Project: Silkied EE

[Slothinc]

Hello! I just want to introduce a project that I am working on. I currently am in a place where I can’t own a ton of chickens and roosters are frowned upon, but within the next year we are moving to a place where I can go chicken crazy

I adore silkies, I think they are nearly perfect as they are … But if I could improve on one thing, I would have them laying fun colored eggs! So I am desirous to create a silkied Easter egger that will look very similar to a silkie, but will be able to add fun colored eggs. They will be fibromelanistic and have small combs (preferably walnut, but I’m okay with pea combs as well.)

I am well aware that there is a hatchery selling silkied Easter eggers. But they only come in recessive white and they (to me) aren’t as attractive as quality bred silkies. I also hunted high and low all over the country this past year to get some colored laying silkies but there are very few people working on this project. This is why I have started my own project. I was able to get a frizzled lace project satin silkie who is giving me a green egg, which is awesome! Gives me a little jump start on the project.

My favorite chicken color is lavender, and while silkies do come in lavender, it is extremely rare and very expensive. I also love the paint color. So to me it makes sense to do mostly black/lavender/paint breedings. There is a chance at ending up with lavender paints which would mostly look white, but I’m fine with that. And I love experimenting with colors so I may do some other colors as well.

Anyways, I am in the early stages of the project right now. But I just wanted to create this thread to have a place to update when I have any updates.

Currently I have 11 hens/pullets and 20 grow out chicks. The hens are giving me a great variety of egg colors, which is good because I can pretty much tell immediately who laid which egg.

With the grow out chicks I have 6 lavenders, and several more lavender carriers and I have at least 7 chicks that have at least one blue egg gene.

Thankfully there is a lab called The Silkie Lab and they have tests for lavender and blue egg gene. I have already tested with them once, and they were great. I will likely be utilizing them in the future for my project.

Adding photos of the eggs I am getting currently. But still a long way off of having a flock of colored laying silkies. The darkest brown/pink egg is from an Orpington hen, the olive green is from an olive egger who carries the silkie gene, and the rest are from silkies or my ameraucana bantam hen, or crosses between am bantam and silkie.

 

[Noraaaaa]

LOVE the ideas! Silkies are the best fs!

 

[WoDia]

@Slothinc you may want to talk to @Debbie292d. She breeds gorgeous Silkies in various colors.

 

[Slothinc]

LOVE the ideas! Silkies are the best fs!

Thank you!!!! Silkies are just the most adorable chicken on the planet. I love them so much. I also love having a rainbow basket of eggs so if I can have a flock of silkies to lay that rainbow it would be perfect!

 

[Slothinc]

@Slothinc you may want to talk to @Debbie292d. She breeds gorgeous Silkies in various colors.

I know!!! Debbie has gorgeous birds, I drool over their pictures! Once I have the colored eggs going strong in my flock, I will have to get some typey silkies to add beauty to the flock and the project, so maybe I will be able to get some from her at that point!

 

[WoDia]

I look forward to following your project and seeing the results. Silkies are such beautiful, sweet chickens.

 

[Steinagarden]

I really like this project of yours! I hope you also can approve the health by bringing in fresh blood from breeds that are healthier than the silke itself. I had alot of Marek's disease on my silkies, and they also struggled with dizziness (don't remember the name of this condition but it's normal in silkies).

Would love to see some photos of the F1 and F2 birds if you have, to see how the crosses looks like. I love how special many of them get, specially when you use melanistic chickens in the cross!

 

[Slothinc]

I really like this project of yours! I hope you also can approve the health by bringing in fresh blood from breeds that are healthier than the silke itself. I had alot of Marek's disease on my silkies, and they also struggled with dizziness (don't remember the name of this condition but it's normal in silkies).

Would love to see some photos of the F1 and F2 birds if you have, to see how the crosses looks like. I love how special many of them get, specially when you use melanistic chickens in the cross!

Thank you so much! Recently my phone did a reset and was wiped clean so I lost all of my photos from this past year. So I will have to take some new ones but here is a pic showing my lavender ameraucana bantam girl, next to my laced project frizzled silkie (from shipped eggs) who lays a greenish egg, and a generation 2 bird for my project - she is half lavender ameraucana bantam and half silkie. (Sorry I know the picture isn’t great)

And I also have some grow out chicks that are generation 3. They are the product of a paint cockerel that was half ameraucana bantam and half silkie, being bred back to silkie.

