*Im thinking to call the breed "Cutiepie" but let me know if you have a good name for them*
Ive been working on my project breed for one year now, since its the start of a new year I thought Id detail my flock, my breedings, and plans for upcoming year. Im very excited about my F1s and the up coming F2s! The goal is primarily a healthy and very friendly pet like chicken that is a decent layer of blue eggs, has a large black single comb in both roosters and hens, a fluffy beard and fluffy black feet, large blue ears, and has a silkie or "satin" feathers (satin being a silkie heterozygote). Cutiepies are meant to have a heavier rounded build with wide hips geared for larger eggs but they can be of any size. The personality is especially important to my breed, roosters are to be totally non aggressive with humans and tend to flee with or hide the hens rather than defaulting to attacking any unknown. When the roosters scuffle between themselves they never take things too far and are generally tolerant of each other (All of my roosters more or less follow this guideline and not one of them is even slightly human aggressive). All of them should approach people for pats and/or snuggling(many of my flock are like this to some degree), hens should not go broody but instead be gentle and excepting of all baby chicks (so far I have one hen that does just that).
My foundation roosters are Winslow [ black bearded silkie ], Wallace [ black bearded silkie ], Martin [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], and Milo [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ]. My foundation hens are Wendy [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Willma [ blue mottled belgian D'uccle ], Winnie [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Waffle [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Maggie [ black bearded silkie ], Muriel [ black bearded silkie ], Boo [ standard white face black spanish ], Paprika [ uncrested australian "crested cream" legbar ], and Ginger [ australian crested "cream" legbar]. Later I plan to add a standard size Minorca or two so that I can improve the large blue ears of the flock in size, shape and texture and also boost the size of the breed and eggs, a paint silkie, a chocolate orpington (Im ordering hatching eggs from Melbourne for the low low price of 180$ per dozen) and something in lavender if it doesnt pop up within the current flock.
Winslow is a black bearded rooster from Chatty Chicks Australia, he is my first rooster and was bought on the 7th of January 2019. Based off his many children and even grandchildren I believe he is an ultra melanized silver partridge, heterozygous bearded, homozygous rose comb, heterozygous pea comb. Winslow has a nice rounded build with decent hips. In his daughters he contributes a medium brown egg with a waxy/semi-gloss shell. He also has an interesting crow that ends with a trilling sound which seems to somewhat pass on to his sons.
His features that set him apart from other silkies are his "live and let live" attitude with other roosters, his auto-dulling outwards facing spurs, his large comb despite being bearded and having pea comb, and disease resistance to Occular Marek's, Mycoplasma, and minor ailments.
He is paired to Wendy, Willma, and Boo.
Wallace is a black bearded rooster with lots of silver leakage from Chatty Chicks Australia, he was bought in August 2019 along with his (likely) sister Muriel. Wallace is still a young cockerel that has yet to be bred to any hens. He seems to have a similar temperament to Winslow but isnt fully mature so I cant be certain.
He is paired to Winnie and Waffle.
Martin is a slightly leaky black mottled belgian D'uccle I picked up from a feed store on January 14th 2019. It might have been one of the dumber choices I made but Martin has one of the best combs and personalities Ive ever seen on or in a D'uccle rooster. In my eyes he is totally irreplaceable, and trust me Ive tried cause Martin does have a defect of a serious chronic sinus infection! However Martin has never become sick with any diseases in the flock and like-wise no chicken has come down with anything like what he has. So I believe his infection is due to bad environmental conditions either from his original home or from the feed store. All in all I don't regret getting him and Im super excited to see how his chicks grow!
He is paired to Maggie and Muriel and possibly some of Maggie's daughters from an accidental cross.
Milo is a black mottled begian D'uccle with a lot of gold leakage. He was bought in December 2019 along with Waffle who he may or may not be related to. I am fairly certain that Milo is a beard heterozygote and like Martin his mottles are overly expressed but he is in good health and has an equally excellent temperament. Other than that I haven't had him long enough to say much else definitely. I look forward to learning more about him.
Milo is paired to Maggie, Muriel and Maggie's accidental daughters as well.
