Silkie thread!

[BuckNBark Farm]

Cute chicks

Lucky you have good momma

I had one who ate her chicks when they hatched

Gross

 

[DDNONIN2016]

Pics of Samson yesterday in all his glory.

Pretty boy

 

[dwegg]

ok so I got some grower and blended it up and put it down for the gang and momma called them out to show them to eat...so unreal!!!! I saw 6 different chicks...3 buff, 1 black, 1 paint (I killed the other paint when I dropped the egg on sunday), and that buff/blue color?

 

[DDNONIN2016]

ok so I got some grower and blended it up and put it down for the gang and momma called them out to show them to eat...so unreal!!!! I saw 6 different chicks...3 buff, 1 black, 1 paint (I killed the other paint when I dropped the egg on sunday), and that buff/blue color?

Oh my goodness....more adorable than I imagined !!!! You are so lucky. Enjoy them

 

[sheeshshe]

Are they hens or roosters ? If they are hens it is easy... just separate them when you are ready to hatch eggs... dont hatch from the lesser quality ones. If one is a rooster you would just have to keep him away from your girls for about 30 days before you are ready to start hatching.

thank you, that helps! I was wondering how long it took to get the male dna out of the system we;'re unsure of the genders as of yet.

 

[aoxa]

also you need to worry about cross contamination with diseases and resistance to them

Some lower quality hens will surprise you.. You should see the mother my Phyllis came from... Okay to explain what I mean...

Mother

Father I'll be using Steve next spring against a smutty buff girl. Hoping to get some better buffs. I wouldn't really call him buff though.. He has black tail feathers, and smutt in his wings.

He's kind of molting here, but you get the idea.. To explain why I say this... I was told by a long time breeder of silkies (25 years experience) that a good breeder finds the best paired birds.. Not all good quality parents give off great offspring.. Some half/decent parents give off really good offspring and vice versa. I've had really good results with Steve over Pearl. I kept the best few girls and the best boy to use next spring, as whites are really the only good silkies here. No one is really serious about other colours (that I've seen). If I wanted good colours, I'd have to travel quite a distance, and I'm happy enough with what I have. I didn't start with breeding all colours to their own colour. I was doing it solely for fun. Now I'm a little more serious about keeping only the best (though Steve and Pearl stay - as they are pets now. Love them.. Pearl is my go to silkie for a kid visiting who has never held a chicken - she's super small. Here's what I got out of the two pairing:

I did get quite a few whites, as the person I bought them from mixed all colours and both Pearl and Steve had a hidden recessive white. I kept one girl to use in my sizzle pen.

 

[chickendales]

Some lower quality hens will surprise you.. You should see the mother my Phyllis came from...

Okay to explain what I mean...

Mother

Father
I'll be using Steve next spring against a smutty buff girl. Hoping to get some better buffs. I wouldn't really call him buff though.. He has black tail feathers, and smutt in his wings.

He's kind of molting here, but you get the idea..
To explain why I say this... I was told by a long time breeder of silkies (25 years experience) that a good breeder finds the best paired birds.. Not all good quality parents give off great offspring.. Some half/decent parents give off really good offspring and vice versa. I've had really good results with Steve over Pearl. I kept the best few girls and the best boy to use next spring, as whites are really the only good silkies here. No one is really serious about other colours (that I've seen). If I wanted good colours, I'd have to travel quite a distance, and I'm happy enough with what I have.
I didn't start with breeding all colours to their own colour. I was doing it solely for fun. Now I'm a little more serious about keeping only the best (though Steve and Pearl stay - as they are pets now. Love them.. Pearl is my go to silkie for a kid visiting who has never held a chicken - she's super small.
Here's what I got out of the two pairing:

I did get quite a few whites, as the person I bought them from mixed all colours and both Pearl and Steve had a hidden recessive white. I kept one girl to use in my sizzle pen.
very cool yes the father is buff but he buff out partridge

 

[aoxa]

I figured he was either buff partridge or a smutty buff. Didn't really matter to me. He's surprised me with his offspring!

 

[sheeshshe]

Some lower quality hens will surprise you.. You should see the mother my Phyllis came from...

Okay to explain what I mean...

Mother

Father
I'll be using Steve next spring against a smutty buff girl. Hoping to get some better buffs. I wouldn't really call him buff though.. He has black tail feathers, and smutt in his wings.

He's kind of molting here, but you get the idea..
To explain why I say this... I was told by a long time breeder of silkies (25 years experience) that a good breeder finds the best paired birds.. Not all good quality parents give off great offspring.. Some half/decent parents give off really good offspring and vice versa. I've had really good results with Steve over Pearl. I kept the best few girls and the best boy to use next spring, as whites are really the only good silkies here. No one is really serious about other colours (that I've seen). If I wanted good colours, I'd have to travel quite a distance, and I'm happy enough with what I have.
I didn't start with breeding all colours to their own colour. I was doing it solely for fun. Now I'm a little more serious about keeping only the best (though Steve and Pearl stay - as they are pets now. Love them.. Pearl is my go to silkie for a kid visiting who has never held a chicken - she's super small.
Here's what I got out of the two pairing:

I did get quite a few whites, as the person I bought them from mixed all colours and both Pearl and Steve had a hidden recessive white. I kept one girl to use in my sizzle pen.

that is REALLY REALLY cool!


Now, her silkies aren't bad looking, I am just not SURE on the quality. I don't know enough about the lineage.

 

[aoxa]

that is REALLY REALLY cool!


Now, her silkies aren't bad looking, I am just not SURE on the quality.  I don't know enough about the lineage.

Neither did I. Everything seems to come somewhere from Jamie Carson's line. His blood is everywhere.. He uses his good females against terrible males and sells the chicks for cheap in spring. He doesn't like to sell chicks that could beat him in show.. So they could easily be from his stock and I just got lucky