Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Silkies have a specific shape, much like Polishes have their own shape. 5 toes, often dark skin and innards, comb and wattle shape, big ol cushion at the base of the tail.
A silkie mixed may inherit the specifics, but not the silkied feathers, then they're satin. Often they also have traits of other breeds.

Satin silkies are basically just a name for a bird with a specific shape or bloodline, but normal feathers.

Hope this helps, my migraine pills have finally started kicking in.
Some photos of my sillies
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That first hen is lovely - love the colouring.

 

[SimpleJenn]

That first hen is lovely - love the colouring.

Navy Beans is 1/2 splash copper marans, 1/4 silkie, 1/4 cream legbar. And she acts pure silkie

 

[rural mouse]

But, but, but how can a Silkie have normal feathers and still be a Silkie? I mean a Silkie is a Silkie because it has silkie feathers.
If it doesn’t have silkie feathers, surely it isn’t a Silkie?!

You would think. The silkied feathers are recessive while normal feathers are dominant. So a silkie (furry feathers) bred to a normal feathered bird will show normal feathers, but good chance of the 5 toes, black skin (or mulberry which is the black and red comb color mixed together), feathered feet, crest, size. However, those birds will carry the silkied feathers trait.

If bred to another of the same sort of mix, 75% of the offspring will be normal feathered (satin), with 1/3 of those NOT carrying the silkied trait (2/3 will be like the parents: satin, with possibility of throwing silkied babies). The other 25% of the chicks will be silkied. (The other trait mixes can come and go within that too, creating greater variation between offspring from the same parents).

2 silkied feathered birds will produce silkied feathers 100% of the time.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hauled the babies out for a look see, I am worried about the oldest chippy chick. She had a pasty butt so I cleaned it up and put a dab of polysporin in the site as her umbilicus is also located there and looked a bit off to me.

I made sure she had a drink and some food - her crop is empty, the other two are full. In the morning I will make sure she is out eating with the other two.

Who knew having chicks would be as stressful as horses.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Tedi is sporting a cute Buckeye Fascinator back there

 

[Grandma The Chicken]

Today, Mozzarella took a step inside the cat cave (well, cat's tent while he was away).
You know what they say, when the cat's away, the chicken will step inside the cat cave. Or something like that. Maybe when the cat's away, the chicken will play?

 

[Sylvester017]

Henny Penny is a Satin Silkie - they have regular feathers.

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@Sylvester017 as you can see Marty (behind Henny) has the gold feathers on her neck. They are there all the time.

If Marty is a Black Silkie she seems to have what they refer to as "leaking" a different color which I believe they say is a disqualification in show terms for Black Silkies.

But if she has both a gold collar plus gold speckled wing tips also she'd be classified a Dark Partridge ~ not a registered color for partridge yet cuz there's no established uniform standard but that's what breeders are calling them right now ~ not a popular variation I guess. As far as I can tell they probably never will standardize them. I refer to them as "mutts" since they aren't a registered Silkie partridge color... yet.

Gold speckled partridge wing tips on a Dark Partridge:

Our Mika is a Dark Partridge ~ a lot of her gold circular collar is hidden by her outer black feathers. She has to sit or move at a certain angle to see her gold collar. Same w/ her speckled wing tips too where the black body feather fluff covers the wing feathers. At 1st glance one might think she's all jet black... then she moves & the partridge shows.

DH isn't the best photographer w/ lighting or angles ~ he takes these w/ his cellphone.

Broody pancake Mika

DH is not the best picture taker but you can sort of see Mika's gold wing tips on her black body feathers? When she stands the gold collar disappears.

Again... not the best pic... Mika is the center chick moulting but if she moves just right her gold collar (hackles?) show.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

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11 eggs today. Another of the leghorns is laying.
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Navy and her babies. 3 are satin and 1 is silkie feathered. That gives me 3 total silkie feathered in my massive group of silkies.
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Sittin on mama
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My buff silkie mix. One that will be in the run crew. I believe kiddo and I have chosen 8 to go in the run and the other 10 will be rangers? My math may be off, I have been feeling gradually sicker these past few days.
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Chocolate was laying her egg and chatting with little Dream. I think she was talking her through the egg laying process. They laid there and chatted around the divider until Chocolate was finished laying. How sweet.

Looks like that’s a metal frame that you’ve got chicken wire or netting over? What did you get for the frame and is it sturdy? What do you do for winter? Do you cover it for snow and does it hold up?

 

[Ponypoor]

If Marty is a Black Silkie she seems to have what they refer to as "leaking" a different color which I believe they say is a disqualification in show terms for Black Silkies.

But if she has both a gold collar plus gold speckled wing tips also she'd be classified a Dark Partridge ~ not a registered color for partridge yet cuz there's no established uniform standard but that's what breeders are calling them right now ~ not a popular variation I guess. As far as I can tell they probably never will standardize them. I refer to them as "mutts" since they aren't a registered Silkie partridge color... yet.

Gold speckled partridge wing tips on a Dark Partridge:
View attachment 4209229
View attachment 4209230

Our Mika is a Dark Partridge ~ a lot of her gold circular collar is hidden by her outer black feathers. She has to sit or move at a certain angle to see her gold collar. Same w/ her speckled wing tips too where the black body feather fluff covers the wing feathers. At 1st glance one might think she's all jet black... then she moves & the partridge shows.

DH isn't the best photographer w/ lighting or angles ~ he takes these w/ his cellphone.

Broody pancake Mika
View attachment 4209231

DH is not the best picture taker but you can sort of see Mika's gold wing tips on her black body feathers? When she stands the gold collar disappears.
View attachment 4209233

Again... not the best pic... Mika is the center chick moulting but if she moves just right her gold collar (hackles?) show.

My tomatoes still won’t ripen, I have resorted to bringing them inside to ripen. On the up side my peaches are ripening. I’ll pick them and bring them inside today so the squirrels won’t get them! I picked all my Asian Pears on the one tree, one of the branches actually broke there was so much fruit. The other pear tree is about a week out for ripening.

Ok here is the tax for all this food talk

Here is Clyde from yesterday modelling his Mugs Monday poor fella is still moulting.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hauled the babies out for a look see, I am worried about the oldest chippy chick. She had a pasty butt so I cleaned it up and put a dab of polysporin in the site as her umbilicus is also located there and looked a bit off to me.

I made sure she had a drink and some food - her crop is empty, the other two are full. In the morning I will make sure she is out eating with the other two.

Who knew having chicks would be as stressful as horses.

Update on wee silkie babies. They were all out having a drink and eating when I did chores. I checked out wee Chippy-choo (I guess that’s her name now haha) and her butt is clear now. And the umbilicus looks dry. I’ll keep a close eye on her next few days.

They seem to be thriving, it’s supposed to be nice and warm here today so I will get Whiskers off the nest so I can get her and the bebes moved over to the pen in the Summer House.

Here are a couple of other baby mugs; I need to name these ladies if they elate going to stay.

Red Girl

Pretty Girl