Breeding silkies/chickens - have some questions **PICS ADDED page 2**

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I like to think of a really typey silkie as "swan like" in it's elegance and posture. Not overdone...just....perfect!!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I thought about saying elegant like a swan, but was afraid someone would mention that swans have long, long necks, and slkies, should not

Wish I were good at photoshop.

edited to correct typos

 

[robin416]

Quote:
There you go, Suze, that's the type I find pleasing to the eye. Not over exaggerated but a nice compact package.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Thank you

 

[CheshieChick13]

Quote:
There you go, Suze, that's the type I find pleasing to the eye. Not over exaggerated but a nice compact package.

X 2! Beautiful birds

 

[CheshieChick13]

Here are some pics of the birds I am working with.
These Lavs are originally from Birds of Paradise, I bought them from a woman who was getting out of Lavender breeding.

The gray hen below I have added in to the Lavender breeding pen to get some splits. As a Gray her color is poor, she has a lot of gold tones bleeding through. The rest of her is nice though, no DQ's.
I am hoping adding Lavender into the genetics will offset the gold bleeding through and give a more silver gray in the off spring. It's an experiment so we shall see, regardless the chicks are beautiful so far

With the Blue Rooster I posted pics of earlier in the thread, I am going to go ahead and splurge on some SQ splash hens when I find some. My blue rooster is kept seperate from my Lavs for obvious reasons.

I would agree with what was posted earlier about not breeding anything with DQ's. While most my birds won't bring home a blue ribbon, they have potential to throw offspring that may eventually be competitively SQ. I say competitively, because you can really show any bird. I have read stories from people showing a production quality silkie and bringing home a blue ribbon beacuse it was a tiny town fair with not much selection to judge, LOL.

 

[The Lisser]

Thank you, Three Cedars Silkies, Sonoran Silkies, robin 416, Smokey73, Silkie Craziness (and I apologize if I'm forgetting anyone!) for your excellent explanations on "type"! This is what I had in mind - it is actually not too dissimilar from "type" in llamas as far as a proud, balanced stance! (not the S shape though). Sorry for the belated response, I've been hatching chicks and got a little distracted . . .

My oldest "chicks" are feathering in more. The white one (that everyone told me is a cockerel . . . but I still think pullet

) has what I think is good type:

She is still feathering in of course. I think her wings may be what the experts call "loose"??

Here is her hatch-mate, a splash, which I can tell is getting a larger crest. Not as much of the S-shape but still nice I think:

Of course I can't claim these to be from my breeding program, cause I'm just starting! But so far I think they have definitely made the grade to be in my breeding program. What do you all think?

BTW CheshieChick13, I'm jealous of your lavenders!

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

They are still young. Take more pics when they are 7-8 months old and it will really surprise you how much they have changed.

I agree that their wings aren't the best, but sometimes that does improve with age. Perhaps they become more accustomed to the weight of their wings and build up muscle that help to hold them up better. I have had them do this...especially males.

Below is a picture of what I consider perfect wings. A nice little "smile" when you look at them from the side.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Lovely!

 

[The Lisser]

Yes, I see what you mean with the wings. I hope since mine are only 3 months old they will do as you say and "grow" into their wings. For a while I was worried that the white had split wing but the wing feathers have grown in more and it doesn't seem to be the case.

In comparing them to that photo and the ones posted on the previous page, I can see the differences - mine look "scrawny" in comparison - but they are young and still have some filling out to do.

On that note, what do you all feed your birds to help with feather development? I have been giving mine cooked egg a couple times of week in addition to their crumbles.