Natural breeding thread

[fluffycrow]

Success!

Mum brought them down today, with a little help from me (the only help I’ve given throughout this process). Mum isn’t looking great, the brooding process was tiring, and she got a bit beat up from the other hens, though she stood her ground. Being a first timer didn’t help, I’m sure.

As I’m typing this, introductions are taking place. 5 hens so far, one of which is one of the seniors.

She has managed to do something I never thought id see; having chicks in the main, free range group. For that reason, she deserves a name, and I have the perfect one for her. Celebrian, as is the name of Galadriel’s daughter in Tolkien’s world. She’s been a fantastic mum so far, and I hope it only gets better from here

 

[Skyeknight]

The chicks of my broody silkie hen hatched a week ago. It was a staggered hatch so there were some difficulties, but all 6 fertile eggs hatched healthy chicks. The silkie is a first time mom and none in my flock have witnessed broodiness or chicks in their adult life.

Sadly the black chick died today, I assume (s)he has been trampled by the mom. It was the oldest and most active chick out of all of them. Potentially it could have been the heat but none of them displayed any signs of heat stress.

The remaining 5 are 1 unknown, 1 rooster and 3 pullets. Except for the unknown one, which is the silkies own biological daughter, they are sexlinked in 2 ways. Males have barring and lack fibromelanosis, while females lack barring and are fibromelanistic. One of the supposed pullets seems to have a faint head spot but is fibromelanistic, guess I will see if the fibro fades and she developes barred feathers or not.

This "coop" is in the chicken run so they can interact with the rest of the flock. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty hot so I will build a mini run for them to go outside.

 

[fluffycrow]

The chicks of my broody silkie hen hatched a week ago. It was a staggered hatch so there were some difficulties, but all 6 fertile eggs hatched healthy chicks. The silkie is a first time mom and none in my flock have witnessed broodiness or chicks in their adult life.

View attachment 4161831

Sadly the black chick died today, I assume (s)he has been trampled by the mom. It was the oldest and most active chick out of all of them. Potentially it could have been the heat but none of them displayed any signs of heat stress.

The remaining 5 are 1 unknown, 1 rooster and 3 pullets. Except for the unknown one, which is the silkies own biological daughter, they are sexlinked in 2 ways. Males have barring and lack fibromelanosis, while females lack barring and are fibromelanistic. One of the supposed pullets seems to have a faint head spot but is fibromelanistic, guess I will see if the fibro fades and she developes barred feathers or not.

This "coop" is in the chicken run so they can interact with the rest of the flock. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty hot so I will build a mini run for them to go outside.

I know nothing about sex linking, but this is very interesting (plus the chicks are gorgeous). Way more than the common RSL. I’d BDutch is ok with a little bit of genetics talk on this thread, could you explain how the fibromelanosis only passed down to the female chicks?

Sorry about the black chick. Hope mum and the others are doing well

 

[BDutch]

I’d BDutch is ok with a little bit of genetics talk on this thread,

I don’t mind if people talk about other interesting topics in this thread as long as it is somehow related to natural breeding. I don’t like it if people talk about incubators, bc there are enough topics about incubating already.
E.g. Making a broody happy with chicks from an incubator because she failed to hatch the eggs, is related. So are characteristics of chicks who were hatched by a broody.

If you like to please me: I very much welcome experiences or questions about flock dynamics with a broody.

 

[fluffycrow]

I don’t mind if people talk about other interesting topics in this thread as long as it is somehow related to natural breeding. I don’t like it if people talk about incubators, bc there are enough topics about incubating already.
E.g. Making a broody happy with chicks from an incubator because she failed to hatch the eggs, is related. So are characteristics of chicks who were hatched by a broody.

If you like to please me: I very much welcome experiences or questions about flock dynamics with a broody.

Thanks for the clarification. I have no questions about flock/group dynamics with a broody, nor experience. What I can do is share yesterday’s observations after the chicks were introduced to the group.

Starting with the roosters, they all showed interest initially, but remained neutral afterwards, with Big Red being the least interested in the chicks. As far as the remaining senior hens go, only one has met them officially (the other has seen them, but hasn’t acknowledged them) and she was completely fine with them eating right next to her, but wouldn’t let any hens approach.

