Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[AngBantamLuv]

Well there is a 50% chance it is a girl... All kidding aside, I really do not know. Polish are almost as tricky as Silkies to sex. They do have long wings. My two have almost a banana body shape and they can FLY!
I'll post photos of the two little cochin in the morning and tag you! Can't wait to see what you think!

Oh.. this little polish chick, was trying to fly at 3 days old!! Definitely going to set up some perches for (hopefully) her and my two flying D'uccles! I figure the cochins will be land lubbers

I can't wait for your pics! I have had one i dont know... but of the ones i was sure of, i was right.. ill show you what i look at tomorrow, its easy.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

DNA test results are in! Amai is a pullet as suspected. Eko is a cockerel. I suspected as well. Makes it a little more difficult if I want to breed some paints, I would have to get a black hen. Interesting what paint would do with the other colors I have. With that dominant white gene could make some interesting colors I think with interesting leakage.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Hard to believe my Silkies are now 7 weeks old! I need to get some new pictures... I've been super busy the past month and haven't spent much time holding them. I'm trying to fix that since they get really freaked out if you pick them up. I want them to be TAME and friendly enough that a child could pick them up. They are settling into their colors. I ended up with 2 Lavender Splash, 2 Buff (one dark, one a very light cream buff), 2 black, and 3 white, although one white is more yellow than white.

I do have a question about the black ones. I thought I saw something on a site somewhere that there are no "true black" Silkies? I'm wondering what that means? Two of my Silkies have black feathers. One of them has dark, black "fluff." The other has more like a very dark charcoal grey "fluff," but also has ONE toe with white feathers/fluff. How might these different from a "true blue" Silkie?

Lastly, I moved the 8 chicks that I hatched at Easter into the Silkie house because they needed more room (outgrew the brooder, but too small for the main coop). The Silkies bullied them at first but they all appear to get along fine now. There's 6 CCLB and 2 EE/Blue Andalusian mix. I'm trying to decide how long to leave them in the Silkie flock before moving them into the main coop... They are 3 weeks old this weekend and not fully feathered yet. Might give them another 3 weeks or so before moving them.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Good morning @AngBantamLuv, here are some photos of one of the Cochins. Unfortunately the other one this morning is not looking very good and she moved over to the ICU. I’ll wait with pictures on this one until we know which way it’s going to turn. Lost several more of the chicks unfortunately.
Cackle does give extras which offsets some of this. The first 24 hours are brutal!
Anyway, this little one is very active and healthy and was very difficult to get a photo as she moves constantly.
These are all photos of the same bird, different angles. Thanks!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hard to believe my Silkies are now 7 weeks old! I need to get some new pictures... I've been super busy the past month and haven't spent much time holding them. I'm trying to fix that since they get really freaked out if you pick them up. I want them to be TAME and friendly enough that a child could pick them up. They are settling into their colors. I ended up with 2 Lavender Splash, 2 Buff (one dark, one a very light cream buff), 2 black, and 3 white, although one white is more yellow than white.

I do have a question about the black ones. I thought I saw something on a site somewhere that there are no "true black" Silkies? I'm wondering what that means? Two of my Silkies have black feathers. One of them has dark, black "fluff." The other has more like a very dark charcoal grey "fluff," but also has ONE toe with white feathers/fluff. How might these different from a "true blue" Silkie?

Lastly, I moved the 8 chicks that I hatched at Easter into the Silkie house because they needed more room (outgrew the brooder, but too small for the main coop). The Silkies bullied them at first but they all appear to get along fine now. There's 6 CCLB and 2 EE/Blue Andalusian mix. I'm trying to decide how long to leave them in the Silkie flock before moving them into the main coop... They are 3 weeks old this weekend and not fully feathered yet. Might give them another 3 weeks or so before moving them.

Looking forward to seeing the photos! They grow so fast! My two month olds are also quite skittish even though they seemed a lot friendlier when they were younger. They tend to turn around again when they get a little bigger in my experience.
I think you can leave your new Littles with the Silkies as long as they all get along and have enough space.

