PET a Silkie chicken and you understand how it got its name. The feathers are fine and flutter in wisps in the breeze.

With a walnut-shaped crown of plumage, blue earlobes and feathers that come in a variety of colors, it’s a striking-looking bird that’s often raised for show.

Breeders also like them because they will hatch other birds’ eggs.

“They are such good moms,” said Frank R. Reese Jr., the founder of Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch in Lindsborg, Kan., who breeds Silkies for show. “They’ll sit on anything and hatch anything. They’ll hatch ducks, turkeys, chickens.”

Deprived of their striking outerwear, though, Silkies are far less appealing. They have bluish-gray skin, pitch-black bones and dark beige flesh (they’re sometimes called black-skinned chickens). They’re a scrawny pound or two, plucked, and are usually sold with the head and feet attached (with five toes, not the usual four).