Silkie pullet and cockrel photo..need opinions please

[BoiseBubba]

From what I can see they look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

 

[muzzles&nuzzles]

They do look very nice. I thought silver in the hackle was OK as it indicated the bird may carry the silver gene? Or is that just for breeding purposes?

The 4h kids around here show hatchery birds. It drives me crazy. I gave..yes GAVE a little boy a really good white pair to start him off so he wouldn't order any hatchery birds. Now..I wish I had the hen back. LOL

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

muzzles&nuzzles :

They do look very nice. I thought silver in the hackle was OK as it indicated the bird may carry the silver gene? Or is that just for breeding purposes?

The 4h kids around here show hatchery birds. It drives me crazy. I gave..yes GAVE a little boy a really good white pair to start him off so he wouldn't order any hatchery birds. Now..I wish I had the hen back. LOL

That was a wonderful thing to do and I hope you will be blessed for it. One blessing may be the look on that little boy's face when he wins with his pair!! Making a difference in a child's life is one of the most important things we can do. Thank you....

 

[muzzles&nuzzles]

I had him and Mom come over and we went through basic chicken care,, handling etc. I gave them ivermectin also. I changed my email addy so I didn't get to see how he did. They show at a different fair than we go to.
I believe in karma and I have had people give me things or teach me things when they didn't have to. I would love to do a 4h poultry group I just don't have the time.

 

[LilPeeps]

muzzles&nuzzles :

They do look very nice. I thought silver in the hackle was OK as it indicated the bird may carry the silver gene? Or is that just for breeding purposes?

The 4h kids around here show hatchery birds. It drives me crazy. I gave..yes GAVE a little boy a really good white pair to start him off so he wouldn't order any hatchery birds. Now..I wish I had the hen back. LOL

The silver gene os ok in whites, as it can keep them whiter longer, but you do not want silver (or gold) in your bbs line. You can't show them and shouldn't breed them. Once you have it in your line, you will forever be plagued by it. You'll end up having to cull potentially SQ birds simply because they have the silver in them. You honestly should not use that male. If the female came from the same breeding as the male, you shouldn't use her either. If she is and doesn't display the silver, you can show her but just don't breed from her.​

 

[Smoky73]

In my opinion, almost all the black birds out there have silver hackles in them or at least in their background. You rarely find a black male without silver in the hackles. Now gold, I would not keep, but silver yep as long as it is not a lot. I rarely see the silver hackles in females though, it is almost always in males, but it does not mean the females do not carry it.

 

[LilPeeps]

Quote:
Silver runs in a lot of lines, but I disagree that almost all black males have the silver hackles. I've worked with a half dozen lines and have only encountered one line of those that did carry silver. I will not specify the line, but it is a breeder with their share of show wins. I did find pet homes for all the birds I had acquired from this breeder, as well as the offspring they had produced, regardless of how pure the black on them was or how incredible their type was.

I would never keep a bird that I knew was carrying silver.

 

[muzzles&nuzzles]

What if you see a little gold in the hackles but then it goes away? Like I said my black hen had gold in her hackle. I seem to remember it being there but when I checked the other day I did not see it. I thought I saw a little gold in the blue I just hatched though? I will have to watch as it grows. I think the crest will be too small anyways which is a shame because the feathering is good. I think Lilpeeps looked at the pics I posted under gender. I have a different roo and I have never seen gold in my splash or blues. I only have one black hen though so not breeding her shouldn't be a problem. I hate culling anyways although I know we have to. I think one year I had blue cockerals and some had gold in their hackles. I culled every single one of them. Ugh.

If a white had silver it should be fine though. My whites don't but it is a gene I could introduce and be ok because silver can enhance white. Correct?

 

[LilPeeps]

muzzles&nuzzles :

What if you see a little gold in the hackles but then it goes away? Like I said my black hen had gold in her hackle. I seem to remember it being there but when I checked the other day I did not see it. I thought I saw a little gold in the blue I just hatched though? I will have to watch as it grows. I think the crest will be too small anyways which is a shame because the feathering is good. I think Lilpeeps looked at the pics I posted under gender. I have a different roo and I have never seen gold in my splash or blues. I only have one black hen though so not breeding her shouldn't be a problem. I hate culling anyways although I know we have to. I think one year I had blue cockerals and some had gold in their hackles. I culled every single one of them. Ugh.

If a white had silver it should be fine though. My whites don't but it is a gene I could introduce and be ok because silver can enhance white. Correct?

Gold is worse than silver. You shouldn't keep any with gold either.

If you're planning on introducing the silver gene in your whites, do it via a white bird carrying silver.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Every chicken, including every silkie, carries either gold or silver. Silver/gold is one gene; silver is the dominat form, gold the recessive. Boys can carry one gene of each. This gene is not the cause of gold or silver in the hackles.

That is caused by the absense of sufficient melanizer genes; this could be stated alternately that too many not-melanized genes are present. I am not saying that one should breed blue or black birds displaying colour in the hackles--doing so would perpetuate birds with insufficient melanizers.