 

[AngBantamLuv]

Good morning @AngBantamLuv, here are some photos of one of the Cochins. Unfortunately the other one this morning is not looking very good and she moved over to the ICU. I’ll wait with pictures on this one until we know which way it’s going to turn. Lost several more of the chicks unfortunately.
Cackle does give extras which offsets some of this. The first 24 hours are brutal!
Anyway, this little one is very active and healthy and was very difficult to get a photo as she moves constantly.
These are all photos of the same bird, different angles. Thanks!View attachment 2631396View attachment 2631397View attachment 2631398View attachment 2631402

Shoot!! I think this one might be a male.. do you see how the comb comes down OVER the nostrils... i will be back home later and I'll take a pic of my new one and show you her comb so you can compare.

What does your chick ICU compose of? These two new ones were not looking so hot at the store.. but i got them on sav-a-chick probiotics and vitamins, mixed both and gave it to them exclusively, no plain water. It took a full day, but then they didn't have that sickly sleepy look.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Shoot!! I think this one might be a male.. do you see how the comb comes down OVER the nostrils... i will be back home later and I'll take a pic of my new one and show you her comb so you can compare.

What does your chick ICU compose of? These two new ones were not looking so hot at the store.. but i got them on sav-a-chick probiotics and vitamins, mixed both and gave it to them exclusively, no plain water. It took a full day, but then they didn't have that sickly sleepy look.

Thanks for checking! That would not be great if this little survivor is male. I paid $10 each for sexed pullets.
My ICU is a large bin with a heat lamp. Thermometer in place.
The healthy ones are in a large brooder box with a brooder plate.
They ICU patients drink with encouragement only, nutradrench, concentrated. They drank some egg yolk earlier today as well. The three remaining patients are standing, so that is encouraging.

 

[LynnaePB]

DNA test results are in! Amai is a pullet as suspected. Eko is a cockerel. I suspected as well. Makes it a little more difficult if I want to breed some paints, I would have to get a black hen. Interesting what paint would do with the other colors I have. With that dominant white gene could make some interesting colors I think with interesting leakage.View attachment 2631385View attachment 2631386

If you wanted to get back to black based paints without getting a black the easiest way would probably be through pairing Eko with your splash Layla.

You'd have blue paints and blues the first generation but you could breed a blue paint daughter back to Eko and get 25% black based paints, 25% blue based paints, 25% black, and 25% blue.

If you bred a blue paint son back to Layla you could get 25% splash paints. I've only seen them a few times but the ones I saw I thought were very pretty! I actually managed to track down some of the pictures I found of a couple in the american paint silkie thread here on BYC. They are shown in post #1127

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-american-paint-silkie.429754/page-113

I'd pick splash if you don't have any blue or black females as it shouldn't introduce any of those recessives that can be so tough to keep track of and breed out (partridge and recessive white).

I'm not sure if you need more red then a partridge typically has but paint over red partridge will start giving you a percentage of red pyle like chicks after the second generation I think. Maybe you'd get some more buff colored pyle like offspring with regular partridge?

Hard to believe my Silkies are now 7 weeks old! I need to get some new pictures... I've been super busy the past month and haven't spent much time holding them. I'm trying to fix that since they get really freaked out if you pick them up. I want them to be TAME and friendly enough that a child could pick them up. They are settling into their colors. I ended up with 2 Lavender Splash, 2 Buff (one dark, one a very light cream buff), 2 black, and 3 white, although one white is more yellow than white.

I do have a question about the black ones. I thought I saw something on a site somewhere that there are no "true black" Silkies? I'm wondering what that means? Two of my Silkies have black feathers. One of them has dark, black "fluff." The other has more like a very dark charcoal grey "fluff," but also has ONE toe with white feathers/fluff. How might these different from a "true blue" Silkie?

