BANTAMS

The Silkie is a breed of chicken that originated from China and is named for its unique, fluffy plumage, which feels like silk. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as dark blue flesh and bones, blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot (most chickens only have four) as well as Walnut-type comb, dark wattles. They are often exhibited in poultry shows, and come in several colors including Black, Blue, Buff, Gray, Partridge, Splash and White. Alternative hues, such as Cuckoo, Red, Lavender, and Isabelle porcelain also exist..

In addition to their distinctive physical characteristics, Silkies are well known for their calm, friendly temperament. Among the most docile of poultry, Silkies are considered an ideal pet. Hens are also exceptionally broody, and make good mothers. They are fair layers themselves, only laying about three eggs a week. They are commonly used to hatch eggs from other breeds and bird species. In addition to being good mothers, Silkies are universally renowned for their calm, friendly temperament. They do well in confinement, and interact very well with children. This docility can cause Silkies to be bullied by more active or aggressive birds when kept in mixed flocks.

Silkies appear in two distinct varieties: Bearded and Non-bearded. Bearded Silkies have an extra muff of feathers under the beak area that covers the earlobes. I try to breed specifically for Bearded Silkies but occasionally throw an beardless one as well.

All Silkies have black skin, bones and grayish-black meat; their Chinese language name is wu gu ji, literally "crow boned chicken"), meaning "black-boned chicken".[15] Melanism which extends beyond the skin into an animal's connective tissue is a rare trait, and the Silkie is one of only a handful of chickens to exhibit it. Disregarding color, the breed does not generally produce as much as the more common meat breeds of chicken. But are considered a delicacy in the Asian Market and can often be seen there. Silkie meat is most commonly used in soups and is thought to have healing properties. I occasionally offer Organic Silkie meat in fresh and frozen and vacuum sealed but most often they must be special ordered.

Fun Fact - . The first written account of the breed comes from Marco Polo, who mentioned chickens with fur-like plumage in his Asian travelogues in the 13th century. The Renaissance author Ulisse Aldrovandi also spoke of chickens akin to Silkies.

Show Girls were created by breeding Turkens (a naked necked chicken) with Silkies. After much refining and several generations the SG now carries all of the characteristics of a silkie but with either one or a combination of naked skin attributes, such as a fully naked neck but with muff and beard, a partially naked neck (known as a bow tie, and some even have muffs and no beard (my personal favorite). The combinations are endless and each SG is unique in my opinion.

I have a variety of colores mostly in the Gray family. I have selecxted my Show Girls for specific charecteristics, personality and coloring. I also have several juviniles not yet in the breeding programs but should be by late winter.

Some goals are Lavender Show Girls as well Isabelle Porcelain, and Columbian, and lavender penciled. As with any project my show girls may not be as consistent in color as my established flocks are.

When breeding Show girls I always use an Silkie roo since SG will always hatch out some silkies anyway I find that I am able to improve the quality by breeding the 2 types together. That is why with all my silkies comes the possibility of some SG. If you must have only one then chicks must be ordered so that I may separate the silkies from the SG, only in a few cases am I able to tell the eggs apart from each other.

My Show Girls come from Angie a well known and one of the best Breeders of Show Girls in the country.

The Araucana is a challenging breed that combines the unusual traits of tufts, blue eggs and rumplessness believed to have originated in South America. Tufts are unique to Araucanas, and each is composed of a group of feathers that grow from a protruding flap of skin located near the ear, called a peduncle. The tufts gene is lethal when present on both chromosomes (homozygous), and the chicks die in-shell and don’t hatch. This means that a flock will always be a mixture of tufted and clean-faced birds. My flock consists of only bilateral tufted birds so a percentage (25%) of my chicks do die in the shell, but the majority are tufted. In addition I only breed rumples birds so my percentage with tails is next to none.

There is wide variability in the size and shape of tufts. Unfortunately, many birds may have uneven, small, or only one-sided tufts. But a bird with large showy tufts is an amazing site to see! Although big bilateral tufts are the goal all hatches will consist of a mix of clean faced, bilateral, and single tufted birds, this can not be helped and is part of the breeding process. I do not select the best chicks for myself when hatching and shipping chicks, you will receive any and all birds that are hatched. My flock consist of birds from some of the best Araucana Breeders in the US, that being said they are still a work in progress.

My Ameraucanas all lay a blue egg and part of my goal in my breeding program is to get as blue an egg as possible, (dark sky blue).

Fun Fact: The blue color of an egg is caused by the deposition of a liver bile pigment throughout the egg and can be seen on the inside of the eggshell. The pigment is concentrated in the egg-laying apparatus and deposited at the same time the as the calcium carbonate that makes up the egg shell. In contrast, the color for brown eggs is deposited by the shell gland as a thin layer on the outside of the egg shell just before laying. If you break open a brown egg, it will be white on the inside, while a blue egg is blue throughout.

A blue egg is no different than any other colored egg in taste and nutrition, although some people like to claim they are lower in cholesterol there is no evidence to support that.