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Silver Standard Description

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Guest:

--- Quote from: grisaboy ---I just went tromping out to the chicken coop with my flashlight to take a look at saddle feathers.  The silver male that I think has the best color, has a lot of striping in his saddle. Curtis

--- End quote ---


After reading this discussion I went out and looked at the five Silver cockerels I have, and all have striping on their saddles. Some have more, some less, but all have it.

Being new to Ameraucanas, I don\'t have a strong opinion either way, just thought I\'d mention what I have. My boys are all from Barbara Campbell, a well-known breeder of Ameraucanas, and as far as I know she has been breeding Silvers a long time. Perhaps she will make a comment here as well.  But I am leaning towards allowing the striping to exist. (I also breed Dutch, but do not have any silvers, fwiw.)

Blue Egg Acres:
Actually Laura, I\'ve only been keeping Silvers for 3 years(have had wheatens/blue wheatens for 6 years) so consider myself new to them with alot yet to learn. I have 13 silver cockerels in my growing pen and the degree of striping varies a great deal - some with very heavy striping, some with very little. Since it is so difficult for me to see detail without handling each bird, I\'m (hopefully) attaching photos of a couple of them here to let you see for yourselves.
Barbara
P.S. Very nice article in the lateest Poultry Press Laura!

Guest:
Something else to consider, the males get less black stripping in the hackles and saddles as they age, I don\'t know to what point yet. I know our 1 1/2 old has no black in his saddle and his hackle has it more at the base with a clear silver head. Even at 11 months he did not have such clear silvering. This year I have 2 cockerels to we have kept. One has more stripping than the other, but the darker one has a good black body with no white in it. Come spring, I plan on doing pen breedings with one cockerel one month the other one the next and see what the pullets grow out as. These are long term plans but it seems the only way to go. I am wondering if the shafting comes from the white in the males black body color? I am really glad for this discussion since we only have the silver variety and are working hard on things.

Chari

Guest:

Our curent breeding rooster looks just about like Barb\'s
He is the son of a rooster from Paul & Angela Smith.
He seems to have the darker color, but has greatly improved our flock in leg color.  I am guessing their stock has some Dorking blood, as the were shorter legges with longer bodies that ours, and with the newest bbies, we still had a lot of long bodiesin proportion to leg length.  It makes for funny looking youngsters, however I will say they have grown out into very nice stock.
We have only one cockerl that was a throw back to out origional Golden\'s, so he will go as a pet or meat bird, we hope we can sell or trade the rest..however I want to be sure we are heading in the right direction with them befor saying we have \"quality\" stock..Or are we moving in the wrong direction??
I prefer the darker birds, and find ours seem to be improving all the time in gaining stipling, and loosing shafting..but is this the only goal?? or is there so much more?

bantamhill:
Hello all! I will take my turn . . .

My hens and pullets all have shafting in the large fowl and the bantams I have bred this year. I am not quite sure about my preference at this point . . . I need to do some thinking and research, but my gut feeling is to vote for in the male either shafting on both hackle and saddle or none at all (silver duckwing) . . .

A finely stippled hen/pullet is a beatiful thing . . . I hope to breed some in the next 5-10 years and I would hate to give up just because the stippling is difficult to attain! I wonder if the silver blue pullets/hens have shown any interesting shafting vs. stippling characteristics? I only have a silver blue cock at this time . . . he is pretty much free of shafting.

Michael (bantamhill)

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