California-Southern

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Dang I just went to the website and didnt see silkeys at all. NOW I have to find the person that posted the pix of the silky that was bigger than a RIR....

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

OK found the thread and here is a link to the photo I saw and its reference to Silkeys and Mt Healty hatcheries. Unfortunately this thread is old like about a year old.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/549435/giant-silkie/10


deb

 

[DrTacosMD]

OK found the thread and here is a link to the photo I saw and its reference to Silkeys and Mt Healty hatcheries. Unfortunately this thread is old like about a year old.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/549435/giant-silkie/10


deb

Hey, thanks so much for this info! I'll be checking their site frequently.

 

[Sylvester017]

Hi All,
I'm new here. My parents recently bought a small ranch in Riverside County near Woodcrest and we're currently starting up a flock of layers. The layers are 6 ~12 week Rhode Island Red hens. They're currently with a Delaware and an Ameraucana cockerel. And we have a silkie rooster over a year old. We're also currently raising ~4 week old Silkie, Buff Orpington, Marans, Sicilian Buttercup, Phoenix chicks. We're planning on crossing the silkie with a cornish cross to try and get bigger silkies to butcher earlier for meat; we love black meat chicken.

Does anyone know of any LF cochin breeders in or near Riverside? They don't have to be purebred or high quality. My parents just want some cochins as meat birds.

Look forward to hearing from you guys! =]

The U.K. has had bantam and LF Silkies for a while. The only thing is that their standard Silkies don't have beards. In the U.S. both bearded and non-bearded are allowed but the U.K. and Australia seem to all have the beardless variety. It's interesting that you thought of crossing Cornish w/Silkies. Personally we can't eat our pets and find ourselves opting for turkey at the supermarket and restaurants lol !

 

[DrTacosMD]

Thanks! I'll look out for those too.

Yeah, we got a lot of heads turning when we bought 14 bantam silkies and told the store owner that we plan on eating them. Black bone chicken is kind of a delicacy for Taiwanese& Chinese people.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks! I'll look out for those too.

Yeah, we got a lot of heads turning when we bought 14 bantam silkies and told the store owner that we plan on eating them. Black bone chicken is kind of a delicacy for Taiwanese& Chinese people.

There are also Swedish Black Hens, Korean Ogye, and Ayam Cemani that are all black skinned and black combed like Silkies and are larger breeds around the 4 to 6 lb weight - would probably be easier to pluck than fine Silkie hair.

 

[UrbanFarmOC]

Thanks! I'll look out for those too.


Yeah, we got a lot of heads turning when we bought 14 bantam silkies and told the store owner that we plan on eating them. Black bone chicken is kind of a delicacy for Taiwanese

There are also Swedish Black Hens, Korean Ogye, and Ayam Cemani that are all black skinned and black combed like Silkies and are larger breeds around the 4 to 6 lb weight - would probably be easier to pluck than fine Silkie hair.

True, but those breeds are also much more expensive than silkies. To make them more cost effective for food, even a delicacy, one would probably want to set up a breeding program first. (Even then, they'd be expensive meals considering the prices those types of chickens can fetch!) I looked into all the black-boned and black-meat chickens as possible dual-purpose food options for my parents (who are Taiwanese) when they move here. However, I have LF breeds (as pets) and am not prepared to keep both bantams and LF at this time, nor am I prepared to have or invest in a breeding program. Maybe in the future.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Ever bought one of those.... Ayam Cemani just came down from 2500.00 each to 99.00 per chick straight run....

For what its worth Silkeys have feathers...Not hair. The difference is their feathers don't have barbs to hold them together. I personally would love to see the cross with the Cornish....

There is one other bird that is Melanistic to a degree and widely sold. And that is the Sumatra.

I am planning on raising Sumatras myself because of their characteristics... Black skin bones and combs... Not as black as the Ayam but certainly in my price range. My thought is to cross Sumatras with Amarucanas... for blue eggs. But the main purpose for me is the Sumatras are fierce broodies and just about as active as Guinea fowl... Perfect for raising up a few broods of Guinea keets.

Not everyone keeps chickens as pets. I do raise Chickens and Guineas with respect and good care. Oh there will be a few that I will get attached to and name.... But my goal will be to be self sufficient, provide food for the table, and hopefully earn enough money to pay the feed bills.

Provide I can keep the predators at bay.

deb

 

[Sylvester017]

Ever bought one of those.... Ayam Cemani just came down from 2500.00 each to 99.00 per chick straight run....

For what its worth Silkeys have feathers...Not hair. The difference is their feathers don't have barbs to hold them together. I personally would love to see the cross with the Cornish....
.

deb

HaHa - I know the Silkies have feathers but everyone who sees them either call it hair on their head or fur on their body so we laughingly call their feathers "hair"!!! I figure everyone who has Silkies know that info already.

 

[Sylvester017]

True, but those breeds are also much more expensive than silkies. To make them more cost effective for food, even a delicacy, one would probably want to set up a breeding program first. (Even then, they'd be expensive meals considering the prices those types of chickens can fetch!) I looked into all the black-boned and black-meat chickens as possible dual-purpose food options for my parents (who are Taiwanese) when they move here. However, I have LF breeds (as pets) and am not prepared to keep both bantams and LF at this time, nor am I prepared to have or invest in a breeding program. Maybe in the future.

Yeah, breeding is a huge project to undertake. Sounds like you have your situation well planned out! The Cemanis and SBHs started out 5K per breeding pair and now they're down to $99 per chick. If there are more breeders out there they might eventually come down more. I just bought a Breda at a somewhat reasonable price compared to what they were going for from GFF a few years back. BTW the Breda is a lovely temperament bird as well as lovely to look at. Breeders have them in about 5 different varieties now with new imported bloodlines not from GFF. It'll be nice to see that happen with the melanistic breeds - the only problem is so far they seem to be on the smaller side - not as small as bantams but still on the lightweight side.