Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

About how much are the hatching eggs? I'm in love with them and would like to get some in the future! Thanks!

This was back in NOVEMBER 2021...her prices may change but here's what I paid:

Satin eggs are $9 each &
standard silkie eggs are $7 each.
NOT including shipping &
the special handling is an additional $12 now (it went up $1)
​

All were bantams like my 3 silkies I already had...I incubated 3 of my sillkies along with all 6 from Alabama and my chickens eggs were considerably smaller than the ones from Alabama and as such the chicks were too. However the quality from Alabama is extremely good! My chickens are also young which could account for the size being smaller.

 

[LabMomma]

I can confirm that

She is beautiful I love her blue beak! ...I think perhaps every flock has kind of a little Himawari = a little one following the beat of the own drum I'm so curious about the eggs you are incubating - they are in lockdown now, yes? Fingers crossed

I'm looking forward to everyones babies that are developing at the moment and will hatch soon

So cute And I loved the pictures of Esmeralda bonding with the little ones
How is your smallest Silkie in the meanwhile? If her crop still seems to be full you could try and feed her a little bit solid coconut oil. Just a small chunk.


Broodiness is contagious


That's great that you did find a new home for the boys

I bet Puff is not only half broody I bet Puff is sitting happily as if cemented on her 9 eggs in the meanwhile
Awwww Chickaletta and her baby

Such cuties


I will have to look in my blueprints and to convert from m² into sq ft! Will do that tomorrow (it's night here), blueprints are in the garage.


Awww Millie and Minnie are cute names
...Perhaps Monty for a little roo

I love it! That would be so cute!

 

[AngBantamLuv]

How is your smallest Silkie in the meanwhile? If her crop still seems to be full you could try and feed her a little bit solid coconut oil. Just a small chunk.

The little silkie seems to be doing ok.. her crop seems weird to me still, but shes zooming and tries to fly over the top of the much bigger polish chicks if they are in her way! I have a few days left with corid for everyone, then I'll try the other options with her. So far everyone is doing pretty well for being somewhat delicate breeds, and are transitioning very well to being outside!

 

[AngBantamLuv]

I have decided on names for some of the chicks..
The black polkie is Betty, the paint female is Wilma, and the paint male is Fred

Waiting to see if i have one or two female tolbunts before i pick their names.

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

This was back in NOVEMBER 2021...her prices may change but here's what I paid:

Satin eggs are $9 each &
standard silkie eggs are $7 each.
NOT including shipping &
the special handling is an additional $12 now (it went up $1)
​

All were bantams like my 3 silkies I already had...I incubated 3 of my sillkies along with all 6 from Alabama and my chickens eggs were considerably smaller than the ones from Alabama and as such the chicks were too. However the quality from Alabama is extremely good! My chickens are also young which could account for the size being smaller.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I have decided on names for some of the chicks..
The black polkie is Betty, the paint female is Wilma, and the paint male is Fred

Waiting to see if i have one or two female tolbunts before i pick their names.

Flinstones! I’m old enough to remember that! Love it!
Believe it or not, my paternal grandparents were named Wilma and Fred!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

What about with the satin roo with a splash silkie hen?

How did you learn all this? Anywhere I can go to learn or terms I should search for to learn?

