What's wrong with their feathers?

[karimw]

I ordered my incubator and have been building up a nice Ameraucana flock to breed the silky gene into. I'm ready for eggs when anyone has some to share!

 

[KellyHM]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad I'm not the only one! I was starting to feel cursed with this breed.

 

[heksa]

Hi, I've seen this post a while back, and loved the silkied EEs.

The only boy in my little flock is a grey Silkie and I noticed, while scrambling some eggs for breakfast, that he is actually quite successful with my EE girls.

If you know what I mean.

I think I’m going to try to hatch some of their eggs.
Just have to wait for Brinsea to stock up on Eco incubators first.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
You would expect their offspring to have smooth feathers, but will retain some of the silkie qualities, like black skin, crests, extra toes and smaller size.

If you cross their offspring together, you could get some silkied birds, but there again, they will have as many qualities in common with a slikie as they do with an EE. It would take quite a few generations of crossing back to "pure" EE's to get the silkied feather gene in an EE, with none of he other traits. Which is part of what makes these birds so cool!

Happy experimenting!

 

[BookWorm243]

Wow
I love these chickens! I wish I could get some

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad I'm not the only one! I was starting to feel cursed with this breed.

I kept one female, when dispersing the others. Today I found her dead, just at point of lay.

 

[KellyHM]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad I'm not the only one! I was starting to feel cursed with this breed.

I kept one female, when dispersing the others. Today I found her dead, just at point of lay.

So sorry! I wish I could offer you eggs, but I only have 1 hen and no roo.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad I'm not the only one! I was starting to feel cursed with this breed.

I kept one female, when dispersing the others. Today I found her dead, just at point of lay.

Sorry to hear that Kathy. Her sister is still alive here, but not doing so great. I'm going to worm her and up her egg intake to try to get more weight on her. She's just not strong.

The remaining F1 from you is thriving! He's just started to crow, and is quite good at it!

My silkied boy is doing very well though. I'm sure I'll be able to get a crop of F1's out of him this spring.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Well, the good news is, my pullet is doing better now that she's inside, and getting eggs to eat 3 times a day. Maybe she's not stupid after all! I hope she hangs around long enough to mate with my F1 guy.

The sad news is that I found Warhol, my silkied cockerel, dead on the ground this morning. No idea what happened. It's been cold here, but even the bantams are doing fine, so I don't think he froze. There's no telling. But it really sets me back too on my breeding plans.

Hurry up Spring! Winter is not a good time for these birds!

 

[alicefelldown]

Gosh! I'm so sorry (everyone)! It's like these birds hate living or something. As soon as mine start laying, I want to try and trade/send with everyone else on here so we can get this bloodline strong!