What Makes A Show Quality Silkie? ADDED PICS

[Sonoran Silkies]

Generally the feather length and softness determines the fluffiness. Short feathers just do not fluff out as much, and harder feathers (think cornish versus cochin) tend to lie close to the body, also taking away from the fluffiness. Breeders tend to not use birds that are not as fluffy, or that have too many non-silkied or hard feathers, so the offspring are less likely to inherit those genes. Hatcheries care about quantity, not quality, and so you will find many silkies who are lacking in fluffiness--becuase their parents did not cave those traits in abundance. Some lines of silkies have extra dense feathering, also--as in more feathers per square inch.

Both the APA ad ABA have a standard for silkies; they are very similar. Both bearded and non-bearded varieties are recognised.

 

[Jencleg]

I would love to see them so I can compare them to my poor pitiful lil silkie chick Lulu!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Immature silkies often go through a very scraggley stage before maturing into a fluffy ball of feathers.

 

[Laurajean]

Okay, I was finally able to get some updated pics today, the only others I had were when they were younger and distant coop shots. They are One Year and One Month old as of yesterday. BIG DISCLAIMER: The Rooster has been scalping them in mating I assume. No sign of mites or anything, so I assume this is happening due to mating. So their heads are not normally THIS bad. But you can still get an idea of their bodies, and why I say they're "scraggly".




Pic#1 This is Rachel. She usually has the best head poof of them all, I usually can't even see her eyes, but she got scalped worse than the rest too, so you can't see it here. Her body is the same as usual.

Pic#2 This is Blackie. She got scalped a little by the Roo, but her head poof is not much bigger normally anyway. She has a real knack for getting dirt and food all over her, so forgive her grubbiness, but you can still see she's scraggly. She's the only one that I think is bearded.

Pic#3 is Sunny. She also got scalped badly by the Roo. Her body is how it typically looks.

Pic#4 is Henny. She is the only one of the Silkies to escape the mating scalping of the Roo so far. Here's a body shot, and then a closer one.

Pic#5 is Henny again, a closer shot of her head. Since she's the only one yet to be scalped by the roo, this is a pretty decent example of how their head poofs usually look. You can see it's not very big.

Pic#6 is Gray, The Roo. He's the one scalping all my other Silkies during mating. I didn't dare pick him up for the photo because he can be a real jerk, so I took this shot in the run.

So, back to my original question. Aren't they scraggly? They don't look nearly as fluffy and fancy as other Silkies I see pics of. Granted, right now they're all scalped from the Roo, but even with full head hair, it isn't really poofy. You can also see regular feathers on them as opposed to the fur-like 'fluff' I see on others' Silkies. So are they just rejects? Poorly bred? They're all clean and healthy, just kind of scraggly. I love them, and it's a good thing I don't care about showing them, but this is why I asked what makes a show Silkie. They don't know they're funny looking, and I won't be showing them pics of fancier Silkies.

Any input?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Well, if you were to look at show WINNERS from 30-odd years ago, your birds would be quite competative. That said, only Henny seems to have many hard feathers. For hatchery birds, they are pretty good.

To be show birds, shorter backs would help, as would the larger crests you mention. Rachel is a bit light in colour, but has nice penciling. Blackie looks like she is in the midst of, or needing a molt. She is lacking in tail and foot feathering. They all appear to hold their wings nce and high--a good thing, and combs look to be good on all.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
Well, that's not nearly as bad of a review as I was expecting!

On Rachel, by "penciling", do you mean the darker lines that run through her colors? She *normally* has a nice head poof (or crest, is it?)... very round and black and bigger than the rest. I see what you mean about them having longer backs, hadn't made that observation before. Like I said, their heads are usually better, but not as poofy as most I've seen. Do you think I'm correct that this is due to mating? They appear otherwise healthy and I've seen no sign of mites, etc., so that's what I am assuming. I wonder if they'll ever have a chance to grow back, if they're always mating?

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Sonoran is awesome with the genetics and things like that........


Those are still nice hatchery birds......looks like they are not bearded so the crest will be smaller on them.

I grabbed a couple of white featherlegs out of a TSC bin last year, and even though those two (a pair) are way uglier than my show silkies, the rooster had an awesome personality. The girl does too, yet since the roo was killed in a dog attack, she is more standoffish. (She is in with my layers)

The roo even knew what a sandwich was, thanks to my dog

My two hatchery birds:
The hen even has less foot feathering now since I let her free range with the rest of my layers

 

[destiny_56085]

All of us have scraggly birds at some point or another.... They molt, its a regular occurance. If you let them breed naturally, expect the cock to have his favorites and thus a few bald birds. You can have a show quality bird, but just may be out of condition at the moment.

LMAO..... wanna see a SQ bird in a hardcore molt?

Hard to believe that same bird looks like this a couple months later....

Here's another good example... The cock has his beard all picked out. Couple of the hens are almost bald from breeding.

 

[teach1rusl]

So I'm wondering - are silkie roos just not known for being gentle when mating (lots of talk of head feathers being pulled out)? Or are the roos you guys have mentioned just not experienced? Or do the "furry" silkie feathers just pull out much easier than hard feathers?? I thought I'd keep my "sexed pullet" silkie cockerel, but now am thinking otherwise, if it's a given that the girls will stay raggedy looking.

 

[10_is_enough]

Your posts were very helpful to me as we are first time chickeneers...we have 3 silkies from TSC. They are only about 6 or 7 weeks old now but poofing out nicely. I'm excited to see if they will turn out to be cotton balls or not. Even if they don't, we still love 'em!