Silkie thread!

[judy mclean]

My mama silkie hen is really starting to get mean with her chick's she will chase them down pecking there heads is this normal

 

[emvickrey]

My mama silkie hen is really starting to get mean with her chick's she will chase them down pecking there heads is this normal

I would take the chicks away before she kills them.

 

[judy mclean]

I would take the chicks away before she kills them.

ok I'll do that idk what got into her to do this darn her

 

[drumstick diva]

YES, please get the chicks out of her way NOW!! I don't know what possessed her but, I would never trust her again.

 

[emvickrey]

YES, please get the chicks out of her way NOW!! I don't know what possessed her but, I would never trust her again.

Me either. If you use her for a Broody don't let the chicks stay with her. Pull them when they hatch. The only hen I've ever had do this is my house hen. She's not fond of chicks. I let her brood her sisters eggs and she hatched 2 chicks. When they where just a few weeks old she started pecking them. I took them out right away.Her mothering instincts are very limited. She hasn't gone broody since and she is a silkie that is about 5 years old now.

 

[emvickrey]

Hello! Can full silkies be frizzled, or does that only happen with crosses? I have a pure silkie whose feathers are coming in completely curled outwards instead of inwards, I took some photos for you but honestly it's more dramatically different than my other silkies than the photos would suggest. She is adorable either way, I was just wondering if she might be frizzled or if some silkies just feather in this way for awhile. Thank you!

Thats a frizzled silkie. They don't feather like that unless they carry the frizzle gene.

 

[tinkerfairy]

Wow that's interesting, most of my silkies are feathering the same way, these are my first chicks and I just assumed it was how they normally feathered. Do they look much different than a regular silkie when grown?

 

[Sylvester017]

The brooder is about 92-ish. She is lonely, I know. The other chicks are leghorns & are 3 weeks old already. They were pretty mean to her, so I pulled her out & she's in a crate next to them, but not actually with them. I have been taking her out to hold her a lot, & she calms down with me, but still chirps. The quality of the chirp is different, though. She'll be asleep, nestled in my hand, making little chirping noises. It's her favorite place to be, apparently.

When my Ameraucanas are juvies they will coo when I talk to them and while I hold them in a blanket or towel - they voluntarily settle down into our arms and lap and go to sleep cooing until totally asleep. Our Leghorns and Marans ate from our hand but barely tolerated being held - they aren't the cuddly sort. And some breeds just seem to vocalize more than others awake or sleeping.

 

[judy mclean]

What kind of shampoo can I use on my silkies

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you. she seems to be ok she likes me to hold her and talk to her. I will just let her sit in the nest box she does come down occasionally mainly for scratch

I'm a worrier so when either of our Silkies goes broody we take them down from the nest a couple times a day to make sure they eat/drink/dust-bathe/exercise before they scurry back to the nest. We also give them one drop of no iron Poly-Vi-Sol children's liquid vitamins 2 or 3x a week and feed them cucumber slices and cantaloupe to make sure they get enough water. Our Silkies are so broody they can make themselves too ill to want to eat or drink. The vitamins keep them perked up and the exercise and dust-bathing is to keep their toenails from curling badly. We have to trim them a couple times a year.