Debbie's Silkies

[janiedoe]

Ugh, my phone is so helpful sometimes

Empty, it was supposed to say empty

I thought you meant employees as in laying eggs for feed.

 

[Debbie292d]

This is a new chocolate pen I recently set up that has been putting out a lot of eggs. To the left is Piper, who is the only mean rooster of about 15 that we have. In front is a mauve hen I call MawMawve. To the right is a chocolate splash hen we call Scarf, as she has a chocolate border around her neck. The others are four chocolates I don't name as I can barely tell them apart.



Here's a closer picture of the four chocolates and Scarf from a few weeks prior.


I'm pretty excited to get this going again as I was hatching chocolates and mauves last year. This year, I held off as I was waiting for my mottleds to come of age. Well, it's about a month later than it should be, so I'm moving on lol. They're still together and one of these days, I'll start getting fertile eggs.

I have an older chocolate hen, Charlotte, but she's with the paints. I haven't seen a chocolate paint come from there yet, but maybe one of these hatches we'll get a couple.

 

[NatJ]

I have an older chocolate hen, Charlotte, but she's with the paints. I haven't seen a chocolate paint come from there yet, but maybe one of these hatches we'll get a couple.

Does the rooster of that pen have chocolate, or carry it?

Assuming this is the sex-linked chocolate gene, a chocolate hen will never produce chicks that are visibly chocolate unless the rooster also carries or shows the chocolate gene. (Her sons will carry the gene but not show it, and she cannot give the chocolate gene to her daughters at all.)

 

[Debbie292d]

Does the rooster of that pen have chocolate, or carry it?

Assuming this is the sex-linked chocolate gene, a chocolate hen will never produce chicks that are visibly chocolate unless the rooster also carries or shows the chocolate gene. (Her sons will carry the gene but not show it, and she cannot give the chocolate gene to her daughters at all.)

I highly doubt he's got a chocolate gene in him, as I'm pretty sure he came from a typical paint pen. He's from shipped eggs last year, and she just said "paint pen."

He looks rather dingy compared to his ladies. It must be the lighting, as he's a lot whiter IRL.


They do make some cute chicks. There's another paint hen, and a black hen in with Charlotte and the roo.

I'll just leave Charlotte (chocolate) hen with them anyway, though, as she's at least out and about with these and seems happy, vs in the breeding coop, she stayed indoors by herself and wouldn't go outside. She lived like a hermit, so it's nice to see her outside again.

The DW is laying now, and I wasn't sure where to stick her, so she's with another white rooster and a pair of cuckoos. I need some whites for a customer in a couple of months, so I will pull the cuckoos out next week when the weather is better.