Silkie folks, please critique this roo

[Sonoran Silkies]

One thing about George's birds is that they have very long feathers--it makes them look larger than they really are.

Size is measured by weight, not volume or height. That said, George was a bit worried about one of his birds being a bit too heavy before the nationals--nevertheless he didn't have any DQed for size--not sure if the one he was worried about was his champion or a different bird.

Have you seen his porcelains?

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Can you get a shot of his comb? It looks like a single comb almost...

 

[Solsken Farm]

Quote:
I will.

I do like his body shape. I think that is what I like best, apart from his darling personality.

I can never see the combs on these creatures.

I thought the mulberry comb was desirable. His is more black.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
I will.

I do like his body shape. I think that is what I like best, apart from his darling personality.

I can never see the combs on these creatures.

I thought the mulberry comb was desirable. His is more black.

Mulberry, I think, describes the color and walnut describes the shape, but if he has a single comb he may not be good to breed. If you breed him to non-single combed hen then the offspring will be heterozygous with the Walnut comb showing and being recessive for the single comb.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Yes, sorry. I was responding to several people even though I quoted only you. I think his comb is single. So that would really answer that. I knew that mulberry referred to the color.

I will post a pic later. This is all very interesting and helpful. Thank you. I am pretty sure I will give him to a neighbor's daughter who loves him, but I wanted to be able to be educated to them about what they are getting.

Thanks folks, I do appreciate all your knowledge.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The darker the comb the better. Single is easier to correct than a badly shaped gnarley comb covered with spikey protuberances. You can correct single comb in one generation; the other kind takes multiple generations. Likewise, I'd rather deal with single comb than a red comb; it takes even more generations to correct.

I can't tell what the comb looks like from the photos.

His colour is good--nothing wrong with it at all. He doesn't have vulture hocks--most judges ignore them, but it is supposed to be a DQ, and many, many silkies have them.

 

[exop]

I have seen people breeding and showing birds in a lot worse shape than this guy. How is he in size? Someone pointed out to me that as gorgeous George Mihalik's birds are, they are getting sort of big, and aren't these still only in a bantam class? Don't get me wrong, I still want a Mihalik splash pullet/hen!

Huny,

...and where would one get a George Mihalik bird?
I was just looking at his website and didn't see any discussion of sale or trade to the public...

How does it work?

Best - KR​

 

[silkieluver_07]

How hard is it to get rid of the red wattles? My roo is pretty good except for his wattles and comb. Would I breed to a very dark-combed silkie pullet?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Contact George directly if you want to purchase birds; he sells, depending on what he has available. I believe his phone number is on his website; his email is [email protected]

Red comb & wattles are difficult to breed out. Not sure why, but when you cross a silkie with a non-silkie most of the offspring inherit the dark comb & wattles. But once you have red comb & wattles on a silkie it takes several generations to darken the comb. Shouldn't be linked, but ???

 

[Huny]

And he (George) has a LONG waiting list, and asks at least 100 dollars a bird. Plus shipping if you don't meet him at a show. I met him in November and he said he had 60 babies and they were all taken already and the next 100 or so were also.