Silkie thread!

[nikmetz]

OMG !!!!  ALLLLL those Silkies are sooo beautiful ! I'm so excited to be trying to have some silkies that were shipped to me on my own. First time on day 25 in incubator. Any advice ????

I just got 8 Blue Silkies today...hatched on Tuesday.  Very cute.

Liz

Rochester, MA

 

[The Colonel]

Ok thank you for clearing that up I was starting to get a little confused. So not a show worthy cockerel, how do I get the colour back in my next few generations?

 

[TiaRC]

Ok thank you for clearing that up I was starting to get a little confused. So not a show worthy cockerel, how do I get the colour back in my next few generations?

No he won't be a show bird. As for color you can do two things. Breed he with a very dark skinned female. Most likely a black hen for her color and see what the offspring will color out to be comb wise. Or get another roo with a dark comb. My guess with the right hen you will get 50/50 dark too breed standard combs and some with red not to standard combs. Keep the dark ones and sell the red ones. Then the next gen should be 75% dark.

 

[The Colonel]

Ok thank you I'll have to make that decision later on as he is my only silkie male at the moment. Unless any more start popping out combs :/

 

[TiaRC]

Ok thank you I'll have to make that decision later on as he is my only silkie male at the moment. Unless any more start popping out combs :/

Could you post another pic of him. Is body. Crest. And feet. I want to see if his comb is the only flaw. If it's just his comb. He will be a good breeder with the right females

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Feeling a little discouraged about my splash babies. I've gone through several trying to get a pullet, but as they grow they keep looking like males lol. I have two right now im watching. One im pretty sure is a roo, and the other im not really sure lol. Im starting to doubt if im meant to have a splash haha.

 

[ihavechickens2]

very beautiful!! I love the crosses is your last one maybe a calico?

lol is this toward mine?? if so it might be! He/she and the golden laced are siblings, so i just kinda figured thats what he/she is and I wondered if y'all thought so also?

 

[Sylvester017]

I love all the pictures! Such pretty chickens! I have 8 silkies in my flock.
I guess I have about 3 more months to wait until we can start guessing gender

Maybe I'm being picky but I cringe when I see a chicken being held like this - held by it's reproductive sides area mid-air. The proper way to educate yourselves and accustom your chickens is to scoop the chicken with one hand from the front between it's legs (fingers can hold the legs still) and put the other hand over the wings to keep from flapping then hold gently against your chest to offer further feelings of security - this method avoids "squeezing" the reproductive backsides of the chicken when it suddenly wants to flap which causes the surprised human to tighten the hold around the backsides of the chickens. I call the proper way of holding a chicken -any chicken- the "show judge hold" as it offers the chicken security but like with everything the chicken as well as people need to accustom themselves with this "hold."

 

[Sylvester017]

Feeling a little discouraged about my splash babies. I've gone through several trying to get a pullet, but as they grow they keep looking like males lol. I have two right now im watching. One im pretty sure is a roo, and the other im not really sure lol. Im starting to doubt if im meant to have a splash haha.

I read sublahana's post once where she mentioned that incubator temperatures can cause more males to hatch than females. She is often on this post and you might ask her input about the male-female incubator temps.

 

[subhanalah]

I read sublahana's post once where she mentioned that incubator temperatures can cause more males to hatch than females.  She is often on this post and you might ask her input about the male-female incubator temps.

incubation temperatures determine reptile gender.
I read somewhere that they said you could incubate too hot and the boys would be too weak to withstand it so die in shell. However, when my a/c broke and I had temp spikes, I had mixed hatches, some were 50/50 and others were all girls or male heavy. I really don't think it works that way with chickens.