Silkie breading

[Noraaaaa]

Hi! I was wondering how you breed bearded silkies. I have 2 bearded (one is bearded from a breeder and one is my hatched chick (that one-the judge said BEARDED? at the national poultry show but she went when she was 6 months and the beard has grown since then)) 1 non-bearded hen (confirmed) and one bearded rooster (confirmed). I can't separate my hens for eggs. How do I breed bearded chicks? If I bread a non bearded to a bearded what do I get?

 

[Jener8or]

I am not a Silkie or breeding expert, so you will probably have to wait until they show up. I'd think breeding bearded to non-bearded would result in less bearded Silkies? It's cool that you went to the National Poultry Show!

Best of luck with your Silkies!

Thanks for joining and welcome to BackYard Chickens!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

 

[janiedoe]

Hello, welcome to BYC. @Debbie292d can probably answer your questions concerning silkies.

 

[Tookie]

Welcome to BYC! Nice to meet you. Good luck with your Silkie breeding.

 

[N F C]

Hello again Nora

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, Nora, and welcome to BYC!

Bearding is a dominant trait silkies can have. If you bred one bearded with one non-bearded, that will create all bearded, but some won't be as prominent as others.

The best way to get a good beard consistently is to breed two bearded silkies.

If you bred a bearded to a non-bearded, then took the offspring of those to rebreed, you could run into some being bearded and some not. You'd possibly get some good bearded offspring, some with degraded beards, and some with no beards. It's going to be hard to know if you can't separate them.

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. Excellent advise from @Debbie292d . The logical solution is to create more separate breeding pens to assure parentage of your chicks. Otherwise if you raise an outstanding bird, you will have no idea as to how to recreate that mating.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

@Debbie292d has given you some excellent advice, best wishes with your breeding projects!

 

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC. Glad to have you here with us in this fun and poultry loving community.