Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[ChloeSilkie08]

Thanks! I was trying to aim for about 40 g for the eggs that I had for my own birds. The smallest ones were about 32 g. This one just seems so tiny.
I guess worse comes to worse it doesn’t hatch but it’s so heartbreaking when they make it all the way to even internally pipping and then pass. Maybe another explanation for it.

I honestly don't weigh my eggs, ever. I think that I've only had 1 quit after internally pipping.

 

[PioneerChicks]

@LadiesAndJane does it have a yolk? If so, it might be worth a try. It is up to you!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

@LadiesAndJane does it have a yolk? If so, it might be worth a try. It is up to you!

Funny I only checked the air cells and didn’t even look for the yolk LOL. I was afraid to handle them too much as the air cells are fragile.
I’m going to go look right now!

 

[PioneerChicks]

Funny I only checked the air cells and didn’t even look for the yolk LOL. I was afraid to handle them too much as the air cells are fragile.
I’m going to go look right now!

Could be a fairy egg (aka fart egg, yolkless egg, rooster egg, and more). They happen every once in a while and have no yolks. Just be little mistake, mostly made by newly laying pullets.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Could be a fairy egg (aka fart egg, yolkless egg, rooster egg, and more). They happen every once in a while and have no yolks. Just be little mistake, mostly made by newly laying pullets.

Thanks!
Why would I pay $7 for that?
You would think the breeder would check the eggs she sends out.
I could not tell for sure if there is a yolk or not. I suspect not. I did not want to manipulate it too much. I guess we'll know in 4-5 days!

 

[LynnaePB]

Question for you silkie breeders:
How do pick chicks to keep? I know best to wait for grow outs to determine and I have had at least one ugly duckling that grew into a swan, but I need to decide at this young age. My daughter has decided on the one she likes best, hoping it is a pullet of course. She is very yellow in down like her father was, mom was more silvery down. Read here a while back that they MAY be sex linked in the white silkies.
I am trying to breed away from vaulted skulls, due to their inherent fragility with the open skull. Of these chicks that have hatched so far only 2 have the vaulted skulls. The one we want to keep does not have one, has good feathering on the second toe. Nice amount of fluff under the chin and around the neck. The usual 5 toes and black skin. Cute little round chick body. Anything else I should look for?
My current batch are all full siblings as only one of the pullets' eggs were fertile. Mom has a vaulted skull (thought she did not, but looking back at chick photos she does).
Dad does not.
Thanks!

It sure is hard is hard to pick! Besides what's already been mentioned (5 toes on each foot, dark skin, down covering on toes) I also look at combs, wings, and toe spacing if I can't grow them all out. Out of these the wings is the biggest criteria for me but I have to wait at least 3 weeks or so to judge how the wings are folding. Combs and toe spacing can be judged at hatch but are minor criteria (unless they happen to have single combs).

Slipped wing where the primaries fold over the secondaries is a common fault in silkies and something to breed away from. A chick that has an improperly folding wing at 3 weeks may correct in time but more often than not mine don't (it depends on the line though). The ones with correctly folding wings at 3 weeks may later get slipped wings too but are less likely to than the ones who already have slipped wings at a young age.

I wasn't able to find really good pictures of younger chicks showing slipped wings but here is a blurry picture of one of my girls that has a nice wing on one side and a slipped wing on the other. You can kind of see how the primaries on the left wing are sticking out more in this picture than the primaries on the right wing. She still has one slipped wing and one correct wing now at over 2 years old.

Here are some chicks around 2-3 weeks where you can see one with loose/slipped wings and one with correctly folding wings.

And here are some at probably close to 1-2 weeks where one shows a slipped wing and the other has a nicely folding wing. I try not to judge them this young too much as often my 2 week old chicks with slipped wings will correct by 3 weeks.

You can actually kind of tell even at hatch if they might have a rougher comb or horns at the end of the comb and of course single combs are usually obvious. I prefer a smooth comb with no horns though it is a minor criteria. It's easiest to see this right after hatch when they are still wet and there isn't any fluff in the way.

