For early darkmeat chickens, see Black chicken This article is about a variety of a chicken. For other uses, see Silkie ( disambiguation )
 A white Silkie hen
Reading: Silkie – Wikipedia |
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| Other names | Silky Chinese silk chicken |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | China[1] |
| Traits | |
| Weight |
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| Skin color | black or brown or blue |
| Egg color | cream or tinted |
| Comb type | walnut |
| Classification | |
| APA | Asiatic |
| PCGB | Soft Feather: Light[2] |
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A black Silkie hen and a non-Silkie chick. The breed is renowned for its broodiness and beget abilities. The Silkie ( besides known as the Silky or Chinese silk chicken ) is a breed of chicken named for its atypically downy feather, which is said to feel like silk and satin. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as black skin and bones, amobarbital sodium earlobe, and five toes on each foot, whereas most chickens only have four. They are often exhibited in domestic fowl shows, and appear in assorted colors. In addition to their distinctive physical characteristics, Silkies are well known for their calm, friendly disposition. It is among the most docile of domestic fowl. Hens are besides exceptionally brooding, and care for young well. Though they are fairly layers themselves, laying entirely about three eggs a workweek, they are normally used to hatch eggs from other breeds and bird species due to their broody nature .
history [edit ]
It is unknown precisely where or when these fowl with their singular combination of attributes first appeared, but the most well documented point of beginning is ancient China. other places in Southeast Asia have been named as possibilities, such as India and Java. [ 1 ] The earliest surviving westerly written report of Silkies comes from Marco Polo, who wrote of a “ furred ” chicken in the thirteenth hundred during his travels in Asia. [ 3 ] In 1598, Ulisse Aldrovandi, a writer and naturalist at the University of Bologna, Italy, published a comprehensive treatise on chickens which is still read and admired today. In it, he mentions “ wool-bearing chickens ” and ones “ clothed with hair’s-breadth like that of a total darkness big cat ”. [ 4 ]
White Silkie tittup
Silkies most probably made their way to the West via the Silk Route and nautical trade. The breed was recognized officially in North America with acceptance into the Standard of Perfection in 1874. [ 1 ] Once Silkies became more coarse in the West, many myths were perpetuated about them. early dutch breeders told buyers they were the offspring of chickens and rabbits, [ 3 ] while sideshows promoted them as having actual mammalian fur. [ 5 ] In the twenty-first hundred, Silkies are one of the most popular and omnipresent ornamental breeds of chicken. They are frequently kept as ornamental bird or positron emission tomography chickens by backyard keepers, and are besides normally used to incubate and raise the offspring of other chickens and waterfowl like ducks and goose and game birds such as flinch and pheasants. [ 1 ]
Characteristics [edit ]
Silkies are considered a bantam breed in some countries, but this varies according to area and many breed standards class them formally as large fowl ; the bantam Silkie is actually a break kind most of the time. Almost all north american strains of the breed are bantam-sized, but in Europe the standard-sized is the original version. however, even standard Silkies are relatively minor chickens, with the males weighing only 1.8 kilograms ( 4 pounds ), and females weighing 1.4 kilogram ( 3 pound ). [ 3 ] The american Standard of Perfection calls for males that are 1 kg ( 36 oz ), and females that are 900 g ( 32 oz ). [ 1 ]
