Fuzzies!

robin416 said:

The chocolate coloring is stunning. I think that's the first time I really got to see it.

I keep scrolling back and forth on which ones I like but that's not fair because not all of them are posing where they're type really shows. Although I can't resist saying Blue 3 is top of my list.

And chocolate 1. But the blacks are not really posing well enough for me to choose. Although Gus's 1 looks very interesting.

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The chocolates are beautiful. I hope I'm able to hatch plenty of silkied Chocolates next year to work with!

Yeah, it's tough to get them to pose. The boys especially are in that phase where they want to be big tough guys and fight off the scary box that keeps flashing light at them when I'm taking their pictures. At least they're not like Mal, the little OEGB boy I have who actually jumps feet-first at the camera lens with his hackles all flared if I get too close while trying to take his pictures! He's a bit of a butthead, but at least it's only toward the camera and not toward me!

Black 1, Black G1, Chocolate 1, and the three Blue boys are all shaping up really nicely when seen in person, at least in my opinion. I can honestly say the only thing I'm seeing in any of them so far is minor comb things that a couple of them have that I don't like as much as the others. Blue 3, I've been calling him Wyatt. I'm torn between him and Blue 1 (still unnamed) again for my breeder male for the Blue pen, as they're both good looking dudes. I was so confident it would be Blue 1 based on how they looked a month ago, but I guess it goes to show you shouldn't settle on your picks too soon as you never know who's going to have an ugly duckling story! Either way I decide to go, both are certainly sticking around so that I have a backup Blue just in case. Someone on another site suggested I should hatch some from both of them just to see what they both produce, so maybe I'll just do that.

Farmer Reese said:

If you lived near me, I would take 1-2.

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Well, if you're ever in northeast Indiana, let me know! I usually have a few extra cockerels hanging around anyway.

Checking in again with pictures! I've sat down and really looked at my birds and come to several decisions on which birds to keep and which to move on. What I've concluded is this: I will be keeping all three Blue males that hatched this year, plus Black 1. I will not be keeping the mixed color guy, either of Gus's sons, Black 2, or Jack. There were a number of reasons I came to this decision, but suffice it to say it took a lot of mental back-and-forth before I settled on it and I'm happy with what I've decided on.

I have also decided that Washburne, Juniper, and possibly Bella will be culled from that breeding group after really sitting down and assessing them compared to the standard. Wash's type has always been less than stellar, so she was the obvious one to pull. Bella has some comb issues and beyond that just little things that bug me overall, which is why she's a maybe, and the same issues go for Juni, but Juni's eggs tend to be funky so they wouldn't be great to hatch from anyway, which is why she was the second obvious pull. I haven't taken their pictures in a long time now, but molt is starting to set in so they aren't as pretty as they could be. Actually handling them, though, and really looking them over in person, I feel like this is the right choice for that group. This will also make room for Trixie and Gwenyth to move to that pen, assuming I can tell Gwennie's eggs apart from the Cochins' eggs well enough that I'm confident I won't accidentally hatch from her. If they are too similar, then I'll have to pull her from that pen before I start hatching in the spring.

I did take pictures of the younger crowd yesterday, but the boys have moved to Rooster Row and are a pain in the butt to take pictures of now (well, always, but more so now), so I gave up after I got decent shots of the keeper boys. Since there are fewer pictures, I didn't bother to put them into collages as before. The youngest are about 4 months old now, and Trixie is just shy of 6 months old. I'm thankful I got those leg bands I'd been talking about and put them on Trixie and the younger Black pullet right away, because they are darn near impossible to tell apart now without them!!



The first one is Trixie! The younger Black pullet (Black 3) I've been calling Boba or Bobo, short for Hellebore. She needed a flower name because she'll be going into Gus's group when she's mature to bulk out the numbers there a little bit, and all of Gus's girls have flower names.

Out of the Blue pullets, I've been calling the lightest one (Blue 4) Athena, and the darker girl with good foot feathering (Blue 2) Inara.



The darker Blue pullet with poor foot feathering (Blue 6), ugh, look at her type!! If only her middle toes weren't so barren of feathering! I started calling her Ottilie 🥰 I know, I know, I shouldn't keep her, but I got so few pullets this year and she's so adorable! She'll live in the mixed flock, as a non-breeder / cull.




