Silkie and polish questions

chicksinthailand

Chirping
Aug 26, 2021
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Hello, I am new at raising chickens, only 9 months or so, and I live in Thailand. Our neighbors got so excited when we got 4 chickens that they started giving us random fancy chickens, so now we have some silkie and polish, in addition to the Japanese bantams we started with.
I love my fancy chickens, and I know they are not show quality, but if anyone can give me some info about them, what the colors are called, what is good or bad about their appearance I would love to know more about them and how they stack up with their breed.

This one is Lando, she is about 7 months old. She has a 5th toe you can't see in the picture. She hasn't come into lay yet.
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The next one is my polish frizzle hen, Han Solo (all the polish get star wars names). She is 8 months old, has not come into lay yet, and also has a 5th toe. She is not related to Lando.
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My other Polish hen is 6 months old, she has some little bits of black along her wings, and a couple crest feathers with black edges. She has normal 4 toes.
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Last is my silkie rooster, Big Papi. I'm looking forward to breeding him to my frizzled hen. What is his color called? I also noticed he has a couple toenails missing on one foot. Is that a genetic problem with silkies?
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Thanks for any information you can give. I do want to know how they compare to what their breed should be. But I love them all and their wonderful personalities, so none of their imperfections will bother me :)
 
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Lando looks like a silver laced Polish crossed with a Silkie. The Silkie genetics are giving her the extra toe and the dark facial skin. You can see the imperfect silver laced pattern on her plumage, especially on her back.

Han Solo is also a mix. Maybe Polish crossed with Silkie again, or maybe Sultan is the breed of the other parent, since the dark skin of Silkies isn't apparent. Her coloring is very mixed and doesn't fit any standard variety, but one or more of her ancestors had lacing, too.

The white one is probably white Polish maybe mixed with another color of Polish, to give her the black markings. One thing I have noticed is that your birds have white legs. In America, Polish are supposed to have slate blue legs, but I am not sure what color the legs are supposed to be according to the standards of other countries. Standards can vary a lot from on country to the next.

The Silkie has mixed coloring, too. I would call that color splash with gold leakage. In this country, show Silkies should have black skin, including facial skin. You can see some of that in his face but he should have darker features, nearly black. The toenails probably came off some time during his development. I'm not aware of Silkies having any problems with toenails.

They are all pretty birds, and I hope you enjoy them.
 
Thanks so much! I forgot to say that Lando also has blue ears, so that fits with you saying she's mixed with silkie. I'll try breeding her to my silkie rooster once she starts laying. I'm dying to get some satins, and eventually some frizzled silkies from my frizzle hen...
Who knew chickens would be so addictive!
 
Thanks so much! I forgot to say that Lando also has blue ears, so that fits with you saying she's mixed with silkie. I'll try breeding her to my silkie rooster once she starts laying. I'm dying to get some satins, and eventually some frizzled silkies from my frizzle hen...
Who knew chickens would be so addictive!
You're welcome, and yes, chickens can be a lot of fun. That rooster and any of those hens will make pretty offspring.
 

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