A bobwhite Silkie hen Silkie feather was once singular among chicken breeds, however in holocene years silkie feather has been developed in several breeds, by and large notably the Chabo, where it is now standardised in Britain and the Netherlands. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] It has been compared to silk, [ 8 ] and to fur. The overall result is a easy, downy appearance. Their feathers lack functioning barbicels, and are therefore exchangeable to down on other birds. This characteristic leaves Silkies ineffective to fly. [ 1 ] Silkies appear in two distinct varieties : bearded and non-bearded. Bearded Silkies have an supernumerary fumble of feathers under the peck area that covers the earlobes. They besides are disjointed according to tinge. Colors of Silkie recognized for competitive show include black, amobarbital sodium, fan, grey, tinamou, and white. option hues, such as cuckoo, lavender, loss, and splash besides exist. The standards of perfection call for all Silkies to have a small walnut-shaped comb, benighted wattles, and turquoise -blue earlobes. In addition to these defining characteristics, Silkies have five toes on each foot. other breeds which exhibit this rare trait include the Dorking, Faverolles, and Sultan. [ 3 ] All Silkies have black or blue peel, bones and grey-black kernel ; they are in the group of chinese fowls known by the chinese speech name of wu gu ji ( 烏骨雞 [ 9 ] ), meaning ‘black-boned wimp ‘. [ 8 ] More specifically, the Silkie engender itself is named Taihe wu ji ( 泰和乌鸡 ), ‘black-boned chicken from Taihe ‘. [ 10 ] other wu gu ji may not share characteristics of the Taihe breed, such as the mulberry comb, white fur, blue ears, and polydactyly. melanosis which extends beyond the clamber into an animal ‘s connection weave is a rare trait, and in chickens it is caused by fibromelanosis, which is a rare mutation believed to have begun in Asia. The Silkie and several early breeds descended from asian stock posse the mutant. [ 11 ] Disregarding discolor, the breed does not broadly produce ampere much as the more common kernel breeds of chicken. [ 1 ]
Bantams [edit ]
In the American Standard of Perfection, the standard male weight for the bantam Silkie is 1 kilogram ( 35 oz ) and for the female, 900 g ( 32 oz ). [ 12 ] The Australian Poultry Standard and British Poultry Standard cry for Silkie bantam much smaller ; in the Australian, the standard weights are 680 g ( 25 oz ) for males and 570 gravitational constant ( 20 oz ) for females. [ 13 ] The british standard weight unit for bantam Silkies is 600 gigabyte ( 22 oz ) for males, and 500 g for females ( 18 oz ). [ 14 ]
polydactyly [edit ]
A metrical foot of the Silkie Bantam that shows the phenomenon of polydactyly in the engender Silkies are besides known for their polydactyly, normally manifesting as an extra 1-2 digits in the foundation. The genetic cause of this extra digit constitution has been shown to be a SNP in a governor of the SHH gene, called the ZPA Regulatory Sequence ( ZRS ). [ 15 ] [ 16 ] This causes ectopic SHH expression in the anterior of the developing limb bud, leading to increased tissue growth and digits. While the feet of the Silkie display polydactyly, the wings have the standard tridactyly ( three digit ) agreement. The japanese Silkie initially develops extra digits in the wing as an embryo, but these are lost anterior to hatching. [ 17 ] The genetic induce behind Silkie polydactyly differs from those that cause polydactyly in the Dorking wimp breed, which is due to ectopic FGF4 formula in the AER, with ectopic SHH a secondary impression. [ 18 ]
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manipulation [edit ]
Silkies lay a fair count of eggs, of a cream color, but production is often interrupted due to their extreme leaning to go brood hen ; a hen will produce 100 eggs in an ideal year. Their capacity for incubation, which has been selectively bred out of most domestic fowl bred specially for egg production, is often exploited by domestic fowl keepers by allowing Silkies to raise the young of other birds. [ 3 ]
In cuisine [edit ]
The black kernel of a Silkie is generally considered an unusual property in european and american cuisines. [ 8 ] In contrast, several asian cuisines consider Silkie meat a epicure food. chinese cuisine specially values the breed, but it is besides a common ingredient in some japanese, cambodian, vietnamese and korean dishes. Areas where chinese cuisine has a potent influence, such as Malaysia, may besides cook Silkie. angstrom early as the seventh century, traditional chinese medicine has held that wimp soup made with Silkie kernel is a curative food. [ 8 ] The usual methods of cooking include using Silkie to make broth, braise, and in curries. traditional chinese soup made with Silkie besides uses ingredients such as wolfberries, Dioscorea polystachya ( mountain yam ), aged dried citrus peel, and fresh ginger. [ 19 ] A few fusion restaurants in metropolitan areas of the West have besides cooked it as a depart of traditional american or french cuisine, such as in confit. [ 8 ]
References [edit ]
further read [edit ]