Chat room for non religious poultry keepers! :D

[MysteryChicken]

An oddball Silkie I hatched recently. It's 1 day from being 2 weeks old.

 

[Lilfufubrahma]

An oddball Silkie I hatched recently. It's 1 day from being 2 weeks old.
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Did you ever decide what you thought about that light skin coloring? I was messing around with the genetics calculator for my own project and I crossed a silkie rooster with a cochin hen (from the breed picker). The results were split for black skin, but the skin was phenotypically light in the males. I wonder if it is sex-linked in some way. I have not done any further research on it.

 

[Lilfufubrahma]

Ah, it was just a thought. Who knows? Either way, an unfortunate loss.




Anyway, how is everyone's weeks going otherwise? I spent most of this week building a nice, big pen for my silkied Cochins so that I can split them up for breeding, and I've got babies hatching today.

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.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

How long have you been breeding your silkie cochins?

Just this year, really! I've had them for years and kinda-sorta tried to breed them when I initially got them back in 2016 and the following years, but this year is my first real effort at properly breeding them with preservation of the variety in mind.

How did your build turn out?

The build turned out just as I'd hoped! It's not necessarily pretty, but I don't fancy myself a professional carpenter by any stretch, so functional and sturdy is good enough for me. I'll have to try to get a good picture of it today to show off, but living in a wooded area that might be easier said than done. Lots of trees in the way and bushes that are starting to leaf up, unfortunately. It's a simple lean-to style structure, about 16 by 7.5 feet, added onto the side of an already existing coop and run.

Edit, here's the finished pen

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The results were split for black skin, but the skin was phenotypically light in the males. I wonder if it is sex-linked in some way. I have not done any further research on it.

Id (the gene that causes light skin) is sexlinked and dominant. Dark-skinned male (id+/id+) crossed to light skinned female (Id/-) makes light skinned cockerels (Id/id+) and dark skinned pullets (id+/-). I think the light skin on that bird is because of it being dominant white (I/I or I/i+), though, because the shanks show dark skin so it must not have Id. I've hatched Silkie mixes that were genetically supposed to have dark skin but looked just like that (light skin with dark shanks) because they also inherited a copy of dominant white.

 

[Lilfufubrahma]

Just this year, really! I've had them for years and kinda-sorta tried to breed them when I initially got them back in 2016 and the following years, but this year is my first real effort at properly breeding them with preservation of the variety in mind.




The build turned out just as I'd hoped! It's not necessarily pretty, but I don't fancy myself a professional carpenter by any stretch, so functional and sturdy is good enough for me. I'll have to try to get a good picture of it today to show off, but living in a wooded area that might be easier said than done. Lots of trees in the way and bushes that are starting to leaf up, unfortunately. It's a simple lean-to style structure, about 16 by 7.5 feet, added onto the side of an already existing coop and run.

Edit, here's the finished pen

Coop/run looks great to me!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aww, thanks! I agree, I'm quite happy with how it turned out, myself!


Since I'm here, the results of my hatch this weekend! All 6 that made it to lock down hatched. Some mighty cute babies, if I do say so myself!

 

[Lilfufubrahma]

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.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aww, cutie! What are you hatching?


I've got more eggs heading to lock down tomorrow so I'll have more babies hatching soon, too!

 

[Lilfufubrahma]

Aww, cutie! What are you hatching?


I've got more eggs heading to lock down tomorrow so I'll have more babies hatching soon, too!

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.