Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[peepblessed]

Hi!
I just found this thread and spent 2+ hours last night reading from the beginning. Whew! What a lot to take in.

I am new to silkies, got them for broodies, but now want to breed and show them. I want to keep it as simple as possible, just breeding for my own personal use.

I have a 17 week old blue ockerel whos back is a little too long. And I have 4 splash babies who are 12 weeks old. Not sure of the sex on those yet. Not the greatest of quality but could be good broodies if I get some girls.

I guess my questions are, How did you all get started aquiring your breeding stock?
And what is your breeding method? Pairs?, line breeding, etc?
I am so confused as to what method to use to keep things simple.
I have room to keep a few males seperate and a pen that I can split into two pens at the moment for breeding groups.
I also have a pen that I can use for pair breeding.

I just am worried about too much in breeding. Any thought?

All thoughts and opinions appreciated!

Sincerely,
Kim

I haven't been breeding long enough to give advice but I will.

Since I got my advice from breeders who had years of experience.

Start small. one or two pairs.
Make sure you know what pair you are hatching and keep careful records.
Start with the best you can afford.

I have been breeding two females with one roo but I know who's eggs are whose. This has shown me that I'm getting one extra toe nub in 10 from one girl and no extras from the other. I have babies from one pair that are now 5 mths. old and I'm pleased for the most part but that pair may be carrying wry tail so I'm going to rehome that roo and plan to use a roo from a different line as soon as he's old enough. So now I'm just waiting. Being patient is hard but so necessary to get quality.
Hope this helps some.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I know how that is....I look around, all of a sudden, 5 roos and going through the same thing. My oldest roo, Eli, let a few hens wandered off yesterday because he was so busy chest bumping and showing off for the little roos. Seriously, Eli?

funny!

Hi!
I just found this thread and spent 2+ hours last night reading from the beginning. Whew! What a lot to take in.

I am new to silkies, got them for broodies, but now want to breed and show them. I want to keep it as simple as possible, just breeding for my own personal use.

I have a 17 week old blue ockerel whos back is a little too long. And I have 4 splash babies who are 12 weeks old. Not sure of the sex on those yet. Not the greatest of quality but could be good broodies if I get some girls.

I guess my questions are, How did you all get started aquiring your breeding stock?
And what is your breeding method? Pairs?, line breeding, etc?
I am so confused as to what method to use to keep things simple.
I have room to keep a few males seperate and a pen that I can split into two pens at the moment for breeding groups.
I also have a pen that I can use for pair breeding.

I just am worried about too much in breeding. Any thought?

All thoughts and opinions appreciated!

Sincerely,
Kim

I don't really have enough experience to be telling you what to do either... but I'll tell you what I'm attempting to do. I'm working in pairs right now too (or trios). I mark all eggs as to who it is and then zip tie them when they hatch so I know the parents they came out of. I know who is laying which egg because I've been doing AI with them and keeping hens in separate kennels while breeding. Because I've done that-- I've discovered that one of my roosters is not a good breeder. His offspring have had split wing and wry tail. So I won't be breeding him again-- ever. Had I not been keeping careful records and breeding small, I would never have known who the culprit was for these problems. As far as line breeding goes, yeah, I'm doing it to some extent, but my plan is to bring in new blood every year to prevent a true line breeding situation. I'm breeding best to best and last year it did happen to be with related birds. This year, I am separating them out as I bought eggs that I hatched and have culled from those and now have a couple of good birds to introduce -- one being a rooster which should give me better diversity. Will be using one of my own little boys on the new pullet I'm keeping. I'm trying to stay small so that I can keep my records straight and not risk more problems that I've already run into! Just be VERY, very picky with who you are breeding. You can really create a heap of problems if you're not careful about being very selective. I already have done that, regret it, and will never do it again.

Part of my question also relates to breeding. I'm selling this cockerel who I don't consider show quality but wondering if this comb would be a DQ. So wondering if he would be considered breed quality (just considering the comb)?

He is really pretty!!! What a shame his comb is so light! It doesn't look super red, but yeah, I wouldn't want to use him either. Or at least, I'd be really concerned with him. I suppose if he just had super nice wings and fantastic type and no one else looked as nice, I'd give him a go and see what happened. Of course-- picking a hen that had a very dark comb and hope she could offset him. I don't know. But it could work out well, you just never know.

I haven't been breeding long enough to give advice but I will.

Since I got my advice from breeders who had years of experience.

Start small. one or two pairs.
Make sure you know what pair you are hatching and keep careful records.
Start with the best you can afford.

