Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

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What a cutie!!!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

What's everyone been up to ou there?
Missin yall posting them babies!
Struggling with what to do, who to keep, goal or hobby, etc.
The babies are almost a month old and got several coming tomorrow to take some home. I'm only keeping 3 (Bluey, Daisy, and unnamed). Jackie Chan may have found his forever home! But that leaves lil Gracie all alone and they are inseparable! So really concerned bout her!!!
How do yall know which way to go regarding your babies? I'm definitely in it as a hobby and not for shows. I enjoy the lil babies but getting less attached to each hatch I think. But on the other hand it is much easier to integrate the lils if you keep it going! The older babies just go with the flow!!! (I'm guessing they are thinking - ut oh here she goes again!)

 

[chickengr]

I have to wait for the juveniles to grow a bit to see if I have girls or boys. one blue definitely is a boy - keeper. I need early developers, it is frustrating not to be able to sex young chicks. I might have more boys in my older group. they all have parallel lines with spikes so that was not accurate.

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

We had 3 unexpected but definitely welcome new members to the flock this past week! One of the girls went broody, surprisingly my black sex link, and she had been sitting on these eggs for over three weeks. I had started to think that none were going to make it at that point, but then one morning there was a little chick under momma hen! I went ahead and brought it in to the brooder because there is way to much traffic through the nest boxes for her to safely raise them. So that left two more eggs under her. Many days later, I go out there and I hear chirping inside one of the eggs so I knew it was going to hatch that day. I had been checking on it throughout the day but when I did, the egg looked like it had been stepped on by another chicken and the chick had started to pip! I quickly but carefully took it inside, turned on the incubator, and set it in. Because the egg was mostly crushed, I thought it was best in the moment to do an emergency removal of the chick from the egg. I was afraid it might not have made it the way it was. So that's two chicks! Then I went ahead and stuck the other egg in there to hatch itself and it hatched yesterday. There dad is a grey silkie and there's no telling who the real mommas are! Here's some pics of the new additions!

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

We had 3 unexpected but definitely welcome new members to the flock this past week! One of the girls went broody, surprisingly my black sex link, and she had been sitting on these eggs for over three weeks. I had started to think that none were going to make it at that point, but then one morning there was a little chick under momma hen! I went ahead and brought it in to the brooder because there is way to much traffic through the nest boxes for her to safely raise them. So that left two more eggs under her. Many days later, I go out there and I hear chirping inside one of the eggs so I knew it was going to hatch that day. I had been checking on it throughout the day but when I did, the egg looked like it had been stepped on by another chicken and the chick had started to pip! I quickly but carefully took it inside, turned on the incubator, and set it in. Because the egg was mostly crushed, I thought it was best in the moment to do an emergency removal of the chick from the egg. I was afraid it might not have made it the way it was. So that's two chicks! Then I went ahead and stuck the other egg in there to hatch itself and it hatched yesterday. There dad is a grey silkie and there's no telling who the real mommas are! Here's some pics of the new additions!

Wow! Congrats on your new additions!

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

I sold eggs for the first time yesterday, 12 for $40 (au). I hope they are fertile! I'm a bit nervous how they will go! Since it's nearly Winter here I don't expect fertility to be very high but I have seen Biscuit on the hens so there is hope. I said I can't guarantee fertility or hatch so I hope that covers me!

 

[chickengr]

I have got another rare black meat breed: lakedanzi/laceedanji/lucedanji/ukheilyuy - that's how they call them. they look somewhat like ayam chemani, roos can be 1,8 kg, hens 1,2-1,4 kg and they lay green eggs (45 - 50 gr). they are supposed to lay 160-180 eggs per year. at my friend's farm in north greece they are the only breed that lay all year around! 2 little girls stuck with silkie juveniles for the night and the boy went to the meat chicks.

here is a link I found: https://en.blabto.com/6915-lakedanzi-breed-of-chickens-description-content-phot.html

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

What's everyone been up to ou there?
Missin yall posting them babies!
Struggling with what to do, who to keep, goal or hobby, etc.
The babies are almost a month old and got several coming tomorrow to take some home. I'm only keeping 3 (Bluey, Daisy, and unnamed). Jackie Chan may have found his forever home! But that leaves lil Gracie all alone and they are inseparable! So really concerned bout her!!!
How do yall know which way to go regarding your babies? I'm definitely in it as a hobby and not for shows. I enjoy the lil babies but getting less attached to each hatch I think. But on the other hand it is much easier to integrate the lils if you keep it going! The older babies just go with the flow!!! (I'm guessing they are thinking - ut oh here she goes again!)

