Silkie Leghorn Cross

[emilys1902]

Just wanted to share my 2 silkie leghorn crosses Pixie and Dixie! Both are roosters. Dixie (has a crooked beak) and Pixie was born “double jointed” and has a bit of trouble walking. Have another little one (Pepito) who is being raised right now and so far has no physical issues!! Wonder if anybody else has this cross

 

[emilys1902]

whoops put a random squirrel picture in there

 

[LikeTurkeys]

I know this was posted a while ago, but I wanted to say that I have hatched out this cross as well. The sire was a White Silkie bantam and the dam a White Leghorn. This is a sex-linked cross, the boys hatch with pink shanks and skin while the girls hatch with dark shanks and skin (fibromelanotic).

First, photos of the parents. My silkie has 2 copies of recessive white but is black underneath, thus the black leakage in the offspring. I'm guessing yours is similar. Here is the father:

And this is the mother:

I kept 3 pullets out of this mating and they all look identical, white with black leakage (the one with red on her chest in the second photo is a different cross). All have walnut combs like their father since that is a dominant gene. Here they are at 16 weeks old:

Interestingly, I was able to get different patterned chicks using another White Leghorn dam. These were not as white and almost appeared to have 'ghost barring'. Because dominant white conceals a lot, I can't be sure whether this was a result of the different hen or due to the sire (perhaps my silkie roo is actually single barred underneath!). Photos of the pullets at 25 weeks old:

So far they are much better producers than the silkies and lean closer in production standards to the Leghorns, which I am pleased about. The eggs are white.

I love the crests and I actually prefer the smooth feathers. I am thinking of using these to create cute crested chickens that are better layers than most silkies. Maybe I should cross them to a Cream Legbar next

Anyway, thought I would share! Hopefully it will help someone