Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[TNBarnQueen]

Such a good answer to this Question. There is nothing like a beautiful very dark black with the green sheen! Im not afraid of black from BBS.. they are genetically
Black not dark blue and some of them very nice and dark but breeding back to a nice black from generations of black breeding is great if you can. If not just keep breeding the best black you have to the best black. I love, love , love blacks

I am loving the beautiful green in this boys feathers right now. I can wait for him to grow up!

I completely agree....I have 2 beautiful deep black hens but cannot find a nice black roo. I will just keep looking til I find one....then I can start a true black pen.

 

[heirloomorps]

I completely agree....I have 2 beautiful deep black hens but cannot find a nice black roo. I will just keep looking til I find one....then I can start a true black pen.

You are in the same situation as us... We have three gorgeous black hens and a roo that won't mate with them. I may put him in my BBS pen for tips from my blue roos.

For now our black hens are in our paint pen. We have a beautiful girl from Aimee Crego who I am hoping can make some beautiful paints with him while we find that black roo.

 

[heirloomorps]

I completely agree....I have 2 beautiful deep black hens but cannot find a nice black roo. I will just keep looking til I find one....then I can start a true black pen.

You are in the same situation as us... We have three gorgeous black hens and a roo that won't mate with them. I may put him in my BBS pen for tips from my blue roos.

For now our black hens are in our paint pen. We have a beautiful girl from Aimee Crego who I am hoping can make some beautiful paints with him while we find that black roo.

 

[Bush Chickens]

i was wondering,so i thought i'd ask the experts,what is the "self blue" color??

 

[littlecritters]

Could someone steer me towards the best line to start off with? I was looking at hat trick, cjexotics and cat dance but still learning and next time I order eggs or chicks would really like to order some from good lines. You can pm me if you don't want to post publicly.

I'd like to share that if you ever have the opportunity to purchase from Peepblessed, Poulettes, Feathersprings or Hawkeye....I would leap at that chance. These breeders have been quietly developing some gorgeous lines and are such nice folks. Catdance is widely known and she has a great reputation for her lovely stock. Catdance is also very nice to work with, courteous and professional in her dealings. I honestly don't know CJ's, but I think that Adora got some beautiful chicks from her. And Hattrick has beautiful stock, but her birds will often sell within minutes of her putting up a listing and pullets will often start at $125.

I didnt read through the 4000+ posts but I have a question about breeding/showing BBS silkies. Keep in mind I'm new to all of this!

My question is do the blacks bred from BBS differ from just a black breeding by itself? I mean would someone see more even black colorin from just black x black breedings opposed to those blacks from BBS breedings? I hope that made sense!

I see a lot of beautiful blacks but looks like some seem washed out around certain areas and had me wondering. I'm sort of leaning towards starting up next spring breeding possibly try my hand at some showing and would like to learn.

DragonLady is the expert here, but I also have seen the various blacks....even differences in blacks that generate from the same lines.

Years ago no one bred many BBS birds in Silkies. You bred Blacks, Whites, Greys, or Partridge. Now the Blacks I'm seeing are not the deep black wih a slight green sheen that I showed. Too many Blacks have light under fluff, and foot feathering showing white, or blue shafting.There is a seious need now to breed pure black lines to keep the proper color gene in the breed.

Your question made GREAT sense. Go for a pure black line. If you select from BBS for a few generations, only those birds who show true black under color, and possibly introduce a good Black , who is pure Black breeding, you'll end up with a nice Black line. Go for it !

It has taken me an entire year to obtain beautiful blacks for my daughter, in order to start a pure black pen. It was a long process and not an easy task. We have 1 cock, 1 cockerel and 2 pullets. These birds are the deep, rich black with green lustrous sheen. We also had another beautiful cockerel, who passed away in his sleep recently. This week, my daughter and I hatched two black chicks which we hope are from the cockerel who passed away. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we hatch more nice chicks this season.

 

[Sanna]

How old do Silkies have to be before they start to lay?

Anywhere from 6 months to a year. I hear some hens wait even longer until they start to lay.

Like this ?

This was Wicca, she died unfortunately

She was turning out beautifully too.

ps: the lighter areas were reflections from the sun.

That's one black bird, I have to say.

i was wondering,so i thought i'd ask the experts,what is the "self blue" color??

I'm not an expert, but self blue is lavender.

This hen is a lavender. And if I remember right, lavender is the name of the gene. Self blue is the name of the color itself. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[PaintedFeathers]

That's one black bird, I have to say.

I loved her =) but she may have been a he, she was starting to look manly lol and she would peck at my toes and try to bite me!

 

[Sanna]

I loved her =) but she may have been a he, she was starting to look manly lol and she would peck at my toes and try to bite me!

I had a hen that would always peck at my feet.

 

[Bush Chickens]

thank you! that self blue thing had me confused

 

[peepblessed]

I'd like to share that if you ever have the opportunity to purchase from Peepblessed, Poulettes, Feathersprings or Hawkeye....I would leap at that chance. These breeders have been quietly developing some gorgeous lines and are such nice folks. Catdance is widely known and she has a great reputation for her lovely stock. Catdance is also very nice to work with, courteous and professional in her dealings. I honestly don't know CJ's, but I think that Adora got some beautiful chicks from her. And Hattrick has beautiful stock, but her birds will often sell within minutes of her putting up a listing and pullets will often start at $125.

I had a hen that would always peck at my feet.

One of my girls drew blood yesterday!