Silkie Question from Newbies

[RABel67]

We bought a home in a small Upstate NY village last year, and were thrilled to start our hobby farm with chickens in our backyard this spring. I've used the forums on this site for nearly a year to learn about our desired breeds, as we only grew up with RIRs. We currently have six week-old silkie chicks in an indoor brooder and plan to add a dozen barred rocks for meat shortly.


A FEW QUICK QUESTIONS:

Can a silkie have barbed feathers? We bought our six from TSC from marked bins. They all fit the criteria of the silkie breed but one. It has black skin, five toes, feathered legs and toes, a blue-gray beak, the helmet-shaped head, but the feathers on the wings are coming in as traditional, barbed feathers. Is it possible that it is a sizzle? Any idea what it may turn out to look like as an adult? Any idea on what may have gotten with a silkie at the hatchery, if it's not a true silkie?

 

[donrae]

Can you post a pic?

I have a few silkies from hatcheries that have hard feathers on the wings only, the rest of the bird is Silkie'd. Not sure if I have a good pic....





the gold hen is my Beth. Not sure how well you can see, but she does have regular feathers on her wings. You can see them better in the first pic, right under the edge of the wing. The black rooster Glen is harder to see, but he has the same thing.

 

[RABel67]

Sorry for the delay, I was getting animals prepped for the snow dumping on us now. These guys are eight days old today and I took the pictures this morning. The first three pictures are of the one with barbed feathers. The last two are of another from the same batch with the normal, unbarbed feathers. I hope these are helpful.