Types of Silkies - Large Fowel, Bantam, miniature, USA?

[black_cat]

Haha yeah I've heard calls are very loud! I'd thought of getting some before we got silkies but decided against it while we have neighbors close by.

I've only had one hatch where the ratio of males to females wasn't at least somewhat close to 50/50 this year. I hatched out 8 and I'm pretty sure 7 are males. I've heard a few people mentioning having bad luck with males this year as well though. I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with that issue as well.

Splash are beautiful and obviously I'm biased towards paint. It's a fun color to breed though challenging to get pigment, eye color, bigger spots, and avoiding excess leakage right. I've got a long way to go with my flock but it's an interesting challenge. I've got a lot to work on besides color too.

Paint and splash silkies are beautiful.

 

[Donna McDuckface]

Haha yeah I've heard calls are very loud! I'd thought of getting some before we got silkies but decided against it while we have neighbors close by.

I've only had one hatch where the ratio of males to females wasn't at least somewhat close to 50/50 this year. I hatched out 8 and I'm pretty sure 7 are males. I've heard a few people mentioning having bad luck with males this year as well though. I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with that issue as well.

Splash are beautiful and obviously I'm biased towards paint. It's a fun color to breed though challenging to get pigment, eye color, bigger spots, and avoiding excess leakage right. I've got a long way to go with my flock but it's an interesting challenge. I've got a lot to work on besides color too.

Good luck with your paints, you sound dedicated. Mine are nowhere near standard quality but I just wanted to see if I could breed paints.
I bought 2 paints, male and female, a black cockerel and a splash hen and stupidly thought it was as simple as that :-/

 

[LynnaePB]

Good luck with your paints, you sound dedicated. Mine are nowhere near standard quality but I just wanted to see if I could breed paints.
I bought 2 paints, male and female, a black cockerel and a splash hen and stupidly thought it was as simple as that :-/

Thank you!

Breeding to standard is a lot of work. I've heard of breeders starting out with poor quality hatchery birds and breeding up to their birds being very competitive in large shows. It just takes a lot more time than if you start with something closer to the standard.

I guess what is right for each individual really depends on their breeding goals though. I personally don't think there is one right way to do it.

I hope you'll have a lot of fun breeding your pairs! paint x paint gives a nice variety of white, black, and paint chicks and splash x black should give you some blue babies.

 

[Donna McDuckface]

Thank you!

Breeding to standard is a lot of work. I've heard of breeders starting out with poor quality hatchery birds and breeding up to their birds being very competitive in large shows. It just takes a lot more time than if you start with something closer to the standard.

I guess what is right for each individual really depends on their breeding goals though. I personally don't think there is one right way to do it.

I hope you'll have a lot of fun breeding your pairs! paint x paint gives a nice variety of white, black, and paint chicks and splash x black should give you some blue babies.

Thank you for the advice, it is appreciated!
I was told to breed the paint hen to the black cockerel and paint cockerel to a black hen :-/ plus splash to splash. That could be a load of twaddle though

 

[LynnaePB]

Thank you for the advice, it is appreciated!
I was told to breed the paint hen to the black cockerel and paint cockerel to a black hen :-/ plus splash to splash. That could be a load of twaddle though

Of course, I'm always happy to talk about silkies!

Paint to black is good for helping with pigment in paints. I've heard some claim it helps with bigger/nicer spots too but I think that is more variable. If you breed your paint to a black you should get paint and black chicks. Splash to splash is good but if you breed too many generations they can get washed out I've heard. Breeding splash to splash will give you all splash chicks so if you don't want to breed blues as well that is a plus about splash x splash. There is more to what makes a good match but I don't want to yack your ear off about genetics. If you ever have questions I'm always open to trying to help, though I'm still pretty new to this myself (just have done a lot of research into it, especially regarding paints).

 

[Donna McDuckface]

Of course, I'm always happy to talk about silkies!

Paint to black is good for helping with pigment in paints. I've heard some claim it helps with bigger/nicer spots too but I think that is more variable. If you breed your paint to a black you should get paint and black chicks. Splash to splash is good but if you breed too many generations they can get washed out I've heard. Breeding splash to splash will give you all splash chicks so if you don't want to breed blues as well that is a plus about splash x splash. There is more to what makes a good match but I don't want to yack your ear off about genetics. If you ever have questions I'm always open to trying to help, though I'm still pretty new to this myself (just have done a lot of research into it, especially regarding paints).

