Silkie thread!

[jmanderson777]

Here a couple I phone pics of some of my new babies. A paint, porcelain, and I believe a self blue but hard to tell by pick and I don't remember which It is. It might be a cuckoo.

 

[bennyboy333]

Does anyone know how to test a hygrometer

 

[Momma 2 silkies]

I have a question on breeding silkies if anyone can help. I have a paint roo with 3 black girls and I want to and a blue girl. Does anyone know what blue and paint will produce? I haven't done it but I am interested to know what could come from the pairing if anyone has ever done this breeding. Can someone post a picture or a possible color chart for the color pairing.

 

[Jharper]

Ok so my RIR hen was sitting on some silkie eggs I got her and I thought they were all buff. It turns out there is one really good looking bluish colored chick. I think it will be a splash! It has real good pouf on it's feet!! So excited! There are three trying to still hatch. I think I will have to bring one in and put it in my incubator b/c it looks like it is drying out.

 

[peepblessed]

Has anyone done that test to test their hygrometer? I tried it last night and my newly bought hygrometer read 45% instead of 75% . I still don't think the hygrometer is wrong though , does anyone know what could be wrong with how tested it i think I used cold water? Any help

This is the best hygrometer test. http://www.burgessviolins.com/calibration.html

My baby, Jill. She is a talker and loves to scratch near my feet. lol.

What a sweetie!

Just got my first silkie egg! She is 24 weeks old so rather young for her first egg. So excited!

I'm sorry I couldn't help it. Isn't he adorable!

He's a cutie. That chicken in the back looks like a hawk!

FINALLY finished reading the whole thread. I think my head hurts... so much good information - so many cute chick pictures, so much fluffy - LOVE IT!

Hi all, I bought my first Silkie at the feed store because I was looking for broodies to hatch my EE eggs. None of my EEs had ever hatched their own and my little Styrofoam incubator does not like my wood stove heated/no air conditioned house. Tried twice - once got 5 roosters and 2 girls, second time got nothing. Sooo... I wanted broodies. I got a whole bunch of different breeds - and then I saw this little gray fluff ball with bright black eyes and black skin at the feed store - so I got it too. Turned out to be a girl (YAY) and a GREAT mommy - went broody in December and hatched out 5 chicks (would have been more if I had left the eggs alone). They still sleep with her - and they are laying now too (mutt crosses from the other breeds and one of her kids)..

I then decided to read up on Silkies.. and wow! What a bunch of cute fluffiness is possible. My good broody Mommy has a place with her friends, but I wanted more fluff. Soooo... I got a Blue and her mix daughter. Then I saw Partridge.. oh my - LOVE THAT! Got a Red/Black Partridge beardless Roo, then two more girls (nice SQ and been shown beardless Buff and a Blue Frizzle).. and I want to make SQ beardless Blue Partridge. Not a lot to ask - right?

Anyhow, to answer the above question (because I have sort of done it)..

A mess. They could be all black. OR... since Silkies Black may not be based on E like the calculator says but instead based on E^R with melanizers or even on e^b with unknown melanizers..

It depends on what they are hiding and how pure the colors are. I crossed a Red/Black Partridge and a Buff girl - and I expected to get Smutty Buff (what the calculator said). However.. I got .. um.. partridge? So the Buff had more partridge than she was showing (She was already smutty buff). They are now growing more and more Buff colored - so may look like Smutty Buff when they grow up - but they looked Partridge as chicks (and still have the patterned wings). I also crossed him with a Blue and a Blue frizzle and got really a mix, including a white, a black, three Partridges and a bunch of Blues... The Blues and the Blacks were expected (sort of) - the Partridges and the WHITE were not!

Only way to find out .. is to do it. Only thing you will need to know is - most will not be SQ colors because you will be crossing two different bases and adding all sorts of melanizers that weren't present in the original colors. It will mess up both colors for future generations - and the chicks can have leakage (black), smutty (buff), and whatever else is hiding in there will show up in all sorts of combinations. Now if you were adding lavender gene in there you could work on Porcelain - Self Blue Creme. Only take you 15 to 20 generations to get it right!

Wow! When I joined this thread I only had to catch up on about a 1000 posts! Lots of good info!!

Here a couple I phone pics of some of my new babies. A paint, porcelain, and I believe a self blue but hard to tell by pick and I don't remember which It is. It might be a cuckoo.