The other hens in the group were very interested in what was going on, as they had never seen chicks before. After the initial shock, they were pretty comfortable around the babies.

What was less positive to witness was two hens (both above mum Celebrian in the hierarchy) pecking the chicks. Not in a disciplinary way, nor a “I want to kill you” way. More so a “is this food” way. Problem is/was that not only did mum not stop them, but both didn’t stop after pecking them once. In fact, one managed to hold one chick in her beak for a second, before dropping it on the ground. Thankfully both lost interest after the chicks ducked under mum

 

[Perris]

Not in a disciplinary way, nor a “I want to kill you” way. More so a “is this food” way. Problem is/was that not only did mum not stop them, but both didn’t stop after pecking them once. In fact, one managed to hold one chick in her beak for a second, before dropping it on the ground. Thankfully both lost interest after the chicks ducked under mum

they're all novices there, and birds explore the world via their beaks. The chicks knew instinctively to run to mum and the hens knew instinctively not to pursue, so all seems normal on my experience. But if blood is drawn accidentally or deliberately you might need to intervene to hide the wound, as blood red attracts a lot of attention, none of it beneficial.

 

[fluffycrow]

they're all novices there, and birds explore the world via their beaks. The chicks knew instinctively to run to mum and the hens knew instinctively not to pursue, so all seems normal on my experience. But if blood is drawn accidentally or deliberately you might need to intervene to hide the wound, as blood red attracts a lot of attention, none of it beneficial.

Thanks for the reassurance; I thought and acted (or rather, didn’t) the same. Figured that I’m not present 24/7, and it was bound to happen again, so I’d rather it happened under my supervision. I did not intervene, and as mention, the others didn’t persue. Today mum is far more active and the rest are far less interested.

Interestingly, this particular batch seems rather rebellious. I have never seen chicks that young disobey their mother so frequently

 

[Skyeknight]

I know nothing about sex linking, but this is very interesting (plus the chicks are gorgeous). Way more than the common RSL. I’d BDutch is ok with a little bit of genetics talk on this thread, could you explain how the fibromelanosis only passed down to the female chicks?

Sorry about the black chick. Hope mum and the others are doing well

I would love to explain what I know about it theoretically!

In this case there are actually 3 genes involved. Fibro is autosomal dominant. So every chicks gets it. But there is another gene which is a dermal inhibitor, this gene is dominant. Dermal inhibitor is also sexlinked as it is on the Z chromosome. The idea is with the father as the fibro bird all the chicks are heterozygous for fibro, while only the males inherit the dermal inhibitor from the mom.

Barring is known to inhibit fibro, which is why barred silkies have leakage often. In this case both my BYM chickens are barred and have white legs, Although I never realised it for the white chicken until recently. Turns out barring is pretty hard to see on white or splash birds. Because barring is also on the Z chromosome only the male offspring will get it.

That's why female chicks show fibro and are not barred. While male chicks carry fibro but it's inhibited by the dermal inhibitor from the mom, and also in this case inherit barring from the mom.

This is also why the only half Silkie chick is not sexlinked as barring was never involved and that chick inherits fibfro from both parents.

I do not know why the Silkie chick is blue, will wait for actual feathers. But three are blue because the mom is splash with barring. While the other one is blue because the mom is blue, but there was a 50% chance of being black.

Hope this fully answers the question!

 

[fluffycrow]

I came home after being out of town for almost two days to mum pretty much on the verge of death. I don’t see her making the night. The chicks are both alive, and I made the decision to let them with mum. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I don’t know why mum is so sick. The only indication while I was here was her pale face and comb (which all previous first timers have had), and the multiple pecks on her face (which did not look illness-induced). It could be something that lives in my birds, but only managed to get a hold of her due to her compromised, broody state.

Apologies for not replying to your post sooner, @Skyeknight , this week has been too much, mainly due to the reason for having to leave home, and now this. I have read it rather hastily, and it all seems very interesting. Will need to read it with a clearer mind, but I’ve already learnt that barring inhibits fibro, which I did not know. Thank you!

 

[Perris]

that's tragic. What will you do with the chicks if she passes?