Bantam chickens.. a friendly discussion about all pure and mixed breeds.

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Not arguing, but the silkies originally from China are medium-sized birds weighing about 5-6lbs average. Bantam Silkies were produced by crossing the original standard silkies with bantams to produce colored silkies, & of a smaller stature.

No, of course not, hon! I'm not arguing either! At least, I hope I'm not coming off as arguing! Just sharing knowledge.

Yes, I understand that Silkies were originally larger. Large fowl Silkies are pretty common in other countries still, too. But look at other hatchery quality breeds. Size discrepancies from the standard happen in most hatchery stock, usually as a result of focusing on the quantity of chicks produced rather than on selecting quality individuals as parent stock. Poor breeding practices lead to poor resulting offspring. Hoover's stock is the result of 75 years of this (or, well, however long they've had their Silkies). That's the hazard of going large scale with breeding and selling chicks; less of an ability to be selective of what birds produce offspring without risking losing sales.

A lot of the history behind the Silkie breed has been lost over time, thanks to cross breeding, over the years, so nobody really knows what size they really were.

Hang on, though... Didn't you just say what size they were in your last post? Just teasing, of course!

 

[MysteryChicken]

The original Chinese Silkie is thriving today.
Images from the internet.

Notice the larger comb, which is a distinctive feature of Original Chinese Silkie Bloodline.

My silkies.

 

[MysteryChicken]

No, of course not, hon! I'm not arguing either! At least, I hope I'm not coming off as arguing! Just sharing knowledge.

Yes, I understand that Silkies were originally larger. Large fowl Silkies are pretty common in other countries still, too. But look at other hatchery quality breeds. Size discrepancies from the standard happen in most hatchery stock, usually as a result of focusing on the quantity of chicks produced rather than on selecting quality individuals as parent stock. Poor breeding practices lead to poor resulting offspring. Hoover's stock is the result of 75 years of this (or, well, however long they've had their Silkies). That's the hazard of going large scale with breeding and selling chicks; less of an ability to be selective of what birds produce offspring without risking losing sales.





Hang on, though... Didn't you just say what size they were in your last post? Just teasing, of course!

There's just lots of confusion around this subject that needs to be cleared up, is what I meant on the second post.
I'm sharing knowledge also.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Your images are of a New Zealand farm's Silkies. I have no idea what the standard is in NZ, but looking at New Zealand websites dedicated to Silkies, I'd say they're spot on for what NZ looks for in their Silkies. I don't see any evidence of those being original Chinese bloodline Silkies anywhere, though?

My boys are fairly similar, too, and they're either culls from breeder quality flocks or the resulting offspring of culls. I guess the only picture I have available at the moment is of Winty crowing. Gonna have to dig up the others.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Your images are of a New Zealand farm's Silkies. I have no idea what the standard is in NZ, but looking at New Zealand websites dedicated to Silkies, I'd say they're spot on for what NZ looks for in their Silkies. I don't see any evidence of those being original Chinese bloodline Silkies anywhere, though?

My boys are fairly similar, too, and they're either culls from breeder quality flocks or the resulting offspring of culls. I guess the only picture I have available at the moment is of Winty crowing. Gonna have to dig up the others.

View attachment 1954117

Okay, I'll do a little more digging, large combs are a consistent trait of the original bloodline that fancy show folk want to erase, cuz they find it undesirable.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Looking forward to what you find!

The huge, dark wattles and blue earlobes on that NZ dude are pretty cool, honestly. Actually, as far as Silkies go, I rather like how theirs look over there compared to ours! Can't say I'm a huge fan of those big ol' wrinkly combs, either, though.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's a picture of Chinese Silkies from China, & a video. The video shows broiler Silkies which I also have a few of those.

My broiler Cockerel, & hen. I also have pullet, just don't have a picture of her.

Our hen is 2yrs old.

 

[BDutch]

So prices for chickens are about the same on both continents.

Here you can't order chicks by post as far as I know. But it is not rare to buy fertile eggs that way. Eggs are distributed all over Europe by post. Especially by people who have rare breeds and contribute in shows for special breeds. 1 euro for a promising is a normal price. So ordering a box with 10 eggs cost approx 17 euro.

If you want to raise chicks its obvious that you need to deal with a surplus of roosters.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here's a picture of Chinese Silkies from China,

Hmm, what's your source for this image? With the larger crest, smaller comb, and thinner build on that dude, he doesn't really look much like the other original bloodline Silkies (the NZ ones) you posted...

The video shows broiler Silkies which I also have a few of those.
My broiler Cockerel, & hen. I also have pullet, just don't have a picture of her.

Our hen is 2yrs old.

Interesting on the broiler Silkies! And WOW, that's a crazy comb on that guy!! I love that hen with her li'l tuft crest! I see she's 2 years old. I'm assuming they don't suffer from shortened lifespans like most Cornish X broilers do? How meaty do they feel? Did they fill in fast like CX broilers do?

If you want to raise chicks its obvious that you need to deal with a surplus of roosters.

Yup, and I believe that's why Rubysword hasn't been able to get bantams; she's not allowed to have roosters where she lives.

 

[chickens really]

Interesting conversation about Silkies..
I'm waiting for a call back from a Silkie breeder for confirmation about this topic of standard and Bantam Silkies. What I was originally told and understood is that Silkie should not be a standard size and that the bigger ones are a result of poor breeding. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing back though with the results..