Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[Trio]

Oh and what colour would you call the whitish one? Is it a splash?

 

[kelielliott]

New to silkie hatching. Any ideas on color? Possible Roo-dark blue and light blue. Possible hen-splash, black.

I am guessing I have a light splash, dark splash a light blue and dark blue. Thoughts? TIA

 

[sljack2006]

Beautiful chicks, you will have to let us know how they turn out !

 

[kelielliott]

Beautiful chicks, you will have to let us know how they turn out !

Thanks!

 

[sparton]

These are our three. All are just over a year old. The smallest black hen is my daughter'so 4h bird.

 

[Tammylr]

This is my only surviving silkie, stray dog attack. Since then we have reinforced and electrified, so no more dig issues. She is about 4 months old now.

Here is here at two months.

She has gotten so fluffy but is super light when you pick her up. Like dandelion fluff.

 

[kuchchicks]

This may have already been covered...but I am new to this thread...

I have a couple silkie hens and a couple polish hens. I am getting a sizzle roo and frizzle polish roo. If they breed what would the chicks be... Straight polish hen with frizzled polish roo = ?
Straight silkie hen with sizzle roo = ?
Polish hen with Sizzle roo = ?
Silkie hen with Polish frizzled roo = ?

I only recently got these hens... I have only ever had regular egg layers. I fell in love with these breeds and now what to breed them so I am curious as to what they will produce.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Smooth Polish hen x frizzled Polish roo will give you frizzled and smooth Polish chicks.
Silkie hen x Sizzle roo will give you regular Silkies, frizzled Silkies (Frilkies), frizzled Sizzles and smooth Sizzles.
Polish x Silkies, whether they're frizzled or not, will give you mixed breed chicks, but they'll be adorable. They should have good sized crests, beards if your birds are bearded and may or may not have extra toes and black skin. They'll have smooth or frizzled feathers. Their leg feathering will vary, but will likely be sparse since Polish have clean legs. You shouldn't see any Silkie feathers, unless someone mixed them with Silkies at some point and you get a throwback.

 

[kuchchicks]

Thank you so much!!

 

[silkies-n-such]

I am new to BYC and this is my first post. My husband and I decided to raise chickens with our 4 kids (all under 12) a few months ago. We have 10 standard hens for eggs, 1 rooster who was supposed to be a pullet, 1 bantam Brahma (pet only) and 6 silkies (pets only).

Let me preface by saying that I do not breed, nor do I show, my silkies. However, I thought that this thread would give me the most reliable answers to my questions.

I have read nearly everything on BYC regarding vaulted skulls and have yet to find an answer...
Question 1: Should I have my children avoid petting the heads of our vaulted skull silkie chicks? (chicks are 2 weeks old) If so, should they avoid the heads of them when the chicks mature as well?
Question 2: We are planning on letting our silkies free range when they are grown. Are they too vulnerable for us to do this?

Thanks!