Silkie thread!

[Goosegrrl]

One of my silver partridge pullets... a tad over 7 months and already she is on the "Oh, I laid a few eggs... let's get BROODY now" train. LOL

No, I'm not giving her anything to actually sit on this soon. She will just have to get over it.
At least her grumpies are not too horrible. She just grumbles at me and looks all poofy/disheveled.

 

[Hinotori]

One of my silver partridge pullets... a tad over 7 months and already she is on the "Oh, I laid a few eggs... let's get BROODY now" train. LOL

No, I'm not giving her anything to actually sit on this soon. She will just have to get over it.
At least her grumpies are not too horrible. She just grumbles at me and looks all poofy/disheveled.

I had one pullet last year lay TWO eggs and go broody.

 

[Hinotori]

 

[FishMtFarm]

WANTED: hoping I can post this on here as I am looking to buy, not sell. I need a paint Silkie rooster. Under 2, and he must be fluffy and correct. Has to be NPIP and if not from a surrounding state of NY, I need him shipped. Anyone know of one?

 

[TalkBahk2Me]

SOP question: I'm currently choosing between two cockerels for breeding my Cuckoo line. I plan on keeping both to maturity to make an informed choice, but nonetheless would like to start determining their good/bad characteristics as soon as I can. Could anyone post pictures of a good quality cock's head? One of them so far seems to have a body I like better - he's nice and broad in shoulder and saddle, though perhaps a little too long in back. Very sturdy and well fleshed with  a good frame. However his head appears (to me, anyhow) not that great. Wattles and earlobes are overlarge, beard is too small and flat, comb isn't awful but has an ugly depression running down one side of it. Overall it has a "coarse" look to it. Also, I think his saddle is not necessarily as full as it ought to be - forms a bit of a sharp angle with the tail, which I know it should not. The other male, however, has a significantly better head - very small, almost completely hidden wattles, a pretty good comb, better sized and much more turquoise earlobes. It just looks better, overall. However, he is a bit less broad in saddle. His tail is a little lower. His skin is darker, too, by a couple shades, which I know is more difficult to achieve with Cuckoos.

Also... I know the standard calls for "fully feathered outer and middle toes"... but what about the insides of the shank and the inner/back toes? I'm seeing lots of stubs and fluff on these parts of the feet, especially the back two toes. Is this a defect?

If it were me I'd keep the one with less defects. I understand the preference on color, so keeping one with the best cuckoo pattern and breeding to breed standard correct hens would be ideal.
Just know you will probably be 2 generations in to correct the issues of comb & wattles, feathering, stance, darker skin, mulberry comb wattles. Blue earlobes. Etc. sound like a long time but actually isn't bad in the chicken realm. Lol
From when I showed these- Feathering on the two toes was allowed. And minimal on 3rd preferred little to none -on inner 3rd.

Also the 5th toe was supposed to be correctly attached to 4th making a nice lowercase "y" off of the leg. Not a separate toe from 4th. To my knowledge for show standards, it's not desirable to have feathers on those parts of the toe reference to 4th & 5th. Feathering on inner shanks I've not seen to date. Imo avoid this trait, or be dedicated to correcting it. It sounds like a hard choice to choose between the two they sound lovely!

 

[Elbert Garrett]

A little over 2 months old....

 

[azurbanclucker]

Buff and White Bantams, Roughly 6-8 weeks



Black Bantam, at approx 2 weeks. Same buff as above, just younger.

 

[SilkiesInSuburb]

I am planning to buy a silkie but I free range all of my birds. How well do they handle free ranging. Also are they nice birds or do they have an attitude?

As far as I know, they do fine at foraging, but you have to keep an eye on them as they are bad at running from predators. They're usually very nice and don't have mean attitudes. The worst I've had is a silkie I have had to chase to pick up, but he's the only one, and he's calm when held. Silkies almost always have sweet, cuddly attitudes. I had a rooster that knew his own name and could come when called.

 

[azurbanclucker]

As far as I know, they do fine at foraging, but you have to keep an eye on them as they are bad at running from predators. They're usually very nice and don't have mean attitudes. The worst I've had is a silkie I have had to chase to pick up, but he's the only one, and he's calm when held. Silkies almost always have sweet, cuddly attitudes. I had a rooster that knew his own name and could come when called.

We let ours range in the yard during the day and they do fine. They keep in under the rose bushes and bougainvillea which gives them cover from hawks and our dogs keep cats and coyotes away. Full disclosure, I have 8 foot block walls around my backyard, which also doesn't hurt. They do fine scratching up food and picking leaves. They're still a little skittish with us, but that's because we don't handle them a whole lot. The are quite curious though and after a couple of second of complaining, they will relax and let you hold them with no issues.

 

[FishMtFarm]

WANTED: hoping I can post this on here as I am looking to buy, not sell. I need a paint Silkie rooster. Under 2, and he must be fluffy and correct. Has to be NPIP and if not from a surrounding state of NY, I need him shipped. Anyone know of one?

Actually research is telling me I need a black split paint rooster.