Silkied Ameraucana Project

[wlhtx]

Will have plenty of extra silkied Lav boys hanging around if it's a girl I will ship you one    

Ha - deal!!!

 

[LBKS]

I was thinking of mostly line breeding with maybe bringing in something to help with egg color...searching for the perfect BLUE egg.

Any guidance/advice?

I second the outcross advice, a lot of the existing SiAms have a lot of shared heritage, so genetic diversity is a priority still, even if fragility isn't quite the problem it used to be. Plus good quality lines might also be your ticket on egg color. I think they are still at a stage where we could easily fall back into an inbreeding depression without continued outcrossing.

I think my average egg color has improved by adding in quality birds to outcross, though I'd still call the average green. Can't speak highly enough of the outcomes of outcrossing, it's slower but nets superior results, IMO.

 

[Gentry1350]

I think there are several breeders out there - experienced and newbie - silently trudging away. I'm one of the silent newbies.

And no advice here, but I'll tell you my plan. I purchased eggs from thespoiledchicken too. (She's wonderful!) Unfortunately, this was the one and only time (so far at least, fingers crossed) that the post office absolutely jacked my delivery. And then we lost power for a whole day halfway through incubation (I'm in east TX and it has basically rained and stormed here for FOUR ENTIRE MONTHS), and anyway I wound up hatching just one chick. But it is the fluffliest, cheekiest, little dot of a lavender baby you ever saw. I do intend to get more eggs from Trish once it stops raining here (please God!), but since my long term plan is to create some lavender wheaten SiAms, I am moving forward by actually praying that my one little lav chick is a boy. (Did I just say that out loud?!? What an odd thing to wish for!) I already have some quality smooth feathered wheaten Ameraucanas that I'm going to breed my lav to, and I can get to lavender wheaten quicker with a lav boy.

I feel some of your pain--I lost 26 eggs during a power outage during an ice storm here in February. We were without power for five days. All of that rain you're getting....that's "ours" and we'd like to have it back. It's been an extremely dry spring here.

Sending you some good chicken "ju-ju"--hoping your chick is a roo!

 

[Gentry1350]

Thank you so much for the responses about where to go with any future breedings. Even though I can't do a hardcore project (with my chicken restrictions) I still want to do my part to correctly move these birds in the direction they need to go.

 

[wlhtx]

I feel some of your pain--I lost 26 eggs during a power outage during an ice storm here in February. We were without power for five days. All of that rain you're getting....that's "ours" and we'd like to have it back. It's been an extremely dry spring here.

Sending you some good chicken "ju-ju"--hoping your chick is a roo!

If I could send you the various small ponds in my yard, or the flowing river in the typically shallow creek out back, or - even better - the 1-2 inches of rain we're predicted to get TODAY, I would. The goofy thing is we experienced a 100 year drought in 2011. And now, just 4 years later, we're having a 100 year record rainfall spring. It's crazy.

And thanks for the ju-ju!!

 

[LBKS]

Alright, I'm going to excuse my weak will with a "for science!" thing here for our project. Every once in a while the "are you sure it's silkied genetics and not fray/etc?" question pops up, and I don't think anyone can find a definitive test breeding to Silkies to point people to. I could have sworn I saw it back in the old thread, but never found it on searching to link folks to. Since I caved and picked up a few Silkies today (tiny eggs for pickling + potential brooders), I'm going to document a test breeding to finally put to rest the Silkie genetics end of things. That way we'll have it on a BYC page to link to when it gets asked again (or maybe, with luck, it'll stop the question for good).

