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Fuzzies!

15K views 546 replies 11 participants last post by  robin416 
#1 ·
Just thought I'd show off some pictures of my lil fuzzy silkied Cochin bantam kids from yesterday. 😁 The numbers are their hatch order, just for my reference. They hatched at the end of May, so they're roughly 2-and-a-half months old now. It's hard to tell from pictures because some of them are suuuper dark, but Wash, Diesel, Hank, and Harley are my Blues, and the rest of them are Black.

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Also, here are Myrtle, Dandy, and Zinnia, last year's babies, hanging out in their little tarp hammock yesterday. Gus was too busy with big, important rooster business to come over for a picture, I guess. 🤣

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#110 ·
I know, I know
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If it helps, I do think about posting pretty frequently during my absences, I just get distracted easily and then it's out of my goldfish brain for a few days again. :ROFLMAO:

That's for sure on the hawks! I feel like I've drawn them in with the tiny Old English. It was a complete shock when I'd found that Hank was killed, as they'd never taken any of the larger birds until then. :confused: Of course it had to be one of my Blues and not one of the Blacks that I have extras of!

The HPAI outbreak is scary. I remember an outbreak happening back in 2015, H5N2 in that case. I just know I was stressed to all get out while it was happening. I believe you're right that this is the first we've had H5N1 here. I know that Europe has been fighting with it for a while. I just hope we're able to get it under control quickly. 🙏
 
#111 ·
I do that a lot with other things. Did it again just a little while ago.

I had hawks take out several guineas last year. I've made the decision not to replace them as they die out so I'm not going to get too wound up about it.

Not sure there's a heck of a lot we can do about it other than try to isolate our birds from wild birds. That's pretty much a losing proposition since none of us is set up for that kind of isolation.
 
#112 ·
I made the same decision with my Guineas a while back. Last one died toward the end of last year and I haven't looked back. They were interesting birds, but not for me. Same choice I made with the ducks, they're just too much mess for my liking so I don't intend to replace Crash once she's gone. I might break on that one, though, because there are ducks with silkied feathering, too. :ROFLMAO:

From what I've read, it's really only wild waterfowl and other poultry that you have to worry about spreading HPAI, not the little songbirds and sparrows. I still think it's safest to try to exclude all wild birds just in case, especially because they can carry other things as well, but I'm not going to stress about every bird that flies over through our wooded property. I'd go crazy if I did! I do have a plan to tarp over and fence in some space should it hit too close to home, though. The birds won't be happy, but they'll be relatively safe. Frankly, at this point I'm much more worried that someone nearby will get it in their flock and the state will decide that my birds need to be culled just in case. 😥 I'm nowhere near any commercial farms, but a lot of people have their own flocks in this area.
 
#113 ·
Actually Guineas are one species I really enjoy. But at this point in my life it's time to let all of the outside birds go. Once the Guineas are trained it's really not difficult to deal with them. It's the training that can be frustrating.

If you don't have flu they won't cull your flock. I would certainly make certain there are some fertile eggs held in reserve just in case.
 
#114 ·
Well, I've lost Diesel now. He was in a pen with the two Black cockerels, Jack and Pete, for the winter, and I guess he was being bullied by Jack more than I realized and was unable to pull through after I intervened. So much for him heading my second pen of fuzzies and making some Blue and Splash babies. :cautious: I've moved Pete in with the five pullets instead, and after a few weeks I'll gather some eggs from the two Blue girls specifically to try to hatch some more Blues. Pete's smaller than Jack, but I like him more overall so I decided he'd be the better of the two to breed from. Guess it's a good thing I didn't sell Jack after all, though, because I still have a backup if something happens to either Pete or Gus now!

Anyway, here's Pete and (most of) his girls checking out their new pen when I moved them in a couple days ago. 💕

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I say 'most of' because pullet number five, Bella, was busy being dramatic and moping on the perch in their coop. :rolleyes: She was definitely not pleased with me!

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Everyone seems to have adapted well to their new surroundings now and I've gotten 1-2 eggs a day from them since moving them! Pete's doing really well, too, although he still needs work on his technique with the ladies--I'm not sure he's actually managed to breed any of them yet! :ROFLMAO: But he does tidbit for them when he finds goodies and he dances and courts them anyway, so he's doing good on the chivalry front, at least.
 
