Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[littlecritters]

The first thing you must, and I mean MUST, if you want to be successful, is purchase BOTH the APA standard and the ABA standard and study them. Then get yourself to some shows, and see what is winning. You should develop a picture of the ideal Silkie in your mind BEFORE buying any birds. Once you are sure of what you want, and have talked to enough winning breeders to be sure your vision is correct, you can start looking for birds. Not before.Remember that the Silkie is a very feminized breed. The girls almost always win, and many of the really pretty boys do not breed well. I would never select a cock bird who is too feminine, but I want one from a gorgeous mother and grandmother. The girls should be the best that you can afford to buy, and should all resemble one another, no matter where you buy them.Type is key.Without type, you are lost.The obvious faults in the breed today, such as bad wings, bad toes, and reared back stance should be avoided in all your starter birds. Stick to Black and White until you know enough to fool with the complicated colors...No made up named colors should be bought, pretty as some are. If the color is unrecognized, and you want to show, what is the point?Take your cock bird, and breed him to all 3 hens. See what you get .Is the type there? If it's not there in all 3 hens' offspring. Go find another cock bird. A cock is 1/2 your flock. A good one will stamp his offspring.Once you have consistent typy off spring from your 4 birds; never keep a bird who does not conform ...I don't care who it is related to.That's the biggest mistake that novice breeders make. All your birds should have the SAME shape, no matter if Black, White,or Grey, which you might get . Anybody who does not conform leaves.NO exceptions.Once you have all your birds looking alike in shape, keep a good cockerel, or two, on ice.You can breed back to the original cock bird for at least 6 generations if you are very picky about what you keep. If a fault pops out , use one of your cockerels, and see what you get. As a last resort, due to faults, or infertility, go looking for a cock bird who has your type. Use him once, and breed back to your original line of males.This certainly worked for me. I never pedigreed my birds. I breed what I see. I have done the same thing with champion horses, Belted Galloway cattle, Mastiffs, Nubian goats, African Geese, SLW Lf, and BWys, Butterfly Koi, as well as the Silkies.You must train your eye!

Thank you very much! You have laid a solid foundation for all new breeders to follow. Your advice is much appreciated.

 

[aoxa]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with chicksNherps, depending on how much they've been inbred to get to where they are at now... And if you don't know, then I probably wouldn't do it. I started out just shipping in nice birds so I would have unrelated birds.  You can do line breeding to some extent, but you do have to be careful about it.  But it's done all the time, and if you keep good records, it can be very successful.  But most people know how many generations they've done it, what problems it's created and how far they feel comfortable doing it and what their goal is by doing it.  If you are just starting out, I just don't think I would do it, or if you are determined, go read as much as possible about line breeding.  I would probably get a new rooster that way you can use all of your hens.  I would probably sell your boys or keep them (depending on their quality and how well they conform to the SOP --Standard Of Perfection).  If one of your boys was just super nice, then I'd be tempted to keep him and either wait for eggs from the other breedings or buy into eggs from a reputable breeder or ship in a girl for him.  But before you go to all of that expense, I would evaluate your silkies and be sure they are worth the expense of doing all of that and see where you want to start.  If they are all pet quality, then it would be best to just ship in eggs and get them from a couple different breeders so you have non-related birds to start you off with!    Then also take into mind-- we're here on this thread because the majority of us are breeding for show, and to conform to the SOP, and to breed the perfect bird, so that is how we will be helping you-- the advice given here is to make sure you don't go running off breeding bad birds.     With any breeding comes the responsibility to the breed itself and to make them better, and not just be a mindless hatchery that breeds for quantity and profit and puts out a bunch of birds that look nothing like they should.

I've been meaning to ask this. I have 2 hens from an entirely different breeder than my rooster and another hen. If I breed a rooster from one of the hens that wasn't from the same breeder as my rooster, would this be a huge problem? I know they are unrelated. I know which birds are mothered by which hen (for the most part). I hope I can do this, as I don't want to bring in new blood yet. The only one I would want to get a new rooster from only breeds whites - so I'm pretty much stuck.. At least for now..

