Crosses to make Satins

[JacinLarkwell]

Good idea, though I would even think about crossing the females back to a silkie roo if you have one as the females back to the cochin or polish will only give 1/4 silkie offspring and you wont be able to tell which of the offspring F2 carry the silkie feather gene without test mating, as only half of them will. Also it won't matter if the hen or roo is the silkie to answer an earlier question except that if you have a silkie roo and females with yellow leg colouring you may be able to sex the F1 offspring by the colour of their body skin (pullets darker).

I won't have any silkie males. I'm having two pens (one with Cochins and one with polish) and will have the silkies with both for broodies

 

[Willawong Hill]

Aha, what you've got will work. Depending on how many you're hatching I'd think about putting the female offspring of the polish with the male offspring of the cochin (amd vice versa) and only keeping the silkie feathered chicks (about 25%) as that way you won't have to worry abut who carries the silkie feathered gene. Keep all female offspring of the pure silkies though and keep crossing back to the pure silkies with each generation of roosters. I'd only use your Polish and Cochin Roosters for the initial generation, and keep the best cockerel (or maybe 2) from them, but then replace them with their sons and so on til you're back to a higher percentage silkie. I would love to see what you get so please post pics of your progress! I will probably have some cochin x silkie chicks hatch at the end of Jan (its summer in Aus), but this is mostly as I cannot tell the pekin (bantam cochin) and silkie eggs apart well, i'm hoping to just keep the pures but i think the pekin silkie cross is cute.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Aha, what you've got will work. Depending on how many you're hatching I'd think about putting the female offspring of the polish with the male offspring of the cochin (amd vice versa) and only keeping the silkie feathered chicks (about 25%) as that way you won't have to worry abut who carries the silkie feathered gene. Keep all female offspring of the pure silkies though and keep crossing back to the pure silkies with each generation of roosters. I'd only use your Polish and Cochin Roosters for the initial generation, and keep the best cockerel (or maybe 2) from them, but then replace them with their sons and so on til you're back to a higher percentage silkie. I would love to see what you get so please post pics of your progress! I will probably have some cochin x silkie chicks hatch at the end of Jan (its summer in Aus), but this is mostly as I cannot tell the pekin (bantam cochin) and silkie eggs apart well, i'm hoping to just keep the pures but i think the pekin silkie cross is cute.

The whole point of breeding satins is to make smooth feathered silkies, so why keep only the silkie feathered offspring?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Aha, what you've got will work. Depending on how many you're hatching I'd think about putting the female offspring of the polish with the male offspring of the cochin (amd vice versa) and only keeping the silkie feathered chicks (about 25%) as that way you won't have to worry abut who carries the silkie feathered gene. Keep all female offspring of the pure silkies though and keep crossing back to the pure silkies with each generation of roosters. I'd only use your Polish and Cochin Roosters for the initial generation, and keep the best cockerel (or maybe 2) from them, but then replace them with their sons and so on til you're back to a higher percentage silkie. I would love to see what you get so please post pics of your progress! I will probably have some cochin x silkie chicks hatch at the end of Jan (its summer in Aus), but this is mostly as I cannot tell the pekin (bantam cochin) and silkie eggs apart well, i'm hoping to just keep the pures but i think the pekin silkie cross is cute.

Why would I want the silkie feathered ones?

 

[Willawong Hill]

Arg! sorry, I've got you mixed up with another post. Yes, avoid the silkie feathered ones seeing as you want satins. I would still try to breed back to silkie as much as possible assuming you want the other silkie traits (5 toes, black skin) in your satins though I know some people don't mind so much. Maybe do some test breeding with your F2s back to the pure silkies, if you get no silkied offspring you should have some satins who are homozygous (don't carry the silkie gene) by then.

 

[Akoharski4]

Does anyone have photos of their 2nd gen satins? Mine are set to hatch this week

 

[Akoharski4]

Does anyone have photos of their 2nd gen satins? Mine are set to hatch this week

Wanted to post a follow up photo of mine. Paint satins looking good so far. Most of them have silkied feather, but only 1 has 5 toes. The one with 5 toes has light skin though! Not sure who to keep

 

[black_cat]

I don't know much about any of this, but would it make sense to cross to polish, then back to silkie, then to cochin?

 

[Akoharski4]

I don't know much about any of this, but would it make sense to cross to polish, then back to silkie, then to cochin?

You mean for the crest size?

 

[black_cat]

You mean for the crest size?

Yeah