Silkie thread!

[Hawkeye95]

Hey Silkie fans,

Just wanted to share some pictures of my mothers silkies. I love seeing everyone's pictures and decided to share some adults too! (Picture heavy... Sorry! I'm on dial up so you can imagine the horror of uploads and downloads

These are Gorgeous!!

One of my new babies, can you believe shes only 8/9 weeks old!?!

WOW!! Only 8 weeks?!?! That is a fantastic looking bird!

A lot of breeders aim for a very small comb on silkies. The standard says: "COMB: Walnut--set firmly and evenly on head, almost circular in shape, preferably broader than longer, with a number of small prominences over it, a slight indentation of furrow, transversely across the middle, rising to a point just forward of the nostrils and extending backwards to a point parallel with front of eyes." The only difference for a female is that it adds "very small, well formed" between the "--" and "set firmly and evenly..." and that the word "or" is used instead of "of in describing the transverse indentation. Note that no size is attached to a male silkie's comb in the standard.

Thanks Sonoran, I really appreciate your help and insight! I've read that over a couple of times, and never even realized it didn't say anything about SIZE. I've just been comparing it. I guess it does come down to what a judge will think of it, but his comb doesn't seem oddly out of place on him. What about your birds? Are your roosters around that same size or on the smaller size? I like seeing a nice comb that you can plainly tell BOY. But that is simply my own opinion, and I want our birds to do well being shown. I have bought some egg that I hope will infuse some new blood into my birds so hopefully I don't end up with other problems down the line. It'll be interesting to see how this all works out. I have a plan, but when I'm working with so little, I can see it's going to be tough to be as picky as I'd like to be.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I've seen birds DQed because the comb is so large it blocks vision, and to me that seems pretty reasonable. I have boys with a variety of comb sizes. Only a few with what I would consider small combs. One of this years goals is improving comb shape.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I've seen birds DQed because the comb is so large it blocks vision, and to me that seems pretty reasonable. I have boys with a variety of comb sizes. Only a few with what I would consider small combs. One of this years goals is improving comb shape.

Wow! Well yes, that does seem reasonable. I can't imagine a comb so large it blocks their vision! That must have been a HUGE comb! How do you think that passes on? If you paired a pullet with a really tiny/small comb with a rooster with a decent sized one (maybe on the large) would that help... I guess genetically wondering if it's a 50/50 or if there is a method to going about that.

 

[Katryn]

Got my first silkie this morning! Pretty little buff gal. Hope she's pure. I'm not too particular, though, so it's not as though I'd cry if she weren't. I just like her

 

[Hawkeye95]

Got my first silkie this morning! Pretty little buff gal. Hope she's pure. I'm not too particular, though, so it's not as though I'd cry if she weren't. I just like her

congrats! Picture??????

 

[mama2my4]

If you look, the girls have even pom poms on their heads, the boys have spikes, a punk rock look to them.

see on the back of his head?

well, POO! I just looked and I think now my 2nd blue "pullet" is a ROO!! That makes 4 of my pullets now turned in to roos!! So I now have more boys than girls.... UGH!!!

 

[kthorne21]

I got my first pure red silkie yesterday with her 8 chicks. Only went to get a couple of chicks but saw her and the babies and fell in love with them.
I was told that the chicks are pure red also but half seem a light yellow and the other half are dark. Im not worried though i love them all the same

Im looking forward to reading the thread to get some tips

 

[Katryn]

congrats! Picture??????

Got two pics over here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/658327/silkie-pure-or-mix-pullet-or-cockerel

 

[bobbieschicks]

Adorable!

I got my first pure red silkie yesterday with her 8 chicks. Only went to get a couple of chicks but saw her and the babies and fell in love with them.
I was told that the chicks are pure red also but half seem a light yellow and the other half are dark. Im not worried though i love them all the same

Im looking forward to reading the thread to get some tips

 

[bobbieschicks]

Question for the nonbreeders who have silkies - do you separate your silkies from the rest of your flock or not? I'm not asking breeders - because my assumption would be that you would separate your flock or have only silkies for breeding purposes.

I have my two silkies in with my small mixed flock - Lavender Orpingtons (4), White Leghorn (1), EE (1), Ancona (1), Ameraucana (1) and Wellies (2). My lead rooster is a Silkie.

My only Silkie pullet is broody right now and I'm about to give her some silkie eggs to hatch for me. I'm trying to decide what to do with the resulting flock additions. I can let her incorporate them into the greater flock and not worry about any "accidents" - or I can section them off into their own coop and separate the silkie flock from the remaining flock. I had 1 silkie at Christmas fall victim to an "accident" - sadly we found him under the coop when we returned from vacation.

Knowing their physiology and the dangers involved, I'm still leaning towards letting her incorporate her chicks into the greater flock as it works out easier on me in the long run - but I thought I'd get some input.