Silkie Meat Photos

[my sunwolf]

We are so grateful for our Silkie flock as they provide us with everything a chicken can provide! Fluffy pets, broody mommas to grow the flock, beautiful small eggs, and delicious meat for the table.

If anyone has photos of their Silkie or Silkie cross meat birds, post them! I love explaining to people about blue chicken meat. Ours are hatchery quality, so the meat is not as dark, but it still is the most tender and flavorful of all our backyard birds. We also cross quite a bit with whatever LF rooster we have over the hens at the moment.

Did I mention that the meat is amazing?

 

[cmchickens]

How's the de-feathering on them go? Do you have a mechanical plucker or by hand?

 

[my sunwolf]

We pluck all our birds by hand. After doing hundreds of birds, you get to be almost as fast as the plucking machines. The Silkie feathers are just the same to pluck once they've been scalded.

The two birds above are crosses, hence the "blue" skin instead of black. I'll have to find a good breeder and order some nice quality Silkies next year in the hopes of getting the true black skin, meat, etc.

 

[Agreed131]

Wow I had no idea that even the crosses were that dark.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In China Silkies are considered a delicacy. They have commercial operations with chicken houses filled with Silkies. Those are probably not bantam though.

 

[my sunwolf]

In China Silkies are considered a delicacy. They have commercial operations with chicken houses filled with Silkies. Those are probably not bantam though.

It's a shame that there will probably be no imports of standard Silkies into the US... somehow already having the bantam here makes it highly unlikely. I know there were a few threads with people trying to breed their own standard sized Silkies out of bantams, but they don't seem to get very far.

 

[flockman]

Very interesting. I have some silkies we may have to try some extra roosters if we end up with them.