There are also some 2nd generation crosses being grown out that are from shipped eggs and they ended up being lavender (was not expecting because I didn’t know that any of the silkie hens from the breeder carried lavender!) I also have 3 lavender silkies shipped from two different breeders who are growing out, and they will be used to keep the lavender in the line.

I hope that they may all stay healthy as well. So far I have been so lucky with my silkies being healthy, and my oldest 2 silkie girls are almost 5 years and never had a health problem. The generation 3 chicks are out of those 2 hens.

I’ll also include a picture of me holding the ameraucana bantam hen to show how small she is, some chick pics (the paints are 3rd generation for the project, the lavender is second gen from shipped eggs). And a pic showing my NN paint girl (one of the almost 5 year olds,) the baby behind her is a 2nd gen cross that is paint but I have no idea why she is kind of brown. And the one on the far right is my olive egger, whose father is a “silkied Easter egger” so she does carry the silkie gene. The silkie on the bottom of that pic with the gold neck and head is my other almost 5 year old. And the black one to her right is the second gen cross.

 

[Steinagarden]

Thank you so much! Recently my phone did a reset and was wiped clean so I lost all of my photos from this past year. So I will have to take some new ones but here is a pic showing my lavender ameraucana bantam girl, next to my laced project frizzled silkie (from shipped eggs) who lays a greenish egg, and a generation 2 bird for my project - she is half lavender ameraucana bantam and half silkie. (Sorry I know the picture isn’t great)

And I also have some grow out chicks that are generation 3. They are the product of a paint cockerel that was half ameraucana bantam and half silkie, being bred back to silkie.

There are also some 2nd generation crosses being grown out that are from shipped eggs and they ended up being lavender (was not expecting because I didn’t know that any of the silkie hens from the breeder carried lavender!) I also have 3 lavender silkies shipped from two different breeders who are growing out, and they will be used to keep the lavender in the line.

I hope that they may all stay healthy as well. So far I have been so lucky with my silkies being healthy, and my oldest 2 silkie girls are almost 5 years and never had a health problem. The generation 3 chicks are out of those 2 hens.

I’ll also include a picture of me holding the ameraucana bantam hen to show how small she is, some chick pics (the paints are 3rd generation for the project, the lavender is second gen from shipped eggs). And a pic showing my NN paint girl (one of the almost 5 year olds,) the baby behind her is a 2nd gen cross that is paint but I have no idea why she is kind of brown. And the one on the far right is my olive egger, whose father is a “silkied Easter egger” so she does carry the silkie gene. The silkie on the bottom of that pic with the gold neck and head is my other almost 5 year old. And the black one to her right is the second gen cross.

That is so cool! Love it. Thank you for posting photos.

I have never seen a lavender silkie, but they look really nice. I love the lavender gene as well. Have you had any challenges with bad feathers combining the lavender gene with the silkie "fur"?

I have a lavender leghorn rooster that I took out, he had bad feathers on his wing. I have not seen this in any others of my birds, even the related ones to this rooster. But I know it's not an uncommon problem with lavender...

 

[Slothinc]

That is so cool! Love it. Thank you for posting photos.

I have never seen a lavender silkie, but they look really nice. I love the lavender gene as well. Have you had any challenges with bad feathers combining the lavender gene with the silkie "fur"?

I have a lavender leghorn rooster that I took out, he had bad feathers on his wing. I have not seen this in any others of my birds, even the related ones to this rooster. But I know it's not an uncommon problem with lavender...

Yeah I’m not sure exactly why but many if not all lavenders have their feathers affected. I have heard it called the “feather shredder gene.” I have only had one lavender silkie before, and she was killed by the neighbors pet right before she started laying. Her feathers didn’t seem very shredded to me, but silkies only have a few true quilled feathers in the wings and tail, so I don’t know if the non quilled fluffy feathers were different.

I hatched a few lav silkies in my current batch so I am excited to see how their feathers turn out. Also of the lavender mixes i hatched, two of them have pretty normal feathers but the frizzle definitely has shredded feathers - the feathers almost look like a silkie even though they are not. It is such a beautiful color though!

I took a couple more pics today. The little black one and the brownish looking paint are both gen 2 pullets. The jubilee Orpington also carries lavender so I may incorporate her or at least just hatch some lav Orpington crosses. You can see the size difference between her and the little black banty cross.