Buff Silkie Thread!

[Celtic Hill]

So there has been a lot of talk about Buff Silkies on the silkie thread, so I decided to make a topic just for us who are breeding buff silkies to talk about our trials and tribulations. I think it would be great for new breeders as well as more experienced breeders to share their experiences!

-Ian

 

[Celtic Hill]

Thanks!


Pam, I have never seen his stock, are the nice?

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
If your going to sell birds/eggs in the future it's best to keep the colors pure. Mate blue and splash together and find a partridge male for the girls.

 

[homeschoolchick]

So, can I have them all together unless breeding, and then seperate them out for awhile? If so, how long do you keep the breeders together?

 

[chickendales]

rember type is more important then color a smutty buff breed to clear buff well produce you come nice babies smutt is a important part of buff it keep the comb and eyes darker

So how do you get the smutt out of buff silkies?

I started with a trio. hens were very clean except a few tail feathers no biggy, roo had a bit of smutt in the wings but not much and then some tail smutt. hatched out of them and kept a lot of babies some have tail smutt and look fairly clean others have wing smutt and tail smutt

so I decided to get some hatching eggs from a different line. They were supposed to be show quality buffs and I was less than impressed come hatch day.

They were smuttier than any of the chicks I had hatched and one had a crooked beak and the toe spacing was not bad, but closer than my line. I'm not naming any names on where I got them from, but the few adults in the picture looked clean so I thought I was adding good blood into my buff program. These chicks have grown out, some have smutt in their crests, several have smutt in their leg feathering and then of course in the wings and tail feathers

 

[destiny_56085]

There are also 2 genetic bases for the buff color...partridge and wheaten. The partridge base is responsible for the dark skin and often times smut (darker feathers) on the bird. The wheaten gives you those nice clear golden buffs, but also reverts you back to red skin. In silkies, the standard calls for black skin and some smut is permissible. The key is to getting the perfect combination of these 2 genes to get dark skin on a bird almost free of smut. You also need to watch out for getting a white undertone on the base of the feathers. You want a nice clear golden buff all the way from base of feathers to the tips. It takes raising ALOT of them to get that combo, but I guess that is why a lot of people aren't showing them in the same numbers as the black and whites.
Here are some good examples of ones I've raised.

 

[DoubleMM]

 

[carolsmith7878]

My little Cinnabun.

 

[mrslb333]

Is buff what the UK call gold?

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
Yes.