Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[Hawkeye95]

yes hawkeye it is hard to know what will pop up and what my foundation will turn to so i came prepared and have 2 other seperate white line incase something pops up u are making a good decisin tho so dont beat urself up. i mainly breed her as she was the best i had to work with so i went for it u have easier acces to very nice birds then i do also u may already have super back up pullets

Yes, good point, with you being in Canada, you have a much tougher time having access to eggs and birds like we do here. And with your situation, I can't fault you for going ahead and working with her, since she had the type and ultimately, that is what you are going for. And hey, as far as we know, the twisted beak isn't genetic anyway. Your whites are looking better and better. It's really neat to see how far you have come and where you are headed. But it sure does kill me to see a bird turn out so nicely and have such a big fault like she does. She has the best foot feathering, too. Sigh. Are you bringing birds to the Ohio show or are you just going to look? I forget when it is now. I'm too far away to put that on my list of things to do this year. Some year, I want to go to Nationals. We've already done a lot of traveling this year and between vacation, my hobby and my DH's marathons-- which also includes travel, we are usually done in by this time. ha! Be sure to take pictures!

 

[peepblessed]

Took some pictures of some of this years grow outs that I'm *hoping* might turn out pretty nice! These are all from my own birds.

I love this girl-- she has it going on. When she stands up, nice short back, but I did catch her eating, so it's hard to see on the second picture of her. She is 4.5 months old

This cockerel is right about 4.5 months old and I'm just ify on his wings. Worried I may have a split or slip problem on them. He is the one I need to get a picture of his span to get opinions on it. But he is sooooo pretty, I love him! He has a nice smooth comb, good dark color, but he moved here and it blurred out. But if his wings aren't good, then what a bummer!! I'll try to get something better tomorrow for feed back!

This Blue boy is 4.5 months old. I could not get this little Blue cockerel to STAND STILL or to pose nice to show off his type. Sigh. But maybe you can just see enough. He has great wings (although they don't look great in these pics?! ) and I'm really excited about how he looks. He is likely going to be my go-to boy for this coming year. (or at least, one of them)

They look promising alright. That blue boy has a tail and a half!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

They look promising alright. That blue boy has a tail and a half!!

thank you! I wish I could have caught him actually standing up straight so that you could see how he holds himself. He was not interested in letting me photograph him!

 

[sager:)silkies]

Yes, good point, with you being in Canada, you have a much tougher time having access to eggs and birds like we do here. And with your situation, I can't fault you for going ahead and working with her, since she had the type and ultimately, that is what you are going for. And hey, as far as we know, the twisted beak isn't genetic anyway. Your whites are looking better and better. It's really neat to see how far you have come and where you are headed. But it sure does kill me to see a bird turn out so nicely and have such a big fault like she does. She has the best foot feathering, too. Sigh. Are you bringing birds to the Ohio show or are you just going to look? I forget when it is now. I'm too far away to put that on my list of things to do this year. Some year, I want to go to Nationals. We've already done a lot of traveling this year and between vacation, my hobby and my DH's marathons-- which also includes travel, we are usually done in by this time. ha! Be sure to take pictures!

im going to ohio nationals to look and learn lots about silkies and see ur guys birds

 

[peepblessed]

thank you! I wish I could have caught him actually standing up straight so that you could see how he holds himself. He was not interested in letting me photograph him!

I havea 5 mth. old cockerel with really good type but I can't get a good photo of him. The boys are just so busy!

 

[littlecritters]

Be strong! In my opinion, I would rehome her. Thats what we are doing with the black girl shown below. (Hopefully she is going to her new home tomorrow night.) If i were breeding purebred dogs, i wouldn't breed a dog with an overbite. Crooked beak to me is the chicken equivalent of bite problems in dogs.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our little black crooked beak girl and the splash girl with scoliosis went to a nice new home tonight. Thank you to John and his wife!