Lastly, I moved the 8 chicks that I hatched at Easter into the Silkie house because they needed more room (outgrew the brooder, but too small for the main coop). The Silkies bullied them at first but they all appear to get along fine now. There's 6 CCLB and 2 EE/Blue Andalusian mix. I'm trying to decide how long to leave them in the Silkie flock before moving them into the main coop... They are 3 weeks old this weekend and not fully feathered yet. Might give them another 3 weeks or so before moving them.

Hmmmm I'm not sure what whoever said that meant about the blacks but I can think of maybe two possibilities.

1st possibility is they were referring to how some breeders will refer to a line of blacks that has been breeding for multiple generations and only produces black as "true blacks". The blacks you get from things like blue/black/splash or paint pens are usually blacks too. Occasionally there are anomalies with the blacks from paint or really dark blues that just look black out of blue/black/splash pens. Generally though black birds produced from pens that have other colors are considered blacks as well hence why "true blacks" as a term can annoy some people. They may view it as there is no such thing as a "true black silkie" a black silkie is just a black silkie no matter the background.

2nd possibility may be referring to the "base" black silkies are made on. While many black chickens are made with the E (extended black) base, silkies are a breed that is often thought to perhaps be made on another base or bases. You can make a black bird using multiple different bases but E is one of the easier ones that requires less modifiers.

I could be wrong but that is my understanding anyway. The different bases are still kind of foreign to me.

 

[TJAnonymous]

If you wanted to get back to black based paints without getting a black the easiest way would probably be through pairing Eko with your splash Layla.

You'd have blue paints and blues the first generation but you could breed a blue paint daughter back to Eko and get 25% black based paints, 25% blue based paints, 25% black, and 25% blue.

If you bred a blue paint son back to Layla you could get 25% splash paints. I've only seen them a few times but the ones I saw I thought were very pretty! I actually managed to track down some of the pictures I found of a couple in the american paint silkie thread here on BYC. They are shown in post #1127

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-american-paint-silkie.429754/page-113

I'd pick splash if you don't have any blue or black females as it shouldn't introduce any of those recessives that can be so tough to keep track of and breed out (partridge and recessive white).

I'm not sure if you need more red then a partridge typically has but paint over red partridge will start giving you a percentage of red pyle like chicks after the second generation I think. Maybe you'd get some more buff colored pyle like offspring with regular partridge?


Hmmmm I'm not sure what whoever said that meant about the blacks but I can think of maybe two possibilities.

1st possibility is they were referring to how some breeders will refer to a line of blacks that has been breeding for multiple generations and only produces black as "true blacks". The blacks you get from things like blue/black/splash or paint pens are usually blacks too. Occasionally there are anomalies with the blacks from paint or really dark blues that just look black out of blue/black/splash pens. Generally though black birds produced from pens that have other colors are considered blacks as well hence why "true blacks" as a term can annoy some people. They may view it as there is no such thing as a "true black silkie" a black silkie is just a black silkie no matter the background.

2nd possibility may be referring to the "base" black silkies are made on. While many black chickens are made with the E (extended black) base, silkies are a breed that is often thought to perhaps be made on another base or bases. You can make a black bird using multiple different bases but E is one of the easier ones that requires less modifiers.

I could be wrong but that is my understanding anyway. The different bases are still kind of foreign to me.

ALL OF IT is foreign to me... I'll just call both my birds BLACK since I think they look black.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thank you so much @LynnaePB for your always thoughtful and thorough answers to my genetics ponderings!
Did not even think of Layla, the Queen of all broodies.
She is also my smallest silkie and the most beautiful.
I like the idea of the paint over partridge as well. Kana is a blue based (very light blue with gold overlay) partridge, interesting how that may play out.
Those photos in the link of the splash paints are stunning! Looking forward to seeing how that turns out. Maybe Layla will like Eko better than Jane? She just does not like him. The few times he has even attempted to mate with her, she squawks in protest and runs away. For a bird that so obviously wants to be a mother, she sure does not seem to understand how babies are made.