The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[RedRidge]

OK... a group of ordered some production chicks months ago.
I have something I didn't order...
Can someone tell me what breed and sex it is... it is 13 weeks old.
I have theories... but want to hear from the experts...

 

[RedRidge]

And this one is also 13 weeks old... obviously a buff brahma...
Sex?

 

[aoxa]

OK... a group of ordered some production chicks months ago.
I have something I didn't order...
Can someone tell me what breed and sex it is... it is 13 weeks old.
I have theories... but want to hear from the experts...

Bantam Cochin

Looks like a boy, but may not be.

 

[fowlmouthgirls]

Bantam Cochin

Looks like a boy, but may not be. 

X2

 

[Mumsy]

Oh no

Did I mention that one of your girls you gave me MAY be a boy? I think she is a he.. Seems like pointy saddle feathers are coming in. Comb is still very small. :/

Don't candle anymore Mumsy. These high quality ones do not take well to candling. I've had 100% fertility and still ended up with 50% hatched. I still can't figure out why, but candling less seems to help them get to term.

I had nearly 100% hatch of my original Catdance eggs that made it to lockdown. I candled three times total. I don't have as many issues with Silkie eggs now that I'm using the Genesis 1588. Judy the Broody is also sitting on six White Catdance eggs. Of those dozen chicks that hatched, I still have eleven. They are all quality and some have vaulted skulls. Vaulted skulls or not, I consider every single one of them breeder/show quality. Not one of them has a disqualifying defect or really poor coloring or feathering. The Sheryl Butler chicks were hatched in my old LG. That gave me a very poor hatch over all but the four I have are outstanding in type, disposition, and feather quality. I got one male and three females from that strain. Of my sixteen silkies, there are no pet quality among them. The only thing I really need to work on them with is keeping hard feathers out of the tail. Something that is easy to set up to breed out in trio pens. I have two White unrelated Catdance cockerels and the one Sheryl Butler male. I can be breeding high quality White Silkies for quite a long time before adding fresh blood. I already know fertility with these strains is top notch in my barn.

edited to add: I hand turn all the eggs four times a day.

Oh....Justine and Trav....I love love love the silkie pictures. I've got Silkie on the brain today. Hah!

 

[aoxa]

I had nearly 100% hatch of my original Catdance eggs that made it to lockdown. I candled three times total. I don't have as many issues with Silkie eggs now that I'm using the Genesis 1588. Judy the Broody is also sitting on six White Catdance eggs. Of those dozen chicks that hatched, I still have eleven. They are all quality and some have vaulted skulls. Vaulted skulls or not, I consider every single one of them breeder/show quality. Not one of them has a disqualifying defect or really poor coloring or feathering. The Sheryl Butler chicks were hatched in my old LG. That gave me a very poor hatch over all but the four I have are outstanding in type, disposition, and feather quality. I got one male and three females from that strain. Of my sixteen silkies, there are no pet quality among them. The only thing I really need to work on them with is keeping hard feathers out of the tail. Something that is easy to set up to breed out in trio pens. I have two White unrelated Catdance cockerels and the one Sheryl Butler male. I can be breeding high quality White Silkies for quite a long time before adding fresh blood. I already know fertility with these strains is top notch in my barn.

edited to add: I hand turn all the eggs four times a day.

Oh....Justine and Trav....I love love love the silkie pictures. I've got Silkie on the brain today. Hah!

I wonder if hand turning makes a difference?

 

[delisha]

Quote: Me too..but I am sticking to white (I do have one porcelain and not really sure of her quality. She looks so tiny).

Quote:

Quote: I am looking forward to trying out the genesses on silkie eggs. It has to be so much better then my LG ever was.

 

[aoxa]

Me too..but I am sticking to white (I do have one porcelain and not really sure of her quality. She looks so tiny).

Quote:
I am looking forward to trying out the genesses on silkie eggs. It has to be so much better then my LG ever was.

Once the eggs made it to lockdown (internal pip) they hatched with almost 100% as well. It was getting them to lockdown that was tough.

 

[chooks4life]

@Aoxa:

I don't find they look anywhere close to the same.

If you check out http://www.freewebs.com/silkieclubofaustralia/apps/photos/ - you will see the silkie type in Australia is much different than that in the USA: http://www.americansilkiebantamclub.org (just watch the slideshow).

Not saying yours have any less of a value than ours.

I know, I was the one saying I find the purebreds in my area to be disappointing on average. I sound too condemning of aussie breeders; I'm aware of some people who are very careful and intelligent about it, it's just my experiences in general in this 'shire' so to speak have been negative overall. But while I've lived all over Australia I've not kept chooks from everywhere so I'm sure there are great ones elsewhere.

But regarding the silkies I see belonging to show breeders, (and disregarding those websites), I find them to look basically identical. I've not actually seen silkies like the ones on those sites, lol! Some of them don't look right at all. I spotted a few who would be definitely culled by the breeders I've known.

The show breeders I know have birds that are almost impossible to tell apart from the american ones you guys keep posting pics of. None of the folks I know use those sites you quoted Aoxa, but they do show their birds and win awards for them, and sell their purebreds for high prices. Not sure how that works. I do know there's a fair bit of a schism between the different standards, some people go with the older ones, some with the newer, some like a different country's standards more than their own, some go for the international breed standard which is supposed to be the definitive one, the standard to end all standards... lol... But it's still not.

