Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Hinotori]

Here's just one example of color guessing. Lady wanted to know the color of the pullet in the middle.View attachment 3946921View attachment 3946920
Jill seems to have a problem with non standard partridge.

It's partridge, just a darker hen who wouldn't be red headed. Silkie partridge should be lighter, but dark hens pop up sometimes.

Moorhead is not accepted in silkies for partridge, but I believe certain other breeds have it for standard in their's.

Ive found the good partridge silkie show breeders will explain the issue with moorhead. It's very popular with the pet partridge colors.

 

[Hinotori]

I take offense at the orange roosters that pop up in partridge, even though my first one was orange. Took me a long time to get rid of that.

I've been working on darkening up the black. I have a couple boys who went a bit too far and don't have proper colored saddle feathers but they should help in the breeding of others.

I had 1 red headed bird in that last hatch. Probably the only cockerel I'm going to keep as long as he has good looks. Im a bit miffed about the hens

 

[CSolis]

I don't think that any of the people that are going out and getting silkies are into showing down here. I know one fella showed a couple of his and got BV or RV (not explaining what those terms meant in the post). Most are just 'taken' by silkies and don't do any research at all. I don't plan on showing, just breeding the best I can. Alabama Silkies has show birds (so I'm told) and of the 3 birds I have that came from them (via a friend), one throws kids with 6 toes and large combs. I'm not about to drive up north to pay $1200 for a show bird.

 

[Hinotori]

I don't think that any of the people that are going out and getting silkies are into showing down here. I know one fella showed a couple of his and got BV or RV (not explaining what those terms meant in the post). Most are just 'taken' by silkies and don't do any research at all. I don't plan on showing, just breeding the best I can. Alabama Silkies has show birds (so I'm told) and of the 3 birds I have that came from them (via a friend), one throws kids with 6 toes and large combs. I'm not about to drive up north to pay $1200 for a show bird.

A trio ran $120 when I last bought. Might be $150 now. Good quality birds that could taken to show. Anyone charging outrageous prices probably isn't a good breeder. Even the best national breeders charge a reasonable amount. There is a local "breeder" who cranks out birds to sell to the pet market at too expensive a cost. Never took a bird to show. Can tell because they have no named varieties and judges get cranky when you enter random colors with funky names.

You can add new colors to a breed but there is a process and rules. Like the blue cream which should actually be accepted this decade. Helped when they quit calling it porcelain because that's a named chicken variety that it was not. I've seen some good starts on adding mille fleur to silkies which means there eventually will be actual porcelain silkies.

We do have a lot of show breeders over here. One of the longest and best retired earlier this year. Her birds always did great at shows. She's up there in years.

I know breeders aren't as prolific in other parts of the US