Today was sunny! here's some pics of some fluffies today mostly Puff and her 8 chicks .. the others were under the fig tree or in the coop

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Today was sunny! here's some pics of some fluffies today mostly Puff and her 8 chicks .. the others were under the fig tree or in the coop
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Such cuties!!!

 

[LynnaePB]

What's everyone been up to ou there?
Missin yall posting them babies!
Struggling with what to do, who to keep, goal or hobby, etc.
The babies are almost a month old and got several coming tomorrow to take some home. I'm only keeping 3 (Bluey, Daisy, and unnamed). Jackie Chan may have found his forever home! But that leaves lil Gracie all alone and they are inseparable! So really concerned bout her!!!
How do yall know which way to go regarding your babies? I'm definitely in it as a hobby and not for shows. I enjoy the lil babies but getting less attached to each hatch I think. But on the other hand it is much easier to integrate the lils if you keep it going! The older babies just go with the flow!!! (I'm guessing they are thinking - ut oh here she goes again!)

That's always a tough one.

I decided early on I wanted to really work on goals and bettering the quality of my flock. It's definitely more work and the cost of raising more grow outs gets expensive. I think having a small flock and hatching and growing out a few babies here and there is a lot easier (plus you have more of a relationship with each flock member). I love it when I make progress and see my pairings working out well though. My main goal isn't really showing although I may get there eventually. I guess mostly I have color projects and a vision of what I'm hoping to achieve for each. I love learning about color genetics and applying what I know to help with my goals too. I think the biggest downside is trying to find homes for all the ones that don't end up making the cut. With a larger breeding operation it seems like you may have to get comfortable culling the boys that don't find homes easily. I've really struggled with that aspect.

Anyway here are some current pictures of some of the little ones I'm excited about. Excuse the dusty floor, the chicks make so much dust I can't keep up with it even dusting everyday.

The little mottled with more white to him (or her). Single combed but a cutie, I can't wait to see that little black and white crest when it comes in more!

The little mille fleur splits are old enough I can sex them now (I love how easy it is since they are satins)! Looks like two boys and two girls which is perfect. I'm thinking I'll pair the light girl with the darker boy and the light boy with the darker girl when they are old enough to breed.

The girls

The boys

Then I'm still exciting about this little frizzle girl, I can't wait until she starts laying and I can try to get some frizzle babies from her.

This little paint girl is definitely the best spotted I've bred so far. She's got some khaki leakage in her hackles so may go into one of my color projects rather than with the paints but we'll see.

And lastly one of my promising cockerels from my grow outs. He's got a lot of silver leakage but as I've been having a hard time with khaki leakage in my paint boys and paint breeders have had some good results with silver leaking blacks over their paints I'm going to give it a try and see if it helps any with the khaki leakage. I've got another boy similar to him to choose from but that one wasn't cooperating for a picture.

We had 3 unexpected but definitely welcome new members to the flock this past week! One of the girls went broody, surprisingly my black sex link, and she had been sitting on these eggs for over three weeks. I had started to think that none were going to make it at that point, but then one morning there was a little chick under momma hen! I went ahead and brought it in to the brooder because there is way to much traffic through the nest boxes for her to safely raise them. So that left two more eggs under her. Many days later, I go out there and I hear chirping inside one of the eggs so I knew it was going to hatch that day. I had been checking on it throughout the day but when I did, the egg looked like it had been stepped on by another chicken and the chick had started to pip! I quickly but carefully took it inside, turned on the incubator, and set it in. Because the egg was mostly crushed, I thought it was best in the moment to do an emergency removal of the chick from the egg. I was afraid it might not have made it the way it was. So that's two chicks! Then I went ahead and stuck the other egg in there to hatch itself and it hatched yesterday. There dad is a grey silkie and there's no telling who the real mommas are! Here's some pics of the new additions!

Aww such cuties! I'm glad things ended up working out for the little one's with your help.

I sold eggs for the first time yesterday, 12 for $40 (au). I hope they are fertile! I'm a bit nervous how they will go! Since it's nearly Winter here I don't expect fertility to be very high but I have seen Biscuit on the hens so there is hope. I said I can't guarantee fertility or hatch so I hope that covers me!

Oh that is exciting! I hope they get a good hatch too!

Today was sunny! here's some pics of some fluffies today mostly Puff and her 8 chicks .. the others were under the fig tree or in the coop
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Aww the babies are getting so big (and they are all so pretty too)!