Mottled Silkie Project, officially in Motion! *Photos!*

[Crestcrazy2]

Update time!

All in all, fifteen chicks ended up hatching! It was roughly a 90% hatch rate so I am quite happy.
As more and more chicks hatched out there were some clear differences. About half of them looked like the photo that I shared above, and the other half has typical mottled down. I rehomed all of the black ones because their mother was not the Mottled Cochins, and kept all of the mottleds.
They are about two weeks now, and I don't think they are half Silkies for two main reasons.
1) About half of the chicks are frizzled. Definitely points to the busy-body Frizzle Roo.
2) The Mottled girls have been in with my black Silkie roo, isolated, for about a month now. I incubated a large number of eggs, expecting positive results, and every single egg is clear. So either my rooster is not doing his job or the girls want their Frizzle boy back and are expelling everything. I'm inclined to believe the former because my rooster has some issues He acts like he's monogamous... believe it or not.

I have one five month old black Silkie boy that I am now going to try in with the Mottleds. He is young, but he acts like such a grown up. I've seen him doing everything with the girls so I figured I'd give it a go since clearly the other pairing isn't working.


There always seems to be setbacks with these kinds of projects! I'm still so excited though.
I was lucky enough to hatch out a true Mottled Silkie from Sheri Minkner hatching eggs. She is a split though, so I will be crossing her with the F1 roosters from the initial cross. This is going to be a huge boost and I can cut out a huge number of generations with her influence.

Yay I can't wait , good job !

 

[LynnaePB]

This looks like such a neat project! I'd love to follow along and see how it goes. Mottled birds are so pretty, I've seen a few gorgeous mottled silkies!

I hope your silkie boy figures things out with the mottled girls for you soon (or the new boy works out better)!

 

[msiler]

This looks like such a neat project! I'd love to follow along and see how it goes. Mottled birds are so pretty, I've seen a few gorgeous mottled silkies!

I hope your silkie boy figures things out with the mottled girls for you soon (or the new boy works out better)!

Thank you! I hope that it all works out and that people will be able to follow along.

 

[luckiestck1]

This is what i mean about the blue/ purple spot on the neck.

 

[msiler]

It is definitely time for another update!
So, I eventually got tired of wasting so many otherwise edible Mottled Cochin eggs that ended up being infertile, that Wilbur, my original Silkie rooster, retired back to his preferred girls. Two months locked up with them and not one single fertile egg
So I did what any chicken person would do and made a six hour round trip to pick up a handsome young Silkie roo who's tastes in hens are not yet formed. His comb color and larger wattles are not my most favorite but his type is exceptional!
"Beau" has been with us for about a week now and he has his own special breeding pen with our singular remaining mottled hen (we lost the other two to a mysterious illness).
As I said before, I don't want any more clear eggs. So now that Beau and the mottled girl are somewhat acquainted, they both got a nice back end trim. Good thing too because Beau had a solid two inches of back end feathers! Hopefully we will start getting some eggs that are actually fertile within the next week or two.

We also are now located in Central Oregon, and so we had the chance to redo our breeding pens. Four very predator resident pens now give each of our Silkie pads home.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

It is definitely time for another update!
So, I eventually got tired of wasting so many otherwise edible Mottled Cochin eggs that ended up being infertile, that Wilbur, my original Silkie rooster, retired back to his preferred girls. Two months locked up with them and not one single fertile egg
So I did what any chicken person would do and made a six hour round trip to pick up a handsome young Silkie roo who's tastes in hens are not yet formed. His comb color and larger wattles are not my most favorite but his type is exceptional!
"Beau" has been with us for about a week now and he has his own special breeding pen with our singular remaining mottled hen (we lost the other two to a mysterious illness).
As I said before, I don't want any more clear eggs. So now that Beau and the mottled girl are somewhat acquainted, they both got a nice back end trim. Good thing too because Beau had a solid two inches of back end feathers! Hopefully we will start getting some eggs that are actually fertile within the next week or two.
View attachment 2372925

We also are now located in Central Oregon, and so we had the chance to redo our breeding pens. Four very predator resident pens now give each of our Silkie pads home.

Thanks for the update !!! Beau is gorgeous !!! I'll be following your mottled silkie journey fur sure !

 

[LynnaePB]

Aww Beau looks like a very handsome guy! I hope you'll be able to get some fertile eggs soon from him and your little mottled girl!

 

[Poultrybonkers]

is your plan to hatch and get split mottled chicks from them? because you cant get mottled from a mottled and non split mottled

 

[CrazyCochin]

He acts like he's monogamous... believe it or not.

my sister had a welsummer roo like that, he may not have been with the hens, but unlike some, he never really had that desire to be with them.

 

[msiler]

is your plan to hatch and get split mottled chicks from them? because you cant get mottled from a mottled and non split mottled

Yep! It definitely is a multi-generational project. The first generation is half Silkie, half Cochin. They will be split for smooth feather and the mottling gene. Thankfully, I acquired a gorgeous mottled split pullet from Sheri Minkner who is going to cut this project time in half, at least. (It would take years and years before I ever bred one like her but now we are going to see ones similar to her within two years.)

Anyway, one of the male Silkie/Cochin chicks will be crossed with this pullet. I will keep the ones who have Silkie feathering (about half) and all of the ones with the best mottling (about 25%). I will also be able to concentrate heavily on the best Silkie type, because even the ones with smooth feathering will still have one copy of the Silkie feathering.

In my experience, both mottleds and mottled split chicks have traditional mottled down. Solids will be born black at birth. They will be rehomed at a young age. Ones with mottled down will be kept until I can weed out who are splits and who are not.

After I have some substantial growouts, the true mottleds will be crossed with black Silkie hens and roosters. From there, inbreeding will likely have to happen about every other generation to keep the mottling from fading out.

I hope that makes sense!

my sister had a welsummer roo like that, he may not have been with the hens, but unlike some, he never really had that desire to be with them.

So glad to see I'm not alone! Not sure what is up with some boys but I guess some just aren't that interested!!

Thanks for the update !!! Beau is gorgeous !!! ♥♥♥♥ I'll be following your mottled silkie journey fur sure !

Aww Beau looks like a very handsome guy! I hope you'll be able to get some fertile eggs soon from him and your little mottled girl!

Thank you both! He really is truly something else. I'm very excited to start this project with such a correct boy!!