As for the boys, I have the Blue boys named (Zeke for Blue 1, Wyatt for Blue 3, and Levi for Blue 5), but not Black 1 yet, I'm still brainstorming on him. Anyway, here they are in that order:

robin416 said:

OK, I don't agree with you about Ottilie. Unless Cochins are way different foot feathering is a lot easier to fix than type. And she's got type all day long. I would put her with a boy that has the foot feathering you're looking for.

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Is it? Recall I am pretty new to selection for breeding, so I guess I just assumed bad trait = immediate cull. She is such a typey little thing already, though, isn't she? ❤ All of the other silkied Cochins have great foot feathering, so if it's that simple, I can absolutely put her in one of the breeding pens! The genetics for foot feathering should be the same between Silkies and Cochins; several genes, mostly dominant with a couple recessives, that cause feathering in different parts of the leg and foot. I guess just from that I should have realized that foot feathering wouldn't be too tough to correct

robin416 said:

I'm not crazy about Zeke's wing set. It looks weaker when compared to the other boys.

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Yeah, Zeke started off as my pick, but now I'm seeing less about him I like and more about Wyatt and Levi that I like... I've recently heard that 5-6 months of age is the earliest to finalize picks for breeding in bantam Cochins, so I'm holding out until then, but it's looking more and more like it'll be one of the other two. I'm keeping all three so that I have backup Blue males, so who I end up picking for the Blue pen really won't make any difference to the pen arrangements anyway.

robin416 said:

I'm disappointed all of Gus' boys are going but I understand the need to let them go. What's the decision on the Chocolate?

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I know, I am, too. They just aren't great for type and have remained scrawny where the other boys have grown and filled out nicely for their age. It's a shame, Gus is such a handsome guy, but between this and the fertility issues I've had with that pen, he's just not turning out to be that great of a breeding rooster.

The Chocolates were a bust, honestly. Choco 1 is in the mixed flock now because the other cockerels pick on him, and he can stay there as long as he gets along with the older boys as he matures, but he's limping again and I've already decided if his legs get worse like before I'm not going to mess around with that, I'll have to put him down. Super weird. Hopefully the silkied Chocolates from Fluff-N-Stuff hatch well next year and have better type and leg feathering. 🙏

robin416 said:

Do you have the standard for Cochins? If you did it might help you to decide what to keep and what to sell out of the flock.

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I have the ABA standard. I'm hoping to get the APA standard as well once the next edition comes out (which is supposed to be next year, I think?), just because there are large fowl breeds that I'm also interested in that obviously the ABA doesn't cover.

I referenced the ABA standard a lot, especially when deciding on who to keep and move out of Pete's pen (that's the group with Wash, Bella, and Juni). Unfortunately, it doesn't really go into what is harder and easier to fix, just what is or is not desired, so now I'm questioning everything.

robin416 said:

Is it Gus or the girls he's with?

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I thought about this as well right when I posted that last post, honestly. Zinni and Myrtle lay plenty of eggs, so they clearly aren't having problems with the fertility part, but they are half of the genetic equation with the offspring as well. If my hunch is correct that both of the chicks from that pen were Zinnia's, then maybe it's possible she's imparting their lack of strong growth at this point.... though both she and Gus grew up just fine, themselves. I guess I'll take it in stages; if I still have problems after switching Gus out, then I guess I'll scrap the girls, too, and start over entirely with new birds. Or, alternatively, if I can hatch plenty of strong chicks out of Boba's eggs with Gus but not out of Zinni's or Myrtle's, then that would kind of answer that question as well and I would know the issue lies more with the girls than with Gus. A lot is kind of up in the air until I start trying to hatch next year, I guess.

I think the big reason why I decided not to keep them is that they aren't just behind, developmentally, it's like they're almost sickly. Like, they don't have any outward symptoms of anything, it seems like besides just being smaller and less filled out than the others, they also just don't seem to have as much energy or interest in exploring the pen. But, they're eating, drinking, pooping normally, no one is bullying them, and no one else has any issues. I don't know, I just don't like it. I suppose I can give them a little more time to see what happens, but I'd rather go forward with the boys that are already strong, healthy, and starting to look good, I guess. But again, I'm fairly new to all this selection business, so I am open to changing plans as I go along.

I have lines in communities with Cochin people in them, it's just confusing because it seems like they all act like poor middle toe feathering is so horrible, which is why Otter was on my do-not-breed list. 😅