#116 ·
Well, I've lost Diesel now. He was in a pen with the two Black cockerels, Jack and Pete, for the winter, and I guess he was being bullied by Jack more than I realized and was unable to pull through after I intervened. So much for him heading my second pen of fuzzies and making some Blue and Splash babies. :cautious: I've moved Pete in with the five pullets instead, and after a few weeks I'll gather some eggs from the two Blue girls specifically to try to hatch some more Blues. Pete's smaller than Jack, but I like him more overall so I decided he'd be the better of the two to breed from. Guess it's a good thing I didn't sell Jack after all, though, because I still have a backup if something happens to either Pete or Gus now!

Anyway, here's Pete and (most of) his girls checking out their new pen when I moved them in a couple days ago. 💕

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I say 'most of' because pullet number five, Bella, was busy being dramatic and moping on the perch in their coop. :rolleyes: She was definitely not pleased with me!

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Everyone seems to have adapted well to their new surroundings now and I've gotten 1-2 eggs a day from them since moving them! Pete's doing really well, too, although he still needs work on his technique with the ladies--I'm not sure he's actually managed to breed any of them yet! :ROFLMAO: But he does tidbit for them when he finds goodies and he dances and courts them anyway, so he's doing good on the chivalry front, at least.
I'm sorry to hear about Diesel.

Your Cochins are beautiful! I love that last pic.
 
#117 ·
I'm sorry about the loss of Diesel. Boys can be terrible to each other. And some girls.

There is something about the shape of a Cochin that is really pleasing to the eye. And they haven't messed to much with that shape like they have with other breeds.
For sure, chickens can be vicious little velociraptors when they decide to be. :confused: I'm glad I got Pete out of there when I did. Jack had already started turning on him as well, the butthead. His name is short for Jack, err, a-word for good reason. :rolleyes:

I love them a lot. ❤ Not just the shape, but they have such great personalities, too. The complete package. :ROFLMAO:


I'm sorry to hear about Diesel.

Your Cochins are beautiful! I love that last pic.
Aw, thank you! Bella's gotten a lot of appreciation for that picture wherever I post it. :ROFLMAO:
 
#126 ·
I'm not really sure what to call her color, honestly. :ROFLMAO: Her parents are both Red, but she looks more like a buff-ish incomplete Partridge?

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The mix is definitely a keeper! I could never give her up, not only because she's a pretty girl but also because she's got such a great personality. :giggle: My best friend named her, too, so I don't know if she would forgive me if I gave her Peanut Butter away. :ROFLMAO:
 
#129 ·
Not sure which bird you're referring to, but the mix is docile and chill with just a touch of that Cochin sass I love so much. :ROFLMAO: The Cochin, herself, is a bit more laid back than her sisters, but still kind of sketchy of people and prefers to be admired rather than handled. :giggle:
 
#131 ·
Not at the moment, but I could be convinced to part with some eggs in a couple months after I test fertility, depending on where you are. I am not NPIP certified, so keep that in mind if that matters to you.

If it's specifically the silkied Cochins you're interested in, I can also recommend a couple other farms to buy from who are NPIP certified. :giggle: I don't mind missing out on a sale, I just love to see interest in these darling birds. ❤
 
#132 ·
Oh, okay. It doesn't matter one bit to me, but you'd have to ship, so yeah.

I'm thinking about having a mixed flock of bantams, and I think they'd make a great addition. Are they standard or bantam? If you could send me a link to one of the farms, it would much appreciated. Thanks!
 
#133 ·
I sent you direct links in a direct message, but there's Gopher Hill Farm, where I got my Blues and Blacks, and there's Triple Creek Farm who also has some beautiful silkied Cochins. They are bantams, yes! I have a mixed flock along with my breeder flocks, and my silkied Cochins in my mixed flock get along fine with everyone, bantam and large fowl. :giggle:
 
#136 ·
His dad is a Paint Silkie so he inherited dominant White from him. :giggle: He's technically mixed color because his mom was Porcelain, but he looks solid White.

Dark skin is not sexlinked, but Id, inhibitor of dermal melanin, is. That gene is what causes light colored legs like white, pink, or yellow, as opposed to slate or willow legs. Any male chicken with dark legs crossed with any female chicken with light legs makes a skin color sexlink where the female chicks have dark legs and males have light legs. However, dominant White can make the leg color look light, especially at hatch, so I hatched a bunch of dominant White pullets that I thought were cockerels until they were a few months old and suddenly had darker legs. :ROFLMAO:
 
#138 ·
He's like 6 or 7 years old now and never developed the black spots. His dad never had very many black spots, either, and actually lost them as he aged. He was a cull from someone else's Paint project that I took in. :giggle:

No, the Paint x Porcelain mixed color Silkies all had dark legs. When I crossed a male from that cross to a Cochin hen, that's what produced light skinned males and dark skinned females, plus the dominant White pullets with light skin at hatch that darkened as they grew up.
 
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