Silkie thread!

[Duck Drover]

QueenMisha - You said: "You're thinking of Autosexing breeds, I think. Sex Links are always one-generation, A + B = C type deals. Autosexing birds are the ones which can breed true, A + A = A. Of course Sex Links are something that can ever be shown, but there are tons of people who I'm sure would love the chance to purchase a guaranteed female Silkie as a pet."

That is what I was referring to in my rambling, lol. Sex linked versus autosexing. I have thought of raising autosexing birds but they all look so identical and I like the excitement of seeing what different colors I get while still conforming to the breed standards with regards to color.

In the future I might have to go roosterless just so I can have lots more colors in my flock and then buy hatching eggs instead of feeding roosters. I kind of like having roosters to protect my hens, though, so I am back to wanting a breed of non-crowing roosters.

I wonder if there is a defective voice gene that could be bred into chickens? I know roosters can be surgically muted but it is sometimes fatal and therefore not recommended.

 

[QueenMisha]

QueenMisha - You said: "You're thinking of Autosexing breeds, I think. Sex Links are always one-generation, A + B = C type deals. Autosexing birds are the ones which can breed true, A + A = A. Of course Sex Links are something that can ever be shown, but there are tons of people who I'm sure would love the chance to purchase a guaranteed female Silkie as a pet."

That is what I was referring to in my rambling, lol. Sex linked versus autosexing. I have thought of raising autosexing birds but they all look so identical and I like the excitement of seeing what different colors I get while still conforming to the breed standards with regards to color.

In the future I might have to go roosterless just so I can have lots more colors in my flock and then buy hatching eggs instead of feeding roosters. I kind of like having roosters to protect my hens, though, so I am back to wanting a breed of non-crowing roosters.

I wonder if there is a defective voice gene that could be bred into chickens? I know roosters can be surgically muted but it is sometimes fatal and therefore not recommended.

I've never heard of a cock that didn't crow. There is one breed of long crower who has a very deep and low crow, but which from all the audio recordings I've found seems to be rather quiet indeed. I forget the name right now, though I am fairly certain that it has not made it to the US yet, sadly, and last I heard was quite rare even in countries where it is extant.

 

[Duck Drover]

I've never heard of a cock that didn't crow. There is one breed of long crower who has a very deep and low crow, but which from all the audio recordings I've found seems to be rather quiet indeed. I forget the name right now, though I am fairly certain that it has not made it to the US yet, sadly, and last I heard was quite rare even in countries where it is extant.

I was actually reading about this earlier. I think it was a South American breed I was researching, thankfully not the Quechua.

 

[Duck Drover]

I was actually reading about this earlier. I think it was a South American breed I was researching, thankfully not the Quechua.

Actually there seems to be a long list but this is the one I read about in tracing the ancestry of the Aracauca: Ayam bekisar or Long Crowing/Singing Sea Fowl. It seems if you can breed for long crowing then maybe you can also breed for extremely short (nonexistant) crowing, eh?

 

[BoomChickaPop]

Here is a pic of my first ever silkie babies!!!! There are now 5 babies
I will post more pics soon

 

[jas humbert]

Quote: QueenMisha - You said: "You're thinking of Autosexing breeds, I think. Sex Links are always one-generation, A + B = C type deals. Autosexing birds are the ones which can breed true, A + A = A. Of course Sex Links are something that can ever be shown, but there are tons of people who I'm sure would love the chance to purchase a guaranteed female Silkie as a pet."

I think for now sex-link (one generation only) is a good beginning spot. I have also been reading about auto- sexing (multigenerational breeding true for sex/color) and think it might be a longer end goal for me . Misha was talking about breeding partridge to cuckoo. Go look at blue ridgesilkies.com. I know nothing about her, but she has some pictures of partridge/cuckoo adult silkies. The color reminds me a lot of a beinfelder chickens.which is one of the autosexing breeds. I'm sure there's way more to it than that but I'm committed to doing a good deal of research on autosexing over the next couple of years as I work my way along with sex-links. I bred and showed dogs for many years and learned some genetics then and I'm learning a lot more in this much more complex field (no sex-link color genes in dogs).

