixed flock hens just for fun anyway and color leakage will just add more fun to that, so Birch may just stick around anyway.

 

[NanaK]

On the plus side, I'd been planning on crossing one of the boys to a couple of my mixed flock hens just for fun anyway and color leakage will just add more fun to that, so Birch may just stick around anyway.

Such a handsome boy! That sounds like just the job for him.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I thought so as well! Birch has always been quite the looker, so it'd be a shame not to put those good looks to use in one way or another.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Decided to do a photo shoot today of all of the 2024 babies! I do have some standouts and some likely culls already, but most of them are way too young to confidently make cuts on yet.

In the interest of not bogging down my already slow as molasses internet connection, I'll break them down into individual posts sorted by pen. That way I can (hopefully) keep my thoughts a bit better organized as well. But as a starter, here are the five chicks I hatched from the cull hens in the blue coop back at Easter, about 19-and-a-half weeks old.

The two girls, a Blue and a Black. Neither is really wowing me at this stage, so they're not likely to be kept back for the breeding program. And that Black pullet has terrible wings anyway

And the boys, all three Blues. They are unfortunately likely heading to freezer camp in the next week or two as I really need the space for other cockerels to grow out in and no one wants roosters around here this time of year. I might hold onto the one on the left a little while longer as he's shaping up pretty well, preference given to the cockerels out of my carefully picked and paired blue pen hens of course, but the other two are lacking so they aren't likely to be kept.