Where can I find Silkied varieties of rare, or uncommon breeds.

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

Sent you a DM with the links--for the record, I'm happy to send them to anyone else as well, just send me a message! I love to see silkied Cochins gaining interest!!

Yes, I think Showgirls are considered a type of Silkie. If you find any silkied NNs without the Silkie traits like Showgirls have, I'd love to hear about them, too! I just love silkied feathering.

Ah, you mentioned that about Sandhill on another thread! I'll keep them in mind for the future. I've got to get a secure setup built for Ameraucanas before I can commit to getting any more than a hand full for my mixed flock. I really, really want to preserve them alongside my Cochins, though, as they've became so rare I was getting worried they may just disappear entirely!

You might have to set up more than that. I have read the silkied Ameraucanas aren't as hardy as the normal relatives, and it is very hrd to get them to adulthood. Though I wouldn't let this stop you from getting them. They are a beautiful variety. Maybe you could introduce more genetic material into the silkies. The original siliked ameraucanas had a similar beginning to silkied cochins, but are much more inbred. That is caused by the fact that the original silkied ameraucanas only counted 2, and I belive they were siblings.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yes, if I get into them I'd likely set up for rotational breeding to start with anyway, as it seems to be the simplest way to preserve a variety from a small number of individuals (as few as 3 males and 3 females) without inbreeding becoming too much of an issue. Worse comes to worst I can set this up with 3 silkied and 3 smooth-feathered Ameraucanas as well, and make silkied-split offspring to breed together and bring back out the silkied trait later. I dedicatedly adore the silkie-feather trait, so it would take a lot more than that to deter me from getting them. See my title under my username.

Silkied Ameraucanas were well documented here on BYC (and I believe you are right, the two original birds were at least hatchmates if not siblings), but it's hard to find a lot of information on the Cochins. From what I've gathered, there were two separate mutation 'events' that occurred to produce the Cochins, one in a show line of Black Cochin bantams and one in a hatchery line of frizzled Red Cochins. They've sort of waxed and waned in popularity over the years, never really building up much steam behind them like the Ameraucanas did right off the bat, but they seem to finally be gaining an interest in recent years, which makes me quite happy! There were a few years where I was afraid I might be the only person actively working with them anymore, or at least both actively working with them and actively posting online about them. Thank goodness that proved not to be the case!

Edited for a typo​

 

[JacinLarkwell]

make silkied-split offspring to breed together and bring back out the silkied trait later

Seems to me to be the absolute best way to safely increase numbers with silkied animals

 

[miss heny]

I'm popping in my two cents on the factors why Silkie Ameraucanas struggled was a percentage of people who got them were fad breeders not realizing the long term commitment to cultivate a strain like this with extremely limited genes. They also hit peak novelty right when alot of new import breeds hit the scene, not saying that the only problem. I do wish you luck because having come back from my hibernation it was quite shocking how many breeding programs for niche strains have collapsed from varies reasons.

 

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

Seems to me to be the absolute best way to safely increase numbers with silkied animals

It does semm like the best way to increase numbers, but @dheltzel has said they are almost always more fragile compared to their normal relatives. @dheltzel no longer breeds for them, but still has them pop up from time to time. They also seem to be fragile no matter what you do. This has caused some speculation that the silkie mutation in Ameraucanas is connected to or is a lethal gene, kinda-of like how 2 frizzle genes creates a frazzle chicken with problems

 

[miss heny]

It does semm like the best way to increase numbers, but @dheltzel has said they are almost always more fragile compared to their normal relatives. @dheltzel no longer breeds for them, but still has them pop up from time to time. They also seem to be fragile no matter what you do. This has caused some speculation that the silkie mutation in Ameraucans is connected or is a lethal gene, kinda-of like how 2 frizzle genes creates a frazzle chicken with problems

I wonder if it has something to do with the blue egg gene? If my memory serves me right I haven't seen any projects of silkie blue egg layers in general. I could be wrong having been out of the loop here for a good few years

 

[miss heny]

Nvm google proves me a idiot found listing of Silkie chickens bred to lay blue, green and olive eggs. I be dumb.

 

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

Nvm google proves me a idiot found listing of Silkie chickens bred to lay blue, green and olive eggs. I be dumb.

I wonder if it has something to do with the blue egg gene? If my memory serves me right I haven't seen any projects of silkie blue egg layers in general. I could be wrong having been out of the loop here for a good few years

I don't believe the blue egg gene has anything to do with it, but it might be someting else. As for the blue-egg-laying silkies, I don't think they're actually silkies. I think they are a mix-bred cross of Ameraucana and Silkie. Though I believe there isn't a standard for the color of egg a silkie should lay, so maybe they are actually silkies, just with blue eggs introduced into them.

 

[miss heny]

I don't believe the blue egg gene has anything to do with it, but it might be someting else. As for the blue-egg-laying silkies, I don't think they're actually silkies. I think they are a mix-bred cross of Ameraucana and Silkie. Though I believe there isn't a standard for the color of egg a silkie should lay, so maybe they are actually silkies, just with blue eggs introduced into them.

Yeah, they were most likely crossed out and then rebred to silkies only hatching the eggs that were blue. It does then make you wonder what make the gene mutation in Ameraucanas different from Cochins.

 

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

Yeah, they were most likely crossed out and then rebred to silkies only hatching the eggs that were blue. It does then make you wonder what make the gene mutation in Ameraucanas different from Cochins.

Phenotypically they look identical, but we don't know genotypically, and we won't find out until someone invents a genetic test for that kind of thing. The only genetic test for chickens is the fibro test. Maybe someone could make a new line of Silkied Ameraucanas, but with the silkie gene from the Cochins. Though it would take forever to get rid of the Cochin attributes