Wendy is my most excellent black mottled belgian D'uccle hen! She has a lovely round shape and a slight gypsy face that makes her perfect for my project! She also has the most wonderful personality and is in no way shy about wanting to be held, cuddled, and patted. I picked her up on February 6th 2019, but her breeder is unknown to me as she came from mailed hatching eggs. Wendy like Winslow has had impeccable health and not only has she never had a health issue her 18 babies with Winslow have also been 100% healthy.
She is paired to Winslow.
Willma was bought with Winnie in December 2018, they are my very first chickens! Willma is friendly but mostly only when you have food, otherwise she is indifferent to people. Willma unlike my other chickens is blue. All of her children have been friendly but she also has a slight weakness to what I think is mycoplasma. One of her sons had a fatal case of it that I just couldnt clear. Wilma and her decendents will be carefully monitored and their influence on the flock genetics restricted until Im fairly certain their weak immune system has been bred out.
Wilma is paired with Winslow.
Winnie was bought along with Wilma in December 2018, one of my very first chickens! Wilma has the best foot feathering of my hens but is also the most aloof of the belgian d'uccle. She has never had health issues since the day I got her. She is also very dominant with the other chickens for her size and is unimpressed by most of my roosters especially Winslow who she hates.
She is paired to Wallace.
Waffle was purchased along with Milo in December 2019 in the Logan region. I suspect Milo is her father but Im unsure. She has over expressed mottles for her age but has great foot feathering. She is still very new to me so I don't yet have much to say about her.
Waffle is paired to Wallace.
Maggie was bought from a heritage poultry breeder, but I believe she is one brought to them from elsewhere. She is a fabulous looking silkie but she has a single fault of having the normal set of four toes per foot, but that works for me as I prefer normal toe number! Maggie is relatively calm and friendly but has a high drive to brood. She doesnt have any shyness issues and gets along with the flock perfectly fine. She was accidentally bred to Wilbur which has resulted in some chicks with the most extreme foot feathers Ive seen yet! Two of the chicks are silkied so if either turns out to be female they will also be bred to Martin and Milo.
Maggie is paired to Martin and Milo.
Muriel was bought in August 2019 with her likely brother from Chatty Chicks. She has a bit of silver leakage in her hackles. She is extremely submissive so I keep her in small pens with only other silkies or one of her mates. Her foot feathering is decent for a silkie is Australia but her body is very wide and she is very beautiful! She is still a pullet and has yet to lay.
Muriel is paired to Martin and Milo.
Boo is a standard sized white face black spanish hen bought from the Redland Bay area February 2019. She is flighty but is very food motivated which has come through in some of her offspring in a good way. Boo has lovely white ears that keep growing and growing and a large eight pointed comb that folds over when she is on the lay.
Boo is paired to Winslow but she may be used as a backcross to one of her F2 grandsons in the future.
Paprika was picked up in the Logan region with her sister Ginger some time around May 2019. Paprika is one of my largest hens and is very wild. Despite coming out of a pen of Australian crested "cream" legbars and AVGen imported crested cream legbars she lacks having any crest, she along with Ginger had 20 chicks by Wendigo which are still growing, these may answer some questions about her crest but as I didn't individually breed the sisters some questions may go unanswered. Unlike her sister Paprika has had zero health issues since I first got her. Paprika may carry the cream gene but I might never know for sure.
Paprika is paired with Wendigo.
Ginger was picked up in the Logan region with her sister Paprika some time around May 2019. She came from a mixed pen of Australian crested "cream" legbars and AVGen cream legbars, so its difficult to say with certainty what her exact genetics were. She was slightly tamer than her sister Paprika. She was my only chicken to pass away of ocular Marek's disease which I have not seen any signs or symptoms of in any other birds. She contributed to producing 20 chicks with Wendigo but some are also Paprika's and its unknown which is which. Ginger may carry the cream gene but I will never know for sure.
Ginger is paired with Wendigo.
