Silkie thread!

[4hchickmama]

Oh please post pictures of your silkie and sizzle

My sizzle is the splash above and my silkie is the blue that won with my daughter at the fair, but here is another picture of her. She doesn't cooperate well when I am photographing. Silly bird!

Lady Peckington the Smooth Splash Sizzle


Madame Black Pearl, the blue silkie about to get flipped over:


And for good measure (even though they aren't silkies)...my chicks Peanut and Penny because they are adorable. I'm kind of wondering if some silkie is in my cochin chick because she is awfully fluffy.

 

[flower]

4Hchickmama If your cochin had silkie mixed in she would most likely have some sort of crest. Cockens are fluffy !

 

[flower]

You're just that proud

I was thinking the same ! How you are in love with your birds !

 

[Sanna]

A sizzle is a silkie X cochin (usually) Most people seem to want to go for the frizzled feathers, but I actually prefer the smooth like this. Here is a picture of my splash sizzle girl:

She is absolutely gorgeous! I'd love to have one like her.

Someday! Right now I'm working on weaseling some new Silkie chicks in here at the farm! I want to order some eggs, good eggs. My boss is going to kill me! haha I'll just pull the "if I'm going to take over the farm someday, I need some more Silkies" -card on her.

I wonder if that will work?

And for good measure (even though they aren't silkies)...my chicks Peanut and Penny because they are adorable. I'm kind of wondering if some silkie is in my cochin chick because she is awfully fluffy.

That buff one isn't a polish, is it?

 

[Hawkeye95]

I am interested in becoming NPIP Certified. I went to NY's website and read a little, but I wanted to know from someone who is certified, what happens? Is there an inspector that comes out? What are they looking for? Are they going to test my birds?

Any info, suggestions, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I am having my birds tested on July 1. Your county extension office should have a list of people who are NPIP testers. It will usually cost you aroung $2-$5 a bird depending on how much the serum cost the tester. And the prices have gone up lately. I'm paying 2.50 a bird, but you only need to test adult birds. This is not to deter you from testing-- you should do it if you want to breed to show and sell! And if you have a really large flock, my understanding is that they test a few birds out of each pen, not every single bird. Just giving you a heads up so you will be prepared. Oh, and yeah, they are going to come out, take blood from the feet of your birds and look for any illness in your flock. This is how it was described to me, this is my first year doing this, so I can't honestly tell you exactly how it's going to go. Hopefully someone who has done this many times before will pipe up and tell you what all is involved.

My sizzle is the splash above and my silkie is the blue that won with my daughter at the fair, but here is another picture of her. She doesn't cooperate well when I am photographing. Silly bird!

Lady Peckington the Smooth Splash Sizzle


Madame Black Pearl, the blue silkie about to get flipped over:


And for good measure (even though they aren't silkies)...my chicks Peanut and Penny because they are adorable. I'm kind of wondering if some silkie is in my cochin chick because she is awfully fluffy.

She is a beautiful bird-- great coloring! But I'm confused why you are calling her a Sizzle? I think there was a discussion last year on the traits of a Frizzle and Sizzle-- and the feathers can not be laying down like this. To have a Sizzle, you must have a Frizzle cochin crossed with a silkie and then have the frizzle feathers pass on to the silkie cross -- which lifts the feathers. If you just cross a cochin and silkie, you simply get a mix, nothing more. Here is a link that explains it better: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/101486/sizzle-frizzle-and-frazzle They show how the feathers must look like, and a bird with feathers laying down like the last few birds show, aren't frizzles, sizzles, etc.. LOL!

But hey, it's a lot to learn! So understandable that it's confusing. This picture is from that thread-- and this is an example of a Sizzle:

 

[ThaiChick]

Your Splash is so pretty. I can see where this could be addictive. Help! I'm going to need a 12 step program, haha

It wouldn't work for me because my first step would be to get a bigger coop...

 

[4hchickmama]

She is a beautiful bird-- great coloring! But I'm confused why you are calling her a Sizzle? I think there was a discussion last year on the traits of a Frizzle and Sizzle-- and the feathers can not be laying down like this. To have a Sizzle, you must have a Frizzle cochin crossed with a silkie and then have the frizzle feathers pass on to the silkie cross -- which lifts the feathers. If you just cross a cochin and silkie, you simply get a mix, nothing more. Here is a link that explains it better: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/101486/sizzle-frizzle-and-frazzle They show how the feathers must look like, and a bird with feathers laying down like the last few birds show, aren't frizzles, sizzles, etc.. LOL!

But hey, it's a lot to learn! So understandable that it's confusing. This picture is from that thread-- and this is an example of a Sizzle:

She is is a silkie crossed with a frizzled cochin, but this breeder is like on the 10th generation. At this point, she gets two types of feathering, smooth and frizzled in her sizzles. The smooth is important because the double frizzled gene produces some chickens that look a mess. So smooths are a byproduct, but am important part to the breeding program. Forgive my rudimentary genetic descriptions, but I think initially in your F1 crosses to can get birds with silkie feathers, birds with hard smooth feathers, birds with hard frizzled feathers, and birds with frizzled silkie feathers (Frilkies.) The F2 generation looks like a hot mess (weird feathers, missing toes, etc), and then by F2 and F3, they start to look nice and produce more regularly the desired smooth or frizzled hard feathers. There are a few breeders on here who can clarify this, but that is my understanding.

 

[4hchickmama]

4Hchickmama If your cochin had silkie mixed in she would most likely have some sort of crest. Cockens are fluffy !

Thats what I thought...she has no hint of a crest. She's my first cochin, but she just seems extra fluffy...and I still have no idea what to call her color. She isn't splash...she isn't columbian...shes something in between.

She is absolutely gorgeous! I'd love to have one like her.

Someday! Right now I'm working on weaseling some new Silkie chicks in here at the farm! I want to order some eggs, good eggs. My boss is going to kill me! haha I'll just pull the "if I'm going to take over the farm someday, I need some more Silkies" -card on her.

I wonder if that will work?



That buff one isn't a polish, is it?

Thanks. We love her. She has a great personality too. I'd have a whole yard of them if I could get away with it.

And yep..the buff is a polish. She's going through her "chicken uglies" right now. Shes only like 10 weeks or so. That crest should fill out soon.

 

[peepblessed]

Hello. These are my sweetie pies.
Monroe...

and Bonnie & Clyde....
..

Bonnie is a blue partridge. I know someone said if I bred Clyde and Monroe I would have 100% blues. What about with Bonnie since she is a blue? They are both show quality and won with their previous owner. I'm new to all this and curious!

A cross between Bonnie and Clyde would likely make black with bleeding red and other non standard colors that would not be useful for a breeding program. If Monroe is black and not dark blue you will get 100% blue. Monroe has a beautiful crest. Would love to see a good photo of her.

 

[peepblessed]

lol. I am! I could sit outside with them all day and just listen to those cute little noises the girls make.

I love silkie babble!!