Silkie Standard of Perfection

[ultasol]

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So, the bird with the feather dangling down and the one with the curl, how far does the shredding extend up the primaries?

Eric Kutch is so nice. His wife is just a doll too. I really enjoyed meeting them. Hopefully we will get them back to judge more shows in WA, after all, they're Californians and not too far away. Pick Eric's brain. I told him the two cockerels I had (one which won reserve of variety as an unfinished bird) were from you.

 

[E.M. Silkies]

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What causes the gold? I have one with that too? I'm assuming it's a major DQ...?

 

[destiny_56085]

To get jet blacks with the green sheen, you need the certain set of genes that work together to provide all the melanizers. Anyone that raises black silkies knows its a rarity to get good ones that are 100% clear of any gold or silver in the hackles. Its most often expressed in the males but is carried by the females. You can very selectively breed those off colored males and they will produce clear looking pullets but which are carriers. Generally the cockerels out of them will be miscolored as well but sometimes you get those rare clear ones.

Silver/gold leakage in the andalusian (versus the self) blues is another ballpark. It also involves the certain genes for melanizers. On blues you have the lacing and pattern of color placement to deal with as well. I've seen alot more correctly colored blue males than blacks over the long run though.

I should get pics of 2 of those black cockerels...they would be a good example of the shredding starting roughly above the hocks already (about halfway). There is soo much shredding that the wings almost look like that have some white in them. Their wings are tight but it gives the illusion of them sticking out more. The hen with the curled tips barely has any shredding at all. It reminds me of how a frizzles feathers are.

I hope to talk to Eric alot more at the show. Our guy that ran the show and was responsible for doing all the ABA/APA points quit on us about a month ago. I need someone to help me through all that paperwork.

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

This is a GREAT thread..

Spelling to early

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Glen See's black birds are the blackest I've ever seen with a lovely beetle green sheen. This is where I started with my blacks.

 

[ultasol]

Mihalik told me that in order to keep the correct beetle green sheen, rather than purple, you need to have the silver/gold gene, which will result in a proportion of the males having miscolored hackles.

The best blacks are from black on black breeding. I don't use blacks with blues or splashes (with one notable exception, I have on loan a excellent black cock and I did put a very nice splash hen under him).

Amy, how odd that the hen doesn't have shredding yet gets the feathers pointing outward. Mr. Overton (an absolutely wonderful person) looked at a bird where the wing wasn't laying flat and before picking her up guessed there was too much shredding- he was correct. All the traits to select for! Oi!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Here's a picture of my suspected roo. Doesn't make a peep.

Anyway, I think he's a good example of split wing. I couldn't take any pics on the wing fanned out (that's a two man job) but here's how it looks normally. Poor guy. (Pardon the quality)

He's all the way in the left in the last one.

Here's my white baby. *Hoping* for a girl. She still has tons of pin-feathers. Thought that it'd be nice to add, because I think we breifly touched upon maturing levels. (At least I did...) My 6-month-old had very few pin-feathers when she was 4 months. This white looks much younger in comparison to her.

Neck outstretched:

 

[Smoky73]

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I do not feel that your bird has split wing, though the primaries might overlap the secondaries (Its supposed to be the other way around...I think?)
This white male to me looks like split wing, you can obviously see the primaries have a space between them and the secondary feathers.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I'm really hoping it's just a weird maturing thing. But honestly it looks alot worse than it appears to be in the picture. A few of the primaries 'jut out' from the body really randomly and curve upward. Also, when I spread out the wing (fan it) you can feel the difference in where the feathers are growing. It's really hard to explain it, but I can't take a picture of this, it's something you can feel, not see...In addition to that, it looks like signature split wing, at least to me. Primaries and secondaries and visually separate.

I guess it doesn't matter either way, anyway. He's no show bird for sure.

 

[blaundee]

Post more pics!!! I love seeing y'alls pics!