Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[PaintedFeathers]

Okay PaintedFeathers....NO showgirls allowed! This is a silkie thread!

Man those things creep me out. Now, your little SILKIE pullet is a doll baby, looks like a pullet to me. She has a lovely, even vault IF she has one at all. This is good because an uneven vault (one sloping toward the back, or leaning more to the front) can screw up a crest. I don't like vaulted skulls and breed away from it when I can.

"She" isn't vaulted, but the showgirl is. Showgirls are silkies too lol just missing a few feathers

I think they are adorable! Well at least most of them, some are kinda ugly lol

 

[teep]

Time for the pros to tell me about this girl! I am new to the breed and to 'ornamental' type birds. I used bantams in the past to brood, but this little girl is so tiny and so sweet! I am just smitten with her personality. Thank you for your comments!!

 

[aoxa]

Ah ok. Does not look like any white chick I have seen. Must be my monitor.

I get some like this. My white chicks are different shades as chicks, but all feather out perfectly white. Why is that?

Note: Some have shading around their crest, wings, etc..

I haven't really gotten any pictures of it. I'll have to do that. I thought maybe some were gold based, and some silver, but that's just my guess. I really have no idea why.

 

[MumsyII]

Part of my White flock outside in the run. Big Foot has been with the girls for a month. His chicks will be pen #2. Set sixteen eggs and today he was taken out and the girls get a rest for a month before Cock #3 gets his turn. Hoping to hatch out between thirty to forty chicks before Jan. 2014 for my F1 hatch. Each roo is a pen #. Fifteen chicks from pen # 1 for a good start.


Reserve Catdance cockerel in the cage will get his turn for pen #3 in a month. All pullets from these breedings will be the beginning of F 2 generation when I breed them to the best cock of the three based on progeny.

 

[Jharper]

What color do y'all think this is?

Also what do y'all think of it?

 

[chisNchickens]

Part of my White flock outside in the run. Big Foot has been with the girls for a month. His chicks will be pen #2. Set sixteen eggs and today he was taken out and the girls get a rest for a month before Cock #3 gets his turn. Hoping to hatch out between thirty to forty chicks before Jan. 2014 for my F1 hatch. Each roo is a pen #. Fifteen chicks from pen # 1 for a good start.


Reserve Catdance cockerel in the cage will get his turn for pen #3 in a month. All pullets from these breedings will be the beginning of F 2 generation when I breed them to the best cock of the three based on progeny.

Sounds like you have a good plan! Whites are my favorite.

 

[chisNchickens]

What color do y'all think this is?

This chick looks to have come out of a mixed color flock. A lot of these have some degree of partridge markings at hatch. Nice foot feathering. Silkie chicks are adorable;-)

 

[MumsyII]

Sounds like you have a good plan! Whites are my favorite.

Thank you. Whites are my first love too. It's impossible for me to keep track of the breedings without a good plan. I only have five good females and three males to start out with but next year I hope to have a really excellent white pen. At the rate my Silkies are going, I'll need a second chick house. This is what I'm using for the fifteen F1 chicks now. It's old but works really well. A second one would be fun.


It has windows and an old greenhouse roof. Lots of ventilation and light.



The chicks have a pop door I open into a large run when they are two weeks old. They love it out there and hide and forage in the tall grass and flowers.



The Silkie chick run is netted over the top and I fly whirly gigs and mylar sparkly streamers to scare predator birds away. They love spending all day in the run and I shut them up in the little chick house at night.

 

[Jharper]

This chick looks to have come out of a mixed color flock.  A lot of these have some degree of partridge markings at hatch.  Nice foot feathering. Silkie chicks are adorable;-)

A white one just hatched. Vaulted skilled.

 

[PaintedFeathers]

A white one just hatched. Vaulted skilled.

Are any hurdles skilled?...

sorry couldn't help myself