Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[peepblessed]

I am new to this and maybe you can help


- How do you set up a question page thing

- and what is a URL thing


AND NOW FOR SILKIE QUESTIONs


- are the hard to keep clean

- are the good layers

- are they nice

- do they do well for showman ship

- do the do well for show


I have chickens but I am new to silkies and the web page


Thank you

Silkies are one of the gentlest chickens to deal with. They are fair layers, small eggs and go broody a lot. They are very easy to keep clean with the right bedding but not if they run around in the mud. They are not always the best bird for showmanship as they might be too inactive when they are supposed to walk. The cockerels are usually more active. They are wonderful show birds. I've had chickens for 40 years and silkies for 3 years. They don't really seem like chickens to me.

 

[JacquiJ]

I am new to this and maybe you can help


- How do you set up a question page thing

- and what is a URL thing


AND NOW FOR SILKIE QUESTIONs


- are the hard to keep clean

- are the good layers

- are they nice

- do they do well for showman ship

- do the do well for show


I have chickens but I am new to silkies and the web page


Thank you

I won't be any help on explaining the computer side of things.
From what I have experienced with my silkies: they are relatively easy to keep clean (except the white ones, they stain easily in our Georgia clay). Their feathered feet can be difficult to keep clean though. They do great in shows, are easy to cage train, and are easy to handle. Mine are super friendly and enjoy sitting in my lap and even allow my toddler to pick them up and carry them around. So far only my one (8 months old) has started laying. She has laid two eggs so far. Silkies have a tendency to be broody and from what I hear, try to hatch anything. Hope this helps!

 

[ChickNmamma]

I am new to this and maybe you can help


- How do you set up a question page thing

- and what is a URL thing


AND NOW FOR SILKIE QUESTIONs


- are the hard to keep clean

- are the good layers

- are they nice

- do they do well for showman ship

- do the do well for show


I have chickens but I am new to silkies and the web page


Thank you

Hi, and welcome to BYC

I would like to help you, but I have a few questions of my own. What is a question thing page? Do you want to post a new thread somewhere to ask a question? If you do, go to the section you want to ask a question and at the top there is a button that says "New Post". Click on that and you fill out the information and what you want to ask and then you "post" it.

A URL is a website address. Things that start with Http:// are URLs. If I knew why you wanted to know what a URL was maybe I could help you further...

As for the Silkies:

What color did you want? White is hard to keep clean, and feeding them corn can make them yellow, some colors can get "sun bleached". Most chickens will keep themselves clean, they prefer it that way - but you have to keep their areas clean too. Solid colors do best in shows usually - White and Black place regularly in the top feather footed bantam breeds.

Silkies are not kept for being good layers. They do lay eggs.. but they also frequently stop laying to set on their eggs.. which cuts down egg production - and increases chicken count... I have been getting between 3-4 eggs a day from 4 birds, so they CAN do it.. but I know once they go broody - that's it folks, for about 6 months or longer! They have been kept for this trait alone - they make great mothers and will usually adopt other baby chicks too. It is why I bought my first Silkies.. now I have 4 and three Silkie crosses.

They are VERY NICE chickens - some of the best chickens to keep for pets. They can be handled easily - they very rarely are aggressive (even the roosters are nice (mostly)).

Because of above, they do great for showmanship, and the only comment I heard about trouble was because they didn't want to "walk" a lot.. they are perfectly happy standing still.. for a looooooong time!

Yes, they do well for show - if you have good SQ birds. These are not impossible to get - but they aren't bought at Hatcheries and Feed stores either. Get them from a good breeder, see pictures of their birds and talk to other purchasers of their birds to see if they were shown and how they placed. Most breeders love to talk chicken - and will tell you all about their show-winning birds, both theirs and those sold to customers.

I would suggest you start at the beginning of this thread and read it all the way through before you go out and buy birds. It has a LOT of information on what to look for in a Silkie - as well as some bad faults to avoid! I wish I had.. I just lucked out and got two good birds - and 1 ok and one really ugly one... but it could have been much worse..

P.S... It took so long to write this book you got answered three times already..

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Uhhh... I know I am going to get confused on this.. but I will try.

Self Blue Creme has lav/lav. What else is in there is complicated and can be further complicated by hidden and recessive genes. Your Blue Split to lav bird probably has some other genetics as well.. so we have to add Bl/bl in there... as well as lav/Lav+ and who knows what else. Blue/Black/Lav can hide a LOT of recessive genes that you never see until you cross them out of the E/E base type. Has your B/B/S pen ever given you a Partridge chick? You may have a bird that is E/eb. Do you have birds with Gold or Silver leakage? More hidden genetics.

When I used the "chicken calculator" with the Porcelain x Blue/lav spilt - I didn't get any with that gold in the body color but I did get Self Blue, as well as Blue and Black. There are also several non-Porcelain combinations that can "look" like the Self Blue Creme that are not genetically the same. I think that is why it is still a work in progress.. and it can be reached in a few different ways - all will throw different combinations when crossed exactly the same. So no easy answer. What you have can be a Self Blue Creme. It can throw that color. You would need extensive test breedings to see what other colors you would produce so you can find out what exactly that bird carries.

It is Self Blue Creme x Self Blue Creme that shouldn't ever throw Self Blue - there are too many other modifiers so you won't ever get the even Self Blue color unless one or the other (or both) are NOT Self Blue Creme.

Ok... I think I got it right... maybe

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Looks to me like she is probably pure for lav...

 

[chickd]

Thank you so much

You know so much about chickens, color that silkie come in that will help me if get some or want to breed them,
And how to work with puting pics on the web page.
Sorry if you had said this but how many chicken and silkie( and what colors) do you have?
Have you ever done f4 because you know so much about them?
-do silkies eat a lot more than must breeds
- are they hard to hatch


Thank you

 

[TNBarnQueen]

Exactly, although I have been told that an Na/Na bird can have a bowtie and Na/na does not always. I've never bred them, so I can only state what I was told (or more specifically corrected on) when I made a statement similar to yours.

I don't know that showgirls are that hard to find...you're not likely to find them at the feed store or through a hatchery (unless they are very early generation and very, very PQ), but there are plenty of breeders.
There is a breed called Naked Neck (sometimes called turken) which was used to breed the gene in to silkies. Na is an incompletely dominant gene, like blue, and it breeds like blue.

Na/na (bow-tied showgirl) crossed to na/na (silkie) will give 50% of each.
Na/Na (clean neck showgirl) crossed to na/na will give 100% Na/na
Na/na crossed to Na/na will give 50% Na/na and 25% each of Na/Na and na/na

Thank you so much for your info Sonoran...what I was meaning by not commonly finding NN SG girls was I have found few people who have the clean necked like mine. This info is going to really help my breeding project...thanks again!

 

[chickd]

Love the pics

 

[chickd]

And


Good luck with them

 

[chickd]

ChickeNmamma u rock

Thank you one more time hoPe I can hear from u some more

Thanks and good luck