Got great-looking silkies from Cackle!

[Me & Jack]

Just rec'd 17 (ordered 15) blue silkie chicks from Cackle and I'm very impressed. Some are vaulted, most look like they'll have nice top knots, all are bearded, none have major toe formation defects like extra toes (although five have white-tipped toes), and at least five of them have great toe spacing! All but three have heavily feathered feet - including the middle toes! Only two have single combs. It cost me $43 including S & H for these.

Earlier this spring I spent $102 ordering ten "SQ" chicks from a breeder in the mid-west. Two had extra toes, only two had small vaults, half were non-bearded, and only two had anything worth mentioning in terms of feet feathering.

Also rec'd six from a friend who ordered from Ideal - two were bearded, none have middle toe feathering other than two chicks that have a couple of tufts at the end of the toe, two have single combs, and the wing feathers coming in on two of them are miscolored.

But these Cackle chicks are so much nicer than I could have expected. I'll be hanging onto at least half of them (was planning to sell all as pet quality) just to see if they might have breeder or SQ potential. Can't believe I'm even saying that! I've never heard of anyone doing that with hatchery chicks, but these are just so nice, I can't believe it!

Did I luck out, or is this typical for Cackle? (This was my first time ever ordering from them - usually go through a breeder when I want something nice or McMurray for your basic, dual-purpose birds.)

- J

 

[THough1956]

Keep us posted on their developement.

I ordered Silkies from Ideal over a year ago. Arrived wonderfully, no problem with Ideal. But at the time I did not know any better. Not show quaility at all, bad toes etc.

I want SQ, but from all I read hatching eggs don't really have a good hatch rate and even when you order full grown birds they are not always as promised. Can you not take even the ones Ideal have and breed best to best and come out with better birds. I just can not find show quaility around local. Although, I do have a lady that has some above hatchery chicks.

 

[Me & Jack]

A very smart young man, who's also an up and coming breeder, gave me some good advice.

Don't waste time trying to breed mediocre birds. If you want SQ birds you've got to start out with them that way - or at least have them as breeder quality. Breeding the best of your mediocre birds together will likely only produce more of the same, not necessarily better birds.

Guess it depends on what you want: to develop your own line or to simply have pretty birds to look at.

As for hatching eggs, I've had great luck and I've had lousy luck in the past. Sometimes I've had 100% hatches and other times I've had 25%. The thing about hatching eggs is that the breeder who sells them can't tell if there are ANY flaws whatsoever. Whereas, if you buy chicks or started birds they'll be able to assess whether or not they've at least got potential to be good quality birds.

Now, having said all of this, there's no guarantee one way or the other. My assumption is that no breeder is going to send you the best of its new birds for the season.They want to keep the best for themselves. What you end up with then is likely the culls - the birds the breeder has deemed imperfect or lower quality than they're striving for. It's the whole point in breeding, really.

But I did read a good article written by Nikki Stetson of HatTrick Silkies about the importance of waiting to see how the birds fill out, so to speak. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.hattricksilkies.net/articles_maturity.html

Anyhow, we're only a couple of hours from you (near Durham). Would love to share silkie knowledge, etc. Let me know.

- J

 

[THough1956]

Everything you said it true! It is just so hard and expensive to get started. And then I get attached to the ones I have, and hate getting rid of them. I am finally culling and getting started on finding some good stock. I am going to start looking at the toes on chicks and go from there!!!!

I had read that article from Hat Trick already. Very informative.

Are you showing? I belong to Forsyth Fowl Fanciers and we do 2 shows a year in WS.

 

[peakpoultry]

I did hear that Cackle has very nice chicks, I didn't believe it, but now I may order some.

 

[Me & Jack]

Okay here are a few pics I managed to take. Will try for more later.

If I'm delusional about these chicks please don't tell me!!

 

[bragabit]

I am really interested in this, as there are NO local breeder for Silkies in my area. I would like to try breeding but completely at a loss as to where I would even find starting stock.

 

[CallyB57]

I have 6 silkies..from 2 different breeders. The 2 buff ones were $36 a piece and the shipping box was $75, with no refund on postage. The other breeder sent back $15 on postage refund and she sent me the 3 blues and 1 white and they were either $6 or $8 apiece for PQ, but a crooked-beaked one that I was going to take stopped eating, so the breeder sent a healthy replacement. The buff ones AND the blues and the one white are all pet quality, as none are perfect. I have to say though, that one of the blues is quite beautiful in color, stature and 'fluff'. Some have a few feathers with dark spots, a couple have 6 toes and one has white tips on its toes. In my eyes they are all perfect and I don't believe I could love a SQ bird any more than I love the ones I bought. Just letting you know of the difference in breeder charges, as there was no difference in quality that I could see. Some breeders will sell you a PQ bird, even if you say you intend to show them, so make perfectly clear what your intentions are with the birds, and be ready to pay a hefty price for actual SQ birds.

 

[Me & Jack]

Just letting you know of the difference in breeder charges, as there was no difference in quality that I could see. Some breeders will sell you a PQ bird, even if you say you intend to show them, so make perfectly clear what your intentions are with the birds, and be ready to pay a hefty price for actual SQ birds.

Yes, it's certainly possible to spend a fortune on individual birds and have nothing to show for it in terms of SQ.

We use to have SQ Splash Orpingtons and SQ RIR (the real deal, not production birds). We paid $10 a piece for them as chicks from a local exhibitor and basically kept them as pets (we never intended to show, really).

Eventually a friend of ours offered us $30 each for several of the nicest ones. We let her have them for $10 - what we'd paid. But we know someone else who paid considerably more for lesser quality birds than what we had and showed them successfully.

As someone else said (probably lots of folks, actually), beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What's SQ to me might only be PQ to you. And my less-than-stellar SQ bird might not even place in one show but will win BV in another - just because of the competition.

I still find it hard to believe that any breeder will intentionally sell PQ birds if you ask for SQ. But that doesn't mean he or she will send the best they've got (they keep those for themselves) - just the best that you're willing to pay for and the best they're willing to part with. For $35-$50 per bird one shouldn't expect perfection. I don't think it exists yet, anyhow!

So, it's true you don't have to spend a fortune for nice birds, and it's also true that spending a fortune is no guarantee.

Having said that, we recently acquired some gorgeous silkies from a very reputable breeder and we couldn't be happier - they're beautiful. We plan to show at least one of them as the season starts up in our neck of the woods. They'll also be our pets, too, however. They sit in our laps (with a towel) while we watch t.v. in the evenings. Lots of fun!

If I'm lucky and any of these Cackle chicks end up with some great qualities, I'll maybe try to incorporate them into my future breeding program. It was one of the reasons for my original post: These chicks cost me the least of all the day-old chicks I bought and, yet, they're the most promising of all.​

 

[yellowflower]

How did you get them for $43? It comes to $55 when I do it. Were they on sale when you ordered them?