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

[Poultrybonkers]

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!


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!!



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

Im doing a mottling project but with wyandottes maybe even get tobunts lol but ill be breedin my splits next year and only keeping the mottled ones gonna be hard as they will also be laced

 

[msiler]

Im doing a mottling project but with wyandottes maybe even get tobunts lol but ill be breedin my splits next year and only keeping the mottled ones gonna be hard as they will also be laced

That sounds very pretty, but difficult because of the lacing like you said! Good luck!

 

[msiler]

Update 5-
Not a lot to report as we are winding down to winter! I do think that we will have some fertile eggs from the Mottled Cochin... once she begins laying again! We had a cold snap and OF COURSE she decided to stop laying (while the Silkies with no rooster in their pen keep chugging right along). We've had a warm week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her to start up again but I'm not too sure!
On the bright side, I ordered some hatching eggs and they finally arrived! We are candling today. Last time I purchased hatching eggs from this breeder, we had a true mottled split Silkie hatch, the one I have previously mentioned. With luck, we will get another like her!

 

[Crestcrazy2]

Update 5-
Not a lot to report as we are winding down to winter! I do think that we will have some fertile eggs from the Mottled Cochin... once she begins laying again! We had a cold snap and OF COURSE she decided to stop laying (while the Silkies with no rooster in their pen keep chugging right along). We've had a warm week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her to start up again but I'm not too sure!
On the bright side, I ordered some hatching eggs and they finally arrived! We are candling today. Last time I purchased hatching eggs from this breeder, we had a true mottled split Silkie hatch, the one I have previously mentioned. With luck, we will get another like her!

holding out hope that she'll start laying again!good luck!!!!!!!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Update 5-
Not a lot to report as we are winding down to winter! I do think that we will have some fertile eggs from the Mottled Cochin... once she begins laying again! We had a cold snap and OF COURSE she decided to stop laying (while the Silkies with no rooster in their pen keep chugging right along). We've had a warm week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her to start up again but I'm not too sure!
On the bright side, I ordered some hatching eggs and they finally arrived! We are candling today. Last time I purchased hatching eggs from this breeder, we had a true mottled split Silkie hatch, the one I have previously mentioned. With luck, we will get another like her!

Out of curiosity, if you have a silkie with the mottling gene, why are you using Cochins at all?

 

[msiler]

Out of curiosity, if you have a silkie with the mottling gene, why are you using Cochins at all?

Good question!
I wanted to do this project from scratch because it would be a challenge. I have a passion for genetics and I wanted to put my knowledge to use in real life application. I knew when I started this that I could buy hatching eggs from a breeder who already had a nearly finished project but there was such a draw to just do it myself that I wanted to give it a go. I think of my unplanned mottled Silkie as a little "cheat" that's going to give me a boost. There is just something exciting about doing it mostly on your own though I think Thanks for asking!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Good question!
I wanted to do this project from scratch because it would be a challenge. I have a passion for genetics and I wanted to put my knowledge to use in real life application. I knew when I started this that I could buy hatching eggs from a breeder who already had a nearly finished project but there was such a draw to just do it myself that I wanted to give it a go. I think of my unplanned mottled Silkie as a little "cheat" that's going to give me a boost. There is just something exciting about doing it mostly on your own though I think Thanks for asking!

I see. Good luck with your breeding project!

 

[Veb]

One chick has hatched and another is pipping! Now the guessing begins.

Personally, this chicks looks full Cochin to me. But, I have only raised a few cochins and don't honestly remember how they look as chicks. I have also never raised any Silkie/Cochin crosses so I'm not certain on specific traits that will show up as chicks.
This chick is definitely black. It has a black and pink beak and white tipped toes that fade to a darker grey. It has four toes on each foot and no signs of a vault.
Thoughts??

View attachment 2287296View attachment 2287298View attachment 2287299

Very cute, whatever it is

 

[msiler]

It's been a while! The project stayed a stand still virtually all winter, but it is now starting up again. Our Cochin passed away in a bout of un-diagnosed illness that we had run through the flock... so we decided to cross our mottled split hen to our remaining black rooster. This guy has some flaws (hard feathers in the tail, loose wings), but somehow the offspring he produces do not reflect this AT ALL. They are all stunning. When crossed with this hen I think they will produce some great things!

