What makes a silkie show quality

Body of moderate length, broad, deep and well rounded from breast bone to stern and let down well between the legs. Male - Legs short and stout, set well apart, straight when viewed from the front. Lower thighs: short, stout at top, tapering to hocks, abundantly feathered. Rather short, stout in boner, well feathered on the outer sides with silky plumage, the upper part growing out from thigh plumage and continuing into foot feathering.

Spurs: medium size and length, set just above the 5th toe. Five, the three front straight, well and evenly spread, the hind toe double, the normal toe in natural position and the extra toe placed above, starting from close to the other toe, but well formed, longer than the other toes and curving upwards and backwards; the outer and middle toe well feathered.

Female - same as male except no spur. Bare middle toe a serious defect in either sex. Like my content? Sign up to be on our email list. Below: A show quality Silkie. What colours are allowed for Silkies?

What makes a Silkie show quality? Buy freshly milled organic chicken feed shipped direct from the fields of the midwest. Related posts. In fact, many people pride themselves on these colors and will breed them to the best of their ability. All of these color varieties are found in other chicken breeds as well, and as such, there are color standards available for breeders to try and match. Therefore, breeders that are breeding non-standard colors may soon see their color varieties become accepted by the large show poultry organizations — like the cuckoo, for example.

It is a stunning color, but quite difficult to breed, and once an accepted standard has been achieved, it may well be accepted as a show color. If your main interest is having a colorful backyard flock, then nothing can stop you from investing in the non-standard color varieties. It is important to know that you can cross-breed Silkies to achieve interesting color results.

In order to avoid unnecessary heartache, make sure that you have potential homes or space for all the possible roosters and hens that may come from your breeding efforts. Jacquie Jacob from the University of Kentucky. Considering white and black to be colors, there are three basic feather colors: black, white, and red or gold. Technically, white and black are not colors: white is actually the result of all the colors combined, and black is the lack of reflection of light in the visible range.

The colors of chicken feathers are achieved by diluting and enhancing or masking black and red. For example, Rhode Island Reds have the gold gene with the dominant mahogany red-enhancing gene.

A blue feathering like in blue Silkies is produced when a black-feathered chicken has the blue gene, which dilutes the black color. Two copies of the blue gene result in the splash effect. The below chart is useful in knowing how to cross-breed your Silkies for specific color varieties.

If you are interested in breeding Silkies, it is always best to stick to the standard color varieties. But you may find that crossing your Silkies make for interesting color combinations as they may have dominant genes from previous generations residing in their fluffy little bodies. Do you own Silkies? Are they of the standard or non-standard color varieties?

And have you ever bred interesting colors yourself? As you can see from the table above, the most interesting color combinations you can get will always result from the blue-black-splash varieties.

So, basically, if you only had blue, black and splash Silkies in your flock, you could have them mate and produce chicks of blue, black and splash colors in varying numbers without worrying that they will produce a confused color such as if a buff hen were to be covered by a black rooster.

When it comes to breeding for Blue Black Splash, gender does not matter. If you have the necessary colors, you can breed the desired chicks with fair accuracy. The rooster and hen can be any of these three colors. Female - short, broad from shoulders to cushion, quite rounded its entire length, rising gradually from middle of back towards tail.

Sickles, lesser sickles, and coverts - abundant, soft, well curved, without hard quills, concealing main tail feathers. Female - short, very shredded at ends, well spread at base, filled underneath with an abundance of soft feathers which are overlapped by cushion and coverts, the whole forming a duplex curve with back and cushion.

Shoulders and fronts: concealed by hackles and breast feathers. Bows and coverts: Very well rounded. Primaries: medium length, well shredded, tapering convexly to stern, tips concealed by saddle feathers. Lower thighs: short, stout at top, tapering to hocks, abundantly feathered. Preparation is an art in itself, and clever washing and drying at the correct time before a show will fluff a bird up beyond expectation, and certainly is worth the effort if you wish to compete: a badly prepared bird will fail to do well regardless of its genetic quality.

When showing your silkie, you should remember that a judge will look to grade your bird on 5 main points found in the Silkie breed standard:. This is how the bird looks, the features that make it a silkie. It should look broad and stout, and the back should be short and rise through to a short, rounded, fluffy tail. Fluff should cover the body in abundance, and the wings ragged.

There should be a lack of hard feathering, even in the males, where you will sometimes get harder tail feathers which will be penalised. In the female, the under fluff should nearly touch the ground.

The overall shape is cobby and rounded. Large birds should weigh 1. In the bantam size, males should be g 22oz , females g 18oz. The bearded type of Silkie should have full ear muffling and a beard that covers the lower part of the face with reduced wattles. Remember that the bird should be alert and lively; a sick or lethargic bird will be disqualified, and you may find a note on the cage to see the breed secretary!

The crest should not obscure the eyes. The beak should be a slate grey black in a black bird , short and neat and complimented by black eyes. The comb is often described as walnut, strawberry or cushion the preferred term. It should be slightly rounded in the male more wide than long with an indentation running left to right and many small lumps across it it has been likened to a flattened mulberry.

In the female Silkie, the comb should be tiny and hidden by the crest although the comb should not split the crest. The comb should not be a single type. The ears should be small and neat, and preference is normally given to turquoise blue ear lobes, although mulberry lobes are permitted. The wattles in the male are small and neat and a dark mulberry colour. In the female, they should be nearly absent and black. The face should be black in both sexes, tending to a deep mulberry in the male. The legs should be short and wide-set but not bowed.