Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Elliemae1984]

Three out of my 6 incubating eggs hatched this morning! I was shocked that the egg i dropped, cracked and sealed with wax at day 15 was the second to hatch.

Fingers are still crossed for the other 3 (looks like one has a teeny tiny pip).

And mom, dad and “aunty hen” are being perfect with the babies today. So I am REALLY questioning my husbands judgement of “mean” behaviour lol.

 

[CSolis]

Three out of my 6 incubating eggs hatched this morning! I was shocked that the egg i dropped, cracked and sealed with wax at day 15 was the second to hatch.

Fingers are still crossed for the other 3 (looks like one has a teeny tiny pip).

And mom, dad and “aunty hen” are being perfect with the babies today. So I am REALLY questioning my husbands judgement of “mean” behaviour lol.

He may have seen flock behavior in action and took it the wrong way. If the rooster was really hurting the chicks, mom would have exploded on him.

 

[Elliemae1984]

All the babies hatched! And I think I might have a paint

They’re still a little damp this AM so I’ll be adding them to the brooder with my 5 day-olds this evening. Any tips, or should they integrate pretty easily?

 

[CSolis]

All the babies hatched! And I think I might have a paint

They’re still a little damp this AM so I’ll be adding them to the brooder with my 5 day-olds this evening. Any tips, or should they integrate pretty easily?
View attachment 3568803

Get a bigger box, leaving the lamp at one end.. so they can move away from the heat as needed.

 

[Elliemae1984]

Get a bigger box, leaving the lamp at one end.. so they can move away from the heat as needed.

This isn’t the brooder. It was a temp transport box to move from incubator to brooder (until I got called into the office and decided to wait on transfer when I can be home). They’re back in the incubator for now. They have a palace of a brooder waiting for them, with 3 different “temp zones” to choose from lol

 

[CSolis]

Ok, here's an enigma for ya, at least it is for me. I have Top Gun (Splash) with Blue Bonnet (blue with some tan undertones on her underside).. I hatched 6 of the eggs she laid before she went broody. She then hatched 9 more by herself. (The ones she hatched are splash except for 2 blues of varying shades.)
Back to the 6 I hatched. There are 2 blues, 1 splash, and 3 partridge. Two light tan, one is blue with reddish partridge feathers and a white chipmunk streak. I'll add, I know for a fact those eggs came from the pair described as I set them off to the side of the incubator when collected from her nest.

 

[Hinotori]

Ok, here's an enigma for ya, at least it is for me. I have Top Gun (Splash) with Blue Bonnet (blue with some tan undertones on her underside).. I hatched 6 of the eggs she laid before she went broody. She then hatched 9 more by herself. (The ones she hatched are splash except for 2 blues of varying shades.)
Back to the 6 I hatched. There are 2 blues, 1 splash, and 3 partridge. Two light tan, one is blue with reddish partridge feathers and a white chipmunk streak. I'll add, I know for a fact those eggs came from the pair described as I set them off to the side of the incubator when collected from her nest.View attachment 3569331View attachment 3569332View attachment 3569333View attachment 3569334

Side effect of crossing colors is you can get just about anything sometimes as weird things happen. Hidden genes mixing and matching.

Icelandic chickens are a good example of what happens when you just don't care about color and start with many colors.

 

[CSolis]

Side effect of crossing colors is you can get just about anything sometimes as weird things happen. Hidden genes mixing and matching.

Icelandic chickens are a good example of what happens when you just don't care about color and start with many colors.

Well, I haven't been mixing and matching. The chart shows Splash x Blue gives 50/50 splash blue. I don't know TG's background as he came from Alabama Silkies. BB's dad is the calico splash and mom is the Black. That pair gives me 50/50 splash, blue babies.
PP's last hatch is two splash and one blue with a cream colored crest, but they are only days old.
In the other pen, Lancelot (Black with gold trim) has 3 partridge wives. All those babies turned out Black or Partridge of varying shades.

 

[Hinotori]

Well, I haven't been mixing and matching. The chart shows Splash x Blue gives 50/50 splash blue. I don't know TG's background as he came from Alabama Silkies. BB's dad is the calico splash and mom is the Black. That pair gives me 50/50 splash, blue babies.
PP's last hatch is two splash and one blue with a cream colored crest, but they are only days old.
In the other pen, Lancelot (Black with gold trim) has 3 partridge wives. All those babies turned out Black or Partridge of varying shades.

Could be the calico splash. Different people have used different things to get it.

I have an issue with the lavender gene hiding in my partridge. Im not sure which of the 3 sets of partridge I'd gotten was hiding it. I can rule out one of them as she is a very good show breeder. The other two hens, though. Don't know the background. It didn't show up until 5 years of breeding when finally 2 carrying it were bred. Problem was I was doing pen matings so don't know who has it. Only 4 have been produced in the last 7 years. It's half the reason I want a good boy with 2 copies. Then I can test breed.

 

[CSolis]

Could be the calico splash. Different people have used different things to get it.

I have an issue with the lavender gene hiding in my partridge. Im not sure which of the 3 sets of partridge I'd gotten was hiding it. I can rule out one of them as she is a very good show breeder. The other two hens, though. Don't know the background. It didn't show up until 5 years of breeding when finally 2 carrying it were bred. Problem was I was doing pen matings so don't know who has it. Only 4 have been produced in the last 7 years. It's half the reason I want a good boy with 2 copies. Then I can test breed.

You may be on to something there! The one project I was doing to get calico splash involved 2 BBO hens, one of which was an F1 (silver partridge dad x BBO). I got some tri-colored chicks from her, one of which is a calico spash satin. So it takes buff added to splash (or paint) to get there. Hence the light buff babies from that pair.
My project babies: