Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[Points101]

Hi there. I've had a chick hatch and un sure of the colour of it. Never had one like it. It's from a paint roo and black hen. But now over a week old.

 

[houlahoula]

Was hoping since you were discussing color, any opinion on this chick?

 

[houlahoula]

Grey?

 

[Merro]

Hello! I was wondering about my little Roo here. I bought him off a woman that supposedly paid a pretty penny for her chicks. She ended up with 4 out of 6 roosters, so she was giving them away.

He's got a metal wing band and everything. He's pretty gorgeous to me, but I would have no clue whether he's a good "quality" of the breed.

 

[SizzleQueen]

Hello! I was wondering about my little Roo here. I bought him off a woman that supposedly paid a pretty penny for her chicks. She ended up with 4 out of 6 roosters, so she was giving them away.

He's got a metal wing band and everything. He's pretty gorgeous to me, but I would have no clue whether he's a good "quality" of the breed.

I have never seen a comb like that before...

 

[houlahoula]

Was hoping since you were discussing color, any opinion on this chick?

Anybody?

 

[MGSilkies]

What do you think of her? She's my nicest pullet. 5 months through 7 months in pictures.

 

[MGSilkies]

I was wondering if any of you recommend me showing this pullet? She is 7 months. No vault, but her breeder says that shouldn't be a problem with her crest getting a decent size. Pretty good feet, no leakage, ect. She doesnt carry herself as nicely as I like though.

She is the one in the middle


And here on the far left.

 

[Arcnova]

Welp, my silkies prospect has gone bust. My neighbor wanted to rent incubator space for his silkie eggs. I was gonna charge in chicks rather than cash and he said ok, you keep half and I'll keep half. I was super excited cause I was only gonna ask at most a third of the chicks. So I got 13 eggs from him and put them in the incubator. Candled them last night . Four were infertile (~25%) and six quit (~50%). That leaves three eggs...
I wanted to know why so I eggtopsied, three quit very early my guess would be from bacteria (but none of my eggs had that problem so either they were mishandled before I got them or his flock has an infection its passing on to the eggs). Three quit at about a week, they all had such ridiculously large vaulting it's no wonder they died, it was like they had a second head trying to grow out of the tops of their skulls. What that means is that there's a very good chance not all three of the remaining embryos will survive hatch. Aaaaarg!

I'm thinking I really don't want to work with this gene pool anyway. But now I have to figure out how to tell my neighbor his birds have problems and there's no way I can hatch enough of them out for him to be profitable for either of us.

Wondering if I kept one and bred it out to another breed and then re establish the appropriate traits if I could still salvage my project since I don't have the capital to invest in quality birds right now.

Are these problems, poor fertility and genetic issues common with silkies? Or just with poor quality hatchery birds?

 

[destiny_56085]

Welcome to the world of exhibition silkies! Fertility is usually a crapshoot. We've bred them to be so fluffy and overly typey that can't get the job done very well on their own. Often times we have to help by trimming feathers and artificially inseminating. Even after we do get some fertile eggs, often lose quite a few because of those huge vaulted heads and them not being able to properly pip to get out of the shell. Not to mention the birds themselves aren't big layers to begin with....