I have four F1 roosters, two are out of Wendy and two are out of Boo all are sired by Winslow. All of them have had zero health issues and are some of the friendliest of the roosters born. Many of the hens born are a huge improvement over their father, but not one of Wendy's children have surpassed her in friendliness but some come close. Both of Willma's daughters are an improvement on her personality. Boo's children however are a huge improvement in personality, Winslow has also been a great influence on their shape making them much rounder in shape without loosing height. I believe Winslow might have even boosted the size of the combs but it wont be known for sure until the F2 generation.
These ones are my "F1.5" as I call it. I hatched maybe 20 and kept only three, though I suspect I kept two more that have blended in with my new chicks out of Maggie, Martin and Wilbur.
Pepper is an extremely affectionate baby. She is independent but she will leave her brooder to come visit me in bed. Out of her sisters that I kept she appears to be the only one with solid black feathers. Im super excited to see how her personality is when she matures! She and her sisters should all lay blue eggs.
Juniper has fallen ill so I have started treating her with antibiotics. She is likely off project. Out of the three she seems to be the only one not growing a crest. She and her sisters should all lay blue eggs.
Kala is the brownest of the sisters, Im curious to see what her adult feathers look like. She is the more aloof of the sisters but still friendly. She has the best foot feathers of the three sisters. She should also lay blue eggs.
These ones can only be out of Wilbur because they are silkied and Martin doesn't carry that gene and he was the one that managed to snag her while I was letting her stretch her legs out of the breeding pen with Martin. Its nice having a few improved silkies with HUGE fluffy feet! but its going to be a pain sorting out which satin chicks are Martin's and which are Wilbur's.
As you can see some of these chicks also have huge lovely foot feathering! I figure once they are adults I'll know what I want to do with them and might even work out who dad is.
Ok, so that is essentially where my flock is at currently, but more details will be added over time as I can.
Currently I am working on breeding Goomba and Ghost T. to their sisters Lady Bow, Booboo, Peeka, and Lahla. The primary cross is Goomba to Lady Bow and Ghost T. to Lady Bow from which I want to get a rooster from each for the next generation. The reason why I've decided to focus on her is due to how she interacts with chicks. She is never mean to them, doesnt peck or attack them and will even let them stand in the food bowl and pick at her beard! And even with all this adorable behavior to chicks she has never once been broody. My hope is that Ill be seeing many more like her soon and her eggs with Ghost T started being incubated December 30th and I will stop incubating January 6th then on the 16 of January she will be paired to Goomba and I'll start incubating those. In all of the "Boo line" F2 chicks I will put all non single comb, non fibro chicks up for sale at hatch and then have a second wave of sales as crests grow in. Im going to do what I can to maintain beards, feathered feet, silkie feathers and solid black coloration but single comb and non crested will cut my numbers down to 6.25% So I'm picking what battles I think are going to be most important.
Maggie is also being bred to Martin again and starting on the 16th she will be bred to Milo. The goal is to get enough that I can select for personality and health which will then be bred to my current Silkie×BelgianD'Uccle. I am still unsure if I should inbred my current Silkie×BelgianD'Uccle for F2s or if I should wait until I have more F1s from Wallace's, Martin's, and Milo's families.
Late next year when Pepper, Juniper, and Kala are mature I plan to breed them from the best F2 roosters I have. Hopefully it will be three mostly unrelated silkied roosters, but we will see when we get to that point. Those new daughters I will need to keep a minimum of double what hens I want as I intend to only use the ones with blue eggs.
Ive been working on my project breed for one year now, since its the start of a new year I thought Id detail my flock, my breedings, and plans for upcoming year. Im very excited about my F1s and the up coming F2s! The goal is primarily a healthy and very friendly pet like chicken that is a decent layer of blue eggs, has a large black single comb in both roosters and hens, a fluffy beard and fluffy black feet, large blue ears, and has a silkie or "satin" feathers (satin being a silkie heterozygote). Cutiepies are meant to have a heavier rounded build with wide hips geared for larger eggs but they can be of any size. The personality is especially important to my breed, roosters are to be totally non aggressive with humans and tend to flee with or hide the hens rather than defaulting to attacking any unknown. When the roosters scuffle between themselves they never take things too far and are generally tolerant of each other (All of my roosters more or less follow this guideline and not one of them is even slightly human aggressive). All of them should approach people for pats and/or snuggling(many of my flock are like this to some degree), hens should not go broody but instead be gentle and excepting of all baby chicks (so far I have one hen that does just that).