I believe you’re Satin boy has Colombian markings and I really am not sure how these are passed down. As you already know, splash is part of BBS genetics, so they will likely throw some blue chicks or blue with Colombian markings perhaps? Will be interesting to see!
Again, a crossing with these two will result in half the chicks being smooth feathered
and half the chicks being silkied feathered.
This of course is assuming that your satin chickens are recessive for the silkied feather gene, which is most likely due to where you got them and their appearance. This gene is recessive so when you cross the smooth feathered bird with silkie heritage with a pure silkie then you are bringing out the recessive gene from the smooth feathered birds.
The smooth feathered birds have one copy for smooth feathering (or otherwise they wouldn’t show it) and one copy of silkied feathering.
As far as how I learned this, I have a science background and had college-level genetics YEARS ago, but have not really used it for until I started getting interested in chicken genetics. I am still learning, I find much useful information here on BYC in the genetics threads. Other places randomly online when I’m trying to look up a specific topic. Don’t mean to make it sound like you need to know any genetics before hand to understand chicken genetics, but I think it helped me anyway.
If you begin by learning the Punnett square and how to use this, when trying to figure out dominant and recessive genes and how they are passed down, it is a good place to start.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I've seen that before but it doesn't really tell you what you get when you start with a white egg.... All my (non-Silkie) roosters are either Easter Eggers, Ameraucana, Cream Legbar, or Silverudd blue. So basically all of them have at least one blue egg gene... Also what would you get if you cross a Marans egg color with a tan egg color (think BO or RIR)? Just so many variations... I did cross some RIR and BO with my Easter Egger roosters and, from what I can tell, those babies are laying tan eggs like their mamas. But to be fair, I have nearly 50 hens so it's hard to tell sometimes who is responsible for what egg color.

A bird only needs one copy of the blue egg gene to show a blue egg. If they have one copy of the blue and one copy of the brown then you’ll get a green egg as many Easter Eggers lay. This crossed with a white egg layer will give you a lighter version of that color. Basically, the white sort of dilutes the color out. Your Marans crossed with a tan egg layer will give you an egg color in between. Here is an egg from my Marans/RSL cross.
Nice warm brown.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I believe you’re Satin boy has Colombian markings and I really am not sure how these are passed down. As you already know, splash is part of BBS genetics, so they will likely throw some blue chicks or blue with Colombian markings perhaps? Will be interesting to see!
Again, a crossing with these two will result in half the chicks being smooth feathered
and half the chicks being silkied feathered.
This of course is assuming that your satin chickens are recessive for the silkied feather gene, which is most likely due to where you got them and their appearance. This gene is recessive so when you cross the smooth feathered bird with silkie heritage with a pure silkie then you are bringing out the recessive gene from the smooth feathered birds.
The smooth feathered birds have one copy for smooth feathering (or otherwise they wouldn’t show it) and one copy of silkied feathering.
As far as how I learned this, I have a science background and had college-level genetics YEARS ago, but have not really used it for until I started getting interested in chicken genetics. I am still learning, I find much useful information here on BYC in the genetics threads. Other places randomly online when I’m trying to look up a specific topic. Don’t mean to make it sound like you need to know any genetics before hand to understand chicken genetics, but I think it helped me anyway.
If you begin by learning the Punnett square and how to use this, when trying to figure out dominant and recessive genes and how they are passed down, it is a good place to start.

Awesome! Way over my head...but so informative!!! I will definitely dig into the "Punnett square".
What about the "Columbian" markings...how did you know that as I have searched these and unable to find anything related to the markings on these 4 other than the little info I've gotten from the owner at Fielder regarding the roo and hens. She hasn't mentioned anything really other than "pencil-laced".

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Awesome! Way over my head...but so informative!!! I will definitely dig into the "Punnett square".
What about the "Columbian" markings...how did you know that as I have searched these and unable to find anything related to the markings on these 4 other than the little info I've gotten from the owner at Fielder regarding the roo and hens. She hasn't mentioned anything really other than "pencil-laced".

I don’t know for sure that your birds have Colombian in them. They just look like they do. The Colombian markings, as far as I understand, look like the bird is wearing a necklace of different colored feathers.
The tail often has these colors in it as well. Think Columbian Wyandotte as an example. Several of your birds appear to have these kind of markings. Another color that you see with these kind of markings is birchen which gives a silver color in these neck feathers. I honestly don’t know how these are inherited, it is above and beyond my knowledge at this point anyway!
You can try posting pictures of your birds in the genetics forum, there are many more knowledgeable folks than me who will see it and may be able to answer your questions.
I know for laced birds that both parents have to carry the gene for lacing for the chicks to have it. Chicks that hatch from only one parent with the lacing gene will be “partially laced”.