I am looking around for show quality silkies. I looked on ebay, classifieds, market bulletin, and eggbid. It makes me sooo mad whenever I see an ad that says that their birds are from top quality show stock and is the best when there birds are just pet quality! I saw one that said there birds win at all shows and is amazing. There birds werent even that good! I know some inexperienced breeders may do this on accident not knowing the actual quality but I bet some other breeders that do it to scam the inexperienced buyers just to make money. They need to just be honest about what they are selling!
I really depends on where they are showing. last year we took a silkie to our county fair that was from TSC he won Best of Show ( i kid you not ) by "real" show standards he was awful no DQs but one fugly silkie. I asked the show superintendent, he then showed me the competition all of the other bantams had DQs one looked like it was missing a wing, seriously !!!! We don't have him any more and since then I have improved our stock he is going to the fair next week
if you are looking for show stock Bobbi Porto is in FL she has some very nice birds that are reasonably priced.
If you are looking for good birds remember SQ birds don't necessarily lay eggs that produce SQ chicks...better to buy some juvy birds that you select from a group from a good breeder. Then You can pick the exact bird with the exact traits that you want. Then your future breedings/chicks will be from birds that you selected; Not from eggs that are supposedly from SQ stock....I would guess very few SQ birds are hatched from eggs that are bought on EBAY...My experience...If you try to save a few $'s by buying eggs...GENERALLY you lose...Unless you are buying them directly from a reputable breeder...and then you aren't saving any money anyway.
Try looking for a nice breeder quality pair. Two amazing sq birds can produce nothing but cruddy chicks, two nice breeder birds, could produce great sq birds. Join the ASBC.
First of all, do NOT expect birds in the breeding pen to look like show quality even though they may be retired top show birds. The hens are treaded constantly and an aggressive roo can do a lot of damage to their crests. Heavy laying takes its toll too and they can get dirty and matted. Many Silkie hens will continue to lay for quite awhile if you pick the eggs up daily. A lot depends on the color you are looking for too. Other breeds are sometimes introduced to get a new color and need to be worked on until they are up to show standards. Probably less common are non-bearded variety Silkies. They can be show quality but have wattles and a smaller crest. They are not popular at shows and I never never seen one win over a bearded Silkie. They tend to look like mutts or dunghills (the term for a mutt chicken).
do not trust the people on ebay either, as I have had people selling their silkies with MY pictures on them and I DO have show quality birds. That being said, not all my chicks hatch as expected, so I always have some pet quality ones for sale. I also get fustrated with people advertising show quality birds and then seeing pics and the birds are crap. If your going to sell birds, take pics of when your birds are at their best if you want to sell them IMO. People often advertise their birds have won at numerous shows, well, that could mean they got a blue ribbon in the class, but what you do not know is what they were up against, if any birds at all!
Well I saw one ad for buff silkie eggs and all the buff silkies in the pictures had a lot of black in the tales. They had almost no crest and the color was really bad.
Quote:So true, I'm excited to start showing this year. In PA most of the county fairs only let 4h and ffa show, it's all kids, which is great. But we have a big farm show in January and it's an open show along with another for the kids. We were looking at polish results from last year, one couple won the polish in all classes, several only having a first place, and a couple with first and second. Something tells me this year when we go there that they will be our only competition in bantam polish. It kinda takes away from the win, and I just can't justify advertising my birds as show winners when there was only 1 or two other birds they were up against. That being said, I can see someone showing at a fair where they had the only silkie, or polish, and took first by default, then advertising as show winning.
If you find a breeder selling at a show, ask how much would it be for the ones they are showing at the actual show, because those are the ones you want. The ones they want to sell are not as good as the others. trust me