If everything else is the same but one chick has really nice toe spacing between the 4th and 5th toes I'll keep the chick with the better toe spacing. Again it's a pretty minor criteria though.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

It sure is hard is hard to pick! Besides what's already been mentioned (5 toes on each foot, dark skin, down covering on toes) I also look at combs, wings, and toe spacing if I can't grow them all out. Out of these the wings is the biggest criteria for me but I have to wait at least 3 weeks or so to judge how the wings are folding. Combs and toe spacing can be judged at hatch but are minor criteria (unless they happen to have single combs).

Slipped wing where the primaries fold over the secondaries is a common fault in silkies and something to breed away from. A chick that has an improperly folding wing at 3 weeks may correct in time but more often than not mine don't (it depends on the line though). The ones with correctly folding wings at 3 weeks may later get slipped wings too but are less likely to than the ones who already have slipped wings at a young age.

I wasn't able to find really good pictures of younger chicks showing slipped wings but here is a blurry picture of one of my girls that has a nice wing on one side and a slipped wing on the other. You can kind of see how the primaries on the left wing are sticking out more in this picture than the primaries on the right wing. She still has one slipped wing and one correct wing now at over 2 years old.

View attachment 2536298

Here are some chicks around 2-3 weeks where you can see one with loose/slipped wings and one with correctly folding wings.

View attachment 2536304


And here are some at probably close to 1-2 weeks where one shows a slipped wing and the other has a nicely folding wing. I try not to judge them this young too much as often my 2 week old chicks with slipped wings will correct by 3 weeks.

View attachment 2536306

You can actually kind of tell even at hatch if they might have a rougher comb or horns at the end of the comb and of course single combs are usually obvious. I prefer a smooth comb with no horns though it is a minor criteria. It's easiest to see this right after hatch when they are still wet and there isn't any fluff in the way.

If everything else is the same but one chick has really nice toe spacing between the 4th and 5th toes I'll keep the chick with the better toe spacing. Again it's a pretty minor criteria though.

Thank you for this! Thank you for your excellent descriptions and all the photos. I am a visual learner so this really helps!
I had never heard of slipped wing, but it makes a lot of sense!
Going back and looking at my adult bird photos (it is not quite 400 am here and they have the good sense to be asleep ), I do not see that my birds have it except maybe Zelda? What do you think? I have noticed it in other's birds, but did not know what it was.
I have noticed some chicks have better 4th and 5th toe spacing than others.
How do you tell if the chicks have a single comb this young? I do not think any of these do, but I am not 100% sure. Is it just the small ridge that you look for? Do you happen to have any photo examples?
Thank you so much, I so appreciate all this information!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

@LynnaePB or anyone else who wants to chime in! Photos of two different chicks who look very similar. Chick one is one week old today, chick two is four days old today deciding between these two which one to keep. Can you tell me what kind of comb they each have? They look like normal Silkie combs to me but they are so small, I am not sure. Please let me know if you need better photos if you cannot tell from what I have supplied.
Thanks
Chick 1

Chick 2

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

So Silkie breeders another question! Just completed my first Silkie hatch 9 of 12 hatched altogether of these, seven are Silkies the other two Silkie Crosses. Two were DIS and egg topsy reveals they were malpositioned the third one also malposition but managed to break through into the inner membrane before it passed. I am trying to figure out what happened and I think the eggs were just small as these were “pullet” eggs and I know there’s a lot of arguments against trying to incubate and hatch pullet eggs probably for this very reason. Lesson learned!
Just received 25 hatching eggs from a breeder in Washington state. One of the eggs is quite tiny I did not weigh them all as I did not want to disrupt the air cells but this one is really small and only weighs 23 g. Should I even attempt to incubate this one? Do you guys have a weight cut off on your hatching eggs? Can’t seem to find anything about this in the threads otherwise. Thank you so much!

23g, wow can you get a refund? I don't incubate pullet eggs after I did it once and had so many problems with the hatch. I try to only pick my eggs from my 8 year old hen but also have from my other 2 young hens but the rest are pullets but some will be a year old in a month, so I'll wait till next Spring to hatch from them.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

23g, wow can you get a refund? I don't incubate pullet eggs after I did it once and had so many problems with the hatch. I try to only pick my eggs from my 8 year old hen but also have from my other 2 young hens but the rest are pullets but some will be a year old in a month, so I'll wait till next Spring to hatch from them.

Thanks for this!
So sad to see these perfectly formed chicks pass right before they hatched!