silkie rooster checklist

Ok at home now finally. Do you know how hard it is to try and text this stuff from my phone? Excuse all the spelling errors. I get to see only the first line of what I type and have no idea what goes through when I press submit.

Ok this might help you out more.... Keep in mind that judging is highly subjective. This is what they are supposed to be looking for and the importance of each:
*** The first part is the points awarded for each part of the body. The second part is what is deducted for defects. Keep in mind this is just for whites.
Bearded White Silkie Judging Sheet
Bird ID
Shape Color Shape Color Comments
Back 7 4
Beak 2 1
Beard & Muffs 3 1
Body & Stern 4 3
Breast 6 2
Comb 3
Condition & Vigor 10
Crest/Tassle 8 4
Frizzling
Ear Lobes 1 1
Eyes 2 2
Head & Face 2 1
Shanks & Toes 4 3
Feather Length
Neck 3 2
Station or Type
Symmetry 4
Tail 4 2
Wattles 1
Weight & Size 4
Wings 4 2
72 28 0 0

DEFECTS DEFECTS
Comb: Frozen where portions of spike still visible 0.5 Enamel white on face 2
Oversized, Lacking smoothness in Texture 2 Face BLK where RED is Spec. 2
Horns or spikes,mishapen, oversized, EACH 2 Eye color other than specified 2
Crest Divided or split 2 Wings shafting in primaries 2
Wattles: Rough & wrinkled,oversized, out of proportion, EACH 1 Mealiness in surface color
Neck Dewlap 1 each section 2.5
TAIL: Absense of main tail where foreign color disq. Each 0.5 Mossiness in surface color
Absence of sickle fthr where for color DOES DQ 1.5 each section 2.5
Absence of sickle fthr where for color does NOT DQ 1 Bare Middle toe 1
Pinched Gamey Tail 2
Split tail in cockerel & pullet 2.5
Tail not showing more than 3/4 development 1
Tail not showing more than 1/4 development 2
Wings broken not removed primary/sec 3
Missing Primary/secondary foreign color DQ's each 2
Missing broken foreign color does NOT DQ 1
Stiffness in tail feathers 2
Crooked Breast bone 5
Breast feathers touching ground 2
Absense of spurs 0.5
Absense of toenail, each nail 1
crooked toe each 1
extra spur 0.5
Horny well defined spurs on females each 0.5

The previous post is what you are looking for on your white birds. This is how the point breakdown works for colored birds:

Bearded Parti Colored Silkie Judging Sheet
Bird ID
Shape Color Shape Color Comments
Back 5 6
Beak 2 1
Beard & Muffs 3 1
Body & Stern 3 4
Breast 4 4
Comb 3
Condition & Vigor 10
Crest/Tassle 8 4
Frizzling
Ear Lobes 1 1
Eyes 2 2
Head & Face 2 1
Shanks & Toes 4 3
Feather Length
Neck 1 4
Station or Type
Symmetry 4
Tail 3 3
Wattles 1
Weight & Size 4
Wings 2 4
62 38 0 0

DEFECTS DEFECTS
Comb: Frozen where portions of spike still visible 0.5 Enamel white on face 2
Oversized, Lacking smoothness in Texture 2 Face BLK where RED is Spec. 2
Horns or spikes,mishapen, oversized, EACH 2 Eye color other than specified 2
Crest Divided or split 2 Wings shafting in primaries 2
Wattles: Rough & wrinkled,oversized, out of proportion, EACH 1 Mealiness in surface color
Neck Dewlap 1 each section 2.5
TAIL: Absense of main tail where foreign color disq. Each 0.5 Mossiness in surface color
Absence of sickle fthr where for color DOES DQ 1.5 each section 2.5
Absence of sickle fthr where for color does NOT DQ 1 Bare Middle toe 1
Pinched Gamey Tail 2
Split tail in cockerel & pullet 2.5
Tail not showing more than 3/4 development 1
Tail not showing more than 1/4 development 2
Wings broken not removed primary/sec 3
Missing Primary/secondary foreign color DQ's each 2
Missing broken foreign color does NOT DQ 1
Stiffness in tail feathers 2
Crooked Breast bone 5
Breast feathers touching ground 2
Absense of spurs 0.5
Absense of toenail, each nail 1
crooked toe each 1
extra spur 0.5
Horny well defined spurs on females each 0.5

Wow Amy, That is great information and exactly what I was looking for! Thanks. A hawk/eagle/owl got my adult cackle rooster yesterday. Your rooster is fine. I guess that I won't be getting rid of any other roosters soon as that really spooked me. Their free range time has been cut to afternoons only.

I just have to laugh. Some of the stuff that people are overly picky on is stuff that barely even makes a dent in the judging persepective. I too have a hard time holding onto stuff til they are fully mature. At about 3 months I get really nitpicky and start culling stuff I probably shouldn't be.

I'm a lil nervous about predators too. Coyotes got 4 more of my brother's geese a couple weeks ago. We also have a bald eagle with a nest right by the lake about a 1/2 mile from our farm. I smelled skunk when I went out yesterday morning. I might as well leave a 0.22 out at the farm.

Eeeks....I am overrun with chicks right now too. I had about 60-70 come out of the shell in the last 3 days. There's still about 3 dozen more eggs pipping. I have a guy coming up from Illinois and another one this next weekend from Alexandria.

You are tempting me way too much. Next trip to Mankato is May 15th.

Not sure it will help for you to look at some good quality Roo's/Cockerels but here's my 5 month old White Cockerel and he is a very nice bird.

beautiful. It looks like he has no back at all. Is that what I should be looking for?. Here are two of mine that I am self judging.








I am not sure which one is better. I think that the body of the black one is better but I think that the wings are tighter on the splash. Really not sure what I am talking about though.

Thank you! He is in an erect position in the first photo. When they are in that position, I have heard that if their crest can touch or almost touch the tail then that is what your looking for. I'm still learning alot too, so......

Here he is not in an erect position. He still has tons of maturing to do. He will be just get fluffier and fluffier.

This picture was taken a little over a week ago and the other photo was yesterday.




When taking a picture you can make them stand in an erect picture to get a better view of their stance. Just take the beak and pull it up and they will stand erect for you.

How old are your Cockerels? The black appears to have more of a tail, but the Splash has more crest. The wings are tighter on the splash, but I have had birds pull their wings tighter as they get older.

Thanks for your imput. They are around 4 months old. Thanks for the tip on picture taking. They always seem to run away from the camera for me. I know that they are really young to make any judgements yet but I am trying to start somewhere and educate myself.

They still have a lot of maturing to do at 4 months old. I have a splash hen that held her wings low until about 2 months ago. So, maybe it's just a matter of learning how, not sure on that. But, some do tighten the wings up. Her's are nice and tight now. You can see the difference of the wings between the first picture and the second picture.

You'll just have to work them a bit to get them to stand the way you want them too. At 4 months old, I would give them another couple of months before I made my decision.

What color hens/pullets are you keeping?