Rural Gardening: Need Help with silkies!, 1 by BackyardHens

BackyardHens wrote:
Well, your are probably what is called pet quality, which means that funky combs and toes show up from time, as they are not selectively bred out. Think of them as extra festive and special! It is a genetic mutation, sort of like the extra toes in cats. Silkies are pretty much mutans anyways, with the black skin ( they all have it no matter what the color chicken) 5 toes and furry feathers.

The combs will end up being sort of mulberry in color, but most of mine look pretty much black right now. They will rosey up as they get older. The feather crest forms right around the coms, so don't worry about that.

My gal with the six toes is probably my least standard gal. She doesn't have a very big crest and she has six toes. Some of her old flockmates, from where I got her, had a single comb as opposed to the little strawberry one. These things do show up from time to time but wouldn't worry about it.

Basically, chickens are for loving as they are at our level. You can pay tons of cash for ones that are "perfect" and unless you are showing them, it won't make any difference, so enjoy them and you get to see what happens next! it will be an extra surprising surprise!

Here is my mutant gal, Ursula: