At long last the first egg hatched from my F2 Self Blue pens. It has been a journey. I have two pens with trios. They all have the same sire. My Catdance bred Paint
male Dapper Dan. Lavender (Self Blue) pen B is headed up with Mr. Dreamy. He has pretty even color and a small dark comb. His feet are ok but his beard and muffs are great. His tail and wings could be better. I put him with his sisters. A dark splash pullet and a dark blue or split pullet. They excel where he is less.
The first chick is beautiful. Large vault and nearly perfect feet.
Incubator has six more eggs due from Mr. Dreamy and his girls. I hope for more like this one.
I love each baby hatched. The love grows more and more as I watch them grow up and then contribute to the flock.
The mamma that produced the chicks from pen A has been retired to the hen pen. Another dozen of her eggs were put into the incubator yesterday. She never went broody for me.
The hen pen is watched over by my white roo "Littlefoot". He is very young and doesn't harass the hens much. They tend to boss him around. The White, Paint, and Self Blue pens are all on vacation now. Today was a sunny day for them in the grass.
The hen pen has "Little Foot" on guard duty.
#34 Blue pullet retired to the hen pen for the rest of the season.
I love each baby hatched. The love grows more and more as I watch them grow up and then contribute to the flock.
The mamma that produced the chicks from pen A has been retired to the hen pen. Another dozen of her eggs were put into the incubator yesterday. She never went broody for me.
The hen pen is watched over by my white roo "Littlefoot". He is very young and doesn't harass the hens much. They tend to boss him around. The White, Paint, and Self Blue pens are all on vacation now. Today was a sunny day for them in the grass.
The hen pen has "Little Foot" on guard duty.
#34 Blue pullet retired to the hen pen for the rest of the season.
They are all GORGEOUS....Do you keep them all? I know I would want too...lol...And how did you start with the self blueing? I have some silkies coming and not sure what I m getting yet...Most places have never heard of a lavender silkie and has been a bit rude about it...So I thought eventually I may try my hand at hatching some lavender silkies...I'm pretty new (a month in) with chickens and ducks...Just enjoying my babies for now and eventually get eggs and hopefully LOTS of pets....
I keep all chicks until 4 to 6 months of age. I keep males longer if I think they may contribute to my program. It takes a full year for them to fill out. I sell extra females if they have nothing to contribute. I started the current flock in 2012 hatching a dozen white silkie eggs by Sheryl Butler and a dozen mixed colors from Karen Larson Catdance Farm. I have two Self Blue males. And a Catdance Paint. The Paints offspring are sometimes split to lavender.
I love silkies and hatch around fifty chicks each year. I keep around ten birds per color variety. I have three project pens going this year. A project is a variety not yet recognized by the SOP..Standard of Perfection. My flock has been closed for two and three years. That means I haven't bought a new bird or hatched any outside eggs in that amount of time.
Enjoy your silkies no matter what the variety. I started out with hatchery silkies in 1990. A lot has changed since then but I still love them the same.
I keep all chicks until 4 to 6 months of age. I keep males longer if I think they may contribute to my program. It takes a full year for them to fill out. I sell extra females if they have nothing to contribute. I started the current flock in 2012 hatching a dozen white silkie eggs by Sheryl Butler and a dozen mixed colors from Karen Larson Catdance Farm. I have two Self Blue males. And a Catdance Paint. The Paints offspring are sometimes split to lavender.
I love silkies and hatch around fifty chicks each year. I keep around ten birds per color variety. I have three project pens going this year. A project is a variety not yet recognized by the SOP..Standard of Perfection. My flock has been closed for two and three years. That means I haven't bought a new bird or hatched any outside eggs in that amount of time.
Enjoy your silkies no matter what the variety. I started out with hatchery silkies in 1990. A lot has changed since then but I still love them the same.
That is AWESOME...I plan on enjoying my babies when I get them...I've wanted a silkie for years, just lived in town too long...Now we're on 200 acres and I waited til we've been here for 2 years before getting any animals (besides dogs and cats, ) I couldn't BELIEVE people dumping their cats here...Anyway, I just enjoy looking at them and hoping some of them (13 are coming so should get 1 or 2 at least that LOVE me right?) will be my little follower babies....I'm having my husband build the silkies their own coop, he just doesn't know it yet..lol...I really love your pictures tho, so please keep them coming..
Your chicks look just like my chicks that are Lav X Blue. Even those little pink tipped toes. When a self blue chick hatches, they are very apparent because they are so pale. The split chicks are dark with blue highlights. The thing is, my chicks can all be traced to my Paint male. He carries a lav gene. I get 50% dark blue marked chicks. It isn't until I test breed them back to lavender that I can uncover the gene.
They are a week old now.
These are Self Blue, Blue split to lav, and Blue Cream.
This is a Self Blue chick. The wing feathers are coming in self blue.
