Backyard Poultry Forum

Love it, reminds me of the Three Little Pigs housing plans (responsible, two-bob each way, and totally chaotic).

I have black bearded Silkies hatching tomorrow hopefully: will try to be wise piggy for a while and gain some control.

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PC

I had forgotten about this thread, maybe the silkie feathering is a bit more common than we thought. My plan has been decided for me, I had all the black silkie girls, the lav silkie feathered ara & the black ckl in together as I was short of pen space. A couple of the girls went clucky so left the eggs with them. What a disaster, eggs everywhere & the silly things going back to the wrong eggs after feeding so have finished up with a couple odd balls out of the ara girl, they are starting to get feathers so it will be interesting.

The boy from the silkie lav Orpie has grown & is a good size, very handsome with his silver neck so I think I will put him to my best black hen. when they are grown up put the offspring from both matting together & they will produce lavender so then the same as the Orpie project, back to the black to improve type & the project goes on. I just wonder then will people go "there are no lavender silkies they are just blues". Will be hard to see that horizontal line in the feather to prove it I think.

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Breed & exh. large buff, black, blue, splash & lavender Orpingtons, black & lavender bantam Orpingtons & columbian Wyandotte bantams.

This is the breeding pen -Silky Araucana Rooster and 3 black Silkie hens.
I was still unsure whether he was Lavender or Blue.
Wondering if he will pass on the beard.

These were the result. Only a small hatch as the best hen went broody. Seems that he is Lavender.

And then adoption day.

An update on my Lavender Silkie project.
The F1's at 16 weeks

The good bits
They have Silkie feathers They are black so carrying Lav (not blue)
They have black skin.
One male and 1 female is bearded

Some of the bits to fix
Long necks
Male combs (shape and colour)
Scraggy feathers (problem with Lav)
General type Ara - Silkie

Got rid of the Lav Silkie feathered Ara father so I wouldn't be tempted to use him again so next season brothers to sisters to get lav; and sons to mums to work on faults.


The Girls

The Boys.

keep at it sue

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Anconas, Silkies and Pekins Caladenia Cottage
Silkies
Wonderful Silkies

They are a couple of steps along the way. I'm really looking forward to seeing some lavenders.

Thanks, the girls are better than the boys. If I find a really nice black male I might use him. Maybe it would be worthwhile using a dominant white male to improve feathering. They pop up sometimes in my flock (might try to set that up).
I'm in kindergarten with genetics. This is a great way to learn without causing any damage to the 'rare breeds'.
Gratefully accepting feed back and advice along the way

Red in comb and wattles = major fault and a problem that seems to be a major problem to eliminate

Thanks I know that will need attention. It came from both one of the mums and from the Silky feathered Aracauna father so it's going to keep appearing for ages.

Sue, you need to mate these F1s together to recover lav in the F2. About a quarter will be lav. You then mate those back to the best pure blacks available.

Because you are back crossing to a pure rather than trying to fix faults in a pure line, I think you'll find removing the faults easier.

I couldn't help myself. The f1 girls were laying so I put them with the better male - ofcourse they stopped laying after 5 eggs. I had to set those eggs - things were going fine until 5 days ago when the broody let them get cold. Put them in the bator and 3 out of 5 have hatched so far.

And one of them is lav

I really really need to source a couple of good quality black silkies (or eggs) for the coming season. Any one have a lead. I have no Silkie contacts.

Another one out and it's

lav

have set up the 'hex' as a brooder, will transfer them later today and maybe float test the last egg.
The broody who let the eggs get cold is back on golf balls - hopefully she just had a glitch and will adopt them.

I know, I know. It didn't happen unless there are pics. I'll start a new thread tonight. Cameras on charge.



btw - I'm eggcited