Help me to pair birds for breeding!

Slothinc

Crowing
5 Years
Apr 15, 2020
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3,354
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Okay who would like to play a pairing game?? This is totally for fun! I have a good idea of who I would like to pair, but would love to hear your thoughts. Here are my 11 current laying girls. Who would you pair each one with?

My goal is to be breeding a “silkied Easter egger” which means I am breeding towards birds that resemble a silkie with fibro skin, small combs (walnut preferred), dark eyes, feathered legs, upright tail, who lay a fun colored egg. For the color of the birds, lavender is preferred, but I also love paint, mottled and a few others. Feather types can be any - silkie, satin, frizzle satin/silkie. Naked necks are welcome.

I will post the hens on this thread and the possible boys on the next.

Hen #1 lavender ameraucana bantam - carries 2 blue egg genes, and 2 lavender genes. The smallest bird I have. She lays a very light blue egg.
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Hen #2 Lemon Cuckoo silkie. My most typey silkie. Large crest but not vaulted. 95% sure she is cuckoo though it is hard to tell because of her coloring. Has light skin, eyes, comb due to cuckoo genes. Should have sex linked babies. Could possibly be useful for getting lavender based blue cream??
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Hen #3 Olive Egger. Cross between blue marans and recessive white silkied EE. Carries recessive white, and non fibro gene. Carries one blue egg gene. Her eggs are light olive. Close to large fowl size.
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Hen #4 Frizzled silkie showgirl. I thought was black but now I think blue. She doesn’t have any green/purple sheen. More of an underlying dull brown. Kind of a bummer because I need black birds. She’s a pure silkie and lays a light cream egg. Because she is frizzled and NN she could have some fun babies.
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Hen #5 Black 1st gen cross of silkie and lav bantam ameraucana. She lays a pretty little blue egg (has one blue egg gene), and carries a lavender gene and the silkie gene as well.
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Hen #6 Frizzled satin laced project silkie hen with black tail. She lays a blue/green egg! Carries 1 blue egg gene. Non vaulted. Her comb and wattles are kind of red.
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Hen #7 Sister to hen 6. This one has a gray tail. She has a vaulted head and darker pigment. But she lays a very light cream egg, no blue egg gene.
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Hen #8 Paint showgirl silkie. She’s 5 years old and has cute babies. However she does carry the non fibro skin gene and recessive white 🤦‍♀️ She’s a pure silkie and lays a tan egg.
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Hen #9 1st generation cross of silkie and lavender ameraucana bantam. The daughter of hen 8. She lays a lovely little green egg and carries one blue egg gene. She is a lightly spotted paint but has autosomal red which makes her look dirty. I *think* the autosomal red may be coming from the lavender bantam ameraucanas because many of the paint offspring I am getting have that. Her comb and eyes are light. She carries lavender and silkie feather genes.
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Hen #10 Gold birchen silkie hen. She’s five years old. She was fully black when she hatched but developed the birchen when she feathered out. She has a nice beard and feathering. But she must be blue based as she has had some blue offspring. She’s a pure silkie and lays an almost white egg.
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Hen#11 Jubilee English Orpington. My largest girl. She lays pretty eggs that look orangey pink because of their bloom. They sometimes have speckles. She carries for lavender. I don’t know if the bantam boys will be able to mate her. But if they can, I’d love to hatch some of her babies.
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Possible boys to pair with. All are 3 months old and still growing out. I have a couple of other presumed boys but not positive on genders yet so I won’t post them until I know for sure.

Roo #1 Paint silkied boy. Has nice toes and pigment. Seems to have some autosomal red coming through which makes him look dirty. He is 3/4 silkie and 1/4 ameraucana bantam. He has 50% chance of carrying lavender and 50% chance of carrying a blue egg gene but I haven’t tested him. More than the 1st generation crosses, he is starting to resemble a silkie. His mom is hen #10 the gold birchen in the post above.
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Roo#2 black 1st generation cross of silkie and lavender banty am. He is the first one to start crowing, and is a little feisty - has no problem trying to spar the smaller hens. He has a pretty sheen to his feathers. He carries one blue egg gene, the silkie gene, and one lavender gene.
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Roo #3 lavender 1st generation cross. He is awesome because he has 2 lav genes, one blue egg gene and a silkie feather gene.
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Roo #4 lavender silkie boy. He will be helpful for giving all of his offspring a lavender gene and a silkie feather gene. But being a pure silkie he does not carry the blue egg gene.
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Roo 1 paired with:
- Hen 2, the roo can help darken up the skin without losing silkied traits.

- Hen 4, this has a good chance of keeping silkies feathers and dark skin, as well as giving you the chance of colored feathers.

- Hen 8, he will help darken up the non-fibro and coukd give pretty egg genetics.



Roo 2 paired with:
- Hen 6, he will help darken skin up
- Hen 7, same reason as with 6.
- Hen 11, good genetics and with him crowing first I feel he would be the most likely to go for this lady.



Roo 3 paired with:
- Hen 3, I feel this mix would result in some very pretty eggs due to both of their egg genetics.

- Hen 10, He will give their offspring good egg genetics to work toward your goal.



Roo 4 paired with:
- Hen 1, they both have lavender gene and he could help get silkied feathers from them.

- Hen 5, both have lavender genetics and you can work back toward silkie traits.

- Hen 9, both have lavender and silkie genetics. Hen will bring good egg genetics.
 
Your chickens are so pretty
Thank you so much - they are kind of just a hodgepodge of a bunch of different kinds/colors right now, but it is kind of fun having a lot of unique chicks. I took this picture yesterday showing all 11 eggs that my hens/pullets lay. I can recognize each egg and who laid it because they are each slightly different from one another!

Welcome to BYC!! It is great to have you here!!
 

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Of course! Also, I am absolutely obsessed with your satin frizzle girls! Some of the prettiest ladies I have seen! 🥰
Thank you!!! They came from hatching eggs from Akers Farm in Florida. They are so sweet. One is broody right now and sitting on eggs. I snagged a picture of her little heart feathers 🪶💕
 

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So I'm new to all this and the breeding is way over my head, but one thing stuck out. You said hens 6 and 7 are sisters, but that 6 carries 1 blue egg gene and 7 has no blue egg gene. How does that work? Are they sisters from different roos?

I'm just starting out and trying to wrap my head around breeding for certain traits.
 

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