Showgirl thread- for posting pictures and discussing breed!

[chickendales]

bethbug74 nice little film clip. Thanks and how exciting for the little child ! Also What a feisty little chick ! I love all these showgirls and seeing them makes me hope for some of my own. I have hatched eggs from my Serama/NN covered by blue silkie Rooster but so far all birds have been silkie mixes with feathered necks. Guess I'll need to get a Showgirl pair and make life easier.

yes it well

 

[chickendales]

Good luck on making your own showgirls! Don't risk SGxSG breeding, though. My girls are showgirls and their man is a feathered neck silkie. You get 50/50 naked necks/feathered necks that way, but with SGxSG the danger of debilitating lack of feathering all over their bodies is prohibitive. The feathered necks are nice silkies anyway.

i know plenty breeders that do showgirl to showgirl but yes i perfur silkie to showgirl

 

[flower]

At least I need some showgirls of each gender. It is funny that I did have a beautiful pair but I gave them away because the hen would have nothing to do with the rooster. I did not know enough to keep them to breed with feathered silkies. What a dope !!!

 

[blessedchick]

i know plenty breeders that do showgirl to showgirl but yes i perfur silkie to showgirl

I have had no problems with SGxSG breeding. Lots of beautifully bowtied babies with good, dark skin. I do take those babies to cross out on Silkies, though, so it is only one generation of SGxSG

 

[bethbug74]

I think that as long as both parents are heterozygous for the NN gene (bowtied) then SGxSG works out ok, but from what I understand homozygous (clean neck, no beard) birds shouldn't be paired in order to avoid the naked body problems.

 

[flower]

These are my NN bantams. So far any eggs fertilized by blue silkie Rooster have been feather necks. How many eggs need to be hatched before I get a nn/silkie instead of regular silkie cross ?

 

[bethbug74]

You won't get a showgirl with silkie type until F7 or 8, at least. The bowties on your hens will make it harder to snag the initial NN gene, as well. Once you have that, then you can backcross with novel silkie genes to eliminate hard feathering, 4 toes, etc. Inga Ladd has a decent write up on starting from scratch:
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/BreedShowgirls.html

 

[flower]

Thank you for the post. I'll do my reading but.......Since it will take so very long, I am determined to find some Showgirls at the next show for
Bantams. So far any success is getting black coloring and silkie feet. I have a few little roosters like that.

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

Hi. This is my first Showgirl. He came from a lady who is nuts about raising and showing Showgirls. I've held him since he was a chick, He eats out of my hand. Yet, every morning and every night is drama when I take him in/put him up. Yelling and running. Anyway, I was going to keep him, because I think he's one of the few show quality chickens that I have. I don't hadn't really planned on raising Showgirls (unless he's great quality). To keep him, I'll need to build a better coop. My question is, in all honesty, is he nice enough to show? If not, I can sell him, not worry about another coop and run, and keep the Silkie hens that I was going to give him for the Silkie roos. Oh- he's 5 months old in this pic. Thanks for the advice- I won't get my feelings hurt! Pam

His skin is darker than this- I had to lighten the pic because of shade.

 

[bethbug74]

Seems like it would be worth a try to show him, he looks decent to me, but I'm not really a shower.

Why is there drama when he goes to roost at night? Why would you have to "take/put" a chicken up? Is he trying to roost in trees instead of his coop?
Is he living alone, away from your others? Do they not like going to bed properly as well?
Make sure that their roost/laying house is spacious, clean (I use deep litter method with pine shavings and hanging nipple waterers made of 5 gallon buckets), DRY, well ventilated. Keep gravity feeder inside the roost/laying house, this reminds them of where they belong. i also water in there, but mainly so that they are entirely self sufficient in there for about a week if i have to go on a trip. Make sure there are plenty of roosts (2-3 feet per bird). Make sure that life is unpleasant when he tries to roost in trees instead. I've never had a problem with all of mine going to bed at sunset unless there was a problem (ran out of food, not dry, not enough room). Otherwise, birds that are raised by themselves take a while to join the class activities, so to speak. I just go out about sunset and here everyone in if I'm afraid there is a dummy. Whacking at the trees they want to sleep in very time they jump up does the trick, then they'll follow the other girls in pretty well.

Once I have a roost set up properly, I lock new residents in for a few days and nights so they get the idea, and don't have much trouble.