What's wrong with their feathers?

[Plantsnmore]

I just joined this forum, I would reall REALLY like to have some of these chickens, anyone have any eggs for sale?

 

[NicoleRM]

I'll have to go back and reread since my crosses are proving that the silkied Ameraucanas carry the identical silkie gene that Silkies carry. I'm getting approximately 25% silkied chicks from crossing a purebred Silkie hen with an F1 Ameraucana cock. My trio of F1s have not produced one silkied Ameraucana in the two years that I've had them when bred to each other.

Yes, as far as I know there is only the one hookless gene. It sounds to me like your "F1" hens may not carry it after all. If they were produced from an F1 to F1 mating that could explain it. You could test mate them to a Silkie cock to check, the same way you've proven your F1 cock, but I'd say after two years of breeding with no results, they don't have the gene. Have you saved any of the offspring? Even if the hens don't carry the hookless gene, the cock would have passed on his one copy to half of his daughters. With a large enough number of them bred back to him, you should see some silkied chicks.

 

[Redcatcher]

Yes, as far as I know there is only the one hookless gene. It sounds to me like your "F1" hens may not carry it after all. If they were produced from an F1 to F1 mating that could explain it. You could test mate them to a Silkie cock to check, the same way you've proven your F1 cock, but I'd say after two years of breeding with no results, they don't have the gene. Have you saved any of the offspring? Even if the hens don't carry the hookless gene, the cock would have passed on his one copy to half of his daughters. With a large enough number of them bred back to him, you should see some silkied chicks.

I recall a couple of eggs being marked "F2" but they were in the minority. The others were all marked either "F1" or silkied out of about 17 eggs. Not one silkied egg hatched. I moved last fall and had to leave the offspring behind but I still have the trio. I don't have a pen where I could separate them while I'm temporarily staying with some friends. I do have his Silkie cross offspring that I can try mating back to him. I have just one Silkie cock at the moment. He's 12 years old and won't have anything to do with any hen but another Silkie. These are for my own enjoyment only anyway so I really don't care if they have been crossed with Silkies. They have to be outcrossed anyway for hardiness. The Silkie hen that I bred my silkied Ameraucan cock to is also 12 years old. You can't get much hardier than that.

 

[chick-among-us]

I still say you need to not keep them in too sterile a situation that they can't develop an immune system. Especially with a large volume of other birds that get respiratory stuff now and then. If they are kept inside, spotless and as clean as possible inside and out, then they get exposed to it all at once going outside or in with other birds yes they will get sick. Mine are raised with all my other chicks thru adults and I have yet to loose 1 bird. And like I said before maybe it's just not happend here yet but seems it would have by now. Mine are exposed to everything here from day 1. If I was keeping them spotless and as bacteria free inside and out of the birds as I could, I'd expect the same results you have had as well.

Quote: Well we didn't from day one, I kept them as babies in the house in brooders, then moved them to outside brooders....some died.We moved them to an outside pen of their own...one or two more died...Evidently they don't like moving.Geez. NOw they have been in this pen for a while. No one else has died. I am crossing everything that they stay healthy...We also put them back on medicated feed since cossidosis lives in the dirt. We are mixing non medicated pellets which they love with the medicated crumble...it is working well. None of mine will lay anytime soon.They are to little but I still compared to some have a lot of these birds. So I am lucky. Glad I got strong birds from you Kim looks like they are the only ones I will have in the end! We have just implemented some bio security measures...like stepping in boot pans of oxine. and humidifiers with oxine have helped ALOT! I think you are right about them being out and not so sheltered since now if they catch something they take meds and are getting better... We have almost gotten rid of the respritory crap completly!

AND they are not in brooders anymore they are outside in a pen of their own and then later we will split that for the lines we have.

 

[flewdacoop]

love the way they look i want some for my house, great looking chickens

 

[chick-among-us]

They are truly beautiful and mine are starting to come when I call them instead of acting like I am going to eat them....right this minute....no they are to expensive! lol

 

[ladyfaeden]

I am thinking of selling my Silkied Roo (I think its a roo), He was born last winter out of GoaskAlice's B line and is Splash colored. I also have blue and splash silkied juveniles. Is there anyone in the Northwest looking for stock? He seems pretty healthy, he's currently running with my free range flock.

 

[ChooksChick]

Hi- checking in after a few months of chaos.

The 100+ temps for the pst couple of weeks have taken their toll and I'm down to 2 Split hens, 2 Silkied hens, and a split roo in adults. I have a couple of dozen chicks from a week to 5 weeks, and a pair of point-of-lay wheaten split pullets. This has been a rough year, with so many of mine over 2...they were early stock and hadn't been outcrossed. They are sooooooo fragile when from the original stock.

All of my chicks are splits, as they've been bred to Wheaten and Blue Ameraucana stock. I'm just not as interested in getting more fluffy birds just yet from them, as I desperately seek the genetic diversification. We will be MUCH happier in the next generation!!

I have brought all of the stock home as the well ran dry out at the farm and I can't mitigate the heat with little microclimates out at the farm like I can at home. I just can't risk these remaining adults. I DO have abundant shade in my pea house/pen, and I've left the Silkied hen housed in there with her group- I've been breeding her to a Chocolate Orpington rooster and have 4 Chocolate Split Silkied Ameraucanas from the pairing!! I also have 2 Splits from them who are Blue, which means they are roos. Hooray!!!


I haven't any eggs coming right now save this hen with the Chocolates, as one of the hens is BROODY!! She has a couple of Blue Splits under her.

Hoping things smooth out this summer so I have tons of birds to choose from for next year's breeding flock. The rest will go up for grabs here to folks who want to work with them.

 

[wolftracks]

I'm still waiting to figure out for sure what my one chick is. One minute I thik roo and the next pullet. Time will tell. I've only had 2 chicks hatch from the 2 orders of eggs, but the first one died before 2 months. Fine one minute and gone the next. I've kept this little split in the brooder longer than I keep most, just to make sure it's ok. I wish I lived closer to others that have stock. My shipped eggs had a really bad ride to me and many don't hatch, not just these. I'm so hoping this is a roo. I have BBS AMs and Lavender AMs to breed back to. I have some blacks that were from a BBS breeding, so maybe I'll get lucky and get a few black Silkieds eventually. Don't know if I'll ever see a Silkied though. But if I can just get this one to mature, I'll feel so much better. I'm just so frustrated with bad hatches and not enough stock to work with.

 

[Yashar]

I just joined this forum, I would reall REALLY like to have some of these chickens, anyone have any eggs for sale?

I'm the first one to say....

Glad you could make it!!!