Cowboy Coop 406

Silkies & Showgirls

Red Pen + Paint Pen – Silkies, Frizzles, & Satin feather types

What do these feather types mean?
Our Paint Pen has Silkie Feathered Birds, Silkie Frizzled Birds, and Satin(Smooth) Birds. Our Red Pen has only Silkie Feathered Birds. What does this all mean? Click here to see the Silkie Feather Charts!

We raise both Silkies and Silkie-Showgirls.
Showgirls are Silkies that have the naked neck gene. To learn more about how the naked neck gene works, click here and scroll down to the Silkie Section!

Paint Silkies & Showgirls
This is our newest color pen, and is also a work in progress. Chicks will hatch mostly Paint and Black. There is a chance of hatching Dominant White (I/I) as well. This pen has Showgirls, Frizzles, & Satins and chicks will have the possibility of obtaining any one of these genes

Red Project Pen Silkies & Showgirls Red over Red, Red Split, & Partridge Silkies. We are working on achieving a mahogany red colored bird and hoping they eventually become an accepted Silkie variety. This pen has only Silkied feather birds, and there is a high chance of showgirls.

We are proud a member of:
The American Silkie Bantam Club

Olive Eggers

First Generation (F1) through fourth (F4) Generations

Olive Eggers are a fun project breed that we offer. Olive Eggers are a mixed breed that can be made with any brown layer crossed to a true blue layer. Further generations can be created while keeping a bird with the blue egg gene, and crossing it back to brown or dark green mates, creating a darker olive. For our purposes, we use our Copper Marans Cock Birds over either purebred Ameraucana, or F2-F3 Olive Egger hens.
The female offspring of these first generation pairings will lay an olive green color egg. Further breeding’s of these first generation olive Eggers will yield a bird that lays either a darker olive green egg, or a brown egg.
Since these birds are a project mix, there is a lot of variation from bird to bird. Some of our hens lay heavily speckled eggs, while some lay closer to a sage green color, and we even have a hen who lays a beautiful gray colored egg!
Because these birds are part Marans, we find they have wonderful docile temperaments and make wonderful backyard pets, in addition to being prolific layers.
These birds will be sure to surprise you, and add great color depth to your egg basket!

Coturnix Quail

Focusing on creating the heaviest/largest bird with an emphasis on fun and exciting color morphs.
We currently are focusing our efforts on raising a new type of bird on our little homestead. The Coturnix Quail! We currently have one large aviary; housing around 55 birds. Our goal is to create a colorful assortment of larger Coturnix that can be used as a dual purpose bird. We are not currently working on color specifics, but rather breeding our largest birds from any one of our 15 or so color morphs. Chicks will hatch all sorts of beautiful colors. Jumbo and Standard Coturnix are actually the same breed of quail – but Jumbos have been bred to be a larger, heavier type quail that are fantastic for both meat and egg production. Since our program is still young, weight & color type will vary.
Quail are a relatively new backyard project for many people. I can tell you from personal experience… the hype is worth it! You will fall in love with these adorable, and tiny birds. Many HOAs that do not allow chickens (or roosters) will allow you to have quail (even male quail!).
Coturnix only require half to one square foot per bird, are fully mature in eight weeks, and have a lifespan of 2-3 years. Coturnix Quail lay an average of ~300 eggs per year, are very unlikely to ever become sick from illnesses like Salmonella (due to their high body temperatures), their eggs can be eaten raw (and are considered a delicacy!), and are some of the highest sources of protein per gram of meat of any bird!
Quail eggs range in size, but average around 12-16 grams per (substitute 3-4 eggs for one large chicken egg), are typically a beige and brown speckled color, but can be blue (celadon), and have gray, purplish or greenish blooms.    

We are a proud member of the American Coturnix Breeders Association