I know they'll never be "true silkies" because they have no "silkied feathers" but here's my conundrum. And its all about my chocolate silkies.
Now let me get this out of the way first and foremost, I AM NOT A BREEDER. I do not have a lot of pens of which I separate out my birds by gender, colour, feather etc, I am a backyard breeder who at this moment only has four birds for this project.
Now I have these four birds;
1. Silkied; Black; 4 Toes; Hen
2. Smooth; Chocolate; 5 Toes; Hen
3. Silkied; Chocolate; 4 Toes; Cockerel
4. Smooth; Partridge; 5 Toes; Cock
The one thing that bothers me is, I wouldn't consider these birds a mixbreed. I would call them smooth silkies, and silkied silkies. They all have a good type (besides the partridge but we're not keeping him anyways) good stature and look and act like silkies do.
The last bird to be in their ancestry that wasn't a silkie was a chocolate orpington cock some 10 generations ago to my knowledge. I have been calling them project silkies, and they do not look like a mix-breed.
Here's my main question; How long until I can say my silkies are actual silkies? I have the silkied chocolate cockerel I am afraid to call a silkie because both of his parents were smooth. I've been yelled at by people before about calling them silkies even though all of their parents were silkies, all of their grandparents were silkies, all of their great great grandparents were silkies! Just some had partially smooth feathers!
I do not own the birds that came before mine (I did own the parents to the partridge but they unfortunately passed) but I am close friends to the person who does own them so I know the parents of these smooth silkies and silkied silkies.
The whole project is to make silkied chocolate silkies but we will get smooth silkies along the way, that I know. I just want to be able to call them silkies still, but is that unreasonable since they had a orpington ancestor way back when?
I've always thought of it as "Silkie is a breed that has silkied feathers" because you can have frizzled silkies, so why not smooth silkies? Also; my birds are NOT sizzles, they do not have any sizzle or frizzles in their ancestry.
Now let me get this out of the way first and foremost, I AM NOT A BREEDER. I do not have a lot of pens of which I separate out my birds by gender, colour, feather etc, I am a backyard breeder who at this moment only has four birds for this project.
Now I have these four birds;
1. Silkied; Black; 4 Toes; Hen
2. Smooth; Chocolate; 5 Toes; Hen
3. Silkied; Chocolate; 4 Toes; Cockerel
4. Smooth; Partridge; 5 Toes; Cock
The one thing that bothers me is, I wouldn't consider these birds a mixbreed. I would call them smooth silkies, and silkied silkies. They all have a good type (besides the partridge but we're not keeping him anyways) good stature and look and act like silkies do.
The last bird to be in their ancestry that wasn't a silkie was a chocolate orpington cock some 10 generations ago to my knowledge. I have been calling them project silkies, and they do not look like a mix-breed.
Here's my main question; How long until I can say my silkies are actual silkies? I have the silkied chocolate cockerel I am afraid to call a silkie because both of his parents were smooth. I've been yelled at by people before about calling them silkies even though all of their parents were silkies, all of their grandparents were silkies, all of their great great grandparents were silkies! Just some had partially smooth feathers!
I do not own the birds that came before mine (I did own the parents to the partridge but they unfortunately passed) but I am close friends to the person who does own them so I know the parents of these smooth silkies and silkied silkies.
The whole project is to make silkied chocolate silkies but we will get smooth silkies along the way, that I know. I just want to be able to call them silkies still, but is that unreasonable since they had a orpington ancestor way back when?
I've always thought of it as "Silkie is a breed that has silkied feathers" because you can have frizzled silkies, so why not smooth silkies? Also; my birds are NOT sizzles, they do not have any sizzle or frizzles in their ancestry.
