Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

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I tend to have several documents named the same thing and then I never remember to go back and rename them

Oh, goodness, yes! I'm terrible about this with my pictures in particular! It's truly amazing how often I have the exact same brilliant idea of what to name a completely different picture

 

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Birds are moved, mostly anyway. I still need to do some rearranging for the corner coop, but I should have them set up by tomorrow. One of the green bander pullets is acting a bit iffy after the move, so I'm keeping a close eye on her, but everyone else seems to be adjusting just fine.

My first batch from the blue coop goes into lock down tomorrow, due to hatch this weekend. I most likely will start collecting eggs from the blue coop again next week to really start hatching for the year. They have only been exposed to Wyatt, so I don't have to worry about clearing them out at least. I haven't actually seen any of the pullets for the other coops breeding while in the mixed flock, but I can't be certain because there are other roosters in that flock, so I've got to give them at least a couple weeks to be safe before collecting eggs from them to hatch.

 

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My first hatch of the year is done! Looks like 2 Splash, 1 or 2 Black, and the rest Blue.

These three are out of Wyatt over my picks for the blue pen, so keepers to grow out:

As I think I mentioned a few pages back, the rest of the chicks are from eggs I set out of cull girls covered by Wyatt. I wasn't sure how well fertility would be in general, so I put extras in just to lower my odds of having a lonely only hatch, and, well, most of what I set ended up hatching.

Out of the 'cull' chicks, I did get this interesting little weirdo. She looks like the birchen/partridge-based chicks, but much lighter, and with deeper slate legs than I'm accustomed to seeing on these guys. I keep pencils in my breeder coops and mark eggs as I collect them, so there's pretty much no way that it could be an egg mix-up... But it still has me wondering. I may just have to hang onto this little one and see how she feathers in.

 

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Some happy peeps, bobbles, and flaps from the newbies' breakfast rush this morning

 

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Since it's been so muddy and rainy, it's taken me to this morning, finally a day supposed to be without rain, to get Bella integrated with the two pullet picks for the corner coop. I just didn't want anyone bullied into standing out in the rain or something. They seem to be getting along well so far, though to my surprise Bella is more shy of the pullets than the pullets are of her!

We've got at least less rain in the forecast for the next week or so, so I'm hoping that dries things up a bit before I move the boys into the green and red pens. With all the mud out there, I just don't want to see my girls getting all muddied up by being tread by the boys. They're already doing a pretty thorough job of muddying themselves up without that help.

I did opt to postpone my next hatch another week, mainly because I still have the rest of the cull birds from last year to sell off, so I'm scrambling a bit for space. I'll start collecting eggs from the blue pen next week and probably set the next batch on the 14th.

 

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Quick check in with the peeps They already look so much bigger than just a few days ago!!

 

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A brief peep update at about a week and a half old! Here are the peeps for keeps:

And the peeps out of the cull hens:

 

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Just to keep things updated here as well, I've set 12 more eggs from Wyatt's pen due May 5.


Also, here's a quick pic of the brooder babes from yesterday. They're starting to get their little pantaloons in now

 

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Phew, I have not been keeping up here at all this year, have I?


Some quick notes:

Of the 12 eggs I mentioned in my last post from Wyatt's pen, 5 were clears. 7 are still going strong. Not sure why fertility is so low still in that pen

The following Sunday (one week ago today) I set 16 eggs from Buck's group, the Flower Girls pen. As of today, 11 were clears and 5 are developing. I think this is because I introduced Buck to those girls only a week or two before I started gathering eggs. Hopefully fertility is better in the next batch from that pen!

Today, I've set the first batch of 12 eggs from Gus III's girls in the corner coop. He's had a bit more time than Buck to woo his girls, so I'm hoping to see plenty of fertility there.

Depending on how many develop in the corner coop eggs, I may or may not skip setting next week and the week after for brooder space.


As for the Easter batch, well... Of the three keeper chicks, the two Splashes are cockerels and the Blue is a pullet. And out of the remaining 6 chicks I hatched out of the cull hens, it's looking like 4 cockerels and 2 pullets. Not off to a great start on the sex ratio this year I just listed the cockerels for sale, but I'm going to hold onto the pullets, mainly because the one is a lovely light blue color. Hoping she doesn't have many if any glaring flaws so she might be able to be incorporated back into the program despite her heritage.

 

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I have girls going broody left and right here, so I've gone ahead and set eggs under a couple of them today. Both are meant to be non-keeper girls, but if they're halfways decent broodies then I suppose they could stick around... Anyway, we have the unnamed Splash girl, who I set 6 eggs from the flower girls under:

And the second is a Blue girl with 6 eggs from Wyatt's pen under her:

Delphine in the flower girls coop is also broody, so I may set under her in a couple days as well. Might as well put them to use if they want to set, right?