[fuzzies]

Athena laid her first egg yesterday, confirmed today by her laying her second!! 🥳 It's a bit early in the year for chicks still (and the pullets are still in the mixed flock with other roosters anyway), but I'm so stoked to get hatching this year!

 

[robin416]

OK, you've just confirmed how much like Silkies they can be when it comes to laying. Three more and she'll go broody.

 

[fuzzies]

Haha, I hope not! Thankfully, my BBS line hasn't been overly broody. The Reds on the other hand... Yikes!

 

[robin416]

How do you describe overly? Laying ten eggs and going broody? Or not going broody but three times a year?

 

[fuzzies]

Overly broody is how I would describe the Reds. They're in that first camp of lay a few and then go broody, but they go broody and they just never quit. For months, actual months with an s, non-stop, every summer, they're sitting in broody pens brooding air. Rather than limiting my hatches based on coop space as usual, I'll hopefully be hatching out many more than I can keep in order to pick the best for next year's breeders, so this might actually be their year to really brood!

The BBS girls, they might go broody once a year. That's ideal for me, as that leaves plenty of them laying to hatch from while still giving me the possibility of letting one or two rear their own as well. Now just watch, they'll all turn into broody terrors this year just to spite me.

 

[robin416]

I don't think I've ever heard of one variety of the same breed not be as broody as the rest of the breed. You've got some unusual BBS girls.

Did you even keep any BBS hatches from last year? We talked so much about the blues/blacks/reds that I've forgotten.

 

[fuzzies]

It happens, I've had several breeds in the past where some birds were from one line and some from another and their temperaments differed. From my understanding, the silkied Reds came out of a hatchery's Red Cochin bantams, whereas the silkied BBS came out of a breeder's line of Blacks, so it's no surprise they're pretty different just based on that. That's probably why the type is a lot better on the BBS compared to the Reds as well!


I hatched several Blues and Blacks from Gopher Hill last year that I've kept, and one Black pullet from Pete's pen, miss Trixie. The ones I hatched from Gus I ended up selling, as both were cockerels and they were sort of unthrifty compared to the rest. Really hoping that Gus is able to father some good, strong chicks this spring so that I can keep his line going, but of course if he isn't able to then it may just be for the best. Anyway, I should have a better setup this year to hatch more, so here's hoping! I don't plan on hatching any from any other farms this year, except of course the Chocolates that I got on a wait list for last year in a moment of weakness. 😅

 

[robin416]

So there weren't any BBS. We talked a lot about the two sets of eggs but not about any of the others. Well, not the BBS anyway.

I forgot all about the chocolate. Any word on whether their birds are laying yet or not? Or where you are on the list?

 

[fuzzies]

Well... BBS stands for Blue, Black, Splash, doesn't it? I didn't hatch any Splashes (again 😩), but got plenty of Blues and Blacks, anyway.

No, nothing yet on the Chocolates. I've been thinking about sending a message through to see when they thought their birds might start laying so I can plan hatches accordingly, but at the same time don't want to be a pest. 😅

 

[robin416]

Are you making me realize I've been out of the birds far too long. But we still didn't talk about splashes. Did we? I've had covid a couple of times so we might have.

It's been a really long time since you went on the waiting list. If you haven't talked to them since then you wouldn't be a pest. They would know you're still out there waiting for news.

 

[fuzzies]

I'm not sure if we talked about Splashes or not, honestly! It's sort of been a joke with others I've talked about it with, though. I've gotten two batches of hatching eggs that were supposed to be Blue x Blue, so a decent chance of hatching a Splash, and yet I've hatched only Blues and Blacks out of them, not a single Splash. Hopefully with my Blue girls being grouped with a Blue cockerel this year, I'll finally get a Splash or two! 🙏 They should help with keeping my Blues from getting too dark, plus I just like Splash and would love to see it in silkied feathering. 🥰


You're absolutely right, I don't even remember when it was that I originally contacted them. I just struggle a bit with social anxiety and part of that unfortunately is my brain telling me that I'm annoying to people all the time, so I'm always having to remind myself that that's not necessarily true... I hope. 😅 I'll send a message through this weekend and see where we're standing on the Chocolates.

 

[robin416]

This really is beginning to cause me to realize just how much I've forgotten. Or that Covid has erased from my brain. How splashes are made. Right now to me it seems blue to blue would result in blue. I hate this.

I can be the same way. So I understand. The dealer has my zero turn. They've had it for a week now with now word. I need to call them but I know they're busy so I don't want to bother them.