Just like dogs, the vast majority of people who own them are not going to show but that's no reason why they shouldn't be able to have a good quality, healthy, nice tempered silkie that they can know when they buy it is a pullet or roo. Many of us got into silkies because of the wonderful cuddly docile personalities and fat cuddly fluff. In my experience, off-colors are just as appealing and how many of us are working on non-standard colors right now? Porcelain? Cuckoo? .While I am never going to be a big-time breeder or have only sex-links, I would like to set aside a couple of pens to work on sex-link in addition to other colors. I think there is a need for sexed silkie chicks. No crow-roosters/low-crow roosters sound good but I've not heard of any or anyone seriously working on this. (i'd love to know more if someone knows somethings about this). My husband was a lab tech for several years and I asked him if he could DNA sex if we had the equipment and he says probably but doubts we could afford the equipment.. .So for now sex-link colors seem the only way to go.

 

[Chikn-Chik]

Here is a pic of my first ever silkie babies!!!! There are now 5 babies I will post more pics soon

They are adorable!! Congratulations on the babies!

 

[BoomChickaPop]

They are adorable!! Congratulations on the babies!

Thankyou more will be hatching soon.


BCP

 

[Duck Drover]

jas humbert - Do you know what the cost of the equipment was when your husband looked into it? I have wondered if there might be enough of a local demand to offer sexing services (might need to find a better way to advertise that, lol) in order to cover the costs but start up is always the hardest part, waiting for a return on an investment. I know commercial hatcheries would be far too overwhelmed with genetic testing on huge volumes of birds that need to be shipped out as day olds but someone who does enough hatching on a smaller scale for a local market might eventually get a return on the investment if it is not too expensive. I always have more time than money to invest.

The issue of rooster "disposal" is one that has to be dealt with no matter what age they are sexed. I sell roosters at butcher age so they are a financial loss for me but a gain for the people who eat them. Earlier sexing would still result in trying to find people to take roosters and grow them out for meat on their own feed bill. There does not seem to be much incentive for people who are already finding "free to a good home" birds or auction birds that are ready to kill and eat, with hardly any investment on their part, to want to build coops and buy feed when they can already find what they want at such a low cost.

When I sell roosters as breeders they are only $10 and when I take them to the auction they sell for less than $5. Obviously it costs me far more than that to feed them for 4 to 6 months. The return I get is to keep my pullets on the same feed bill so that is why I don't want to also sell my pullets at a loss. They have far more value to me if I keep them than if I sell them. Selling their chicks helps subsidize some of my feed costs but I don't ever come out ahead because I don't charge what my birds are actually worth.

There is a local guy who cranks out crossbred bantams and sells them cheap because they are poor quality. Buyers have no idea what they are getting from him because he posts pictures of birds that are not his as breed references but he basically has a barnyard mix. If people just want any cheap bantam to love as a pet, then they might as well get them from him and not from me. People who get my chicks have usually educated themselves enough to know that there are different qualities when it comes to birds and they want a nice true to breed bird without necessarily wanting to show. Then there are people who want proven show winners for their kids to win a show and my birds may be show quality but not necessarily show winners because there are also people making nicer Silkies than mine since they show their birds.

Ultimately I breed Silkies in order to enjoy my own birds and I am constantly wanting to acheive the highest quality birds I can produce. I do cull (rehome) but not as heavily as I could because I get attached to the birds I raise. I am in the middle when it comes to quality and pricing because that is where I am at in my own efforts. I originally started in Silkies for their broodiness but then I started hatching out Silkies and wanting them to look like show winners.

I need to find a super nice blue rooster that will cover all my hens and take them to a higher level. I know that the rooster has the most influence on the quality of my next generation so I want to choose wisely. I see roosters for free all the time but they are not the quality I want (I also see poor quality roosters listed for far more than they are worth). I will need to find a breeder who has a show quality rooster they are retiring from their flock in order to bring in new blood but that is not already spent. My rooster is out of show stock but he has never been shown.

 

[suburbansilkies]

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This is Gabby she is an 8 week old silkie chicken that I got 3 days ago for my birthday! I love her very much and I really think that we are bonding together. It's so nice to see all the silkie owners come together and share their love for their chickens!