Silkie thread!

[Fancychooklady]

This discussion actually brought up something interesting in my recent Silkie hatches - most all of the mortality of my eggs has been occuring just prior to hatch; I've been getting a 75-90% hatch rate on average from my Silkie eggs, but of the ones which did not make it and which I autopsied, all had incredibly large vaulted skulls. Coming up maybe 1/8-1/6 of an inch off the head. I remember noting this originally, I'm not sure why I didn't find it stranger in the first place. Is there a Silkie version of the Cornish deleterious gene? Where they've been so overbred for characteristics like a large crest that the resulting impacts becomes semi-lethal or lethal to embryos? I checked my copy of Genetics of the Fowl to see if there was any info on it, but came up empty - only a small passage regarding the vaulted cranium of crested breeds but with little regards to the genetics of it.

I'm a huge genetics nerd so this is definitely a point of (somewhat morbid) interest for me.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22907661

As with humans ,once you get them past the danger period the skull should grow over.
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/CerebralHernia/CerebralHernia.html

 

[Sylvester017]

Vaulted skulls and bigger beard muffs are by way of design. The breeders are simply breeding what people want, ' supply and demand '.
Unfortunately this is to the detriment of the bird, that ends up with limited sight ( if any ) and vulnerable to cerebral hemorrhage .
Occasionally I hatch a vaulted skull and I go to great lengths to find the right home for them. Preferably one that has no LF or little children.
Personally I prefer the beardless ones , they are more dynamic in their personality and less dependant on me.

Hi - just as I was getting ready to suggest @QueenMisha contact you re the vaulted skull issue, you posted! Thank you!

 

[QueenMisha]

Vaulted skulls and bigger beard muffs are by way of design. The breeders are simply breeding what people want, ' supply and demand '.
Unfortunately this is to the detriment of the bird, that ends up with limited sight ( if any ) and vulnerable to cerebral hemorrhage .
Occasionally I hatch a vaulted skull and I go to great lengths to find the right home for them. Preferably one that has no LF or little children.
Personally I prefer the beardless ones , they are more dynamic in their personality and less dependant on me.

Ah, but those big fluffy beards! I've never been able to get into the beardless Silkies. Granted I'm only a newly minted Silkie fancier so there's still plenty of time for that to change, but oh my... they look so odd with big puffy crests and only a bare neck and waddles beneath! I've only got one beardless currently and I'm pretty certain she's on her way out. She's had a bizarrely long-lasting case of egg binding/internally broken egg and after a month of acting healthy as healthy could be she's finally losing weight and slowing down. It will be sad to lose her but I knew when I felt the eggs inside her that she was gonna go out soon. I just expected soon to mean a few days, not a few weeks! She's a resilient little thing, to be sure.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22907661

As with humans ,once you get them past the danger period the skull should grow over.
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/CerebralHernia/CerebralHernia.html

Nice links, thanks for sharing. I have some work I need to get to but I plan on reading those more in-depth when I get a chance.

Hi - just as I was getting ready to suggest @QueenMisha
contact you re the vaulted skull issue, you posted!  Thank you!

Fancychooklady is always here to save the day with awesome information. She's without a doubt among the most informed poultry fanciers I've had the pleasure of speaking with and I think we're definitely lucky to have her here among our little group!

 

[Sylvester017]

Anyone in SoCalif looking for female Silkies, Amber Waves Silkies located in Norco, CA has several DNA sexed juveniles posted on their website - various Partridges and a couple Blacks.

 

[destiny_56085]

QueenMisha... go to this on left hand side click on the article called 'cerebral hernia'. It talks about the genetic mutation for the crest gene and its consequences in Polish and Silkies.
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html

 

[Aria]

We have ONLY Silkies and ONE nasty Rooster. He is MEAN.
He was a gift and was young ...about 7 months old when we got
him.

He has been with the flock for 2 years and is still MEAN. Always
attacks us when we go to the Coop. Regards, Aria

 

[tlee1956]

I've got a couple of questions for all you 'eggsperts'. These are chooks that I bought from the feed store. The dark one is 5 wks and was sold as a frizzle... I don't think it's going to develop a perm anytime soon. The lighter ones are about 3 wks and supposed to be silkies, but I've never had any to compare growth rate and feathering with. So are all these chooks silkies? Is the dark one a partridge color? Will the lighter ones be buff when they mature? How and when can you tell which gender they are?

Thanks in advance for any help solving these mysteries.

 

[QueenMisha]

I've got a couple of questions for all you 'eggsperts'. These are chooks that I bought from the feed store. The dark one is 5 wks and was sold as a frizzle... I don't think it's going to develop a perm anytime soon. The lighter ones are about 3 wks and supposed to be silkies, but I've never had any to compare growth rate and feathering with. So are all these chooks silkies? Is the dark one a partridge color? Will the lighter ones be buff when they mature? How and when can you tell which gender they are? Thanks in advance for any help solving these mysteries.

Yep, I'm seeing all Silkies.

 

[QueenMisha]

We have ONLY Silkies and ONE nasty Rooster.  He is MEAN.
He was a gift and was young ...about 7 months old when we got
him.  

He has been with the flock for 2 years and is still MEAN.  Always
attacks us when we go to the Coop.  Regards, Aria

Sounds like he's telling you he'll make delicious dumplings. I for one have no tolerance for bratty cocks, even Silkies. Good, sweet roosters (often Silkies!) in need of homes are a dime a dozen, and from my point of view there's no good reason to waste feed on disrespectful little turds who make for nothing but an unpleasant experience.

 

[jas humbert]

I think Misha is right, I gave two friends little silkie roos last year just as soon as I knew they were roos. One is still a sweetie. I was out at their farm last week and he let me pick him up and was just as gentle as can be. He has a little harem of a couple of silkies and a couple of small EEs. The other roo (out of the same hatch) went to another friend who wanted a pet for the kids and company for her 3 polish pullets. He turned out to be a snippy roo and pecked her 12 year old boy last week. She was afraid to tell me she was going to rehome him. I told her go for it. Life is too short for unpleasant pets. She took him out to her father-in-laws farm and I expect he'll be low man on the totem pole because they only have large fowl hens (they just lost their only roo) but it might be good for him and they keep livestock not so much pets. She wants another silkie so I promised her kids fist pick on the new chicks.

I would never keep a mean rooster of any breed. I grew up with lots of large fowl chickens and remember several mean roosters who were eaten. I'm too much of softie to kill them myself ( I used to hide my head under the pillow upstairs when it was chicken butchering time although I had to come down and help pluck them) but if someone else wants to I'm okay with that. It Is a luxury not to have to kill your own food and one I appreciate..