Hi all! I wanted to show off my flock and see what everyone thought of my intended goal. My current chickens are: Oprington x2, tan eggs Ameraucana Cross x2*, mint green, light olive and tan eggs White Silkie x1, tiny white eggs Homebred Silkie Cross ( x Ameraucana? or...?) Pullet x5 French Marans Pullet x1 Silkie hen x Ameraucana roo Mystery Roo (see post in identification thread) RIP (recent breakout+coyote attack) White Silkie Rooster Blue Laced Red Wyandotte x Ameraucana, hen, olive eggs ^ above hen x Barred Rock, blue almost-barred almost-laced hen, olive and tan eggs *Sold to me as pure Ameraucana chicks, but as chicks they were partridge-chick-striped, which I know isn't an Ameraucana color, and one doesn't have the cheek fluffs - so Easter Eggers. All of my Silkie Cross chicks are my first year of breeding, for my main program. My goal is to produce a non-bantam silkie feathered black-fleshed chicken that lays blue or green eggs, as an exotic meat / egg bird. This is for my personal interest, though anyone is free to get one from me once I am satisfied with the mix. Since all of my current pullets were sired by a Silkie roo, they all have nice black flesh. My program was majorly interrupted by the death of my Silkie roo recently, and my purchased silkie/amer young roo turned out to be white-fleshed (and I need a black-fleshed roo to keep the color dark) - but it looks like I am obtaining a black Silkie rooster this week, so back to business! Come spring I intend to buy and incubate blue Cream Legbar eggs, to replace my original Easter Egger girls - I look forward to adding in the blue color as opposed to the olive green. I was thinking about breeding for the auto-sexing color from the Legbar, but I decided I'd like a range of colors in my flock. So far, 5 chicks. All black fleshed: One white w/faint blue? lavender? head feathers - she also has very small flecks of red throughout the white Two blue with faint lacing? and black (or very dark blue) head feathers One brown black partridge? with black head and black & white neck feathers One gray-brown partridge? with black head and black & white neck feathers Comments on appropriate color names for the pullets welcome! Now, I had my non-easter egger hens before I decided to do this program. So I am wondering which chicks are from which hens! I imagine my blues are from my (deceased) blue hen (mix listed above). And the partridge-ish looking pullets are from my Easter Eggers. But what produced that white pullet? Maybe the blue-laced red Wy x Amer mix hen? I'm pretty sure my Orpingtons didn't contribute. Now that I am sure I can incubate + raise chicks myself after that small test run, I will be selecting only green eggs from the coop to make sure I'm not hatching a cross that I don't want. I'd sell my Orpingtons, but they are just too sweet to let go, so they stay. P.S. - My white pullet is the same bird as the tiny chick in my avatar pic. My Current Adult Hens: And my First Gen Pullets (plus Marans pullet):
