Cackle hatchery Silkies?

[NNYchick]

We ordered 6 blue silkie bantams. So far only one is looking really blue, the rest appear more black. There is one bigger than the others that has a single comb so that's not great. I also ordered buff cochin bantams and two of the roosters are really poor in the hips. One looks like he can barely stand. Goes around squatted down all the time. So I'm not sold on the quality of their genetics.

Ya I’m not all that impressed all the cockerels were really leggy and long backs. The girls aren’t too bad they aren’t as fluffy as my own stock. I’m going to try breeding them with my own boy that has good type maybe in a couple generations I can improve on them. I ended up with 10 boys and 5 girls out of the 15. 3 end up with health issues, 1 leg issue I tried to fix but never corrected and 2 with wry neck, one seemed to have improved but one never did. I also got chicks from a breeder that I sold eggs to last year, they were all about the same age and raised together and none of them had issues so I’m thinking genetics.
Blues can be very dark difficult to distinguish from black. I’m actually trying to lighten my own blues because they are that dark, I know the blues from black because of chicks down color and they have a lighter under fluff than black. I need to find a light boy to put with them with.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

I agree, cackle doesn’t seem to have the best quality but I’d say the best out of any hatcheries at least.

I’m doing the same thing as you @NNYchick I'm going to attempt to improve them by breeding them with my stock. The biggest reason I decided to order from cackle is because I wanted more colors. So now hopefully I can just improve the shapes.

 

[NNYchick]

I know this thread is a couple of months old but I'm curious how your cackle silkies are doing health wise. Mine were from the May 1st splash silkie hatch. Out of the 5 pullets I have kept I have one left. Like I said earlier I had leg issue, then 2 with sever wry neck, recently one developed resp. symptoms that I culled immediately, now one just started not using its legs.
This has been an absolutely horrible experience. I am going on 3 yrs with silkies and have not dealt with any of these issues in my flock. I purchased 5 silkies from a local breeder shortly after getting these cackle silkies and they are all fine no health issues what so ever.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

I know this thread is a couple of months old but I'm curious how your cackle silkies are doing health wise. Mine were from the May 1st splash silkie hatch. Out of the 5 pullets I have kept I have one left. Like I said earlier I had leg issue, then 2 with sever wry neck, recently one developed resp. symptoms that I culled immediately, now one just started not using its legs.
This has been an absolutely horrible experience. I am going on 3 yrs with silkies and have not dealt with any of these issues in my flock. I purchased 5 silkies from a local breeder shortly after getting these cackle silkies and they are all fine no health issues what so ever.

The silkies I got are doing fine so far, they are going on to 4 months old now. I did rehome a few of them because some were more poor of quality, and I kept the better of the bunch. But health wise, no issues yet.

I’m sorry to hear that yours didn’t too good.

 

[NNYchick]

I just don’t understand I didn’t do anything different with these than I normally do with chicks and the others that didn’t come from cackle are doing great same age. I’m hoping the one that’s not walking just bruised something and will get better with rest because I can’t find any injuries or reasons why she has difficulty walking so I set her up with food and water giving her some rest.
The pullets did turn out pretty decent for hatchery.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

I just don’t understand I didn’t do anything different with these than I normally do with chicks and the others that didn’t come from cackle are doing great same age. I’m hoping the one that’s not walking just bruised something and will get better with rest because I can’t find any injuries or reasons why she has difficulty walking so I set her up with food and water giving her some rest.
The pullets did turn out pretty decent for hatchery.
View attachment 1929293

Hmm, maybe just a bad batch?

That pullet is looking pretty darn nice looking considering she came from a hatchery! I’m still waiting on a few of mine to grow out a bit more, I’m hoping they’ll fill in more.

 

[NNYchick]

Yes definitely grow them out. They aren’t quite as balanced as my hens but no so far off from type that you can’t improve on them with a good rooster. I plan to test breed them to my black rooster in my profile picture, he has good balance and has reliably given me chicks with good type and balance. I just hope they pass the health test because that is first on my list for breeding as I don’t want to pass on weak genetics.