Silkie-bantam and Cochin Cross breeds

Kung-Pow Chicken

Chirping
Aug 13, 2020
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Hey there,

I am posting this thread to offer pictures, growing status, or anything else that may be helpful about Silkie-bantam and Cochin cross-bred experiment. Please note, these chicks were not intentional and are my first "cross-breed" so I may lack some specifics other than what I have thus observed.

To start out, their mother is a blue-colored Cochin, whom you can see in the picture below with her six, 3-week-old hatch-lings. The Silkie hen in the picture is most likely their grandmother, whom hatched at least two of their potential fathers. It's difficult to say "who's the daddy" as there was five whom could have sired them, but all the roos were Silkies.

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As far as sexting them, I noticed at 3-weeks, three out of the six were developing their combs and waddles much more noticeably while the other three did not, leading me to predict that three may be roos. Two were most likely confirmed when they began to crow at 6-weeks.

Below is the chicks at 9-weeks, or a little over 2-months-old. They will be 3-months-old the first week of October.

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Only four were willing to be photogenic, but if you notice the "roos" still have a more noticeably developed comb and waddles. Their feathering is predominantly Cochin but all of them have Silkie-colored skin and Silkie-toes! It looks like their going to have the Silkie-comb too. Right now, they're in that funny "bell-bottom stage" (lots of feathers around their toes but not quite over the legs) like my Cochin hens did when they were that age.

So for anyone who is curious about breeding the two, this may offer some insight. Please feel free to contribute any input/pics/ect. in this thread if you have any Silkie-Cochin crossbred chickens. I'll post more pics later when they get a little older.
 
What are the colours of the potential fathers? Is that buff looking chick still buff? Is it possible the blue Cochin didn't lay all the eggs herself? You've got some really cool looking birds there.
 
What are the colours of the potential fathers? Is that buff looking chick still buff? Is it possible the blue Cochin didn't lay all the eggs herself? You've got some really cool looking birds there.

The colors of the potential fathers are 2-black, 1-partridge, 1-pure white, and 1-"ceramic" or off-white coloring (not sure what the appropriate name for this color scheme). Here are pics of 4 of those potentials; the white one was not photogenic.

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The buff-colored chick may be from our one, buff-colored Cochin hen whom would lay eggs all over the yard but would never sit on them (which is funny because she' the flock "bicycle" but never went broody), so absolutely it is probable the blue-Cochin hen may have smuggled some of those eggs into her brood. There were 12 total but I had to dispose 6 of them because they either quit or they were rotting.
 
That makes a lot of sense. The buff chick probably has the Partridge for a father. Possibly the black with leakage as well. Silkie x Cochin crosses come out real nice.
 
That makes a lot of sense. The buff chick probably has the Partridge for a father. Possibly the black with leakage as well. Silkie x Cochin crosses come out real nice.

I agree. Their feathers keep changing weekly with more color variations. I'll post some more pics of their progress in a few more weeks.
 
Well, here's an update on our chicks' progress at three months.
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This is the "buff" hen. I'm hoping in time her leg feathers will fill-in in a few months.

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This is one of our roo's we call File' He's not as photogenic so it's difficult to point out the cream frosting along his black plumage.

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We call this roo Chile and his red-coloring along his black plumage has become more prominent.

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One of our other hens. She takes more after her mother in coloring, but like the other cross-bred hens, the waddles have not grown out.

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This hen is a lighter gray/blue color from the other blue hen, but if you look even closer, she has some faint, partridge striping.

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This is our other roo, Bourbon. He began as a pale-blue chick but his color-texturing has blossomed beautifully. None of them will have the silkie, blue-ears but their skin is definitely silkie-coloring.

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Their size is still that of a silkie-bantam but it's only been three months so we'll see.
 

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