Cute babies! The top one looks white.

Ok so my RIR hen was sitting on some silkie eggs I got her and I thought they were all buff. It turns out there is one really good looking bluish colored chick. I think it will be a splash! It has real good pouf on it's feet!! So excited! There are three trying to still hatch. I think I will have to bring one in and put it in my incubator b/c it looks like it is drying out.

Be sure to post pictures!

 

[Suzierd]

FINALLY finished reading the whole thread.  I think my head hurts...  so much good information - so many cute chick pictures, so much fluffy - LOVE IT!

Hi all, I bought my first Silkie at the feed store because I was looking for broodies to hatch my EE eggs.  None of my EEs had ever hatched their own and my little Styrofoam incubator does not like my wood stove heated/no air conditioned house.  Tried twice - once got 5 roosters and 2 girls, second time got nothing.  Sooo... I wanted broodies.  I got a whole bunch of different breeds - and then I saw this little gray fluff ball with bright black eyes and black skin at the feed store - so I got it too.  Turned out to be a girl (YAY) and a GREAT mommy - went broody in December and hatched out 5 chicks (would have been more if I had left the eggs alone).  They still sleep with her - and they are laying now too (mutt crosses from the other breeds and one of her kids)..

I then decided to read up on Silkies.. and wow!  What a bunch of cute fluffiness is possible.  My good broody Mommy has a place with her friends, but I wanted more fluff.  Soooo... I got a Blue and her mix daughter.  Then I saw Partridge.. oh my - LOVE THAT!  Got a Red/Black Partridge beardless Roo, then two more girls (nice SQ and been shown beardless Buff and a Blue Frizzle).. and I want to make SQ beardless Blue Partridge.  Not a lot to ask - right? 

Anyhow, to answer the above question (because I have sort of done it)..


A mess.  They could be all black. OR... since Silkies Black may not be based on E like the calculator says but instead based on E^R with melanizers or even on e^b with unknown melanizers..

It depends on what they are hiding and how pure the colors are.  I crossed a Red/Black Partridge and a Buff girl - and I expected to get Smutty Buff (what the calculator said). However.. I got .. um.. partridge?  So the Buff had more partridge than she was showing (She was already smutty buff). They are now growing more and more Buff colored - so may look like Smutty Buff when they grow up - but they looked Partridge as chicks (and still have the patterned wings).  I also crossed him with a Blue and a Blue frizzle and got really a mix, including a white, a black, three Partridges and a bunch of Blues...  The Blues and the Blacks were expected (sort of) - the Partridges and the WHITE were not!

Only way to find out .. is to do it.  Only thing you will need to know is - most will not be SQ colors because you will be crossing two different bases and adding all sorts of melanizers that weren't present in the original colors.  It will mess up both colors for future generations - and the chicks can have leakage (black), smutty (buff), and whatever else is hiding in there will show up in all sorts of combinations.  Now if you were adding lavender gene in there you could work on Porcelain - Self Blue Creme.  Only take you 15 to 20 generations to get it right!

Wow you read all of it? Amazing!

 

[ChickNmamma]

Wow you read all of it? Amazing!

Yeah, I know...

I started reading sometime in December of last year...

 

[MNickoloff]

He's a cutie.   That chicken in the back looks like a hawk!

My kids say she looks like a bald eagle. She was the cutest little chick, now she is pretty intimidating!

 

[labarn]

Please help, my little silkie chick seems to only sleep. Not very active. She doesnt seem sick but I dont know, she's just so tiny. Is there anything i can do to ensure she will survive?

 

[Nikki816]

I can't tell what colors these chicks are. I don't know if they're buff with spots on their heads. And I'm wondering about the one on the right, which has a darker color on it's back? Maybe someone will know.
Breeding for colors, the only colors you can breed together are blue, black and splash. The rest, to my knowledge, you should just stick with white to white, black to black, partridge to partridge etc...


I'm pretty sure your blue is a blue. The black ones could be black or just really dark blue. Difficult to say with the color and quality of pictures.

I hope you have fun with your silkies!

I had the buff looking one out and it looks like it has really light partridge markings on it, so maybe a bad colored partridge? They are hatchery stock for pets, so wasn't expecting anything spectacular