Are My Silkies Good? PICS FINALLY

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I think you'd be better off buying some nice show quality stock and starting from there. Those birds are truly pet quality and breeding them isn't miraculously going to result in show quality offspring. Save yourself the insanity and heartbreak and just go spend some cash on nice birds.

 

[BlueLagoonRabbitry]

You pay for them and i will.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Sure I'd love to. In turn you can buy me some show quality Sebbie geese

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Seriously though, I would look around here on BYC or do some google searches for nice silkies and then go to local poultry shows or check your local craigslist daily and see if you can't find anything better for a reasonable price. You're not going to get something for nothing, but to be brutally honest I wouldn't pay $10.00 for any of the ones you have now. I know it's not what you want to hear and I myself have a white silkie hen who I paid like $15.00 for and she is crap quality, it was before I knew any better. I bought her for a setting hen, not for breeding though.
Just off the bat, their type is wrong and I don't even have an experienced eye. Their top knots are very lacking, body shapes are wrong, comb on the roo is wrong I believe, etc.
If having nice Silkies is what you really want, I would enjoy the ones you have as pets and save up for some eggs from a nice breeder here on BYC or even live birds locally or shipped.
Sometimes you can find people who don't know what they have. I bought a modern game hen from a guy for $20 that he originally wanted $10 for and she was such amazing quality that I felt like I was robbing him by paying only $10. I told him he had a really nice bird and that I would pay him $20 for her. He had no clue what he had and was elated to have his price doubled.
Perhaps sell the ones you have and put the money into eggs or birds.
Good luck hun.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If you start with birds with better type, where each is perhaps lacking in some features, but not all the same feature, it will be easier to breed to improve them.

Good type, with a smaller crest or poorer comb shape or poorer toes, bred to another good type bird with a different fault will result in some percetage of offsrping who inherit the good points from each parent, and will improve your birds. Getting birds to fit this mode--breeder quality--should be less expensive than purchasing show quality birds. Getting young birds with potential is less expensive than getting more mature birds.

You truly shouldn't sell eggs from that flock as hatching eggs--your customers will be disappointed and you will earn a poor reputation. If you want to enjoy them as yard candy and sweet pets, I am sure they will be every bit of that. Silkies are sweeties--whether they are Show Champions or pet quality pets.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Agree, those are pet quality birds.

I thought you said you had $100 saved up for some silkies that you were looking around for?

You could get at LEAST a pair for $100.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Easily, and from a good breeder.

 

[BlueLagoonRabbitry]

Ok all i need is a Fort Knox pen to keep my $100 silkies in

 

[pipermark]

The best way to get good genetics , cheaply, is go to a show , find a breeder of good quality silkies and buy the culls.

These will not look good, but the genetics are at least there.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

These will not look good, but the genetics are at least there.

Maybe, maybe not. If that is what you're doing, then you need to be picky about what you select. Go for type first, then select for faults that are easier to correct, as well as fewer faults.

A four toed silkie with good type is a better choice than one that is built like a modern game or a d'uccle. A correctly coloured single comb is better than a correctly shaped red comb. Etc. Every breeder has certain traits that they would rather work on or avoid--I stated my preferences. A different breeder might make different choices, but the point is to have a plan and some knowledge.

If you talk to the breeders at a show and let them know what your goal is, they will generally work with you on finding a bird that best meets your needs--they may or may not have sale birds, but they also might know someone who does.​