Sorphies?

[SusanJoM]

Answering my own question, but just in case anyone else is interested, here's what Wikipedia has to say about Silkies and their bantam or non-bantamness

Silkies are only bantam size in the USA. American silkies are actually intermediate in size, not proper bantam but not large fowl either. Elsewhere there are standards for both the bantam Silkie and the standard Silkie.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

If it is something your friend would like to try, let her. Although, due to the size difference you will most likely have to use artificial insemination to avoid injury to smaller hens and infertility due to smaller roosters.

Just experiment in small numbers, until you realize this is something you would really like to do in mass numbers.

Any breed of chicken crossed with any other breed of chicken, will always give you a chicken. LOL.

Don't let your friend be discouraged from trying out breeding two different breeds together. I would personally much rather enjoy experimenting with different breeds and having fun with the genetics, than trying to breed toward a standard of how someone else thought the birds should look like.

Just let your friend know that she will most likely have to use artificial insemination and then let her have fun.

-Kim

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

Quote:
Do you realize that you wouldn't have your orpingtons if someone didn't cross 2 chickens? We would only have red junglefowl if noone crossed their birds.

 

[MissPrissy]

Yes, I do know this. We also are not talking about historic times in chicken breeding. We are talking about perfected breeds. Alot of people think they can cross anything with a little silkie and get those strange feathers on a different chicken with no clue of how genetics works.

Why would you take a nice orpington that has had a century of breeding behind it and dilute its genetics for just another mutt chicken? Not to mention the size differences and the injury that could come out of it?

My Mosby stands nearly 2 ft tall now. He is wide and heavy. Would you think me cruel if I took a little bantam hen or even a little silkie hen and threw her in with him and let him mount her several times a day?

What alot of younger up and coming teens and children don't understand is that just because you maybe CAN do something doesn't make wise to do it.

 

[silkieluver_07]

I understand both points to this.

My friend just thought that she could mix blue/splash/black/buff orphingtons hens and male silkies to experiment.

This may someday become a breed...you never know I guess.... Showgirls became a breed....so who know????

 

[MissPrissy]

You can get BBS silkies. Have you considered just ordering some eggs and letting the silkies sit on them?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

If your friend is willing to take the proper precautions then I see nothing wrong with her experimenting.

In this case I would not let the birds naturally breed, due to the extreme size difference.

As long as she takes proper care of her birds and takes whatever steps necessary to prevent injury, then let her experiment.

You never know, it just might become a breed.

Granted the Orpingtons and Silkies each have many many years behind developing them, someone thought it was worthwhile experimenting to create them. Just look at the Jersey Giants or some of the other American breeds, someone had a flock of Java chickens and decided to throw in some other breeds to create all new breeds.

I don't think we should stop experimenting just because we "have enough breeds as it is."

I breed Java and Dorking, but there have been many many many times I have considered cross-breeding(not between those breeds, but other breeds) experiments. I have a book of breeding experiments that I would like to try someday and then some experiments I like to just mentally play with, like a breed created from Onagadori and Silkie.

We are not talking about mass production of mutt chickens, but a backyard keeper of chickens wanting to put a few birds together "just to see what we get".

There are many sources on genetics online that your friend can read up on to get an "idea" of how the offspring will turn out.

-Kim

 

[Guitartists]

I think mutts are fine ... I love my mutts

But if you are going to deliberately breed specific breeds together in the hopes of creating a breed... you HAVE to understand genetics and have a GOAL before you just start breeding all willy-nilly

Otherwise, you are just breeding cute mutts

Nothing wrong with that, but I'm pretty sure all breeds that have been the result of crosses have been very deliberate and thought out.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Quote:
I will tell her that. That would probably be the better option.