Breeds

Silkie Chickens: Bantam Standard, Five Toes, Black Skin, Eggs and Broodiness

Field guide · Updated October 24, 2026 · about 7 min read

The Silkie is the fluffy, crested bird with fur-like plumage, five toes and dark skin. In the United States it is shown only as a bantam; it lays few eggs but is famous for going broody and for its gentle temper. Below: what the American Poultry Association (APA), the American Silkie Bantam Club, university extension services and genetics research say about the breed, and what it asks of a backyard keeper.

Quick facts

Bantam or standard?

In the US the answer is bantam. The APA's list of accepted breeds and varieties has 14 Silkie entries, all bantams in the Feather Leg class, and no large fowl Silkie. The American Silkie Bantam Club likewise calls the American Silkie a bantam. Oklahoma State notes that Silkies are bantams in America but large fowl in Great Britain, where the Poultry Club of Great Britain (PCGB) standard has both sizes. Wikipedia, a secondary source, dates the breed's North American recognition to 1874.

APA and PCGB figures are from Oklahoma State. Note that the US bantam standard is noticeably heavier than the British bantam one.

Varieties

Every source agrees on bearded and non-bearded forms but lists slightly different colors, so check the current standard before showing:

• APA list: bearded Black, Blue, Buff, Gray, Partridge, Self Blue, Splash and White; non-bearded Black, Blue, Buff, Gray, Partridge and White.
• American Silkie Bantam Club: the APA and the American Bantam Association (ABA) both recognize White, Black, Blue, Buff, Gray, Partridge and Splash. The club says the original Silkies were white only.
• Oklahoma State: black, blue, partridge, buff, white and gray, each bearded or non-bearded.

Feathers, five toes and black skin

• Hookless feathering. The OMIA genetics database describes Silky (hookless) feathering as autosomal recessive and links it to a regulatory mutation near the gene PDSS2 (Feng and colleagues, 2014). Oklahoma State notes that the trait leaves Silkies unable to fly.
• Black skin. Fibromelanosis is dominant. Dorshorst and colleagues (2011, PLoS Genetics) traced it to a complex rearrangement involving the Endothelin 3 (EDN3) gene that pigments the dermis and most internal connective tissue. Wikipedia says all Silkies have black or bluish skin and bones and grayish-black meat. The breed club calls Silkies the only chicken with this skin color, but OMIA lists about 30 other fibromelanotic breeds, mostly Chinese and Southeast Asian, such as the Kadaknath.
• Five toes. A 2010 Journal of Heredity study associated Silkie polydactyly with a variant in a regulatory region of the Sonic hedgehog gene. Wikipedia describes the extra digits as usually one or two per foot. PoultryHub Australia notes the outer two toes are feathered; the breed club describes feathering over the middle toe.
• A dark comb is normal. Poultry Extension's list of healthy-bird traits calls for a bright red comb "except for those breeds with blue combs, such as the silkie." Keep that in mind during a hen health check.

Eggs and broodiness

Broodiness is the breed's best-known trait. The American Silkie Bantam Club calls it "unsurpassed": once a hen decides to sit she rarely leaves the nest until the eggs hatch, hens may go broody with no eggs at all, and quail and pheasant breeders keep Silkie hens to hatch eggs naturally. Georgia Extension calls the Silkie one of the most broody bantams, and Kentucky Extension lists Silkies among the breeds more prone to broodiness. For the 21-day timeline and how to break a broody hen, see broody hens.

Temperament

The breed club describes Silkies as gentle and docile, quick to adapt to handling, and notes that males sometimes call chicks to food and walk with them. Georgia Extension calls the breed the most popular bantam in backyards, "docile and friendly," and well suited to confinement. PoultryHub Australia credits it with a "great gentle nature."

Care checklist

1. Set roosts low. Oregon State Extension's coop guide sets roost poles 2 feet off the floor for most flocks but says poles for Silkies "should be only 1 foot off the ground."
2. Keep them dry. PoultryHub Australia says Silkies must always be sheltered from the elements because their feathers are not waterproof. Georgia Extension says they survive hot or cold weather but are not suited for foul weather. OMIA's trait entry says hookless birds tolerate extreme temperatures poorly. The sources differ on temperature; they agree on wet.
3. Vaccinate chicks for Marek's disease. Penn State Extension says "Silkies in particular, are highly susceptible to Marek's Disease." It recommends vaccination before chicks meet the virus, preferably at the hatchery, then isolation for at least 4 to 7 days while immunity develops. Clinical disease usually appears between 6 and 30 weeks of age. Home vaccination, Penn State notes, means following the label's thawing and handling instructions exactly.
4. Plan for broody spells. Expect weeks without eggs from a sitting hen, and decide in advance whether to let her hatch.
5. Size the coop for bantams. Mississippi State Extension notes that bantams eat less feed. Use the coop space calculator for bantam floor, roost and nest space.
6. Know what is normal. A dark comb, dark face and slate legs are breed traits, not signs of illness.

Silkie meat is dark because of fibromelanosis; Wikipedia notes it is prized in Chinese cuisine and used in several other Asian cuisines. Compare Silkies with other breeds in the breed directory, see shell shades in the egg color chart, or estimate output with the egg production calculator (it has a bantam or Silkie option).