For anyone needing a cuteness fix for the weekend

[KDbeads]

I woke up to this today:




First little guy to hatch, only about a third to half dry at the moment, splash color silkie.  He's an early bird, they aren't 'due' until tomorrow, his momma always lays early birds.  Have 5 more that are pipped and should start zipping late this evening or tomorrow though I have one more from the girl who lays the earlies so I may have another one before that.
These are from the 11 of our own eggs we set 3 weeks ago, also have 6 more from another breeder to help expand our flock.  Since those were shipped I'm betting on them taking until Sunday at least to pip.

16 more to go, and I'll have more pics as the hatch progresses through Sunday  

[Tank]

Awwwww cute!  

[KDbeads]

Getting this new camera to focus through 2 panes of glass that are 2" apart and ever so slightly covered in condensation when the incubator light isn't on is an interesting endeavor.

[Tank]

Difficult conditions, but one can still see the 'cute'!

[KDbeads]

Number 2, this one had to prove that the shipped eggs have developed just as fast as the others.

And it's black!!!   Oooh, hoping it's a cockerel with good toes, won't know about the toes until I take everyone out of the incubator and the sex..... yeah that's a wait and see for these guys.

[Tank]

And it's black!!!   Oooh, hoping it's a cockerel with good toes, won't know about the toes until I take everyone out of the incubator and the sex..... yeah that's a wait and see for these guys.

Okay, I'm new to this 'chicken' thing, why would 'he' not have good toes? Some sort of congenital breed condition?

[KDbeads]

For silkies, it's a really big deal, they have 5 toes instead of 4.  For show quality, which is what hubby breeds/shows/sells, the fourth and fifth toes must be completely separate and have good feathering on at least 3 of the 5 toes.  Anything else is 'pet quality', which includes 4 toes, 4.5 toes, fused toes, no toe feathering, 4 toes on one foot with 5 toes on the other, webbing between the 4th and 5th toes...........

A good example of the toes we are looking for, this is from the breeder we got the eggs from:
http://downsouthminis.webs.com/photos/c ... G_4931.JPG too big for insertion

Getting good toes and feathering is not really easy, out of the last 60 of our own that we have hatched, we've only kept 4.  Next is making sure they 'feather' out properly, which those 4 are looking great so far.
We are also looking for a blue or black cockerel, we have a splash rooster now but genetics being what they are for these birds he'll only produce blue or splash offspring with the blue, black, splash girls we have.  So far it's been 49%/49% blue or splash with 2% blue partridge, which is not a standard color and we don't know who is throwing that gene into the mix, otherwise her eggs would not be hatched.


Here is the breed standard: http://www.americansilkiebantamclub.com/standard.asp

Personally I could care less     But these are hubby;s birds so......

[Tank]

For silkies, it's a really big deal, they have 5 toes instead of 4.  For show quality, which is what hubby breeds/shows/sells, the fourth and fifth toes must be completely separate and have good feathering on at least 3 of the 5 toes.  Anything else is 'pet quality', which includes 4 toes, 4.5 toes, fused toes, no toe feathering, 4 toes on one foot with 5 toes on the other, webbing between the 4th and 5th toes...........

A good example of the toes we are looking for, this is from the breeder we got the eggs from:
http://downsouthminis.webs.com/photos/c ... G_4931.JPG too big for insertion

Getting good toes and feathering is not really easy, out of the last 60 of our own that we have hatched, we've only kept 4.  Next is making sure they 'feather' out properly, which those 4 are looking great so far.
We are also looking for a blue or black cockerel, we have a splash rooster now but genetics being what they are for these birds he'll only produce blue or splash offspring with the blue, black, splash girls we have.  So far it's been 49%/49% blue or splash with 2% blue partridge, which is not a standard color and we don't know who is throwing that gene into the mix, otherwise her eggs would not be hatched.


Here is the breed standard: http://www.americansilkiebantamclub.com/standard.asp

Personally I could care less     But these are hubby;s birds so......

Darwin and your hubby would have got on like a house on fire!

[KDbeads]

[KDbeads]

So I didn't bore everyone with every single hatch..... I waited for group shots    We got 14 out of 17, not bad but not the best, one of the unlucky ones did hatch but it just wasn't strong enough to make it over night.  Far more splash colored this time around in my chicks, which would be about right as my blue and black girls weren't laying real well while we were collecting.  If it's black, it's from our bought batch and all but the 4 toed one will be staying!!  One kinda looks like a cockerels but it's about 7 months too early to tell for sure.  If you see a red wire/cable/strap tie, those are what we use to mark the different batches until we are ready to decide which to keep, which should be tonight, the rest are already sold!  Cable ties will come off once they are in separate brooders.




Tank.... feet shots with explanation:

Good feathering, decent separation, 5 toes each

Good feathering, bad configuration, 4 and 5 toes

Decent feathering, bad configuration, 4 toes each

[Tank]

Cute and informative, what more could one want!

[Whitney]

so cute...in kindergarten (i thought it was kindegarden but spell check is telling me otherwise) the teacher use to hatch baby ducks and chickens for us in the classroom.