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We can keep the cockerels, as we are on a farm. But we usually eat the ones we don't breed with.

So, I have some exciting news, but firstly, I tried getting a hold of the buyers of 1 dozen of my eggs. One person did not respond to my contact about it, and the other said her eggs all died before hatching because of a faulty broody hen. As for a the original chicks, they are 10 weeks old. 4...

Just posting an update. These guys are 7 weeks old tomorrow. They are definitely silkied all over. They are very fluffy and round. Out of the 6, one died from accidentally falling in the duck pond, the 5 left look to be 4 roosters and 1 hen. I need to wait another couple weeks to know if the...

Here's an update on the silkied chicks. 4.5 weeks old.

Just thought I put post an update. The 7 new chicks from the same parents as the strange feather chicks have feathered out enough for me to see their feathers. They all seem to be normal so far. But statistically speaking, it is more likely to have all normal chicks than all 6 being silkied like...

Thanks for this, yes, I think everyone is right that Funny hat was part Silkie. I personally think she may have only been 1/4 silkie or less.

Anyway, I'd love to know: which would be the best to focus on, a silkied Dorking or a silkied Orpington?

Yes, I've been thinking about what I might do with these birds. All the babies look to be silkied, I'm assuming each parent bird has the gene and that two are required for expression of the gene. But for all to be silkied instead of 25% is a mystery to me. I basically have three options: 1...

Funny Hat laid a white egg. She was old when we took her egg. Most of her eggs were soft when laid, but I managed to get one that was hatchable. She did have spurs though which was unusual.

This does look like my chicks wings! This has led me to look deeper into my old photos to see what the lineage of these chicks is. What I found was that what I thought was a brown leghorn hen back when I first started keeping chickens 8 years ago, was not a pure leghorn. This is the great grand...

Yes, I am very curious too. I will be sure to update the thread with pictures in a few weeks.

So, are you saying that perhaps if despite diet, if these birds keep producing chicks like this, it could be a desirable trait?

The parents of these chicks are a cross breed of the following: Grandmother is a brown leghorn black Orpington cross Grandfather is a purebred silver grey dorking The offspring of the above are the parents of the chicks in the photos. No silkies at all.

I hatched these chicks from a hen and rooster that have the same parents which were from different lines, as I liked these birds and was thinking of experimenting with their genetics. I also wanted to try feeding meat bird crumble to the chicks to see if it would make a bigger sized bird for...