Chicken Breed Focus - Silkie

[Sylvester017]

Keeping feathers out of their eyes with a 'haircut'.Something worth mentioning since my especially poofy silkies benefit from a buzz cut about twice a year: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cs-how-i-know-when-they-need-it#post_17605105

I don't trim any feathers, not even flight feathers, on any of my chicken breeds and even flighty ones have been behaving nicely. We have only two Silkie bearded hens but for 5 years they have trimmed each other's eye/face feathers -- darnedest thing so I never had to worry about them not seeing where they're going!

 

[CluckyInKY]

Anyone know what color this one is? I know the parents were black and white (don't remember which was the mom & which was the dad). Nothing fancy, just some pet quality I got from a fb friend.

For comparison, the bird in question is on the right in this pic with his/her obviously black siblings on the left.

 

[monnarush]

I have 5 silkies, a white roo, two black, one black with a few grey feathers, and one partridge. They are still a little shy but doing well. Started laying at approx 51/2 months but one went broody and so far no more eggs. We are going to give them their own coop and run in the spring, right now they are with my orpington hens and are getting along well. I have buckeye chicks ordered for April so when they arrive and are ready to leave the brooder the silkies will be in their new coop and run. I want to keep them separated by then but am glad they get along with the orpingtons to date. Merry Christmas! Enjoying my Silkies!

 

[monnarush]

opps the other colors are hens so that is one roo and 4 hens silkies LOL

 

[Keeper]

This looks like an old thread but-
Looking for silkie breeder in Washington state. Anyone?

 

[Sylvester017]

This looks like an old thread but-
Looking for silkie breeder in Washington state. Anyone?

Check w/ @Hinotori -- I love her Partridge Silkie posts and I believe she is in Oregon or WA and might be able to recommend a breeder in your area. She has lovely Partridge varieties if you love Partridge like I do.

 

[Hinotori]

We've spoken. I don't have any teens available right now.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thx for replying. Yep, Spring is the best time to get young birds but some owners want now. I put my orders in during fall/winter to get birds by Spring -- gotta go with the flow of Mother Nature's readiness. Even my non-broody breeds won't start laying eggs until late winter/early spring. Here in SoCalif in winter I can get 1 to 2-yr-old adult females in the $100 range already vaccinated for fowl pox and Marek's or DNA-sexed Silkie chicks from a local breeder but that's because our climate is milder and they can breed year-round. Northern areas where winters can be harsh bird availability is limited.

 

[SA&P]

As this post is focussed on Silkies I thought I’d write of my experience so other newbies like me are armed with as much information as possible.
I was given 11 Silkie eggs from a couple who live along the coast from us. They show their birds and have an impeccable reputation. I think if you CAN travel for the eggs/chicks that is preferable to posting them.
After a promised brooder didn’t materialise I bought a small incubator (with turner mechanism) and set it up on the end of my kitchen worktop.
Neither of us have any experience of keeping chickens so we were delighted to have 7 hatch out of the 11 eggs. The last pipped his shell, then cheeped for 24 hours (a very stressful time!!) and so my husband picked him out with a pair of tweezers, over the course of another 12 hours!
They were born over the course of two days, on the 28th and 29th June 2017. Two pullets and FIVE cockerels
My brooder was a strong cardboard box in the kitchen. I’ll add pictures so you can see the set up. I do have lots of video clips but they’re not loading
They had Food and water available 24/7 and were cleaned out daily. Water had to be replaced twice a day and so if I did it again I’d use water nipples as recommended on here.
It was a lovely summer so they went out in their coop at about two months old with wood shaving bedding. I was told that they don’t roost so I left the low posts in (and yup, they don’t use ‘em) they like to hunker down together in the deep bedding.
The first born, a huge bird, was a cockerel and he was ‘the main man!’ ......so there was no fighting from the five guys. I’ve read on here that there is less fighting from cockerels if they’re from the same clutch. I found that to be correct.......HOWEVER, I did rehome four of them nearly three weeks ago. I was lucky, the ‘egg donor’ took them back
So, born on 28th June and I got my first cockadoodledo on the 18th December
I was in the office overlooking the garden and I thought someone was strangling my chickens!! It sounded like a cat drowning in porridge!!!!!!!!
My lone rooster now owns the garden. His garden. His girls. And he’s been renamed. ‘Sheldon’ is now ‘Kung Poo’ because he has attitude.
He’s taken a dislike to both of my grown up sons so don’t think Silkie roosters are sweet little treasures We ‘walk through’ him and are very strict not to pet him and have cut out his bolshy behaviour. He stands back now when we feed the girls mealworms and treats so advice taken on here of rooster behaviour has worked!!
I got my first egg three days ago and have had one every day since.

 

[BamaNutt]

Does anyone know where we can find Silkies chicks around New Port Richey, Fl?