Silkie thread!

[Tikkijane]

Those stips on the head that give the "leopard" pattern is called the chick is helmed

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Too funny!!

 

[KMHunter]

For those of you who keep saying silkies don't roost. Mine do.

Even the little crabby patty of a rooster (bottom right) gets up on the top right next to Lila (top right). The bigger rooster never gets up there, at least I've never seen him roosting. I think he likes to stay to the ground with his weight. lol

Looks like your roosts are low and it's a ladder so they can get up there easily. I just heard if the roost was too high for them then they won't, and some just choose not too. Preferring to sleep in a pile on the floor.
I am providing a low roost and going to see what they do.

 

[Tikkijane]

One of my silkie hens hatched out 6 eggs yesterday morning. I went out to feed and heard the little peeps . She had 4 whites and 2 partridge. Its was 105 outside and I was worried all day and kept checking in on her. The babies were crawling undernearth her belly and I worried they would get to hot . And I was right , but that evening when I went to check there was one white chick laying asleep next to her but the other 5 were under her belly dead from the AZ heat. Mother hen ran around crying for her babies so I put her and the last baby in the nursery last night with all 15 babies. She calmed right down but the last baby was trying to crawl under her and im afraid what im going to find this morning. This was the first time I let a hen hatch her own eggs . And this is exacally why. Its just to hot here and when the babies cuddle under momma they overheat and die.I had her in one of my coolest pens but it was just to hot outside. Next time I will just pull the chicks from mom and bring them inside
.The Heartaches of Farming.

 

[workinnanie]

So Sorry to hear this.

 

[workinnanie]

Just love the picture of the little chick with a helmet on!!!

 

[workinnanie]

For those of you who were trying to help me figure out if my unusually colored chick was male or female a few months. He turned out to be very male! His name is Lancelot.

 

[SilverSilkie]

For those of you who were trying to help me figure out if my unusually colored chick was male or female a few months. He turned out to be very male! His name is Lancelot.

Splash red-shouldered !?
The US-Silkie males have much female type in contrast to EU-Silkies !

 

[peepblessed]

A lot of people house these three colors together because they all cross well. Here is the gene chart for BBS


The way the Blue gene works in a breeding can be broken down as follows:
1) Blue x Blue: This will produce 25% black, 50% blue, 25% splash.
2) Black x Blue: Produces 50% black and 50% blue.
3) Black x Splash: You'll get 100% blue.
4) Blue x Splash: Produces 50% blue and 50% splash.
5) Splash x Splash: This will give you 100% Splash.

Because you have the three colors in one pen, you don't always know what color a baby is when it hatches. It may be light blue or splash or dark blue or black. It's unusual for it to be some other color like partridge.

 

[SilverSilkie]

Because you have the three colors in one pen, you don't always know what color a baby is when it hatches. It may be light blue or splash or dark blue or black. It's unusual for it to be some other color like partridge.

"Blue" is a black-pigment diluter (bl+/bl+ = no dilution, Bl/bl+ = 1 doses dilution, Bl/Bl = 2 doses dilution).
"Partridge" is a ground-color, a pattern, one of the possibilities on the E-locus.

It's perfectly possible to have 1 or 2 doses Blue on a Partridge-pattern, you become than Blue-Partridge or Splash-Partridge.