Silkie thread!

[Hawkeye95]

Not anymore,these are the three pullets in with him,they are all 6 months old the end of this month,no eggs yet nor is he breeding yet.Hoping to get some more cuckoo`s he is the only one I have.Sorry for the double picture.He was such a cute baby.What do you think of him and the girls?

Your Blues are very nice! They have a "medium" to small crest that the judge was so hard on me about. My girl is a bit larger than these on crest-- yours may fill out a bit more since they are young. Good wings on them. They will probably get more cushion too, they are lacking there for right now, but these are very nice. (they are young, so they have some more filling in to do) I think you're going to be really happy when they fill in! That cuckoo is gorgeous!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

I have a question about silkies,I went to a swap last Sat. and someone there told me that breeding white to black will give you a good quality silkie,how can that be true?Or is it even true?I am still learning and don`t want false information.

Colour has virtually nothing to do with "quality". As Hawkeye95 explained above in MUCH nicer words, that's nonsense! If you are starting with "quality" white birds you would never breed to black and vice versa. And you won't get quality from junk regardless of their colour.

However, sometimes folks inject black into a breeding program to improve the colour of the birds they are working with. Black can be a good, clean genetic base to start from/work with.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
When working with feather legged birds, brachydactyly should be at the very bottom of your list of faults to avoid. Brachydactyly is very common in feather legged birds. (GREAT picture of the toes!!!!!!)

 

[Hawkeye95]

When working with feather legged birds, brachydactyly should be at the very bottom of your list of faults to avoid. Brachydactyly is very common in feather legged birds. (GREAT picture of the toes!!!!!!)

Indeed, low on the list!! But right now I have a nice big selection to choose from and I don't need to use these birds.

Since it is so low on the list, it might be easy to sell these birds-- I have a lot of nice chicks right now with minor toe problems. I'm letting them grow out a bit more to be doubly sure before I get rid of something, though.

**Speaking of which--- how do the rest of you judge the fusing of the toes.... minor or major problem? I'm just wondering if I have a super nice bird develop that has fused toes if it's worth keeping or to get rid of them regardless. My shipped eggs came out with half fused and a few are okay. Disappointing, but I knew that was bound to happen.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Nice type, nice colouring (except the too red comb. But it could be BRIGHT red rather than pinkish, so count your blessings)

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Actually, the toes on the right side of the photo are better spaced.
From The Bantam Standard:
"Toes--five, the three front straight, well and evenly spaced; the hind toe double, the normal toe in natural position and the extra toe placed above, starting from close to the other toe, but well formed, longer than the other toes and curving upwards and backwards, the outer and middle toes well feathered."

Foot on left has too much spacing between the hind toes. Better on right, but I would be more concerned about the extra toe pointing downward than about the slight bit of webbing.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
When working with feather legged birds, brachydactyly should be at the very bottom of your list of faults to avoid. Brachydactyly is very common in feather legged birds. (GREAT picture of the toes!!!!!!)
Brachydactyly is the other side of the toes, and is too short outer toes, frequently missing toenails. If the bird has 5 toes, and the hind two are okay (as in less than perfect, but not horrible), brachydactyly would take precedence with me over not quite right 5th toes. FWIW, in Europe it is a DQ, and the European breeders consider it quite important to select against.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: What they were hearing was something that was common years ago when whites had far better quality than any other colours. Blacks were still newly developed and needed work on type. Ditto for the other colours that came later. To improve type, you bred to white.

At this point every recognized variety has birds pretty good type. In some areas you may find that one variety tends to have lesser quality birds than other varieties, but that is simply because in that area there may not be someone seriously working with the variety, or that has invested the time to locate and acquire good typed birds of that variety.

At this point in time breeding to a white to improve type is a no-no. Too many other issues would come up with whites; black is a better neutral. BUT, that is NOW, not 15 or more years ago.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Actually, the toes on the right side of the photo are better spaced.
From The Bantam Standard:
"Toes--five, the three front straight, well and evenly spaced; the hind toe double, the normal toe in natural position and the extra toe placed above, starting from close to the other toe, but well formed, longer than the other toes and curving upwards and backwards, the outer and middle toes well feathered."

Foot on left has too much spacing between the hind toes. Better on right, but I would be more concerned about the extra toe pointing downward than about the slight bit of webbing.

Brachydactyly is the other side of the toes, and is too short outer toes, frequently missing toenails. If the bird has 5 toes, and the hind two are okay (as in less than perfect, but not horrible), brachydactyly would take precedence with me over not quite right 5th toes. FWIW, in Europe it is a DQ, and the European breeders consider it quite important to select against.

I obviously need more lessons on toe placement! Beware... I will likely be posting toe pictures now for you to evaluate! LOL! And you're saying that brachydactyly is a DQ in Europe, right? I figured it was something I didn't want to mess with anyway. It's the only chick to hatch to have this problem. Well, tomorrow, I'm going to take some toe pictures and have you help me sort some chicks out!

 

[GoldBarRanch]

Love that picture