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Silkie chickens are our pioneer poultry flock. They were the first breed of chicken we ever raised, and we have since imported breeding stock from some of the best silkies in the nation. We pride ourselves on breeding true to color, except for our “Party Pen” where we mix it up a bit based on body conformation without consideration of plumage color. The offspring offer a “calico” effect, which is not a true color in silkies, but a marketing term used to describe some random color expressions. Other named colors breeders have been adding to the mix are porcelain, mauve, and chocolate.
The only colors recognized by the American Bantam Association for silkies are white, black, blue, buff, partridge, and splash. White is recessive and will cover all other colors which can express in offspring if not bred as self white, meaning a white x white breeding. Blue, black, and splash can be bred together to create several color options in the offspring depending on the parent birds' colors. The recognized partridge color is gold partridge, not silver. Buff silkies look golden, and not red.
What do you picture when someone says "silkie chicken?" Mounds of muffs, boundless beards, and crescendos of crests, along with parachute pants, and tremendous tails come to mind for me, so when I went in search of my ultimate breeder flock, I cast a very wide net for those characteristics. This was not only a deep financial investment, but an investment of time as well. I joined the American Silkie Bantam Club and set about finding top notch breeders to purchase my stock from, and I purchased from enough unrelated gene pools to be able to breed profoundly beautiful birds without interrupting genetic profiles.
I was able to build my flock by purchasing from nearby(ish) breeders in the form of chicks, juveniles, and adults, and ordered enough hatching eggs to make a galactic-sized omelet. My favorite way to acquire high quality stock is by attending poultry shows, especially larger, day-long shows. It was at a show in Georgia that I was able to find my first Naked Neck, or “Turken” chickens worthy of crossing into my silkie flock. I acquired a stag with silkie feathering and red skin and two hens with black skin, but traditional smooth feathering. I spent generations perfecting feather quality, shape, size, skin coloring, etc. until I achieved what I believe to be the quintessential showgirl; a silkie with a naked neck and a tuft at the neckline. When you get silkie and showgirl chicks hatched from our individual breeder pens, you're getting chicks bred with genetic selection in mind, following the American Poultry Association's “Standard of Perfection” for the silkie breed in recognized colors, however we are still correcting skin color in our chocolate lines, but the rest of the characteristics are on point. As the seasons carry on, and the next creshes mature, we change over to improve the appearance of our silkies and showgirls with every generation. You're welcome!
Our intense breeding programs not only include separate pens (meaning multiple coops to clean, feed and water to tend, ground to cover, etc.), but we also utilize wing banding for identifying individual breeder birds to eliminate exaggerated inbreeding. We keep proprietary detailed lineage cards to keep pedigree information at hand. You can count on our silkies to be superior to hatchery silkies by leaps and bounds. We raise our silkies with platforms instead of roosts because we have discovered that silkies prefer it that way. We house and run silkies in a totally separate area from our large fowl chickens. Their crests and muffs make it difficult for them to see well enough to ward off aerial predators, and their small stature halts them from properly defending themselves against a standard chicken, and they truly are far too passive to fight for their lives. The passivity begins young, so we have a separate area for juveniles, and they go to this run in groups. First they go to the coop in a barrier ring for several days, then they are free to roam. This allows them to become familiar with their shelter and fellow flockmates before being released to the rest of the run. There they stay until maturity, which is when we grade them for their prospective breeding programs, or for new farms and homesteads, and place them accordingly.
Quick Stats:
Weight: 3-4 pounds
Eggs: 100-120 small cream and tinted eggs yearly
Weather Tolerant: Cold hardy, not tolerant of extreme heat
Temperament: Friendly, curious, passive around larger breeds
Origin: China
Show Defects: Comb and wattle color other than mulberry, incorrect comb, missing 4th and 5th toes, patchy skin color, split wing (missing axial feather)
Black Silkie Hen - Blue Ribbon Winner
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