My foundation roosters are Winslow [ black bearded silkie ], Wallace [ black bearded silkie ], Martin [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], and Milo [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ]. My foundation hens are Wendy [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Willma [ blue mottled belgian D'uccle ], Winnie [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Waffle [ black mottled belgian D'uccle ], Maggie [ black bearded silkie ], Muriel [ black bearded silkie ], Boo [ standard white face black spanish ], Paprika [ uncrested australian "crested cream" legbar ], and Ginger [ australian crested "cream" legbar]. Later I plan to add a standard size Minorca or two so that I can improve the large blue ears of the flock in size, shape and texture and also boost the size of the breed and eggs, a paint silkie, a chocolate orpington (Im ordering hatching eggs from Melbourne for the low low price of 180$ per dozen) and something in lavender if it doesnt pop up within the current flock.
Winslow is a black bearded rooster from Chatty Chicks Australia, he is my first rooster and was bought on the 7th of January 2019. Based off his many children and even grandchildren I believe he is an ultra melanized silver partridge, heterozygous bearded, homozygous rose comb, heterozygous pea comb. Winslow has a nice rounded build with decent hips. In his daughters he contributes a medium brown egg with a waxy/semi-gloss shell. He also has an interesting crow that ends with a trilling sound which seems to somewhat pass on to his sons.
His features that set him apart from other silkies are his "live and let live" attitude with other roosters, his auto-dulling outwards facing spurs, his large comb despite being bearded and having pea comb, and disease resistance to Occular Marek's, Mycoplasma, and minor ailments.
He is paired to Wendy, Willma, and Boo.
eᵇ/eᵇ, cha/cha, S/S, ar/ar, h/h, Pti/Pti, Mb/mb+, Cr/Cr, Fm/Fm, Po/Po, R/R, P/p+
Wallace is a black bearded rooster with lots of silver leakage from Chatty Chicks Australia, he was bought in August 2019 along with his (likely) sister Muriel. Wallace is still a young cockerel that has yet to be bred to any hens. He seems to have a similar temperament to Winslow but isnt fully mature so I cant be certain.
He is paired to Winnie and Waffle.
eᵇ/eᵇ, S/S, ar/ar, h/h, Pti/Pti, Mb/mb+, Cr/Cr, Fm/Fm, Po/Po, R/R, P/P
Martin is a slightly leaky black mottled belgian D'uccle I picked up from a feed store on January 14th 2019. It might have been one of the dumber choices I made but Martin has one of the best combs and personalities Ive ever seen on or in a D'uccle rooster. In my eyes he is totally irreplaceable, and trust me Ive tried cause Martin does have a defect of a serious chronic sinus infection! However Martin has never become sick with any diseases in the flock and like-wise no chicken has come down with anything like what he has. So I believe his infection is due to bad environmental conditions either from his original home or from the feed store. All in all I don't regret getting him and Im super excited to see how his chicks grow!
He is paired to Maggie and Muriel and possibly some of Maggie's daughters from an accidental cross.
E/e+, S/s+, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/Mb
Milo is a black mottled begian D'uccle with a lot of gold leakage. He was bought in December 2019 along with Waffle who he may or may not be related to. I am fairly certain that Milo is a beard heterozygote and like Martin his mottles are overly expressed but he is in good health and has an equally excellent temperament. Other than that I haven't had him long enough to say much else definitely. I look forward to learning more about him.
Milo is paired to Maggie, Muriel and Maggie's accidental daughters as well.
