Chicks are hatching! *again!

My next batch of marans, silkie mixes & pure silkies are hatching. I will post pics in the morning. All the remaining chicks from Ideal are doing great and most have been delivered to their homes. All my gals have begun laying like crazy again! Even the guineas are laying 2-3 a day, I've been putting them under a silkie. I got another tiny silkie or sebright egg again its under a broody silkie so fingers crossed it will hatch out this time!!

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This message was edited Apr 30, 2008 5:45 PM

I am keeping one! He or she is absolute adorable so I couldn't help myself! balck skin and 5 toes but not really silkie feathered, jet black feathers on its feet, short wirey loking feathers coming in for a tail but has a lot of the silver sebright coloring. It should be interesting! You can see the "pure" silver sebright in the back ground (very paranoid)

She is amazingly cute!

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This message was edited Apr 30, 2008 5:45 PM

Love both of them! too cute.

pure seabright

lol!

No the one in the background is "pure" silver sebright so far, looked like one as a new hatchling and still does! Now the one I keeping with thte huge feet is funny yet unique looking! I cannot wait till it feathers all out!

They are coming slowly but surely, my jumbo coturnix brown quail are hatching too. I actually timed it right for once, everyone will hatch at once! Man those are TINY! I set up their own brooder with a special no drown water and used a rolling pin to crush their game bird starter. So we should be all set!

Check this one out! WOW what a vaulted skull!! I have three like that, one of which was from a white egg from my gals. Obama must have passed on that skull! He is my only vaulted skull silkie. The skin coloring is wrong and the chick looks silver sebright but with that skull so he must like the SS gals!

holy cow!

Well I actually said something else!! I had to get a quick pic and put him back in the incubator

So I ended up with 12 marans (8 pullets & 4 roos), 8 silkies (three with vaulted skulls), one silver sebright, one sebright silkie mix and a bunch of jumbo brown coturnix quail that are still hatching!!
This is a pic of 5 of the silkies, there is also the first hatch white and the huge skulled white one that is in the regular brooder and another black on that are still in the incubator

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This message was edited Apr 16, 2008 5:35 PM

This message was edited Apr 30, 2008 5:46 PM

I hatched Obama last year and that what he looked like. He is alive and happy (currently sleeping) If that is not a vaulted skull than what is a vaulted skull? because a vaulted skull is an abnormality in most chickens. I will post it on a Silkie Breeders site and see what silkie breeders of show quality chickens say.

He is so cute :)

This message was edited Apr 16, 2008 5:34 PM

Was looking at some silkie links and found this really great page on them and hatching. She talks about the vaulted skulls causing hatching problems for some chicks. http://www.silkiechickens.com/helping_chicks_hatch.htm

Lots of good info on when to help chicks stuck in eggs too.

http://www.thebigwranch.com/index.php?view=article&catid=3%3AInformation&id=14%3Achicken-breeds-i-have-and-breed-information-on-them&Itemid=9&option=com_content
this one has silkie info but lots of info on other breeds too!

pictures of silkie chicks some with vaulted heads! http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Silkies/BRKSilkChix.html these sure do look like LoraK's baby.

MollyD
MollyD

My goodness, LoraK, that is one interesting
looking silkie x. It is cute, would love to see
what he will look like all feathered and grown.
How many jumbo coturnix are you hatching?
For me, once they started to hatch, they really
popped out quick- much faster than my chicken
babies. And, ditto on the feed crushing with the
rolling pin.

A woman who breeds silkies for show said there is nothing wrong with him, she does however prefer her vaulted skulls to be more mushroom like (not tall but wide) Mushroom shaped ones make the best looking ones because they give a bigger top knot. I cannot believe that someone who breeds for show quality silkies has never seen a vaulted skull. When I first heard about silkies I did a lot of research on them and that was one of the things they said to look for when buying them, a vaulted skull, 5 well spaced toes, pure black skin eyes and beak, opal earlobs and the more feathering on the legs and toes the better.

silkies are on our list of breed-wants for the next two years... i hope your little guy grows up and shows everybody ho beautiful a high-head can be! ;-)

I got about 20 about one third of the eggs. I think one is splayed legs though. Everyone is one that no slip shelf liner now so maybe that will help him. I even got a white one!! Well its yellow right now, the guy I bought the eggs from said all his breeders are brown though it is not uncommon to get a white one.
I am going to order a new incubator with auto turner for both chicken and quail and then I will order some eggs from a local guy so my hatch rate will be better.