We had 6 or so chicks hatch from the pen that the mottled split hen was in. And 50% of those are very obviously her offspring who have the mottled gene! I couldn't believe my luck when I saw those fluffy little things in the incubator. I attached some photos of the most pronounced baby (who unfortunately has a messed up leg, but hopefully it will heal) and the proud papa.

The thing that I love about this rooster is the fact that he is so black. He is 3 this year and unlike many black Silkies, his color is still so dark. Not a single sign of leakage or anything, and he has the most perfect skin coloring in general, but particularly for a boy. Everything about him is DARK. Hopefully this dark pigmentation will help work on darkening the combs, eyes, and skin of mottled Silkies and start getting them closer to the standard.

I also purchased some mottled Silkie hatching eggs from a breeder. I know.... kind of the cheaters way! BUT my goal here is to not just create a mottled Silkie, plenty have done that. It is to help develop the color and advance it! A lot of breeders seem to focus so much on getting that double dose of mottled, and there seems to be a severe bias to mottled splits!

My plan at this point has obviously changed a lot since the beginning of this thread! Since a huge problem with mottled silkies is a lack of conformational accuracy, I will be outcrossing back to pure black Silkies every so often, as well as being very strict with the growouts that I hold back.
Once my current batch of chicks from the breeder and from my own personal hatchings are mature, I will be keeping the ones that best represent the Silkie type and immediatly out crossing them to Black Silkies. Those splits that are produced will likely be crossed back to their mottled parents (that are the chicks I have now).
I could go on, but that is about a year and a half out at the rate Silkies mature!

Thanks for reading!

 

[LynnaePB]

It's been a while! The project stayed a stand still virtually all winter, but it is now starting up again. Our Cochin passed away in a bout of un-diagnosed illness that we had run through the flock... so we decided to cross our mottled split hen to our remaining black rooster. This guy has some flaws (hard feathers in the tail, loose wings), but somehow the offspring he produces do not reflect this AT ALL. They are all stunning. When crossed with this hen I think they will produce some great things!

We had 6 or so chicks hatch from the pen that the mottled split hen was in. And 50% of those are very obviously her offspring who have the mottled gene! I couldn't believe my luck when I saw those fluffy little things in the incubator. I attached some photos of the most pronounced baby (who unfortunately has a messed up leg, but hopefully it will heal) and the proud papa.


View attachment 2605441View attachment 2605443
View attachment 2605942
The thing that I love about this rooster is the fact that he is so black. He is 3 this year and unlike many black Silkies, his color is still so dark. Not a single sign of leakage or anything, and he has the most perfect skin coloring in general, but particularly for a boy. Everything about him is DARK. Hopefully this dark pigmentation will help work on darkening the combs, eyes, and skin of mottled Silkies and start getting them closer to the standard.

I also purchased some mottled Silkie hatching eggs from a breeder. I know.... kind of the cheaters way! BUT my goal here is to not just create a mottled Silkie, plenty have done that. It is to help develop the color and advance it! A lot of breeders seem to focus so much on getting that double dose of mottled, and there seems to be a severe bias to mottled splits!

My plan at this point has obviously changed a lot since the beginning of this thread! Since a huge problem with mottled silkies is a lack of conformational accuracy, I will be outcrossing back to pure black Silkies every so often, as well as being very strict with the growouts that I hold back.
Once my current batch of chicks from the breeder and from my own personal hatchings are mature, I will be keeping the ones that best represent the Silkie type and immediatly out crossing them to Black Silkies. Those splits that are produced will likely be crossed back to their mottled parents (that are the chicks I have now).
I could go on, but that is about a year and a half out at the rate Silkies mature!

Thanks for reading!

Love the update!

Sorry to hear you lost your little cochin though.

Sounds like the project is back on track now and I hope you get some nice mottled silkies from the hatching eggs to help as well!