Silkie thread!

[MumsyIII]

What is the major judgement on grading silkies, I been selecting for certain trates,
Like bearded , large crest , smaller then avrage ,And friendliness.

But i want to know why or what makes a show winning bird vs not. All input is good input especially if your a apa judge

You need to purchase the latest edition of the American Standard of Perfection if you're in the USA. It takes a book to know what judges are looking at and it's at the discretion of each individual judge. Do you want to breed your silkie to the SOP Or do you want to breed your flock to suit one judge at one show for one particular day?

Just breeding silkies for crest, feet, size, is nice but there's a lot more that goes into winning show bench silkies than that. Ask anyone that wins consistently. This is not the sort of thread where APA judges hang out. I could certainly be wrong but you might wait a long time for one to weigh in on your question here.

Any judges out there? Hello.......

 

[emvickrey]

For those that have been following me about my black pullet. I just got home today and she survived while I was gone. My chicken sitter did a good job. All she had to do was feed and water her and she said everytime she went to check on her she was afraid she would be dead. She didin't move when she fed and watered her and thought she was about dead but thats how she is. She has been handled so much she just sits there and watches.

 

[SJchickens]

Is a beard required for SOP? My silkie is unbearded and I was wondering if this was an auto DQ?

 

[MumsyIII]

Is a beard required for SOP? My silkie is unbearded and I was wondering if this was an auto DQ?

Silkies can be bearded and non bearded. Here is a picture from my old personal copy 1993 SOP and a book from 1981. The look has changed in body type crest size and a few other things but the overall silkie is still recognizable as a silkie. The 1993 standard says the non bearded and bearded are to be judged the same as to wattles, comb, face, ear color, toes, and skin. Plummage is to be judged for color variety description.

The closer your birds look like the SOP description, the better they are. But....The SOP is the standard. There is no such thing as the perfect silkie. It is judging contest at the show. Breed for the breed first. In other words. You can just run a bunch of silkies together in a pen and enjoy what you get but your not doing the breed any good. Your just making sure a lot more silkies are in the world. If you want to call your silkies "Show Quality" then you enter them in a show and let them be judged against their peers. If your bird places, you can be assured it is show quality. Or...Purchase a known show winner. Buying chicks or eggs from a show pen does not necessarily mean they will be show winners. It does up your chances of getting one if you put in the time, lots of hard work, good husbandry, and then go to a sanctioned show and see what happens.

 

[sd-eddie]

Sounds great guys, thanks for the input, and links or download pdf for that book?

Well I ask because I have a few to many silkies and wanted to select predominant trates, I'll also post pictures of the ones I want to keep. To see if I'm heading in the correct Direction.

 

[Ravynscroft]

For those that have been following me about my black pullet. I just got home today and she survived while I was gone. My chicken sitter did a good job. All she had to do was feed and water her and she said everytime she went to check on her she was afraid she would be dead. She didin't move when she fed and watered her and thought she was about dead but thats how she is. She has been handled so much she just sits there and watches.

Awesome!!! So glad she is hanging in there with you!!

 

[Suzierd]

Speaking of chicks.... It was sunny and warm all day so I scooted the chicks outside in their own pen. I have a pop door in both my chick houses and have a temp plastic netting fence I put up with T posts. Then I string sparkly ribbon above it to deter hawk. I stay outside with them too. I guess this three week old Porcelain chick is male. Do you know why? A little two week old Lavender chick hunting bugs.

This little Lavender Splash chick found a worm and ate it after running away from the pack. I introduce grass dirt clods to my newly hatched chicks early to get them immune to bacteria and such. They can then go outside like this by themselves and they know what to do.

That little porcelain does look like a boy, I think I can see a little bump above his beak looks like swayed back creast, tall looking. What do you see?

 

[MumsyIII]

That little porcelain does look like a boy, I think I can see a little bump above his beak looks like swayed back creast, tall looking. What do you see?

He is the explorer out of twenty. Only another couple chicks are brave like him so far right from hatch. He also has the triangle/wedge shape going already. Usually that wedge shape becomes more pronounced when they are twelve weeks. There is always chest bumping between young chicks. Even females play this game. Females usually back down first and males want to keep playing. This guy wants to push it with everybody. I've been wrong many times before but this time I think "it" is a "he". He has a yellow zip on the right leg so I can check him out all the time as he matures.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yesterday I decided to candle my broodies eggs to check their progress (I didn't date them, so I had no idea when hatch day was). The first egg I pulled out from under the first broody to candle had a pip, so I stuck it back under and left her alone. Same story with the second broody, apparently I set them 21 days ago for peepers when I get home from work today!

 

[BooeyBird]

What type of chick would you get if you mixed a sizzle with a silkie? I am asking because my silkie chick is growing curly feathers and at the farm that I got her from there were a bunch of different colored silkie hens mixed with a white rooster, and one of the hens was a sizzle.