Silkie Bantam

The Silkie bantam is defined by unusual feather structure: the microscopic hooks (barbicles) that hold normal feathers together are missing, so the plumage feels like soft fur or silk.

They combine several rare traits: five toes instead of four, deep blue/turquoise earlobes, and a ball-shaped crest. Many varieties also have a full beard that hides the small, round wattles.

• Weight:
  • Bantam: cocks about 600–700 g, hens 500–600 g
  • Large Silkie: cocks 1.5–2.0 kg, hens 1.4–1.8 kg
• Comb: Walnut or mulberry comb, dark red to purple.
• Skin: Blue-black or blue-purple from hyperpigmentation (fibromelanosis); bones and connective tissue are dark too.
• Legs: Short and sturdy with tight feathering to the outer toes. Shank colour dark blue.
• Ring size: bantam 12 / 11 mm (large fowl: 18 / 16 mm)

In Belgium and the Netherlands there are two recognised forms: the large Silkie and the Silkie bantam. This article covers the bantam.

That split is not the same everywhere. In Germany the breed is often classed as a bantam. In the United States the APA lists only the bantam (which is heavier than our European bantam). In the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, as here, both large and bantam are recognised.

Silkies are not known for high egg production, typically laying around 100 cream-colored eggs per year. The eggs are relatively small, about 35 g.

What they lack in numbers, they make up for in maternal instinct. Silkie hens are among the best mothers in poultry: they go broody readily and will hatch and raise chicks of almost any species, including ducks, geese or pheasants.

If you keep hens and cocks together, that broodiness needs watching. Hens settle on the nest quickly. If eggs are not collected in time, you will soon have chicks. Prefer no offspring? Gather eggs regularly or keep the sexes apart.

Sexing young Silkies is tricky. Cocks usually have a larger, more prominent walnut comb and may show ‘streamer’ feathers: longer, wispy feathers trailing back from the crest.

The hen typically has a tighter, perfectly rounded crest and a more horizontal, compact body (often described as a ‘cube’). Cocks also stand more upright and alert and crow early, though the crow is often softer than in other breeds.

Silkies are surprisingly cold-hardy, but their plumage has a major drawback: it is not waterproof. Because the feathers do not ‘zip’ shut, they offer little protection from rain or snow. A wet Silkie is soaked to the skin, with a risk of chilling.

Owners need a dry, draught-free coop. In extreme cold they are resilient.

Silkies are easy to keep in principle. Water is the main thing to watch: their down soaks up like a sponge. Keep them away from ponds and buckets, and preferably give them a covered run. Getting wet can lead to chilling or drowning.

Cold, by contrast, is rarely an issue. In winter they often thrive; in rain they do look like a soaked cat.

• Foot feathering: In wet or muddy conditions the foot feathering needs extra care to avoid matting.
• Housing: A low fence (about 80 cm) is usually enough for large Silkies. Bantams are roughly pigeon-sized and, unlike their large counterparts, can fly quite well. A perch is of little use: at night they prefer to sit on the ground huddled together.
• Broody hens with chicks: Watch carefully. A chick can get tangled in the hen’s hair-like fluff.
• Feed: Continuous layer mash or pellets plus some mixed grain is usually enough. Many Silkies prefer crumbs to coarse pellets.
• Shows: White and buff birds are often washed before exhibition. Dry them carefully so they do not catch cold and lose condition.

For Silkie bantams in Belgian and Dutch standards, recognised colours (with or without beard) include partridge, white, black, chocolate, pearl grey, buff, lemon and red. Because of the silk plumage, pattern is often blurred and black sections lack gloss, so colour and markings should not be judged too strictly.

German and older European accounts centre on black, white, blue, wild-type and silver wild-type; buff and red were long prepared for recognition there. In Belgium and the Netherlands the large Silkie shares that core set, plus cuckoo among others. Cuckoo birds usually lack the dark skin and legs of the classic dark Silkie.

Hobby breeders also keep popular non-standard colours such as Paint (white with black patches) and Splash (white with blue spatters). On dark types, blue skin and blue earlobes remain part of the breed picture.

• Judging / breeding: Coloured varieties more often struggle with too-hard plumage and excessive sickle feathers in cocks.
• Size: Watch correct size in every colour. Oversized birds start to look like a mid-size between large fowl and bantams.
• Skin and eyes: Light skin or light eyes strongly reduce value.

The Silkie is a very old Asian breed, especially linked to China, and existed long before the Common Era.

How the silk plumage arose is still debated: a loss mutation (linked to flightlessness), an atavistic throwback to an earlier reptile-to-bird stage, or a sudden mutation later fixed by people for aesthetic reasons. An older idea of a wild Himalayan or Mongolian ancestor from about 4000 years ago has little support, as no fossils of a wild silky-feathered fowl are known.

What is clear is that Marco Polo (with his brother Matteo) already saw ‘cat-haired’ black fowl that also laid eggs in Mongolia and China in 1292. Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner described them in his 1555 bird book as snow-white ‘wool chickens’ with black skin from China.

Bechstein noted in 1793 that they occurred in Holland, Westphalia and Burgundy, likely arriving around 1780. Fairground entertainers sold them as a rabbit–chicken cross, and many people believed it. In Europe the bantam form became more widely known around 1827.

Dürigen still listed four Silkie ‘races’ in 1921: the Japanese or ‘Negro’ Silkie (basis of today’s type), a Japanese white-skinned type, a Siamese type with black bones, and a dwarf form. Most of those pure forms no longer exist. In the United States the breed was admitted to the American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection in 1874.

Today Silkies remain a favourite ornamental and hobby breed: gentle, striking for their wool-like coat, and popular at shows. Classification differs by country: in Germany Silkies are classed as bantams, in Belgium and the Netherlands as large fowl. Belgium and the Netherlands also keep a separate bantam (Zijdehoenkriel), developed from those large birds, at about 600 g (cock 600–700 g, hen 500–600 g).

Melanism and plumage

The Silkie’s striking look comes from two major genetic mutations. Fibromelanosis (Fm) causes intense hyperpigmentation of skin, connective tissue and bones, so they look dark blue or black.

The hookless feather mutation is recessive and stops the barbules that normally lock feathers together. The polydactyly gene adds the fifth toe, a trait shared with only a few other breeds such as Dorking and Houdan.