 

[fuzzies]

Blue x Blue is supposed to get you about 50% Blue in the offspring, 25% Splash and 25% Black. Both Blue parents have a 50-50 shot in passing on a blue gene, so you can get blue from the father and not the mother, blue from the mother and not the father, from both parents, or from neither parent. Since there's no difference between a chick inheriting only one copy of blue from the mother or the father, that gives you your 50% Blue, 25% Splash, 25% Black.

Ah, man, I hope you get word back on it soon! I did send a message through about the Chocolate Cochin eggs... just now because I totally forgot to yesterday.

Apparently I sent the original message through all the way back in August, so I guess I've been patient enough!

 

[robin416]

But you're experiencing 100% blue. Which with my current thinking would be correct. I guess I never gave it a thought on how splash came about. Now I need to do some digging on this because it's going to bug me. Did I forget or did I never give it a thought?

Yep, that was a long time ago. It's now January. I would think the birds are laying fairly well by now.

 

[fuzzies]

Not 100% Blue, more like 50% Blue, 50% Black, and of course 0% Splash. 😅 I was told the eggs I was hatching were from Blue x Blue breedings, but it has made me wonder if they aren't from Blue x Black, as that would make more sense for that ratio of colors I'm getting in their offspring. If her Blues are as dark as some of mine have been, maybe she does have some Blacks masquerading as Blues in the mix. Or, maybe I'm just unlucky with Splashes. But I have enough Blues now to definitely breed Blue x Blue here, so hopefully a Splash or a few come along this year. 🙏

I'm not sure if you've forgotten or just not thought about it, but that's always been how Blue is! Blue is a partially dominant gene, which means that one copy of the gene gives a partial effect, two gives a full effect. In the case of Blue, one copy of the gene partially dilutes black plumage into a blue color, two copies more fully dilutes it to what we know as Splash. You can breed Blue to Blue and just happen to get all Blues, especially if it's only a small number hatching as small sample sizes will skew percentages like that, but odds are against you hatching only Blues from that pairing forever.


On the Chocolates, estimated shipping date is late February to early March! 😁 Exciting!

 

[robin416]

Yes! How many are you getting? I'm already waiting for them to hatch.

Anyway in a more serious tone. I did look up how you make splash. I had forgotten. Flat out forgot. You've got how many of the light blues now?

 

[fuzzies]

One dozen plus any extras they have at the time of shipping. I can't wait! People are posting chick pictures already in all the chicken groups I'm in and I'm stuck here in the snow and cold without any hatchable eggs being laid yet by my birds!! 😩

Athena is my only real light Blue. Maybe Wyatt, too, but he's a tad darker than her. Ottilie and Levi are decently light enough that I can look at them and go, yeah, they're Blue. Then Zeke, Inara, and the older girls Wash and Harley are all on the darker end of the spectrum for Blue. But, breeding Blue to Blue should produce paler Blues over generations, so none of the younger birds are out of the running for breeding (except I think Levi, but that's because Zeke and Wyatt are so much better looking than he is ).

 

[robin416]

So you've got obvious blues. You should get splashes out of them this year. Breeding blues to blacks was something the Silkie world was having a fit about because the blues got so dark you couldn't tell what that they were blue.

So, feather dust isn't one of your favorite things in the house? I was shocked at how much of a mess a bunch of chicks could make in a room. You would think I'd learn and quit having chicks in the house but noooo, I had to have more chicks hatch.

 

[fuzzies]

That certainly seems to be a thing! I intend to keep a group of Blues and Splashes without ever keeping any Blacks in there, here. Some of the Blues are just so dark! I'll have to get update pictures of Harley and Washburne (once we're not freezing our butts off here, brr!), they've both molted now and are so dark they look just like the Black hens in their group. 😩 Thankfully I know which is which by their faces and combs.

Haha, no, the brooder is actually set up in the house every year, so I deal with the dust and everything. I just love having them in close proximity for me to snuggle and watch and adore. It's just I've got to get my birds to lay before I can hatch any! Hopefully they'll pick up after this cold spell. We're supposed to go back to pretty mild weather this weekend so maybe some of the girls will take that as an early spring and get to it. 🙏

 

[robin416]

Did you tell me that white is recessive in Cochins? Of course you don't have any white and I'm not sure which one has to be white, the male or the female. But you could prove black by breeding black to white. All hatch black, then they're black. If they hatch rainbow colors then they're blue.

It's coming. Soon you'll be pulling your hair out over how much you've got going on again. And the hard choices you're going to have to make.