Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[thedragonlady]

And DDL - just brought home a big bag of BOSS. So I threw some on the ground and they just looked at it. Put some in a bowl and Betty ran over to bowl, looked in and screamed and jumped. I swear. lol

Put some on top of their regular feed. Just a sprinkle. They won't eat much this time of year. You did get the small black oil sunflower seeds ?They won't eat the big striped grey ones that parrots like.

 

[chisNchickens]

I don't plan on jumping on the fermented feed bandwagon for exactly that reason. Fungal toxins are deadly, and way to easy to acquire.

I'm pretty sure fungus cannot grow in such a high acidity. I have been using it for about a month now and the brooder doesn't smell like bird poop like it did when I fed the crumbles. Now what it is doing to the foot feathers of my chicks is pretty disastrous. I will have to weigh the good and the bad and go from there. They sure love it and I think it smells yummy!

But I'm also getting sick of lugging a five gallon bucket around.

 

[chisNchickens]

Put some on top of their regular feed. Just a sprinkle. They won't eat much this time of year. You did get the small black oil sunflower seeds ?They won't eat the big striped grey ones that parrots like.

Yes they are small seeds - all black. They only eat it in the winter? Crap.

 

[chisNchickens]

Good assessment, although I prefer green to orange, but it is close.

May I ask why?

 

[PaintedFeathers]

Yes they are small seeds - all black. They only eat it in the winter? Crap.

No I think she means they won't eat much food this time of year since it's hot. Mine eat the BOSS just fine on top of their FF.

 

[thedragonlady]

I'm pretty sure fungus cannot grow in such a high acidity. I have been using it for about a month now and the brooder doesn't smell like bird poop like it did when I fed the crumbles. Now what it is doing to the foot feathers of my chicks is pretty disastrous. I will have to weigh the good and the bad and go from there. They sure love it and I think it smells yummy!

But I'm also getting sick of lugging a five gallon bucket around.

Two key words for conditioning Silkies....CLEAN and DRY. Anything that interferes with that is a NO-NO.

 

[thedragonlady]

No I think she means they won't eat much food this time of year since it's hot. Mine eat the BOSS just fine on top of their FF.

Birds seem to know what they need at different times of the year. In winter they need more indigestible and high fat feed to keep them warm. The fat grows very nice shiny feathers, and the indigestible hulls of oats and BOSS create heat in their crops, which are really fermentation vats.

In hot weather, birds seek out high moisture feeds like greens that will not produce heat in their crops. If you don't have grass, use good alfalfa hay. I mean the really GREEN stuff, that has stems no bigger than a toothpick, and smells really like fresh mown grass.. They have to drink more water with dry greens, so keep those water bottles filled.You can feed these alfalfa leaves year round , if you don't let your birds graze.

A good all round ration like Purina Gamebird should be fed every day year round after birds are 4 months old. So many Silkies get too fat, so the scratch should be limited. A bit of Calf Manna every day ensures that they are getting all the vitamins and minerals they need.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:

Anyone want to vote on their favorite four month-old cockerel? Or least favorite? Feel free to critique away...

...

Tail looks small, and held at a too low position.


Back looks long


Something about the comb looks off








I really like this one, but I am not certain which bird it is? Because it is bookended by "Green" I am assuming it is "Green, not "Orange." Wings are nice and high and held together, tail seems full, crest seems full, breast seems broad. Back does seem a bit long, but I've had young cockerels who appeared to have long backs mature to birds with properly short backs.


Rather difficult to assess anything additional in this posture.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PHYTO.1997.87.6.643 Read this abstract.

 

[chisNchickens]

I really like this one, but I am not certain which bird it is? Because it is bookended by "Green" I am assuming it is "Green, not "Orange." Wings are nice and high and held together, tail seems full, crest seems full, breast seems broad. Back does seem a bit long, but I've had young cockerels who appeared to have long backs mature to birds with properly short backs.



Yes, I edited the pic with the wrong color and I couldn't change it so I put a line through the "orange". It is hard to see though I now realize. I will see if I can gather up a couple more pics of both green and orange. And yes I realize the last picture of green sucked but that is all I had and I'm too ocd to leave one bird with only two images while the others have three.