E/e+, s+/s+, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/mb+
Wendy is my most excellent black mottled belgian D'uccle hen! She has a lovely round shape and a slight gypsy face that makes her perfect for my project! She also has the most wonderful personality and is in no way shy about wanting to be held, cuddled, and patted. I picked her up on February 6th 2019, but her breeder is unknown to me as she came from mailed hatching eggs. Wendy like Winslow has had impeccable health and not only has she never had a health issue her 18 babies with Winslow have also been 100% healthy.
She is paired to Winslow.
E/E, s+/-, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/Mb
Willma was bought with Winnie in December 2018, they are my very first chickens! Willma is friendly but mostly only when you have food, otherwise she is indifferent to people. Willma unlike my other chickens is blue. All of her children have been friendly but she also has a slight weakness to what I think is mycoplasma. One of her sons had a fatal case of it that I just couldnt clear. Wilma and her decendents will be carefully monitored and their influence on the flock genetics restricted until Im fairly certain their weak immune system has been bred out.
Wilma is paired with Winslow.
E/E, cha/Cha+, s+/-, Bl/bl+, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/Mb
Winnie was bought along with Wilma in December 2018, one of my very first chickens! Wilma has the best foot feathering of my hens but is also the most aloof of the belgian d'uccle. She has never had health issues since the day I got her. She is also very dominant with the other chickens for her size and is unimpressed by most of my roosters especially Winslow who she hates.
She is paired to Wallace.
E/E, s+/-, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/Mb
Waffle was purchased along with Milo in December 2019 in the Logan region. I suspect Milo is her father but Im unsure. She has over expressed mottles for her age but has great foot feathering. She is still very new to me so I don't yet have much to say about her.
Waffle is paired to Wallace.
E/E, s+/-, mo/mo, Ar+/Ar+, Pti/Pti, v/v, Mb/Mb
Maggie was bought from a heritage poultry breeder, but I believe she is one brought to them from elsewhere. She is a fabulous looking silkie but she has a single fault of having the normal set of four toes per foot, but that works for me as I prefer normal toe number! Maggie is relatively calm and friendly but has a high drive to brood. She doesnt have any shyness issues and gets along with the flock perfectly fine. She was accidentally bred to Wilbur which has resulted in some chicks with the most extreme foot feathers Ive seen yet! Two of the chicks are silkied so if either turns out to be female they will also be bred to Martin and Milo.
Maggie is paired to Martin and Milo.
eᵇ/eᵇ, S/-, ar/ar, h/h, Pti/Pti, Mb/Mb, Cr/Cr, Fm/Fm, R/R, P/P
Muriel was bought in August 2019 with her likely brother from Chatty Chicks. She has a bit of silver leakage in her hackles. She is extremely submissive so I keep her in small pens with only other silkies or one of her mates. Her foot feathering is decent for a silkie is Australia but her body is very wide and she is very beautiful! She is still a pullet and has yet to lay.
Muriel is paired to Martin and Milo.
eᵇ/eᵇ, S/-, ar/ar, h/h, Pti/Pti, Mb/Mb, Cr/Cr, Fm/Fm, Po/Po, R/R, P/P
Boo is a standard sized white face black spanish hen bought from the Redland Bay area February 2019. She is flighty but is very food motivated which has come through in some of her offspring in a good way. Boo has lovely white ears that keep growing and growing and a large eight pointed comb that folds over when she is on the lay.
Boo is paired to Winslow but she may be used as a backcross to one of her F2 grandsons in the future.
E/E, s+/-, Ar+/Ar+
Paprika was picked up in the Logan region with her sister Ginger some time around May 2019. Paprika is one of my largest hens and is very wild. Despite coming out of a pen of Australian crested "cream" legbars and AVGen imported crested cream legbars she lacks having any crest, she along with Ginger had 20 chicks by Wendigo which are still growing, these may answer some questions about her crest but as I didn't individually breed the sisters some questions may go unanswered. Unlike her sister Paprika has had zero health issues since I first got her. Paprika may carry the cream gene but I might never know for sure.
