Silkie thread!

[Fancychooklady]

THEY ARE so cute! How did you dye them??

First of all you need a clean chicken , or the grease on the feathers causes the coloring to run off. We diluted food coloring in tubs of warm water and dipped the chickens in to make different combinations. This is our ' equality ' rainbow.

 

[silkiecuddles]

so funny! Is it okay for them? Food coloring cause cancer!

 

[Fancychooklady]

so funny! Is it okay for them? Food coloring cause cancer!

Ooh I hope not, I put some in the cupcakes.

 

[RubyNala97]

Mine roost, they even choose to roost on the higher pole even though there is a lower one available. Once one did it they all followed. :/

I wish one of mine would take the leap and try it. I mean, I guess it really doesn't make a difference that much, I just don't like that they are sleeping In their poop! I try to keep the bedding fresh all the time, so it's kinda a pain.

Buffs...  my stubborn project that are almost impossible to get right.   I'll try and keep it simple.... The standard itself is self up for failure.  They want the gorgeous golden buffs like in other breeds, however they forget that silkies have black skin to deal with.  Genetically speaking, you are dealing with 2 main bases for buff: wheaten and partridge.  Wheaten bases are those pure golden buffs that we all desire to get.  That however goes hand in hand with the lighter skin color, which is a disqualification if you get the red combs, lighter eyes, etc.  Add in the partridge base and you get back to the dark combs, eyes etc.  That is also responsible for the dark in the tails, wings....aka smutty coloration. You aren't DQ'd like for the red combs, but you are faulted if there is a lot of smut.   You pretty much need the perfect balance of the 2 genes and raise ALOT of babies to get those few perfect ones.  Deal with all those color issues on top of basic conformation (type, wings, toes, etc), depth of feathering, etc and you really have your work cut out for working with this color.

Paints are pretty and have come a long ways in the past few years.  They just aren't in the standard yet and can only be shown as NSV - non-standard variety.  They can't compete for overall breed classes and thus can't get on champ row.

I actually found that article on Show Bird Bid forum and I think there is some discussions back on TheCoop.Org on the topic.....

My silkies don't roost at all either...  My bantam polish can sometimes fly up to try and roost, but can't figure out how to get back down.  Fun dealing with crested/bearded breeds....

That's actually exactly the info I was hoping to find out. I do love the color but I heard that with buff you need to cull hardcore. I'm just getting slightly thicker skin now and wasn't up for that challenge yet. Plus, I'll only be set up for about 3 breeding coops and I wanted to keep more then one single color. That's a big reason I choose paint because I can have certain blacks and whites. Kinda like breeding bbs. I understand now why my buff have the grey. It's not super bad but I noticed it as soon as they started feathering in. I love them but you only breed buff to buff, right? Or to partridge, I guess? I'll post a couple pics of mine. And thank you for the info on paints. I'm not planning on showing for at least a few years, maybe even longer. I wonder how long it will take for paint to be accepted? Do you think it ever will? I just enjoy the color and I love black and white silkies too, so I'm looking forward to trying to figure this all out in the next couple years. Thanks for all of info, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
The girls:

The boy:

 

[chooknook]

I too am trying to determine the sex of some of my babies. These will be 10 weeks old on Friday. Does the size or shape of the crest give any clues? I feel like the paint in the pic is a pullet and the blue smooth sizzle and frizzled sizzle may both be roos?

 

[chicken hawk 33]

Does,anyone know a remedy for mosquitos in your co-op.

 

[silkiecuddles]

I too am trying to determine the sex of some of my babies. These will be 10 weeks old on Friday. Does the size or shape of the crest give any clues? I feel like the paint in the pic is a pullet and the blue smooth sizzle and frizzled sizzle may both be roos?

GORGEOUS birds you got! The sizzle in the second pic may be a roo

 

[silkiecuddles]

Does,anyone know a remedy for mosquitos in your co-op.

Not necessarily a remedy, but dragonflies are avid mosquito hunters. And purple martins eat dragonflies, so if you have houses up for them then I'd say get rid of them. Also, bats eat mosquitoes.

 

[chooknook]

GORGEOUS birds you got! The sizzle in the second pic may be a roo

I think you're right. Thank you.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Does,anyone know a remedy for mosquitos in your co-op.

We have a river not 30 feet from our coops and midges and mozzies are thick on the ground here at dusk. I spray the coops with a pyrethrum based surface spray and hang those sticky fly papers in all the pens. Just don't walk backwards into one , not nice pulling it out of your hair, especially when it's full of bugs.