Silkie thread!

[mama2my4]

Hawkeye I am so glad your son had a positive experience. It is wonderful that everyone encouraged him!! I have never shown birds before, just dogs and man, they are cut-throat!!

I also have an 8 yo son and would love for him to get involved this way! Great job, Mama!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye I am so glad your son had a positive experience. It is wonderful that everyone encouraged him!! I have never shown birds before, just dogs and man, they are cut-throat!!

I also have an 8 yo son and would love for him to get involved this way! Great job, Mama!

Well, this is 4-H, it's hard to have a bad experience with so many like minded people that all want to help each other! This wasn't even our club-- (we drove nearly 4 hours up to the show) and I had at least two parents come over and give us tips while we were practicing on the side waiting for our turn. I've shown horses since I was a kid until I was in college and now THAT is cutthroat. People would poison each other's horses and do stupid stuff if they got a hold of your saddle or rigging. It was down to literally sleeping outside of the stall or next to it if you wanted to keep your stuff and your horse safe, and that is NO joke. I was in 4-H when I was a kid too (separate from the horse shows we used to do) and it is a very friendly and inviting atmosphere. I got my son signed up last year to show THIS year and it's been fabulous from the get go. We're doing a lot of other projects too-- from rocketry to foods, etc... and it's all been wonderful. Definitely get your kid involved in this!! But I'll warn you now-- don't bring any hatchery birds to the shows, the judge practically didn't even judge them. Just skimmed over them and told the kids if they were interested in that breed, to get a hold of a breeder. He was SUPER nice about it... but save yourself some heart ache and do it right from the start. There was a kid who brought in production reds from TSC and they were about 8 months and he thought they were Rhode Island Reds and was disappointed to learn they weren't even the breed he was hoping for and not the right coloring, shape, on and on. He was trying for a Cage of 3 class. It was just kind of sad. I know everyone felt really bad for him. But he did have a lot of people offer to help him find nice birds after it was done, so I'm sure it wasn't a total loss for him.

 

[Lady Chickadee]

I candled all my paint silkie eggs in my incubator and all of them are infertile.

Its been four weeks since they've shipped here. I don't know why they are infertile. Could it be that my roo is still stressed from the new environment? They'll be in a bigger breeding pen as soon as its finished, I don't know if that will help or not.

 

[Teresaann24]

Hi everyone! Everyones silkies look Beautiful! I didn't plan to come back I use to chat here in the silkie topix alot. I recently lost all my silkies It is hard to talk about. I lost everything and its been very depressing but I realize hiding from what I love is not going to help me. Trying to rebuild with little to no income has been twice as hard on me. Ok I will quit depressing everyone. Thanks for listening...I love looking at all your silkies they are beautiful.

 

[beauty2thebirds]

I just went in and looked that baby over. Your right, it has pink feet. Has the 5 toes and the feathers all the way down. It's cute but I bought silkie eggs not anything else. The other 7 do have the black skin, 5 toes and good feathering on their legs and feet. I guess I have a crossbreed in the mix. I bought them here too. I won't say through who, but I will say I won't buy there again

There is a picture up above that says their chick is a splash. So I guess I have 4 of those. the color is the same anyways. Can anyone give me an idea on my little speckle head? I appreciate the help. And I am sorry if I am being a pest.

 

[blessedchick]

We're back from the show!

Okay, so we did fine! My oldest did Showmanship for the first time ever. The leader did a couple of practice run thru's with him (on the side) before it was his turn. The poultry leader there was super nice! I totally loved her! And a couple of other parents helped him and pointed out some tips with showmanship before it was his turn. Anyway, after it was all said and done, he did great, but he forgot to take his bird out of the cage HEAD FIRST-- so he got disqualified. The judge told the leader that he was hands down the best one there and if hadn't been for that, he'd have won first place for his age. Not that he had all the holding and stuff down, he's 8yrs old and it was his first time-- but he was so impressed with his knowledge of the silkies and the parts on the body-- he named all the wing feathers, and body feathers (hackle, saddle, crest, primary, secondary, etc, etc...) Anyway, the judge thought he was going to trip my son up and asked him who brought silkies over to the "new world" and my boy responded back quickly, Marco Polo in the 13th Century! LOL Proud, I am. (Yoda's voice) We've been doing chicken flash cards for a while now to practice for it.

Our silkies did well, too. He said our cockerel only had a couple of faults and they were minor. Despite his comb being the perfect shade of mulberry-- his wattles were a bit too red under the beard. (why is that??? I noticed that when I was bathing him) He also said that his crest is a bit irregular, but it's not that big of a deal-- just would like more of a rounder shape to it. Our pullet did the best! She won first place in her breed and then she made it to the next round. It was down to 4 birds for best of class (bantam) and then it was down to two-- mine and this beautiful black bantam cochin and they won it. The judge came back and told my son he'd have won grand champion but that our pullet's crest just needed to be a tiny bit bigger-- he said, not by much. He said maybe after her first molt, it might be there. (maybe not--since I've never heard that before-- but he was patting my son on the back and telling him we had some of the best birds there) A LF Buff Orpington won Reserve. I think that was the BIGGEST BO I've ever seen!! LOL

WOW! What an excellent first show! And super congrats to your son on his showmanship skills!

 

[blessedchick]

Hi everyone! Everyones silkies look Beautiful! I didn't plan to come back I use to chat here in the silkie topix alot. I recently lost all my silkies It is hard to talk about. I lost everything and its been very depressing but I realize hiding from what I love is not going to help me. Trying to rebuild with little to no income has been twice as hard on me. Ok I will quit depressing everyone. Thanks for listening...I love looking at all your silkies they are beautiful.

Oh! I'm so sorry about your loss, Teresaann. God bless you and welcome back!

 

[Teresaann24]

Thank you blessedchick! What hurts the most is my Cuckoo Silkies I lost. They costed me alot and they were so hard to find in good quality.

 

[Teresaann24]

The speckled one looks like it could be buff. I have hatched silkie chicks that have came out with pink skin and have darkened as they aged. I have also heard of alot of other silkie breeders mention hatching chicks with pink skin that later darkened with age so I doubt the cutie is mixed just watch him grow and see if his skin darkens.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I candled all my paint silkie eggs in my incubator and all of them are infertile.

Its been four weeks since they've shipped here. I don't know why they are infertile. Could it be that my roo is still stressed from the new environment? They'll be in a bigger breeding pen as soon as its finished, I don't know if that will help or not.

Have you watched your roo doing the business? I'll tell you-- I have a cockerel that is getting closer to a year old and he still can't get on right, or really figure it out. It was never going to happen in my opinion! Besides, my girls are REALLY fluffy. After about 3 months (maybe longer?!?! I've lost count!) I gave up and did the AI and it wasn't that bad. Now I have fertile eggs that are baking away. I would have taken everyone's advice to just trim up their fluff and cut most of it off-- except that I'm showing them too. So that option (for me) was out. But if you aren't showing-- I'd just really cut away a lot of the fluff around the vent.