What can you tell me about my chicks?

Sslurp

Hatching
Jan 27, 2015
3
0
7
Hi. I am relatively new to raising chickens and I haven't posted to this forum before, although I do read it and look for info here. We got four chickens a little over a year ago and have enjoyed having them. We had two Austerlops, a Lace Wing Wyandotte and a New Hampshire Red (I think). They've been great layers. We lost one Austerlop to a raccoon attack a month or so ago and decided we needed a couple more. We got another Austerlop and a Columbian Wyandotte. The Columbian developed wry neck and I was worried she wouldn't make it. I went to the Co Op for advice and ended up coming home with two bantams (I'm a sucker for a fuzzy little chick). I think they might be Silkie bantams (they do have fuzzy little legs), but I was in a hurry and worried about the other chick and didn't get as much info as I normally like to. Good news is that the Columbian recovered completely, but now I feel like we have an awful lot of chickens :) Are these new chicks Silkies? Any advice for raising these little guys? Thanks in advance! Shana
 
Welcome to BYC!

Yep, those adorable little chicks are silkies. They come in blue and buff. Check for five toes and you'll know for sure.

Sounds like you've got a bad case of chicken math.
smile.png
Once us chicken people get a few we can't help but getting more.


Best of luck!

My silkie, Princess, with her chicks
 
Very cool. I had no idea they were going to be such interesting looking birds when I got them! What do you do with the tiny eggs? Will the big chickens pick on them? Thanks!
 
Silkies are awesome birds, but they have their pros in cons:

Pros:
They are adorable, adorable, adorable
They are soft to the touch, easy to handle, and often sweet and docile
They don't have proper spurs anyways, so they roosters couldn't hurt you if they wanted to
They are excellent broodies
They are hardy in both cold and hot weather
They are pretty good at foraging, even if they can't scratch around very well with their feet

Cons:
They can't jump, fly, or run like other breeds and are prone to predation (I lost four of them to that)
They can be bullied, as their head feathers make it hard to see and they are sort of the nerds of the flock
They can't get wet as they aren't water proof and could catch a chill
Their feet have extra toes and are prone to toe-nail deformities
They are prone to head injuries if they run into something, one of mine had head trauma


My silkies are kept with my others birds and the only bad disagreements are between the silkie rooster and dominant, standard rooster. My silkie roo even breeds with the standard hens and has cross-breed chicks.
I do trim the head feathers on my silkies, so they can see me and each other and the treats I toss them better
My silkies have a lower perch then the other breeds, as they can't fly as well, but the standard chickens perch up around 10 ft high, so that is pretty high.
We do eat our silkie eggs, even though they are small. She doesn't lay that many, as she loves to go broody, she tries to do it around 2-3 times a year.

Here are some pictures of my silkies:
Ginger with her first chick, a standard cross breed


Two kittens with two silkie chicks, Fred and Ginger


Mavis, the disabled silkie chick


My silkie flock, including two roos and three hens (Princess, Azul, Flo, Cole, and Toto)
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom