Silkie Crop. What's Normal. What's Not?

GitaBooks,

Just thought I would let you know how my little silkies are doing and send you some photos.

You were correct!! My white one is a roo (changed his name from Elsa to Olaf). He is so gorgeous. He has some read feathers in his wings only (rest of him is white) and grew up nice and big. His comb is petite and a very pretty color. His ear lobes...Ghaaa...they are the most beautiful iridescent blue and they shimmer in the light. I wish I had moved his feathers out of the way in these pics because they are very large, stretch all the way down the side of his neck and just stunning. He has the most beautiful shiny streamers at the base of his head and neck. And a nice fluffy white butt. He is just wonderful. He has a high pitched crow and crows All The Time! I have a very high roost in the hen house and he gets right up there. He can fly fairly well too. He's very athletic. I am just in love with him.

My little black silkie, Ana, is a hen. She is as sweet as can be albeit a little stupid. She still cannot figure out the roost and sleeps on the bar for the nesting boxes (which is only 10" off the ground and she cannot even jump down from there without landing on her face). She is nice and fluffy with the softest feathers around. Her head is a giant puff. She is extremely small. Only 1/2 the size of my roo. I think she is a runt which makes me think she may never lay an egg. She is 8 months and still light as a feather to pick up. I worry about her getting picked up by a hawk because of her size and the fact that there is no way she can see with the size of her head puff. She is so sweet and still enjoys being held even though she is a free range chicken that lives with a big group of hardy larger breeds.

Thanks for all of your input regarding these two. I may not get any eggs but they are by far the favorites of all my friends and family.



































 
Nice photos! Your rooster is so handsome!

I have two young silkies and three adults and they are getting ready for the winter. My Princess has two chicks (silly girl decided to hatch them in autumn) and right now her sole job is to keep them warm in below freezing weather during the night. They are still in their broody pen but I hope to let them join the others in the chicken room as soon as the chicks are too big to drown in the water buckets (I use rubber buckets during the winter because they don't crack when they ice up). I'm also going to be setting up heat lights for them, so that when the standard size chicks begin to grow and are too large to fit under their bantam mother, they won't get too cold.
My silkies can't perch well either. Most of my silkies have had to jump from a stump I put in their room to a cart, to the nest boxes and finally up on top of the nest boxes, because they can't reach the 10 ft tall perch the other chickens get up onto. However, I do have one silkie who's learned to step-ladder her way up into the rafters of the shed where she currently lives, which is nice, since they are safer from predators up high.

My silkie hens are far smaller than my roosters also, I have a silkie mix that is like a third the size of my roo, but much better at flying and running because she is part sebright and part OEGB (and very cute!).
Because Princess was broody and couldn't scratch around, her silkie toes got over grown, curled claws so I have to slowly clip a bit away each day until they are proper size. She was also having trouble seeing her food, so I clipped her head feathers. Sometimes I also clip her feet feathers because the chicks can get tangled in them (I lost one chick this way and it was really sad).
Silkies are far more prone to predators, most of the chickens I have lost have been silkies, since they can't run, fly, jump or see too well, but with plenty of places to take cover (they love going under pine trees and in tall grass) and a secure roosting area they have done quite well.

Congrats again on such nice silkies!
 
Here is Flo, one of two roosters, with his adopted son/daughter Possibility (hopefully girl)


This is Precious, with gorgeous rusty autumn colors on her wings and chest, she is the one who learned to perch up high with her standard sized adopted siblings. She is great at foraging as well, because they helped teach her


Flo again, thinking he is awesome


Princess with her new chicks (they are half barred rock and already growing in feathers even though they are only like two weeks old)


Here is Tad, my silkie mix, she is just slightly bigger than an OEGB and does not have a crest (which is nice because I couldn't trim it with how scared she is of me. She was parent raised)
 
Thanks GitaBooks,

I actually had someone respond on another post of mine telling me my rooster is a highly coveted Red Paint Silkie?? Who knew.

Looks like you let your silkies and reg breeds mate. If you mate a silkie roo with say... A buff Orpington will the hens from that brood produce eggs as well as buff Orpington or only as well as a Silkie?
 
Thanks GitaBooks,

I actually had someone respond on another post of mine telling me my rooster is a highly coveted Red Paint Silkie?? Who knew.

Looks like you let your silkies and reg breeds mate. If you mate a silkie roo with say... A buff Orpington will the hens from that brood produce eggs as well as buff Orpington or only as well as a Silkie?

She would probably lay somewhere in between the two. I know my silkie, OEGB, sebright crosses lay better than OEGBS or silkies, they're actually really good layers for bantams.
 

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