1/3 is a really goo drate considering. i can't wait to wsee photos of all of them, you should be one PROUD chickenmama!

Oooh ooh some of those bebes are coming home to my house soon! I can't wait! I'm mad with jealousy!

and seriously, that silkie with the vaulted skull is too much. love it.

BYH- Their here! And as cute as buttons!! Nice healthy chicks eating and drinking! All made it save!

uhhhh,I've breed/raised/shown crested birds for
years and never heard the term vaulted skull
Knob,poll,crest,....never vaulted

crested birds...always feel the knob first

So glad everyone is safe and sound, LoraK.!:o)
This is my BFF Marylin Monroe. I have a question
about crests--At first, my crested polish seem to have all
their crest feathers in, but now, starting at the nape, there
are what seem like bigger shafted feathers coming in through
those. What's happening?

I'm sorry, that's not Marylin! But, unless I told you,
you wouldn't have known. LOL This is Marylin..

yes, i could tell the difference, the first pic is Betty White!

How did you know that, TF! LOL Thanks, I needed
another name, she will be so happy to know who she is!

^_^

Everyone I have run across uses it. I just posted on a Silkies Breeders Forum so soon we will find out what the truth is. I am not sure if all crested chickens can have them or just silkie and showgirls. I have only ever owned silkies.

Sorry no idea. The only crested chickens I have are silkies. Maybe crestedchick has some????

Yay!

I'm confused as to what you're asking about

and what is a BFF?

those pictures are young WCB polish(white crested black)
There are longer fatter feathers that will be coming in
for their Juvenile molt
right now they are probably just getting pin feathers
which are the new feathers in a sheath
when the sheath breaks away...poof...new feather
not just in the crest but all over their bodies

LOL, Crested! Marylin is my BFF- Best Friend Forever.
She's my sweetie. When she was tiny and I came up to
the brooder to see all my chicks, she would look up at
me and make eye contact- she stood out in the crowd,
and would run over to get in my hand for a cuddle.
Thanks for the feather info- it is the new feather sheaths,
then. They are almost as long as the other crest feathers,
but haven't gone POOF! yet. None on the rest of their
bodies yet.
Your roo is awesome, very impressive. I think all mine are
hens, they seem all to have henny tails, but will have to
wait a while to know for sure. Unless you have another
tid bit about young BCP you want to share. ;o)

I know this was where someone posted that hatcheries cull the vaulted skull chicks and someone had one and it only lived a day and now that posting is gone, I am not crazy because I posted "I hatched Obama last year and that what he looked like. He is alive and happy (currently sleeping) If that is not a vaulted skull than what is a vaulted skull? because a vaulted skull is an abnormality in most chickens. I will post it on a Silkie Breeders site and see what silkie breeders of show quality chickens say." so it was either editted or removed. So I don't know who actually wrote that.

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This message was edited Apr 30, 2008 5:44 PM

This message was edited Apr 30, 2008 5:46 PM

Just because you had a vaulted skull chick that died doesn't mean that all will or should be culled because its going to die anyways. You cannot lump all of something together. I am joining the American Silkies Club and I am going to ask them. They are the experts. I have done hours of reading about vaulted skulls, no where does it say they will die so cull them. Some breeders like that vaulted skulls chicks, other breeders like Hattricks don't breed for them or not for them, they do occur in there lines. http://www.hattricksilkies.net/articles_vaulted_skull.html
So as far as you saying my chick should have be culled because he or she is going to die anyways why don't you check out Obama on the thread I just found and take a look at him as chick and as a 1 year old. He is not show quality, he is a great rooster alive and happy!
Cull any of your chicks you want, I am not going to kill anything unless I know for a fact it is suffering.

LoraK, What a horrible horrible thing for you do say. I NEVER said, nor would i ever say for you or ANYONE to cull a chick. I did not cull mine and i NEVER EVER told you to cull yours. I was simply sharing my experience with you because it is a VERY rare defect that can cause the chick to not survive. They are NOT vaulted skulls and you are very lucky yours survived. I dont appreciate you putting words in my mouth, especially the way you just did. I am very sorry i tried to share with you all the information I had been given by the experts i consulted.....one of which was your experts. I am very disappointed that the same person that helped me when i first joined, is the same person to show me its not a place i will return. You should not accuse people of things if you dont have facts.