I have been breeding two females with one roo but I know who's eggs are whose. This has shown me that I'm getting one extra toe nub in 10 from one girl and no extras from the other. I have babies from one pair that are now 5 mths. old and I'm pleased for the most part but that pair may be carrying wry tail so I'm going to rehome that roo and plan to use a roo from a different line as soon as he's old enough. So now I'm just waiting. Being patient is hard but so necessary to get quality.
Hope this helps some.

I agree!!!

 

[thedragonlady]

Part of my question also relates to breeding. I'm selling this cockerel who I don't consider show quality but wondering if this comb would be a DQ. So wondering if he would be considered breed quality (just considering the comb)?

Not in my book.

 

[littlecritters]

I'm glad to hear the comb isn't as bad as I thought. Unfortunately, this guy is really long in the back and I think he is heavy for his age at 16-18 weeks. I am trying to find my postal scale, so I can weigh him.

I've discovered that the postal scale doesn't work as well as I had hoped. The chickens are too big and cover up the digital readout! :/ When I weighed the bigger splash boy tonight, I could have sworn the reading was over 3lbs. So, I put him back on the scale, tried to lift one of his legs out of the way and he still weighed in at 2lbs 22 ounces. He is not fat, just big!

 

[peepblessed]

Not in my book.

Thank you. Still wondering if this is bad enough for a DQ.

 

[littlecritters]

Peep and Hawkeye, thanks for sharing your breeding tips. Your willingness to share your experiences is appreciated....

 

[Hawkeye95]

Took some pictures of some of this years grow outs that I'm *hoping* might turn out pretty nice! These are all from my own birds.

I love this girl-- she has it going on. When she stands up, nice short back, but I did catch her eating, so it's hard to see on the second picture of her. She is 4.5 months old

This cockerel is right about 4.5 months old and I'm just ify on his wings. Worried I may have a split or slip problem on them. He is the one I need to get a picture of his span to get opinions on it. But he is sooooo pretty, I love him! He has a nice smooth comb, good dark color, but he moved here and it blurred out. But if his wings aren't good, then what a bummer!! I'll try to get something better tomorrow for feed back!

This Blue boy is 4.5 months old. I could not get this little Blue cockerel to STAND STILL or to pose nice to show off his type. Sigh. But maybe you can just see enough. He has great wings (although they don't look great in these pics?! ) and I'm really excited about how he looks. He is likely going to be my go-to boy for this coming year. (or at least, one of them)

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh I have an interesting picture of a "Before" and After on my little chick with the twisted beak. I didn't end up doing much for her at all. Just let her develop out the way she would. She is just a gorgeous bird! But has a twisted beak: (I've already found her a nice pet-home)

This is her Before:

and then I took a picture of her tonight!

And she has amazing type and is soooo pretty!

How sad is that???? I know I'm doing the right thing by re-homing her. Would anyone even attempt to breed a bird with a twisted beak? She does NOT have a crossed beak. Anyway, her new owner is just going to use her as a broody. Sigh. Just hoping I'm not possibly passing up an opportunity here..... right???

 

[sager:)silkies]

Oh I have an interesting picture of a "Before" and After on my little chick with the twisted beak. I didn't end up doing much for her at all. Just let her develop out the way she would. She is just a gorgeous bird! But has a twisted beak: (I've already found her a nice pet-home)

This is her Before:

and then I took a picture of her tonight!

And she has amazing type and is soooo pretty!

How sad is that???? I know I'm doing the right thing by re-homing her. Would anyone every attempt to breed a bird with a twisted beak? She does NOT have a crossed beak. Anyway, her new owner is just going to use her as a broody. Sigh.

wow ur birds beak isnt that bad i breed a bird like that with a roo that had a good beak and all chicks came out fine. mine did anyway i would never atteampt to breed scissor beak but urs seems to have the upper and lower beak togarther

 

[littlecritters]

Oh I have an interesting picture of a "Before" and After on my little chick with the twisted beak. I didn't end up doing much for her at all. Just let her develop out the way she would. She is just a gorgeous bird! But has a twisted beak: (I've already found her a nice pet-home)

This is her Before:

and then I took a picture of her tonight!

And she has amazing type and is soooo pretty!

How sad is that???? I know I'm doing the right thing by re-homing her. Would anyone even attempt to breed a bird with a twisted beak? She does NOT have a crossed beak. Anyway, her new owner is just going to use her as a broody. Sigh. Just hoping I'm not possibly passing up an opportunity here..... right???

Be strong! In my opinion, I would rehome her. Thats what we are doing with the black girl shown below. (Hopefully she is going to her new home tomorrow night.) If i were breeding purebred dogs, i wouldn't breed a dog with an overbite. Crooked beak to me is the chicken equivalent of bite problems in dogs.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk