Silkie with no pompodour

[marymac]

Back in August I ordered 2 Buff Silkies from Ideal, along with several other chicks. All are doing great. I believe the 2 Buffs are cockerels though. Now my question is ... one of them has a little poof on top of his head and the other has nothing on top. Will he eventually get a top knot or is this a genetic thing and will it never grow in ? Here is a photo, hope it works.

 

[Teresaann24]

do you have a better picture?

 

[marymac]

Here are 2 more of the same chick with no top knot. They aren't much better, sorry. Let me know what ya think?

 

[asher]

Nope, sorry. Looks like a cochin/silkie mix to me.

 

[silkiechicken]

Looks like hatchery style silkies to me. I had a hatchery silkie before without a crest too. They don't breed for big poofy heads and foot feathering. They just breed for lots and lots of fluffy chicks. If you want huge top knots, going to have to go with a breeder.

 

[marymac]

Yea , they came from Ideal. So does this mean his offspring could also not have a crest? Or some yes and some No.

 

[LilPeeps]

That bird will never grow a crest. Being a hatchery bird, quality birds should not be expected. As silkie said, they breed for quantity not quality. If you want nice silkies, go to a breeder.

Depending on the bird he is bred to, the offspring may or may not have crests.

 

[asher]

Wow...even my silkies from Ideal had some type of crest, though not much. I would have bet money on that being a silkie/cochin cross. Funky!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

hatcheries are known to cross anything with everything.... they could be half buff orp with silkie feathering for all we know. and as others have said, dont expect any quality chicks out of them.

I felt so bad this past weekend because there was a Jr. exhibitor who entered some black Silkies that he had obtained from a hatchery. Two of the three birds were DQ'd and, I dont even know if the judge bothered to look at the third. It's really a shame that hatcheries aren't held to standards and are allowed to take peoples money and deliver them such incredibly poor birds. They should have some kind of rules they have to follow. Kind of like the "Lemmon Laws" in the auto industry....