Rural Gardening: silkie standard of perfection with pics, 0 by silkiechick

silkiechick wrote:
ok, i had loads of fun showing ya my cutties, now i want to see all yours,lol. so lets get talking silkies cause i want to learn more from you all too and love to see pics of others silkies too!!

here is one of my pet quality silkies the pullet on the right ya see most. she is supost to be a white but as ya can tell has splash in her and a brassy color of buff in her too. my dh thinks she is ugly and wanted me to sell her but i think she is a doll and i still love her the same so is going to be in my pet pen when it is finished being built to be a broody momma for me. her name is dolly,lol.

since ya asked about breeding i thought something that might help ya to know is how i seperate mine. in 2 of these pics ya might be able to see there is more than one pen or added wood and wire. this is because mine are built one huge pen and coop but are divided to make 4 seperate coops and 4 seperate runs. normaly i use this to seperate breeds but also some to keep pure colors. this helps greatly when breeding for standards. i also build them off the ground about 4ft to preditor proof them some and due to sometimes flooding, it also helps to keep the birds cleaner. whith silkies it helps to prevent feather damage and bad mudd balls on their feet and in my case since i have so many whites it's what keeps them that snow white color.

if you'd like to see pics of how we built the breeder pens i can post pics and explain in better detail. we got all the wood at lowes and cost under $100 for each 4 in 1 total to build, with all hardware and a shingled roof and fenceing. i'd have to ask dh the full size of them. i know each coop is 3ft x 3ft inside and each run is 3ft x 8ft( or the full length of a 2x4 board). since we have come up with the design i won't build them unless they are just like it. with 10 birds to a pen they still have a whole lot of room to run but i wouldn't put more than 15 in them. this allows adequite space and i rarely have but little pecking order and it saves way more space than a whole lot of little pens which require alot more supplies to make and money. so if you are looking for ways to make something like this to start a breeder program let me know and i'd be glad to help with what i can.
silkie