You are an Angel, thank you.
please yack my ears off, I know nothing!
I also bought USA hatching eggs so I have a selection of blue, cuckoo, gold partridge, more splash and more paint, silver partridge and Lord knows what

 

[LynnaePB]

You are an Angel, thank you.
please yack my ears off, I know nothing!
I also bought USA hatching eggs so I have a selection of blue, cuckoo, gold partridge, more splash and more paint, silver partridge and Lord knows what

Oh how fun, sounds like lots of variety there! I was going to go into ground color if you don't know much about it and don't mind the yacking.

Maybe we could move this to a PM though if you are alright with that in case the OP doesn't appreciate the thread veering towards a different silkie topic.

 

[Donna McDuckface]

Oh how fun, sounds like lots of variety there! I was going to go into ground color if you don't know much about it and don't mind the yacking.

Maybe we could move this to a PM though if you are alright with that in case the OP doesn't appreciate the thread veering towards a different silkie topic.

I would be more than happy with that! Sorry, I don’t know how this works either

 

[Chocolate_Chick]

Hi, my post was tagged in this thread. I think you've got your answer to the question. @LynnaePB you sound pretty clued up on your silkie knowledge

In terms of the Siamese thing, I know the ebay advertisement for hatching eggs that you're referring to. Having been unable to see any mention on Siamese silkie's anywhere else, my own conclusion is someone is trying to sell poor genetics as rare.

My understanding, though I may be wrong - is there are large fowl and bantam silkie classifications in the UK.

http://thesilkieclubofgreatbritain.co.uk/the-british-standard/

That's the website I've used to gain info on the standards - though I'm not sure if it's completely legit as it's not listed on the great British poultry club website.

I have seen people advertise another miniature version that is supposedly smaller than a bantam. When I've contacted sellers to ask what the weight difference is, generally, between a bantam and a miniature- they either don't reply or come back and say they are a little smaller than a bantam. I think they have a smaller female, but still a bantam, that they sell hatching eggs from and try to advertise them as miniature.

The USA version is bred to be more puffy. It isn't recognised by poultry clubs yet, and I think it would be marked down in shows as it doesn't meet the current standards for silkies in the UK. This instagram account has some amazing USA Silkies. Sadly she is based in the netherlands and does not sell hatching eggs - I asked if I could buy a lot in the hope a couple might the trip across to the UK safely. I'm aware it was unlikely but I got super excited. https://www.instagram.com/hadabonita_/?hl=en

I've bought hatching eggs from https://www.facebook.com/Fylde-Fancy-Fowl-1729686153712547 they specialise in silkies and I found they seemed to be informed about breeding standards and their variations. They have recently started breeding some USA silkies. Below is a bantam silkie I hatched from them - non USA type. Her crest was looking particularly on point that day

 

[Donna McDuckface]

Hi, my post was tagged in this thread. I think you've got your answer to the question. @LynnaePB you sound pretty clued up on your silkie knowledge

In terms of the Siamese thing, I know the ebay advertisement for hatching eggs that you're referring to. Having been unable to see any mention on Siamese silkie's anywhere else, my own conclusion is someone is trying to sell poor genetics as rare.

My understanding, though I may be wrong - is there are large fowl and bantam silkie classifications in the UK.

http://thesilkieclubofgreatbritain.co.uk/the-british-standard/

That's the website I've used to gain info on the standards - though I'm not sure if it's completely legit as it's not listed on the great British poultry club website.

I have seen people advertise another miniature version that is supposedly smaller than a bantam. When I've contacted sellers to ask what the weight difference is, generally, between a bantam and a miniature- they either don't reply or come back and say they are a little smaller than a bantam. I think they have a smaller female, but still a bantam, that they sell hatching eggs from and try to advertise them as miniature.

The USA version is bred to be more puffy. It isn't recognised by poultry clubs yet, and I think it would be marked down in shows as it doesn't meet the current standards for silkies in the UK. This instagram account has some amazing USA Silkies. Sadly she is based in the netherlands and does not sell hatching eggs - I asked if I could buy a lot in the hope a couple might the trip across to the UK safely. I'm aware it was unlikely but I got super excited. https://www.instagram.com/hadabonita_/?hl=en

I've bought hatching eggs from https://www.facebook.com/Fylde-Fancy-Fowl-1729686153712547 they specialise in silkies and I found they seemed to be informed about breeding standards and their variations. They have recently started breeding some USA silkies. Below is a bantam silkie I hatched from them - non USA type. Her crest was looking particularly on point that day

View attachment 2337214

Thank you and sorry for asking so much on your post. I’m new to posting on BackyardChickens as well as Silkies so just learning how it all works. Old dogs and new tricks springs to mind