The show breeders in general (who still win awards, somehow) seem to run by different standards to some show organizations. And plenty of official breed websites get paid absolutely no heed by either lot. I'm a member of a few official breed websites that are effectively dead in the water due to the amount of people who don't bother with them. One day these sites may be more popular, but until then, they're pretty small, exclusive groups. A lot of these sites cite standards and report on shows, yet somehow there's a bigger group that doesn't adhere to those standards nor attend those shows, which is relevant despite that, since they still win awards and sell breeding stock.

Note: I wasn't a show breeder, and I don't have purebred silkies anymore, I rehomed them; I only keep mongrels at this point. While I've read through breed standards a few times, I'm not overly interested in purebreds.

When you do that without quoting the original post, it is hard to see who you are replying to without deleting each part and continuously copying and pasting.

I don't really understand what you mean there, sorry, lol! I kinda just expect everyone remembers what they've said and reads every post from everyone else. Maybe that's not wise.

Does it matter so much who you're replying to, or does who you're replying to change your reply or your opinion on the subject matter at hand? I reckoned it didn't matter so much, since it was a general discussion, so the issue is the important part, not the identity of the person who made the point being discussed. Not trying to be snarky or anything, I'm genuinely confused about this point.

One thing people do on other forums is the old '@' preface; like I did above, at the top of the page: '@aoxa'. That solves a fair bit of repeating. If repeating it is easier for you, obviously that's fine, whatever works for you. If you quote anything I say, I'll find it, know it's mine, and respond, so there's no need to quote to include my alias to get my attention since I read everyone's post in full. But whatever works for you.

But, on the topic of repeating photos and quoted text, some people seem to think all photo posting is utterly condemned, but I think everyone finds the photos relevant. It's just wading through the many, many repeats that people objected to. For the record, I don't mind if people say stuff like 'Cute' or whatever, either. We don't all have to confine our reactions and interactions to stereotypical or conventional ones.

 

[aoxa]

@Aoxa:
I know, I was the one saying I find the purebreds in my area to be disappointing on average. I sound too condemning of aussie breeders; I'm aware of some people who are very careful and intelligent about it, it's just my experiences in general in this 'shire' so to speak have been negative overall. But while I've lived all over Australia I've not kept chooks from everywhere so I'm sure there are great ones elsewhere.

But regarding the silkies I see belonging to show breeders, (and disregarding those websites), I find them to look basically identical. I've not actually seen silkies like the ones on those sites, lol! Some of them don't look right at all. I spotted a few who would be definitely culled by the breeders I've known.

The show breeders I know have birds that are almost impossible to tell apart from the american ones you guys keep posting pics of. None of the folks I know use those sites you quoted Aoxa, but they do show their birds and win awards for them, and sell their purebreds for high prices. Not sure how that works. I do know there's a fair bit of a schism between the different standards, some people go with the older ones, some with the newer, some like a different country's standards more than their own, some go for the international breed standard which is supposed to be the definitive one, the standard to end all standards... lol... But it's still not.

The show breeders in general (who still win awards, somehow) seem to run by different standards to some show organizations. And plenty of official breed websites get paid absolutely no heed by either lot. I'm a member of a few official breed websites that are effectively dead in the water due to the amount of people who don't bother with them. One day these sites may be more popular, but until then, they're pretty small, exclusive groups. A lot of these sites cite standards and report on shows, yet somehow there's a bigger group that doesn't adhere to those standards nor attend those shows, which is relevant despite that, since they still win awards and sell breeding stock.

Note: I wasn't a show breeder, and I don't have purebred silkies anymore, I rehomed them; I only keep mongrels at this point. While I've read through breed standards a few times, I'm not overly interested in purebreds.

The websites I listed for the Australian one was the Silkie Club of Australia. The one I listed for America was the American Silkie Bantam Association. Both show sites. Standard on both sites, as well as pictures of the winners.

I won't get into this anymore here.

Does it matter so much who you're replying to, or does who you're replying to change your reply or your opinion on the subject matter at hand? I reckoned it didn't matter so much, since it was a general discussion, so the issue is the important part, not the identity of the person who made the point being discussed. Not trying to be snarky or anything, I'm genuinely confused about this point.

One thing people do on other forums is the old '@' preface; like I did above, at the top of the page: '@aoxa'. That solves a fair bit of repeating. If repeating it is easier for you, obviously that's fine, whatever works for you. If you quote anything I say, I'll find it, know it's mine, and respond, so there's no need to quote to include my alias to get my attention since I read everyone's post in full. But whatever works for you.

But, on the topic of repeating photos and quoted text, some people seem to think all photo posting is utterly condemned, but I think everyone finds the photos relevant. It's just wading through the many, many repeats that people objected to. For the record, I don't mind if people say stuff like 'Cute' or whatever, either. We don't all have to confine our reactions and interactions to stereotypical or conventional ones.

When you do a lot of posts with a lot of different people it does get lose amongst the shuffle. I noticed you replied to Camille yesterday, and she didn't get it because you had been quoting a lot of people. When you write your long posts, I really have to look to see if you responded to something I said. It would be easier if you had original quote by aoxa above for example. It is easier to find where you have spoken.

You're saying it's easier for you to read posts if I delete everything besides what I am replying to. I am telling you, it is easier for me to read your posts if you quote the person you are replying to.

Sometimes people just want to skim past what doesn't pertain to them is all.