Another silkie question

[minister man]

I am very new at silkies. I thought I had some good ones, not expecting they were great but they did come from a show flock. Any way I noticed something differnt about the ones I saw at a show today, and realized that the wings on some of ours are differnt. At the bottom of the wings ( I think they might be the Flight feathers) they have real feathers instead of silkie style feathers. I looked up the standard and it says that the "Wings medium with the barb absent in wing feather" is that what the barb is? so does that mean that those birds are no good? Of coarse I am only raising them as "Incubators" so I suppose that they would still do that. If I mate them it is possible that some of thier offspring might have correct wings if thier parents did? or is it better to just get better stock to start with?





If you look closely you can see the feathers that I am talking about in the picture of this hen. Other than that they have the black skin, the 5 toes, feathers out to the end of the toes, and the crest makes the eyes invisable. It is just this wing thing!

 

[hoppy]

if they are just incubators, don't worry about. if they are going to be more then that, take one to a show and find out what not correct and work from there. you might need to get some new birds or if they are not that bad, a new rooster may help.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

They will have those style of feathers on their wings. Silkies aren't "Silkie" everywhere. Those feathers should be "frayed" or "shredded" at the ends, not total hard feathers.

 

[joe17]

I have one that has the wings of one of yours. It like sticks out on the sides. I culled that bird though. How old is yours? Sometimes they appear droopy or loose but it is either hot or they have heavy pin feathers dragging them down.

 

[minister man]

thanks for the help. My birds are about 16 weeks. I think that I have just decided to breed them anyway. They are what I have, and it is what I bought them for. I just want birds for hatching not showing, so I can't see that it will make a differnce. The feathers ar not hard on the end, they are all tattered and torn, so maybe they are all right anyway. The day before yesterday, I thought they were the most beutiful things. So if they are only for me, and I am pleased, maybe that should just be enough. But you are right, maybe I need a differnt male if I can find one, and if not...........oh well.

thanks for the help

 

[pennie1]

Just find a rooster that has exceptional wings and try to breed it out of them if you want to have to fun.

It sounds like that's kind of what you are in it for anyway.

 

[minister man]

I am wondering if this sounds reasonable. Chances are, since these birds came from a show flock, that their Parents probably didn't have this defect. Could it be that recessive genes came together to create this defect in these birds? If that happened it is possible that the genes for good wings are in there somewhere? So since the birds all seem about equal in the other ways that I know to look for:

If I penned all 5 females seperately, and mated 2 of them to one male and three of them to the other, by switching the male from pen to pen daily and let them set those chicks, when those chicks can be marked and removed, mate the hens to the other roosters. When the chicks grow up, see if any particular matings fixed the wing feather problems and then use only those matings, or use stock from those matings to breed to the other matings if there were other things that they lost when the wing feathers got fixed.

I don't know much about this so I don't know if this sounds reasonable, but is is sort of like a plan discribed in the book " Start where you are with what you've got".

Since there is no such thing as a perfect bird your always going to be selecting for something right?

What do you think?

 

[acid_chipmunk]

Quote:
Is there anyway that you can post a better pic? From the pic you have posted, they look like normal Silkie wings, other than the carriage of them. And, the carriage looks like it was trying to jump down, so I'm not even sure the carriage is wrong.

 

[featherbaby]

Their wings are not bad at all! The ones I have seen and those I own have 'hard' feathers in the wing that just shred at the ends. I have been told by those who show them, they take a wire brush and comb the wing feathers before a show to give them more of a shredded look. From what I could see of them in the photo they look like very nice buffs.

 

[minister man]

Well, maybe they are good Idon't know. We took some more "Wing Specific" shots.

















I don't know if these pictures are any better or not, but I like the birds. I am not sure what color they are? red, buff Partirdge, Blue Partiridge, just mutts. I don't know about thier wings. But I like them they are so quite and easy to handle, how could they not win my heart. I don't look perfect either and they are ok with me ( ha ha)