Silkie thread!

[Bernadine503]

mine look like the top pick

Are the bottom considered Silkies too?

 

[chicken hawk 33]

I,have no clue I think so.I just got my three yesterday.I'm new to Silkies.I have always,wanted some and,I finally got some.I would say they are but,I'm no expert.

 

[Sylvester017]

I breed for the show ring. These aren't just a couple of backyard pets per say.... I usually have about 50-80 adults between my breeding pens. I get as many out of the shell in late fall and early spring as I can. Ones with obvious dq's are culled at hatch. Put about 200 or so into pens to grow out and see if they turn into anything decent or not. At the end of the year they either go into the show string, replace old breeders, or are sold as extras. This year with the AI epidemic, I really didn't raise much and just put birds back in my own breeder pens and have a handful of extra cockerels. I haven't played with the partridge silkies since about 2006, so they are my fun project pen.

I also raise bantam salmon faverolles, bantam polish in 3 varieties, standard cochins, have a few standard light brahmas, 2 varieties of African geese, 1 Toulouse, rouens, muscovies, American Show Racers, and Bohemian Pouters. I've been the state rep for the American SIlkie Bantam Club since 2009 and also am active in the MN State Poultry Association and MN State Pigeon Association.

The dq culling is the part I couldn't handle as I would want to save them all LOL! My DH won't even eat one of our own bully LF hens and works to find them a forever home. I came from farm life and know processing is a fact of life but DH prefers turkey over chicken at the dinner table!

Love your ability to have such a variety of birds! And congrats on your accomplishments! The bird world needs people like you! In our zone we're limited to 5 hens and no roos. But we still consider ourselves lucky since many cities around us aren't zoned for poultry period!

I have come to admire the Partridge variety because it hides the dirt our girls love to muck in! Dirt never really shows on Partridge. In fact, I allowed my Partridge Silkie into the kitchen for a visit not seeing that she just took a dust bath and she shook out about half a cup of powdery dirt onto my newly-washed kitchen floor tile LOL! I also have a Black Silkie but the sun really fades a lot of her feathers to red. I had a White Leghorn and she would get so dingy, stained, and yellow until her next molt that I never tried a White Silkie. Even our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana shows more stain than I care to see.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Are the bottom considered Silkies too?

Yes they are , just not show quality, commonly referred to as ' pet quality ' .

 

[Fancychooklady]

The dq culling is the part I couldn't handle as I would want to save them all LOL!  My DH won't even eat one of our own bully LF hens and works to find them a forever home.  I came from farm life and know processing is a fact of life but DH prefers turkey over chicken at the dinner table! 

Love your ability to have such a variety of birds!  And congrats on your accomplishments!  The bird world needs people like you!  In our zone we're limited to 5 hens and no roos.  But we still consider ourselves lucky since many cities around us aren't zoned for poultry period!

I have come to admire the Partridge variety because it hides the dirt our girls love to muck in!  Dirt never really shows on Partridge.  In fact, I allowed my Partridge Silkie into the kitchen for a visit not seeing that she just took a dust bath and she shook out about half a cup of powdery dirt onto my newly-washed kitchen floor tile LOL!  I also have a Black Silkie but the sun really fades a lot of her feathers to red.  I had a White Leghorn and she would get so dingy, stained, and yellow until her next molt that I never tried a White Silkie.  Even our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana shows more stain than I care to see.

My whites stay very clean. That is actually how I came up with my byc name. A lovely old man came to an open garden we were holding and he remarked ' my goodness look at those fancy chooks ,you must spend a lot of time washing them ' . Tomorrow I'm dying some of my whites for the local Agricultural show animal nursery.

 

[chicken pickin]

I'm still learning. ....so by cull you mean you sell or give away, not euthanize?

People all cull differently, culling is removing from the flock, it can mean to rehome or euthanize (processed for meat if old enough).

 

[Nakiya]

I've never had Silkies but I'm going to get some soon!

 

[Nakiya]

Yes there are big Silkies they are my favorite! My Silkies my friend is hatching (I'm gonna buy Silkies off of her) are half full breed and half bantam.

 

[destiny_56085]

The dq culling is the part I couldn't handle as I would want to save them all LOL! My DH won't even eat one of our own bully LF hens and works to find them a forever home. I came from farm life and know processing is a fact of life but DH prefers turkey over chicken at the dinner table!

Love your ability to have such a variety of birds! And congrats on your accomplishments! The bird world needs people like you! In our zone we're limited to 5 hens and no roos. But we still consider ourselves lucky since many cities around us aren't zoned for poultry period!

I have come to admire the Partridge variety because it hides the dirt our girls love to muck in! Dirt never really shows on Partridge. In fact, I allowed my Partridge Silkie into the kitchen for a visit not seeing that she just took a dust bath and she shook out about half a cup of powdery dirt onto my newly-washed kitchen floor tile LOL! I also have a Black Silkie but the sun really fades a lot of her feathers to red. I had a White Leghorn and she would get so dingy, stained, and yellow until her next molt that I never tried a White Silkie. Even our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana shows more stain than I care to see.

As for the culling part, I usually do mean euthanize. Unfortunately there are only so many pet homes to be found and people only want so many roosters no matter how pretty they are. Like over on my bantam faverolles... I can tell sex already at a week or so of age if they are going to be male or female. Why raise 50+ lil cockerels up if you know you can't get rid of them? Even full grown, they aren't big enough to process and they turn into lil trouble makers when they mature. Even on the silkies, I'm not doing the breed any justice if I let those with DQ's into the hands of breeders for them to generate more crappy birds. I know it seems harsh, but for all those beautiful pullets out there that everyone wants, there is also everything else that came out of the shell that wasn't so pretty and/or crows.

Sylvester.... you are more like me than you may realize. I live in town and always have. I make it work though... From the time I was just a kid, I took riding lessons and boarded my horse in the country. Way back when, I showed horse and my siblings were the ones showing birds... They had a pigeon coop in town and rest of the birds they kept at friend's farms. When I graduated college I missed my animals. Moved back to my hometown and realized that buying a farm wasn't even remotely in the budget. On the flip side, there is also a ton of old barns sitting empty up here. Got to talking to some of the old guys in town and for last 15 years have been renting an old dairy farm. Its an old guy that rents out all his land and has too many heart problems to continue milking cows. He loves having the animals back out there and goes to check on them more than me probably. He also has the security to know someone will be out there checking on him too every day and helping to keep that driveway open in winter among other things. So I put a few extra miles on my truck every day... Its worth it.

I used to breed partridge until 2006. Its one of those colors that can be frustrating though since it requires a double mating system to get the colors right on respective sexes. I remember only 1 person exhibiting them here in the state once about 10 years ago. Give it a whirl again....

 

[chicken hawk 33]

Breakfast,grinded corn,sunflower seeds,and starter grower and fresh grass