What kind of humidity levels did you incubate at? My chicks are big. If enough humidity isn't lost they don't have enough room to maneuver within the egg to hatch. That's why I dry incubate at 25-40%.
Hi Guys!!!! Sorry I have not been posting since taking the winter off
Anyway I'm ready to start hatching my next generation and I am very excited! Finally after many outcrosses and splits to splits I am ready to breed only Silkied to Silkied YAY!!!!
I have 2 gorgeous Silkied Lavender Roos from last Spring that I will be putting over Silkied Black/ split to Lav girls. This will give me 100% Silkied Lavenders and Blacks split to Lavender YIPPEE!!!
Here are a few pics of my Lav boys (Silkied Black Ameraucana roo in the background)
This last pic is a Silkied Lavender Ameraucana and the rear end of my Blue Cuckoo Silkie...not much difference in feathers lol.
My Silkied Ameraucana's have been 100% hearty and I have not lost any! They faired well through our rough winter out with the rest of my birds. I have been very careful with my breeding and have taken the genetics far away from the original weak inbred birds.
Anyway I am just starting to get my group together for breeding and I will do a test hatch in a few weeks. Will have eggs for sale after that
Annnnddd First Silkied chick of the year hatched! Combining CatKai and ChooksChicks lines. 50/50 chance she'll be mauve splash too as dad is choc split.
Once I get my group together and settled I will post a few pics of the Silkied gals. Can't wait for the first chicks this year
And that Black Silkied Ameraucana roo you see in the pics is extra special to me as I believe he may possibly be carrying the smokey gene. Last year I had a couple of blue chicks hatch from pure 100% black to black mating's and as the blue chicks grew they turned black- he was one of them. After some research it seems I may possibly have the rare smokey gene but I need to do some test mating with him to see. From what I understand 1 copy of the gene will show at hatch as blue but you need 2 copies of the gene for the chick to stay blue. This smokey gene is different from BBS so I'm curios to see what happens. Considering these birds spontaneously had the Silkied feather mutation happen I suppose it wouldn't be impossible for a color mutation to have occurred as well...
Saaaaweeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!! Good looking flock there!
Just put 12 in lock down from 4 different pens! Just 1 from the all mauve silkied split pen but one can hope....So it's another silkied weekend! Whoot!