To protect the genetic purity of the SiAm project flock:

• Once the Silkies are old enough to integrate to the flock, I'll stop collecting eggs for hatching from the free rangers (eggs will be marked "F" for food on collection so they don't sneak into the hatching egg sets). My flock is at a state where I really don't need the free rangers' genetic contribution, they serve as a backup and an egg flock. That way until I narrow down to one Silkie male to pen up for the last part of this season, it won't risk contaminating the project eggs being set.
• Only one male Silkie will be kept, penned, for test breeding to SiAm girls. After test breeding he'll be removed from the flock, and the girls will not have their eggs hatched from for at least a month. First hatch will be tested to make sure no Silkie traits are showing up. Better careful than sorry.
• All females will be kept as part of my layers in the free range flock and so won't be a risk factor for genetic crosses. If they sneaky brood while in the free range flock, the offspring will be sold to prevent crosses in the flock. This is a permanent rule.
• All test breeding offspring will be kept for about a week (to determine and record feathering) and then sold to prevent possible mutts from leaking into the project. They'll hatch in a separate incubator and be brooded in a separate brooder. Since my incubators are staggered, they'll be the only chicks hatching in their week of hatch, further reducing the risk of chicks being kept by accident.
• I checked before I brought them home, all Silkie chicks have the black skin, feathered legs, and most all have head poofs. Need to verify again, but pretty sure they are all 5 toed. Several of these traits mean it'll make mutts more obvious so even if something crazy happens they won't contaminate the flock.
• Should my breeders escape (happened before with a coop failure) I'm going to assume worse case scenario and not hatch eggs for a month to be on the safe side. Eggs will be marked F as above in the mean time.

I'm posting this here though so you all can be informed buyers if I post chicks/eggs up for sale - so you know what's up and can decide if the risk of rogue crosses is too much. I'm not going to intentionally muck up our project and will be safeguarding the integrity of my breeding flock from this test breeding. I know we have enough trouble as it is working on this project, I didn't want to add to the confusion if someone saw both kinds of birds in pictures of my flock or brooders from here on out. I ordinarily wouldn't sacrifice a breeding pen for anything but my black SiAm project, but I figured that one pen for a small part of the year was an acceptable trade off to put a question to rest while I made sure I only kept female Silkies as part of my layer flock. I knew I'd end up with a few Silkie boys along the way, so may as well do this while the opportunity presents itself and I wait to cull them out. Anyway, in the interest of full disclosure, wanted you all in the loop.


On the SiAm breeding end of things, last hatch went well and am enjoying a momentary blip of no hatching so I can do some incubator cleanup and prepare for a big week of working on fencing. About to set another round of eggs tonight with the next set due later this week. I'll be moving the oldest chicks to the big barn stall grow out pen this week, though I'm sure they'd prefer to be in a chicken tractor with pasture access.

 

[jkbfarm]

Started with 9 eggs, 3 had no development, 6 made it to lock down, and 3 have hatched! Sadly all 3 are black, I was really hoping for my purple chicken fingers crossed they are silkied at least

I'm giving the other 3 a few more days, but there is no pipping or anything, but today is day 21,so they still have time

 

[Gentry1350]

Started with 9 eggs, 3 had no development, 6 made it to lock down, and 3 have hatched! Sadly all 3 are black, I was really hoping for my purple chicken fingers crossed they are silkied at least

I'm giving the other 3 a few more days, but there is no pipping or anything, but today is day 21,so they still have time

. Here's hoping more hatch!

I'm going into lockdown tomorrow. I tossed 2 clears on Friday, still have twelve left in the BATOR (plus one under Bertha the Broody)

 

[EdenCamp]

Yup there was a silkied cross test done - it was way back in the begining - want to say the first year or so. I THINK it was the same gene with silkies - BUT - the toes, black skin etc all were there. Would take generations to shed with deliberate effort. Not something that would just slip through and not be noticed.

 

[jkbfarm]

. Here's hoping more hatch!

I'm going into lockdown tomorrow. I tossed 2 clears on Friday, still have twelve left in the BATOR (plus one under Bertha the Broody)

Good luck!!!!
The other 3 of mine hatched, so I have 6/6 that went into lockdown, but all 6 are black!!! No lavender but they are still adorable. I will post a pic in the morning when they are dry fingers crossed they are all at least silkied.