Naked Neck Silkie
What are they and where did they come from?
These comments is the inspiration for this article.
The naked neck silkie often get harsh comments for being "ugly looking" with their vulture look. I honstley fell in love with their unique look right away! But what exactly are these birds and how did they come to be? Let me break it down for you!
How did a silkie end up with a naked neck?
In my research I can not find exactly when the naked neck silkie came to be, they grew in popularity in the 20th century. Human curiousity one day created this amazing breed!
Silkies are already unqiue looking with their small shape and fur like feathers , but there is another breed thats also unqiue looking, the Turken. A breed of chicken with a long naked neck, big red comb and wattles. Someone had the amazing idea to combine these two breeds one day, but you do not get the naked neck silkie right away from mixing these birds.
Generation of breeding have created two type of naked neck silkies: the showgirl silkie and the stripper silkie (curious who came up with these names!).
The Showgirl Silkie
The showgirl are the most common one today of the naked neck silkie. Its catagorized by a little fluff on their neck which is called a bowtie (yet another funny name!)
The bowtie means that the naked neck only has 1 naked neck gene.
The showgirl can come both in bearded and non-bearded.
It exist both in American Silke form and the European silkie.
I have yet to see anyone owning a Stripper Silkie in Sweden. I know are much more common in the states. (I would love to own one!)
The Stripper silkie is catagorized by having no fluff on the neck, which to say no bowtie. they are completly bare. Most often you can even see their crop.
They have 2 sets of the naked neck gene.
Naked necks at shows
Acording to the American Bantham Asosiaction only naked necks in the color white are approved.
In the Scandinavian standard the naked neck of an European silkie aint approved as a breed at shows.
Nacked necks and harsh weather
You could think they would have a harder time in more harsh weather, but I have found that they make it just fine as my other silkies. When we had one of the coldest temps this winter I found only my showgirls outside with no signs of being cold.
Do they have any other requirements?
No, they dont. They act exactly like the silkie breed does. I have found that the girls seem to get abit dry around their necks while they are broody and it disapears soon as they go out of broodiness. I do not have a cause for this but can only speculate that its due to lack of vitamins cause they eat less during a broody period.