 

[KMHunter]

Quote:
She had a Silkie barn built and it has 8-10 pens in it. I think they are her main breeding/project pens. Then there is a small barn with 4 or 6 more pens for cockerels and a few breeding groups. Then there is the big barn! It is mostly for grow outs. I think there are like 6 fairly large pens in there. Then we went to another area of the big barn and there were 2 stalls that had breeding groups and another that had rooster condos and some small cages for pair breeding. Then there was the breeders running around on the ground in that stall also. Oh! And lets not forget the fuzzy carpet in the corner of the stall, right where you step in! 5 or 6 broody silkies! Couldn't distinguish heads or tails! Lol! It was pretty funny!

I think I had to wipe my chin off multiple times while I was there.

Is coveting someone elses birds a sin?

I am going to hopefully get some eggs from her closer to spring.

Mostly combs with horns and some that had too big of crests that she was breeding with smaller crested. Nothing huge. But anything that didn't have good or great type was sold as a pet. Oh and feet, she didn't worry too much about feet. I am sure though, if she had one with extra toes or toenails etc, she wouldn't use them either. She was just trying to say that there are no perfect birds, just try not to breed any with DQ's.

Sorry it took me so long to respond to your post. It has been a very long day!

Kim
P.S.- I will take pictures next time I am there!

Because if I get eggs, I do not want them shipped if I can help it. She lives 3.5 hours away. It is worth the drive!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Our little black crooked beak girl and the splash girl with scoliosis went to a nice new home tonight. Thank you to John and his wife!

that's great!!

She had a Silkie barn built and it has 8-10 pens in it. I think they are her main breeding/project pens. Then there is a small barn with 4 or 6 more pens for cockerels and a few breeding groups. Then there is the big barn! It is mostly for grow outs. I think there are like 6 fairly large pens in there. Then we went to another area of the big barn and there were 2 stalls that had breeding groups and another that had rooster condos and some small cages for pair breeding. Then there was the breeders running around on the ground in that stall also. Oh! And lets not forget the fuzzy carpet in the corner of the stall, right where you step in! 5 or 6 broody silkies! Couldn't distinguish heads or tails! Lol! It was pretty funny!

I think I had to wipe my chin off multiple times while I was there.

Is coveting someone elses birds a sin?

I am going to hopefully get some eggs from her closer to spring.

Mostly combs with horns and some that had too big of crests that she was breeding with smaller crested. Nothing huge. But anything that didn't have good or great type was sold as a pet. Oh and feet, she didn't worry too much about feet. I am sure though, if she had one with extra toes or toenails etc, she wouldn't use them either. She was just trying to say that there are no perfect birds, just try not to breed any with DQ's.

Sorry it took me so long to respond to your post. It has been a very long day!

Kim
P.S.- I will take pictures next time I am there!

Because if I get eggs, I do not want them shipped if I can help it. She lives 3.5 hours away. It is worth the drive!

OH WOW!! It sounds like silkie heaven out there! It sounds amazing!! I'd love to see pictures of her barn set up! I am going to build pens in the front half of my barn-- I have about 25 feet (a bit over) to do so. The other half are my horse stalls. But I'd love to get a good idea of how she did it so I can have a good idea on how to do mine! I figure 25 feet will give me a lot of silkie pens on either side of my breeze way. But I would love to see how people do those. Thank you for the description! I wish I lived closer so I could go visit her! Sounds amazing!!!!

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: I want to say that her breeding pens were 6x6? And grow out pens were also 6x6ish? Maybe bigger? The stalls were just split in half with a 2.5 ft divider. That way she could just step over.
The barn area with grow out pens was just an open space when they got the place. I think like a place to store feed and/or maybe a workshop type area? I was too focused on all the eye candy that I can't remember exactly how big the pens were. Everything have the larger gauge chicken wire on it and the doors including the stall doors.

 

[Adoravachick]

This little bird is from a lavender pen, but the coloring is a blue partridge? I am starting a lavender pen, would this bird be beneficial or would I be better off to sell him/her. Also, any thoughts on sex, this bird is about 14-16 wks old. He or she has very nice wings nice feet and toe spacing. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.