Self Blue (Lavender) Silkie Thread

[Hennypen]

Yep day 18 and then dead.

Of course when I started the vitamins, they went broody so i'm not getting any eggs at all now. Sigh...

 

[Darling Farms]

OK... so I got the calculator back out to average for this year.

We are averaging a 55% fertility rate across the board (lavenders and split black lavenders).

Of those fertile we have a 48% hatch rate.

Like what most people are experiencing about 3/4 of the non-hatcher's die about day 18 from the looks of it.

The rest vary... some quit sooner, some pip, some die at hatch and then always a few are alive a few days later and can't seem to hatch.

We are going to leave our batch due to hatch April 10th in the incubator through hatch to see if moving to hatcher on day 18 has anything to do with it.

We haven't been able to find much research on this exact problem in other breeds of poultry... anyone else have any luck? Vitamins? Inbreeding?

Some breeders may not want to talk about this for whatever reason... we are wanting to be trasparent with our struggles so that we can all learn together and maybe in time find some success!

~Darling Farms

 

[Hennypen]

Quote:
Selenium? I'm going to offer free choice bakers yeast in addition to the vitamins and Rsomething the Chicken Dr. recommended. I'm trying to get them to start laying again. I've got two grouchy girls. One who growls when you look at her, the other bites when you take her off the nest. LOL Such mean little puff balls.

 

[robin416]

My friend and I ran in to the same issues. She got one to hatch and survive, I never got any to. I sold my birds to someone else about six months ago, she just got a single to successfully hatch. And this is a woman who has been raising Silkies for many, many years.

Who knows, maybe the lav gene itself is part of the problem. There are some feather issues with the color as well.

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
My partner is having pretty good luck breeding a lav/split to a lav hen.

This Cockerel looks just the like the Dad that Cheryl has. She has the Dad and I have the son (picture is of the son, and the Dad looks just like this as well). They throw awesome crest, tails and foot feathering!

This is what they are producing with very good hatch rates. "Lavender Cockerel"

 

[redfeather]

Quote:
Wow, SOOO pretty. If I were in your shoes I'd be sticking her with a really nice lav or buff and trying to make more of her! I love how she's kind of buff on the "outside" and between the feathers is more lavender.

You could call her.... a.... "Dusty lavender" or "lemon lavender"

Either way, I just love her.

 

[Darling Farms]

So it seems like a further cross may have better success! Do you know what your partners hatch rates are?

Would anyone be interested in trying a few things and keeping track of your results?

~ Perfecting incubation practices (Distilled water, comparing other colors {still silkies} hatch rate, etc.)
~ Vitamins (General)
~ Vitamins (E and Selenium)
~ WHAT ELSE???

We started last week doing an every other day treat of:
Multivitamin
Calcium
Vitamin E & Selenium

We will keep you guys updated in about six weeks to see if this is improving our hatch rates.

Also, thinking about getting different incubators. Would LOVE to hear what type you all use!

Yesterdays hatch was 75%! We lost two early quitters and one that pipped, zipped and then died. There were two others that were peeping in the shells but sis not pip. We went in and got them out. They were both positioned strangely with their heads right in the middle and never would have been able to get out. They were perfectly fine in every other way. Makes me rethink my new not helping as to get stronger chicks policy!

~Darling Farms

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
I'll have to ask her if she can remember, but I do know that all of the eggs she incubated did hatch. So, she is not having any trouble hatching Lavenders at all.


Her Lavender Hen is from John F. and the Black/Lavender Split Rooster is from Bren. These Roosters do have some coloring in their hackles and wings, but they have really nice large crest, tails and super heavy foot feathering. All of these traits are being thrown to the offspring as well.

On the males, they do have a slight peachy color on the ends of their wings, but it is very faint, and other than that, they are a very nice lavender color. Cheryl has one younger one, and I am thinking it is a pullet. Has even better coloring, a deeper lav color than the boys, with no off coloring in her.

You can not see the foot feathering on the lavender boy in the picture, but it very heavy. I'll see if I can find another pic of his foot feathering.

I use Ultimate Vitmains from Foy's Pigeons and the egg production has increased alot. I am waiting to see if I have any lavender's hatch out. I set 44 eggs and 17 are fertile. Fertility rate isn't great, but my Lav Boy had way too many girls. So, I have taken some away and given them to Cuss Jr. I also have another lavender Rooster that I have in with two black hens, one I know for sure is not carrying a lavender gene and the other I am not sure, she could be. I will know once I start hatching those eggs.

HERES A CLOSE UP OF THE FOOT FEATHERING

HERE'S A CLOSER SHOT OF THE CREST

 

[rilly10]

Beautiful bird Elite!

So far I don't have any babies from my Lav/Porcelain Pen as their first batch since I rearranged birds is in the bator now. I can speak about the lav showgirls though....In that pen I had a Lav showgirl roo over two split lav hens. The fertility in that pen was near 100% and the hatch rate was 100%. I never had one not hatch that was fertile. I DID help a few out if needed though. I don't know how much this helps since there were a lot of genes that could have played a role in this since these were all total outcrosses, two were black splits, plus the sg has NN WAYYYY back in his line.

I don't feed any vitamins, other that polyvisol if needed (sick) and to chicks for the fist week. They all get Purina Flockraiser, with free choice grit, and oyster shell. I do supplement with BOSS, flax seed, and in the winter with scratch (a mixed one, not only corn). I also use ACV in the waterers.

This really does interest me and once I ship out my lav sg roo to his new home, I will have an extra pen. When that happens I will split my Lav trio from my porcelain trio, and I will keep notes on all lav X lav breedings. All three lavs are silkies (no sgs in that pen) and they are all from Lynette in CO (Foothill Feathers).

 

[Elite Silkies]

Thanks Rilly

SonRise Silkies (Cheryl) my partner has the lav boy. She hatched him from the Black/Lav Split Rooster that I got from Bren. I picked up 2 lav babies from Cheryl, so I am anxious to see how they turn out. The 3 that she kept are all really nice so far.

The black one is mine, he is the son to the Rooster Cheryl has over her flock (Bren's line), looks alot like the father. He may even be nicer, both Cheryl and I thought the son looked better than the father at 5 months old. I really liked the father's type, so she decided to give him a try, and he has really thrown some super nice offspring. Sure glad she wanted him. He has really been an asset for both of us.

I'm hoping the son throws all those nice traits to his offspring as well. Hope all that made sense