Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[LynnaePB]

I've been preparing for breeding, hoping to start in Febuary. Really hoping this roo will keep the hens fertile, but he has never been around girls before so I'm sort of worried. But his hormones do seem to be kicking in, he is not so chill with me handling him now.

How do you keep your silkie hens from going broody? This coming year I'll have only four hens (lost one, that made my plans harder) but I'll raise a bunch for 2022. They apparently all have mothering abilities, some stronger than others. Like seriously, two out of three of my silkies went broody for just a couple days this week. Just when the egg laying was starting to pick up

I haven't really tried very hard to stop my girls from going broody. I have over 15 pullets/hens in with a single cockerel though so I don't worry too much about the ratio getting thrown off when they go broody. I'd definitely think about trying the broody cage method if I had less hens and too many were going broody at once though.

Hopefully your boy will learn quickly and you'll have fertile eggs soon! A lot of my males that are separated from the females when young get the hang of breeding in the first month or two of being integrated in with girls. Sometimes they are really bad at it and it takes longer but so far they've always eventually figured it out.

Hello lovely silkie folks!
Genetics question again!
My little hybrids are still hatching. 10th one today. Last night (#9) needed a little help getting out of the egg, as she has this huge vaulted skull! She is doing fine now. She is the only one that has a vaulted skull out of the 10 that have hatched so far. I did not expect any of the chicks to have a vaulted skull. Father (silkie) does not really have a significant one and mother is not even a vaulted skull breed (ameraucana/BCM).
Does anyone know the genetics behind the vaulted skull? I could not find any info in the threads. This chick almost looks polish!
All 10 of these chicks look different from each other, some differences are subtle, some are major. They all have black eyes, beaks and feathered dark legs.
8 are black, 2 are blue. So far planning to keep one of the blues.View attachment 2451198View attachment 2451199

That is interesting you got a little one with a vault! I don't think I got any vaulted back when I had some cochin silkie mixes. I can't quite remember if the silkie mothers had vaults but I think they did.

I wish I knew more about the genetics involved in vaults. I'd personally like to try to breed away from them more and having a better understanding of the genetics would be helpful. I definitely notice vaults much more often in females in my silkie chicks than in males. I've seen some breeders mentioning noticing the same thing especially back when vaults weren't so common (so mostly in really old threads here).

I've only ever bred non vaulted males to my females which are mostly vaulted. I'd say sexing using just the vault seems to be around at least 70-80% accurate or so from what I've seen with most of my pairings so far. Maybe it's just coincidence but it is something I hope to track more thoroughly in the future.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thank you so much for your response! I checked baby photos of my little cockerel and my three pullets and none of them have vaults, so quite odd this one popped up! Maybe some sort of throwback to a previous generation?

 

[LynnaePB]

Thank you so much for your response! I checked baby photos of my little cockerel and my three pullets and none of them have vaults, so quite odd this one popped up! Maybe some sort of throwback to a previous generation?

Oh wow that is even more surprising! I think the vaults originally came from crossing in polish to make the crests bigger. I wonder if looking up more information on polish vaults might help answer more about vault genetics in general? I may have to try searching for that to see if it helps give anymore insight into it.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Hello lovely silkie folks!
Genetics question again!
My little hybrids are still hatching. 10th one today. Last night (#9) needed a little help getting out of the egg, as she has this huge vaulted skull! She is doing fine now. She is the only one that has a vaulted skull out of the 10 that have hatched so far. I did not expect any of the chicks to have a vaulted skull. Father (silkie) does not really have a significant one and mother is not even a vaulted skull breed (ameraucana/BCM).
Does anyone know the genetics behind the vaulted skull? I could not find any info in the threads. This chick almost looks polish!
All 10 of these chicks look different from each other, some differences are subtle, some are major. They all have black eyes, beaks and feathered dark legs.
8 are black, 2 are blue. So far planning to keep one of the blues.View attachment 2451198View attachment 2451199

Not sure about the genetics, but they are adorable!

I haven't really tried very hard to stop my girls from going broody. I have over 15 pullets/hens in with a single cockerel though so I don't worry too much about the ratio getting thrown off when they go broody. I'd definitely think about trying the broody cage method if I had less hens and too many were going broody at once though.

