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Description
For the Creatures with striking features contest at
I was commissioned recently for a silkie, and while doing my research I fell quite in love with these weird little birds and just had to make a flock of my own. So meet Cirrus the rooster (lavender/pale grey) and his ladies Tabby (splash/black-white mottled) and Candyfloss (white) making these guys includes brainless tasks like brushing, I entertain myself with naming and whatnot

Silkies, sometimes called Chinese silk chickens, have a number of unusual traits. The most obvious is of course their plumage which resembles fur more than feathers. This is because their feathers lack barbicels (the tiny hooks that connect the individual strands into a smooth flat surface), so they all remain fluffy like down feathers. And the best thing is that silkies have sweet, friendly temperament so they don't just look snuggly but actually enjoy being cuddled. ^-^
They have feathered feet, which mostly hides the next unusual feature: unlike four toes that's normal for chickens and indeed for most birds, they have five (a useful clue to recognize baby silkies from other chicks).
Their abundant crest hides most of their facial features especially on hens. Mature roosters however have visible combs, though quite unlike the red serrated things we usually think of: their comb is walnut shape and black to dark mulberry color. They come in two varieties, bearded silkies (like this lot) have tiny little wattles hidden by facial hair/feather, while roosters of the non-bearded variety have big wattles in the same color as their comb. Their ear lobes are blue.
Regardless the color of their plumage, all silkies have black skin, but the dark pigmentation doesn't stop there. Their flesh, their internal organs, even their bones are black! This is unique because, of course, pigments are for camouflage and/or sun protection so they are usually only found in the skin. However, in Chinese cuisine the black meat is highly appreciated and considered medicinal, which is probably why these little chickens have been around for so long - Marco Polo met "birds with wooly back" during his Asian travels in the 13th century.
Another reason they might have been kept is their broodiness (demonstrated by the dutiful hen sitting on her nest rather than enjoying the yard with the others). Maternal instinct has been bred out from most chickens because we want hens that lay an egg a day and go their merry way, not ones that stop production and switch into incubation mode. But silkies have it toned up rather than down and therefore they are often used to foster eggs of other hens or different fowls - they may go broody over golf balls... Candy's clutch is all chicken eggs: the smaller cream ones are her own, the blues are Araucanas (awesome chicken that are tailless, have ear tufts, and lay naturally blue eggs), the greenish is from an Araucana mix "easter egger", and the chocolate browns are from Black Copper Marans.
Funny fact: all offspring of white Candy and pale grey Cirrus is likely to be black like the one that has already hatched. Lavender and white are both recessive colors, so if the chick only inherits a copy from one of the parents, it will remain hidden. On the other hand, Tabby's splash color is an incomplete dominant: two copies produce white laced with black like her, one copy results in a dark mottled grey (called blue), so that's what all her chicks would look like.

More info and pictures of real silkies:
wikipedia
mypetchicken.com

a few WIP shots to show they are really amigurumi

Description
For the Creatures with striking features contest at
I was commissioned recently for a silkie, and while doing my research I fell quite in love with these weird little birds and just had to make a flock of my own. So meet Cirrus the rooster (lavender/pale grey) and his ladies Tabby (splash/black-white mottled) and Candyfloss (white) making these guys includes brainless tasks like brushing, I entertain myself with naming and whatnot

Silkies, sometimes called Chinese silk chickens, have a number of unusual traits. The most obvious is of course their plumage which resembles fur more than feathers. This is because their feathers lack barbicels (the tiny hooks that connect the individual strands into a smooth flat surface), so they all remain fluffy like down feathers. And the best thing is that silkies have sweet, friendly temperament so they don't just look snuggly but actually enjoy being cuddled. ^-^
They have feathered feet, which mostly hides the next unusual feature: unlike four toes that's normal for chickens and indeed for most birds, they have five (a useful clue to recognize baby silkies from other chicks).
Their abundant crest hides most of their facial features especially on hens. Mature roosters however have visible combs, though quite unlike the red serrated things we usually think of: their comb is walnut shape and black to dark mulberry color. They come in two varieties, bearded silkies (like this lot) have tiny little wattles hidden by facial hair/feather, while roosters of the non-bearded variety have big wattles in the same color as their comb. Their ear lobes are blue.
Regardless the color of their plumage, all silkies have black skin, but the dark pigmentation doesn't stop there. Their flesh, their internal organs, even their bones are black! This is unique because, of course, pigments are for camouflage and/or sun protection so they are usually only found in the skin. However, in Chinese cuisine the black meat is highly appreciated and considered medicinal, which is probably why these little chickens have been around for so long - Marco Polo met "birds with wooly back" during his Asian travels in the 13th century.
Another reason they might have been kept is their broodiness (demonstrated by the dutiful hen sitting on her nest rather than enjoying the yard with the others). Maternal instinct has been bred out from most chickens because we want hens that lay an egg a day and go their merry way, not ones that stop production and switch into incubation mode. But silkies have it toned up rather than down and therefore they are often used to foster eggs of other hens or different fowls - they may go broody over golf balls... Candy's clutch is all chicken eggs: the smaller cream ones are her own, the blues are Araucanas (awesome chicken that are tailless, have ear tufts, and lay naturally blue eggs), the greenish is from an Araucana mix "easter egger", and the chocolate browns are from Black Copper Marans.
Funny fact: all offspring of white Candy and pale grey Cirrus is likely to be black like the one that has already hatched. Lavender and white are both recessive colors, so if the chick only inherits a copy from one of the parents, it will remain hidden. On the other hand, Tabby's splash color is an incomplete dominant: two copies produce white laced with black like her, one copy results in a dark mottled grey (called blue), so that's what all her chicks would look like.

More info and pictures of real silkies:
wikipedia
mypetchicken.com

a few WIP shots to show they are really amigurumi