 

[chickendales]

I've been meaning to ask this. I have 2 hens from an entirely different breeder than my rooster and another hen. If I breed a rooster from one of the hens that wasn't from the same breeder as my rooster, would this be a huge problem? I know they are unrelated. I know which birds are mothered by which hen (for the most part). I hope I can do this, as I don't want to bring in new blood yet. The only one I would want to get a new rooster from only breeds whites - so I'm pretty much stuck.. At least for now..

it shouldnt be problem

 

[chickendales]

I waited to get an answer from my friend, and i guess they are related. Now, she doesn't know for sure if they are coming from the same BBS pen, but she hatched them together. I tried my best to get some shots of my splash roo (Maxime). Any critiques are welcome lol. He is very dirty right now, sorry. I have a dark blue which iam quite happy with (she has a nicer bonnet than in that picture), but it's so hard to get a nice shot arg. My splash hen doesn't have a nice puff, and my light blue is in between. They are around 6 months old i believe. Anyways, here they are:

the roosters probly not that related to that black hen

 

[chickendales]

For the sake of argument, let's assume your birds are unrelated and your rooster can be bred with the three hens. Could the experienced breeders please share specific suggestions on how to develop a breeding program with this initial stock?
Dragonlady, Hawkeye, Jacknme, Peepblessed, ScaredofShadows, Sonoran....would you mind sharing what might work well with this configuration of birds?And at what point would new stock need to be introduced?
Thanks in advance for your help!

if i had 3 unrelated hens and one cock bird i would breed him all three hens but i would rotate him between the three hens creating 3 lines of 1\2 sibleing that i would i would toe punch and breed back to each other your could got years with out buying new blood if you cull hard for faults

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: X2! This is fantastic for those of us just starting out! Thank you!

 

[LaPetiteFarmer]

Yes thank you so much to be so clear! I admire your knowledge of breeding and, as a soon to be amateur, it is fascinating to get tips and advices from experienced breeders. I will definitely read and study the APA and ABA standards.
If I had the money, I would have purchased already grown birds but unfortunately it wasn't the case.
I will have to cull some of my flock, but it is hard to do it at first! I am attached to all of them, but in the back of my head, a little voice is telling me to get rid of them because they don't have all the characteristics that i am looking for or they are siblings in that case.
Here are other pictures of my dirty Berta (BTW is she considered black?) On the third and fourth pictures you can see Sophie (light blue and very dirty too lol)

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The babies, Isabel threw the blue and Ingrid threw the splash. When do the markings usually come on the splash? One of the pullets in my white pen layed an egg today...I don't normally check their nest boxes because they are young, but today I felt the need, I was pleasantly surprised. Now well have to see if its fertile, I would like to know if the little white cockerel is doing his job. I will be blown away if it is fertile.

If I breed my white roo, to my blue hen for black chicks, what is the likelyhood that they will be pure black without leakage? According to the genetic calculator, it says "black unicolor". Ha anyone bred this combo, if so, what was your outcome?

Quote: White X non-white is unpredictable. No way to know what you will get. The chicken calculator has no way of knowing what genes are present in the white other than recessive white. Try going in and changing some of the other genes and calculating the outcome. Try it with different combinations. Just make sure that the recessive white remains set.

 

[ChicksNherps]

Yes thank you so much to be so clear! I admire your knowledge of breeding and, as a soon to be amateur, it is fascinating to get tips and advices from experienced breeders. I will definitely read and study the APA and ABA standards.
If I had the money, I would have purchased already grown birds but unfortunately it wasn't the case.
I will have to cull some of my flock, but it is hard to do it at first! I am attached to all of them, but in the back of my head, a little voice is telling me to get rid of them because they don't have all the characteristics that i am looking for or they are siblings in that case.
Here are other pictures of my dirty Berta (BTW is she considered black?) On the third and fourth pictures you can see Sophie (light blue and very dirty too lol)

They are gorgeous

, is the one in the last picture the same as the one in the 1st? The back looks a little long on the last one but the first one looks awesome so if it is it's just how she is standing. Your it blue is nice too! In regards to the "black", does she have a lighter under fluff? if so she is probably a VERY dark blue. Seeing that you have a splash roo and a blue hen as well if they are related I would think she could be dark blue, but if her under fluff is all jet black she is black.

 

[aoxa]

We were talking about wings not too long ago, and I caught a picture of my smutty buff (or buff partridge) or whatever you want to call the colour.. Is this how a wing should be held? I'm noticing everyone starting to hold their wings like this as the weather gets colder