Hopefully your boy will learn quickly and you'll have fertile eggs soon! A lot of my males that are separated from the females when young get the hang of breeding in the first month or two of being integrated in with girls. Sometimes they are really bad at it and it takes longer but so far they've always eventually figured it out.

Thanks for the advice! I'm glad to hear he'll probably catch on within a couple months because I want to start incubating at least by February.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Sometimes they are really bad at it and it takes longer but so far they've always eventually figured it out.

Haha... my cockerel looked so funny trying to mate for the first month or so..He was getting on top sideways! Or backwards!! He got the eight way eventually haha..
On the other hand my rooster isn't fertilising besides one egg I had a few days ago. He might be molting a little so that may make him infertile or not wanting to mate, but surely that doesn't last for over a month in Spring/Summer time? I want more chicks by February when some of my pullets become hens and before it starts getting cold here. If he continues to not fertilise I'll have to swap him out for cockerel or take away the fence and hope they get along

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Question:
since my rooster is not fertilising at the moment...
If I put each pullet/hen in with cockerel for a few min, he mates, then I take pullet/hen out, her eggs will be fertile for 2 weeks!? ...if this works then I don't need to try intergrate cockerel in with rooster and mix around pullets and mess up pecking order or stress anyone out

 

[PioneerChicks]

Question:
since my rooster is not fertilising at the moment...
If I put each pullet/hen in with cockerel for a few min, he mates, then I take pullet/hen out, her eggs will be fertile for 2 weeks!? ...if this works then I don't need to try intergrate cockerel in with rooster and mix around pullets and mess up pecking order or stress anyone out

Well, roosters typically try to mount when people are not around because dominate roosters don't approve of young roos stealing their hens. And hens can and will push out sperm from roosters they don't like. A rooster normally needs to prove himself to the girls first (by tidbitting, watching for predators, etc.) before they accept his sperm.
But it's worth a try

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Well, roosters typically try to mount when people are not around because dominate roosters don't approve of young roos stealing their hens. And hens can and will push out sperm from roosters they don't like. A rooster normally needs to prove himself to the girls first (by tidbitting, watching for predators, etc.) before they accept his sperm.
But it's worth a try

Really!? Didn't know hens can push out sperm! ...My cockerel / rooster both mate anytime if I'm around or not, right in front of me! .. Cockerel has mated with my pullets before but I guess he may need to prove himself again.
.. Funny you know, since Silkies love to go broody, often, you would think they would know they need to mate so they can lay fertilised eggs to have chicks!!..but I guess rooster or not they still go broody so they don't know their eggs are not fertile!
... I'll try a pullet with cockerel and see what happens I'll throw some mealworms in to sweeten the deal!

 

[LynnaePB]

Question:
since my rooster is not fertilising at the moment...
If I put each pullet/hen in with cockerel for a few min, he mates, then I take pullet/hen out, her eggs will be fertile for 2 weeks!? ...if this works then I don't need to try intergrate cockerel in with rooster and mix around pullets and mess up pecking order or stress anyone out

I did something kind of similar when I had all my females separated from my males. I had a couple specific hens I wanted to pair with one of my cockerels and I'd put one hen in with him in a small pen for a couple hours per day and alternate days with each of the hens. It took about a week or so for one hen to start laying fertile eggs and a couple weeks for the other. This was a cockerel who was inexperienced with mating but picked it up pretty quickly. How long they will stay fertile can really vary depending on the male I think. I've always had the girls stay fertile for at least a week though.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Really!? Didn't know hens can push out sperm! ...My cockerel / rooster both mate anytime if I'm around or not, right in front of me! .. Cockerel has mated with my pullets before but I guess he may need to prove himself again.
.. Funny you know, since Silkies love to go broody, often, you would think they would know they need to mate so they can lay fertilised eggs to have chicks!!..but I guess rooster or not they still go broody so they don't know their eggs are not fertile!
... I'll try a pullet with cockerel and see what happens I'll throw some mealworms in to sweeten the deal!