In Search of Giant Silkie

[Beer can]

Here is my TSC white silkie rooster I'll be breeding to some SandHill white jersey giants in the spring. And then back breeding, followed by selectively line breeding for silkie feathering, somewhat of a poofy head, and large size.
He is very big

 

[UNCLEG]

LOL......the first silkies i ever had were given to me as chicks by a dear friend who hatched them. There were 4, 3 white and one black. All turned out to be roosters, and the 3 whites grew as large as my ful size hens RIR. My friend could not get over how large they had gotten, their parents had been small. They were also very aggressive. Two were re-homed, one went to feed store after he attacked me for last time(snake food). Little black was an awesome roo..he was killed several years later in a snake attack, trying to protect his girls.

 

[chocol8bikini]

An Orpington silkie would be awesome!!!!

 

[Shaunb020]

Hey Mr. Beer Can. Please tell me you have more of those big roosters. Also does he have the extra toes? That would be a great quality to keep.

 

[steven29128]

Good Luck on your Giant Silkies....
Welcome to Back Yard Chickens !

 

[chocol8bikini]

I would love some hatching eggs too!

 

[Beer can]

Hey Mr. Beer Can. Please tell me you have more of those big roosters. Also does he have the extra toes? That would be a great quality to keep.

I haven't done the cross yet, he is a pure from TSC. I bought six this Feb or March. TSC bantams are assorted, I asked only for the five toed ones knowing they were silkies, they didn't know lol. Out of six five were pullets and him. Two pullets have no crest but he does and all have five toes. I'll be selecting out of the crosses hopefully crests, five toes, silkie feathering and black skin, if I'm lucky and some hatch that way. TSC gets their chicks from Ideal Hatchery, I heard they run large but their website says silkie mature weight- male 36oz, I weighed him yesterday 6 pounds!

I would love some hatching eggs too!

I'll have hatching eggs in the spring but it will be the first cross and not sure what they will end up as. Plan on back breeding and then line breeding for a consistent hatch, we'll see what happens.

 

[Beer can]

Don't know what happened to the starter of this thread troycdunn , it would be interesting to hear if they had any luck finding giant silkies.

 

[Shaunb020]

I really like the idea of a giant silkie. If you back cross, i thinkthe offspring will be smaller than the first cross but half will be silkie. Jersey giants mature slowly so it will be a while. If i had your roo, i would add an english orpington hen and. Cross the half orp chicks to the half giants and get some faster growing and larger sized silkies

 

[Shaunb020]

I bought a jersey giant pullet (actually 3 but a coon got 2) that i want to cross with my black silkie, 3lbs, and hope to find some productive orpington hens by spring and try out that project. The f2 generation will have 25% silkie, 75% with the 5th polydactyl, 50% with a crest, and a variance in the level of fibromelanism. If i apply the statistics for getting all of the first 3 traits, i stand on 9.375% of chicks that will carry all 3 traits. But i feel like the crests and the silkieness can be corrrected later and that i should focus on fibromelanism. Thats my breeding plan, but it looks like all my silkies will be black instead of white.