Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[SunnySky]

I like the type on your blue the best and her color is good also - though I don't breed blue silkies I do have blue birds of different breeds. The gray's comb is fine! Especially for a gray. All look to have good wings and I don't see any red leakage on your gray so that is a plus. If you want to show you have a long way to go as far as conditioning. Clean and dry is a must to keep them in condition. If you don't care to show but want typey birds l will say your white and gray have necks that are too long (though it may be the photos/stance). Gray looks as though he is lacking in cushion and tail, and beard. But again, a lot of that could be condition. If silkies are allowed to be out and about in the weather there is no hope for keeping them in condition. Below is a picture of my typiest girl (as a pullet). She was on champion row at her first show against some nice competition. Hope this helps some...I don't claim to be an expert by any means;-)

Thank you so much for your input!! I agree, the white and gray do seem to have longer necks. I tried to get better pics of the gray today but he wouldn't stand still. I do not show them so their conditioning is horrible. Plus they live outside in rainy muddy weather so it's impossible to keep them clean lol. I LOVE your white pullet!! I'd love to find some like that, with that kind of type.

 

[Urban chicken 3]

Hi, I'm getting chicken this spring and I plan on getting 3 silkies 2 Rhode Island reds and 1 guinea hen any advice for what to look for when buying our chicks? I can only have 6 chickens in my city and no roosters, and I would like to show my silkies. Any advice for showing?

 

[chisNchickens]

Thank you so much for your input!! I agree, the white and gray do seem to have longer necks. I tried to get better pics of the gray today but he wouldn't stand still. I do not show them so their conditioning is horrible. Plus they live outside in rainy muddy weather so it's impossible to keep them clean lol. I LOVE your white pullet!! I'd love to find some like that, with that kind of type.

You're welcome and thank you;-)
I'm afraid you are in for heartache/headache if you are going to let them live in the weather. lol Silkies are not like chickens in that they are not weather-proof. The bird above is kept in a show cage on kitty litter, as I learned from Dragonlady. Otherwise whites are impossible to keep clean. I only keep a small number of quality whites so I can keep them clean. Dirty whites drive me up the freakin' wall...seriously. It is likely a true sickness or form of mental illness. Haha - kinda...

Hi, I'm getting chicken this spring and I plan on getting 3 silkies 2 Rhode Island reds and 1 guinea hen any advice for what to look for when buying our chicks? I can only have 6 chickens in my city and no roosters, and I would like to show my silkies. Any advice for showing?

I suggest reading through this thread and learning all you can prior to purchasing your silkies. Find a breeder you admire and see if s/he has started birds available. Since you can't keep many I wouldn't suggest eggs or chicks unless you don't mind selling the cockerels or giving them away..or butchering. Also, one cannot ascertain show potential in chicks. Another thing to consider is that show quality silkies will have to be kept away from other chickens. They are too fragile and can't see well...even if you tape up their crests they are still too docile to be around LF chickens. Showing silkies is hard work. I haven't been on this forum for a long time as I spend so much time keeping my silkies conditioned and hatching chicks. I just bathed three and they are drying in my spare bathroom. You cannot let the whites get dirty AT ALL or they are ruined until they molt. That is the reason folks like the darker colors - even buff is super easy to keep in condition compared to whites.

 

[Urban chicken 3]

Thank you for the info and we're just going to go to our local feed store next spring and pick some out I don't even know if they'll have silkies so if they don't what other breeds would you suggest for a mixed flock. And if I should get a guinea hen or not.

 

[kabhyper1]

My blue cream kiddos. Bad barn lighting, but it's close to what they look like in person. Both about 5 months old.

 

[Troubadour05]

Do these chicks have split wings?

The black one is hatched from some shipped eggs, supposedly from show quality breeders, but I guess you just never know with shipped eggs. :/
The white one is my little miracle chick, the day after it hatched it got away from the mother hen and got lost. By the time I found it the poor thing was all splayed out and stiff, I was positive it was dead. I picked it up and it was very faintly peeping so I stuck it in my coat, brought it inside and warmed it up. It's perfectly fine now other than those wings. I'm not sure if it's split wings, or it just has trouble holding them correctly maybe because of almost freezing to death, what do you guys think?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I wouldn't even worry about split wing at this point, they're really too young to judge on anything other than the correct number of toes. When they've got a good number of months behind them (like when they finish all of their juvenile molts), spread their wings and then have a look. Until then, they'll likely just look split because they haven't grown those feathers in yet

 

[SunnySky]

Can anyone help me identify this color? (if it is anything at all, lol). I acquired these 2 from a local gal a while ago. They're in my 'general population' (i.e. not my breeding flock) until I identify their color then do a test hatch. They almost appear cuckoo or barred. Definitely not splash. I know the first picture appears to have gold-ish coloring in it but it's not, it's just dirt. They live in Washington lol. They are both black and white. If I dig around to deeper layers of feathering they get darker. Their combs are a bit too red for me and their crests are too small but, like I said, I'm not using them for breeding right now.

close-up of Silkie #1:


Silkie #2: (silkie #1 in the background)


Close-up of Silkie #2:

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Silver partridge maybe? I think they're too light to be grey, and they don't look right for cuckoo either.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sorry, I could have elborated. LOL! The split black is from a breeding of either a paint over black or a bbs pen, but turned out black. I can't remember which one that chick came from as I was hatching several at the time. But I know she came out of one of those breedings, therefore has genetics other than black in there. My pure black is older and came from a long line of nothing but blacks.

neither paint nor bbs can give splot offspring. Split refers to a hidden recessive gene that you know is present from breeding records. So, a bird could be split to lav or to white. Paint is dominant. if a bird is black, it does not have the genetics for paint. Blue is incompletely dominant. if prrsent, it WILL show.