We have a very strange update… so F1’s are hatching but the results of my silkie cross Cochin are not what I was expecting. Here is a pic of the rooster and a pic of the hen. Later I will post a pic of the chick/s. Any guesses what their chicks should look like? (The photo of the hen is not mine...
I think it’s a gene but I can’t find any studies on it or even just people posting. Could be the search parameters though because as soon as you put the word blue next to the word earlobe all you get is egg color stuff related to earlobe color.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://karger.com/cpb/article/46/5/1768/74306/Genome-Wide-Association-Study-and-Transcriptome&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwiwmrisuOWDAxVVOUQIHdaxAmQQFnoECDkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1hsKqy_bXRX1NzIDpM8Tx7
This study fully supports your hypothesis about thickness of skin and rejects...
Just starting to hatch F1 chicks (batch 1 was not labeled and batches 2 and 3 got put in the incubator 12/29/2023 all labeled and sorted)
F1 crosses are:
Cochin cross Americana
Silkie cross Cochin
Silkie cross Rudd Ranger
Whiting True Blue cross silkie
Whiting True Blue cross Cochin
Whiting True...
I am finally hatching F1’s for my giant silkie line. I may take the Brahma out but I haven’t decided. My Brahmas just aren’t that big but the Cochin line I’m using is massive. Have you needed to artificially inseminate? At the moment I have a silkie rooster with Cochin hens but I might look into...
I’m starting a giant silkie project but I’m still waiting on my parent generation to mature so I can start. I will probably have F1 hatching in spring (not for sale or anything) I’m excited! Do you have pictures?
The first generation will be split for hh (the silkie feather gene), so the second generation will be bred back to pure silkie 50% of the offspring have hh homozygous for the recessive silkie gene. It’s going to take 7 generations and a lot of barnyard mixes sold to neighbors, but that’s part of...
Feel free to share your chick pics! I’m excited about the project. I have 1 breed left to get and my birds need to mature. I should start be ready to start hatching F1 in fall!
Most of what I have hatching right now is just barnyard mix because this is my first year with an incubator, but I did buy some Cochin hatching eggs that are in there too. That solid black chick is a cross between a white Silkie rooster and a Brahma jersey giant cross.
My end goals for this project:
-white Silkie feathers, no pattern
-black skin, blue ears
-eight to eleven pounds at maturity
-big round puff ball tail
-balanced/upright stance
-walnut comb, plumb or black
-20 to 30 inches tall
-hens lay blue eggs
The birds I’m using to get this result...
I’ve got chicks hatching and I made a lot of progress on how I want my whole run area to look. I didn’t take pictures of the run, I’ll have to another day.
It's been a pretty mellow week here. How long have you been breeding your silkie cochins? How did your build turn out? I'm working on finishing a larger run for all my chickens but by next year I will also need to have breeding pens.