Paprika is paired with Wendigo.
e+/e+, Ig+/ig, s+/-, B/-, Ar+/Ar+, w/w, O/O
Ginger was picked up in the Logan region with her sister Paprika some time around May 2019. She came from a mixed pen of Australian crested "cream" legbars and AVGen cream legbars, so its difficult to say with certainty what her exact genetics were. She was slightly tamer than her sister Paprika. She was my only chicken to pass away of ocular Marek's disease which I have not seen any signs or symptoms of in any other birds. She contributed to producing 20 chicks with Wendigo but some are also Paprika's and its unknown which is which. Ginger may carry the cream gene but I will never know for sure.
Ginger is paired with Wendigo.
e+/e+, Ig+/ig, s+/-, B/-, Ar+/Ar+, Cr/cr+, w/w, O/O
I have four F1 roosters, two are out of Wendy and two are out of Boo all are sired by Winslow. All of them have had zero health issues and are some of the friendliest of the roosters born. Many of the hens born are a huge improvement over their father, but not one of Wendy's children have surpassed her in friendliness but some come close. Both of Willma's daughters are an improvement on her personality. Boo's children however are a huge improvement in personality, Winslow has also been a great influence on their shape making them much rounder in shape without loosing height. I believe Winslow might have even boosted the size of the combs but it wont be known for sure until the F2 generation.
These ones are my "F1.5" as I call it. I hatched maybe 20 and kept only three, though I suspect I kept two more that have blended in with my new chicks out of Maggie, Martin and Wilbur.
Pepper is an extremely affectionate baby. She is independent but she will leave her brooder to come visit me in bed. Out of her sisters that I kept she appears to be the only one with solid black feathers. Im super excited to see how her personality is when she matures! She and her sisters should all lay blue eggs.
Juniper has fallen ill so I have started treating her with antibiotics. She is likely off project. Out of the three she seems to be the only one not growing a crest. She and her sisters should all lay blue eggs.
Kala is the brownest of the sisters, Im curious to see what her adult feathers look like. She is the more aloof of the sisters but still friendly. She has the best foot feathers of the three sisters. She should also lay blue eggs.
These ones can only be out of Wilbur because they are silkied and Martin doesn't carry that gene and he was the one that managed to snag her while I was letting her stretch her legs out of the breeding pen with Martin. Its nice having a few improved silkies with HUGE fluffy feet! but its going to be a pain sorting out which satin chicks are Martin's and which are Wilbur's.
As you can see some of these chicks also have huge lovely foot feathering! I figure once they are adults I'll know what I want to do with them and might even work out who dad is.
Ok, so that is essentially where my flock is at currently, but more details will be added over time as I can.
Currently I am working on breeding Goomba and Ghost T. to their sisters Lady Bow, Booboo, Peeka, and Lahla. The primary cross is Goomba to Lady Bow and Ghost T. to Lady Bow from which I want to get a rooster from each for the next generation. The reason why I've decided to focus on her is due to how she interacts with chicks. She is never mean to them, doesnt peck or attack them and will even let them stand in the food bowl and pick at her beard! And even with all this adorable behavior to chicks she has never once been broody. My hope is that Ill be seeing many more like her soon and her eggs with Ghost T started being incubated December 30th and I will stop incubating January 6th then on the 16 of January she will be paired to Goomba and I'll start incubating those. In all of the "Boo line" F2 chicks I will put all non single comb, non fibro chicks up for sale at hatch and then have a second wave of sales as crests grow in. Im going to do what I can to maintain beards, feathered feet, silkie feathers and solid black coloration but single comb and non crested will cut my numbers down to 6.25% So I'm picking what battles I think are going to be most important.
Maggie is also being bred to Martin again and starting on the 16th she will be bred to Milo. The goal is to get enough that I can select for personality and health which will then be bred to my current Silkie×BelgianD'Uccle. I am still unsure if I should inbred my current Silkie×BelgianD'Uccle for F2s or if I should wait until I have more F1s from Wallace's, Martin's, and Milo's families.
Late next year when Pepper, Juniper, and Kala are mature I plan to breed them from the best F2 roosters I have. Hopefully it will be three mostly unrelated silkied roosters, but we will see when we get to that point. Those new daughters I will need to keep a minimum of double what hens I want as I intend to only use the ones with blue eggs.
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