Silkie thread!

[breeze27]

Oh a

Quote:
I do have another one hatching this week, day 21 is Tuesday. I will have updates on that one when it hatches!

Oh awesome I do hope you have better luck with that one and I look forward to hearing

 

[ChickNmamma]

Had a newbie silkie question: in silkies, are certain colors hardier or have fewer problems than others? Do different colors have different reputations?

I know in some animals, there are certain traits that tend to be color linked like deafness in white cats with blue eyes. I was wondering if there were any differences between the silkie colors that I should take into consideration.

I am not aware of any health problems based on Silkies' colors, or based on SIlkies. The only "lethal" genes in chickens I know of is relegated to Araucanas (tufted) and short legged birds (creeper gene). Nothing in Silkies. There are some problems reported with vaulted skulls because of the crest gene, but that is usually because of another bird pecking on their heads where the skull is thinnest.

 

[Pyxis]

So I have a quick question for you guys - sorry if it's been asked before. I'm breeding BBS silkies and plan to finally have eggs this spring. I'm doing one last hatch before winter to shore up my numbers, and I got eggs from another breeder to add genetic diversity. She included whites as extra eggs. If I put white hens in with my BBS birds, what colors can I expect? Am I correct in thinking white is recessive and would start to pop up a few generations from now? Or will the chicks hatched have a chance of being white right away? Sorry if this is a silly question

 

[vebyrd36]

Silkie babies


Vivi

 

[ChickNmamma]

So I have a quick question for you guys - sorry if it's been asked before. I'm breeding BBS silkies and plan to finally have eggs this spring. I'm doing one last hatch before winter to shore up my numbers, and I got eggs from another breeder to add genetic diversity. She included whites as extra eggs. If I put white hens in with my BBS birds, what colors can I expect? Am I correct in thinking white is recessive and would start to pop up a few generations from now? Or will the chicks hatched have a chance of being white right away? Sorry if this is a silly question

Its not a silly question - and we have no clue what will come of the White x breedings. If your B/B/S is not already split to another base you should get all Black or Blue chicks. If not, who knows..

White hides everything - so you could get all sorts of mixed genetic that are under the white. You can sort of see it in the chick down in White chicks - the one White chick I hatched had a Chipmunk base and it was faintly visible under his creamy colored down - but he turned solid White as he grew. I had another White chick born between a black or blue hen and a Partridge father - I don't know who is carrying white in the hens, but the Boy is. That cross was a solid White - and very clean - so I suspect it was based on Black. Any chicks from a White x breeding will carry one copy of recessive white. And yes, if you breed them back to the white - or together - as soon as a chick gets two copies of White it will be White. It will pop up again whenever the roll of the dice match up two recessive Whites.

I sold the two Whites as I don't want to bring any more in, but I expect I will have a few dice roll again with those breedings - and now to his daughters if she got one copy from him. Fortunately last roll I only have Black, Blue and Partridges (which is what I want).

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

So... I have chicks I hatched. I have silkies who aren't broody and just started laying. Can I put the chicks with them, or will they not take care of them because they haven't gone broody yet?

They might well attack and kill them. It is POSSIBLE, but not really likely that one will take over mothering them. For that you would need to separate that pullet and put her in with the chicks, away from the others.

 

[Three Silkies]

One of my babies (they'll be 2 months next week) in our new flower garden next to the silkie pen. This little chick has the cutest little face! His/her crest is growing straight up. Most of the others are developing flatter bonnet 'dos, but not this kid. One chick has a heavily pinned crest that flops over to one side, giving him quite a 'windblown' look. The thing is with these chicks is that they're SO SLOW to feather out their feet. When I first got mine I was afraid they'd have skimpy foot feathering, as they had bare toes for a while, but it finally came in in earnest around three months. I know these guys will have to get it eventually, they had heavy 'foot fluff' as hatchlings. They're going through a bare middle toe period right now, but they're starting to get 'sprouts' all down the toe, so they won't be bare long. I've integrated them with my adult flock (it's very warm here in SC now), and it went very nicely. No fighting, they were accepted as part of the flock almost immediately. At night they snuggle up under the wings of the cockerel and the pullets

(the hens trying to be broody on nothing in there don't take too kindly to that, however)

That is the cutest chick I've ever seen!

 

[cheeseandfoody]

[/IMG] does anyone know what breed that is?
Ps. Does poop on a fertile egg infect it?

 

[cheeseandfoody]

what breed is that

 

[Fancychooklady]

[/IMG] does anyone know what breed that is?
Ps. Does poop on a fertile egg infect it?

Poop on the egg will raise the bacteria levels. My hen pooped all over her eggs so I gently washed them in warm soapy water.they hatched 24 hours later. If there is only a little bit of poo you could gently clean with some wet paper towel. Sorry can't help you with breed.