Silkie thread!

[Fancychooklady]

Chickens love greens, seeds, bugs, grubs, and their nutritious feed.  Try a can of kitten food or small meat chunks cat food or a few mealworms.  They just might be craving some sort of meat source in addition to feed and greens.  They love crickets if you catch some overnight in a milk carton or dig up earthworms under a brick.  Try a little wild bird seed mix - a good one - not one full of dry coarse ground up corn bits!  We give our birds a slice of cantaloupe, cooked brown organic rice (not white rice), add Rooster Booster vitamin supplement to the rice with Brewer's Yeast powder and a little sprinkle of bee pollen seedlets.  We give cucumber slices, shelled raw sunflower seeds, watermelon (hot days), corn off the cob, banana pieces, blueberries, cooked shrimp or fish (no bones), cooked turkey bits (no onion salt or onion powder or onions in the cooking), cut up lettuces and chard, etc.  Something should grab your Silkies' attention and fuel their appetites.  One day they crave one food and the next day something totally different.  When we try a new produce to give our Silkies, we break off tiny pieces and hand feed it to them to see if they like it.  Usually they love anything you hand-feed them.  Ours wouldn't eat banana for 5 years until I offered a tiny piece to a Silkie and she went nuts for it and the other chickens came running to get some too.  These are suggestions to add variety to their diet in small amounts but their feed should continue being their main source of nutrition.

Cat food is often recommended for sick birds that are off their food , but it's very high in sodium and shouldn't be included in a regular diet.

 

[Raisingmsdaisy]

Thanks for all this valuable input Sylvester I did buy a chicken tractor tonight just to house the Silkies and have decided to buy at least two Silkies now. My daughter wants a white and I want a splash.... We will start there...haha! But I thought the tractor would be a great idea to do exactly as you suggested. Plus I plan to grow fodder during the colder months. I will let them have closely supervised play in our backyard and around the barn while I clean horse pens. I just know they will not have the same freedom as my layers or broilers who I plan to allow more free range. We have 17 acres of pasture!
My daughter already has hers named ..."Fuzzy-licious". LOL!

 

[kellyloveschad]

I am confuse on this silkie thing an telling which one is the silky which one's the sizzle and which one's the Frizzle!

I was told this is a frizzle it looks like a regular silkie!

I was told these are reg silkies but the wing feathers look like regular feathers kinda!

This one is a sizzle! What I dont understand is the frizzle and sizzles feathers look like hair and the silkies feathers look more like feathers!!! Can anyone help me understand???

 

[Duck Drover]

I am confuse on this silkie thing an telling which one is the silky which one's the sizzle and which one's the Frizzle!

I was told this is a frizzle it looks like a regular silkie!

I was told these are reg silkies but the wing feathers look like regular feathers kinda!

This one is a sizzle! What I dont understand is the frizzle and sizzles feathers look like hair and the silkies feathers look more like feathers!!! Can anyone help me understand???

Silkies have silkied (barbless) feathers that some people think resembles hair instead of feathers.

Sizzles have hard feathers (barbed) but some are smooth, which is a normal looking feather, and some are frizzled, which is an inverted feather that curls outward so the bird resembles a feather duster.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Does anyone no why my silkies are pooping this I have never seen a poop like this before is it normal

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Does anyone no why my silkies are pooping this I have never seen a poop like this before is it normal

Looks like there's some blood mixed in there, which could be an indication that they're dealing with a bout of cocci. I'm guessing, since you just got them, that the stress of being moved brought it on. I'd get them going on a round of Corrid to be safe.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ok thanks I will go and start a thread and see what some more people think and how much to give them

 

[Raisingmsdaisy]

Silkies are like potato chips - can't have just one! Keeping them in a barn all the time might not be too natural. Silkies - like any chicken - love to dust bathe in the dirt and take sun baths on warm days, love to scratch and dig for seeds and bugs, and forage, and flap their wings, and run around chasing butterflies. If you can't open range them then a semi-roomy portable tractor for them would be good to move around to different grass everyday with access to soft soil for dust baths. They might be little but want to do everything the large fowl do! GL w/your plans

.

SILLY SILKIES WILL GET INTO COBWEBS AND PICK UP FANCY HAIRDO'S


RAINY WEATHER MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS IN A DOGHOUSE - THERE'S 2 SILKIES, AN AMERAUCANA AND A BREDA (WAY BACK IN THE DOGHOUSE).


OUR TWO SILKIES ARE NOT THE BEST BUDDIES YET TOODLE AROUND TOGETHER.


WHEN THE LARGE FOWL ARE MISCHIEVOUSLY DIGGING IN OLD GARDEN CONTAINERS THE SILKIE IN THE BACKGROUND IS RUNNING TO JOIN THEM. SHE WON'T JUMP INTO THE POTS BUT STILL WANTS TO FEEL LIKE SHE'S JOINING IN THE ACTIVITY.


ONE SILKIE IS ON THE OPEN GRASS AND THE 2ND BLACK SILKIE IS UNDER THE LEAN-TO NEAR THE WHEELBARROW. SILKIES ARE NOT ONES TO BE LEFT OUT OF WHATEVER THE LARGE FOWL ARE DOING.


A BLACK AND A PARTRIDGE SILKIE DIGGING IN THE DIRT WITH THE BLUE BREDA FOWL.


THE TWO SILKIES STAYING CLOSE TO THE PERSON HANDING OUT TREATS. SILKIES DON'T REALIZE THEY ARE LITTLE WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THE TREATS THAT ALL THE LARGE FOWL ARE GETTING.


2 SILKIES AND 1 BREDA HANGING OUT AT THE BACK DOOR.


SILKIES AND LEGHORN RUNNING TO GET TO THE BACK DOOR FIRST!


DURING BACKYARD REMODELING THE CHICKENS LARGE AND SMALL HAD A BLAST DIGGING IN THE OLD RAISED GARDEN BED.


THEY WERE TOO BUSY DIGGING FOR GRUBS AND SEEDS TO POSE FOR THE CAMERA!


TWO SILKIES (OR MORE) IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN JUST ONE SILKIE IF YOU PLAN TO INTEGRATE SILKIES WITH A COUPLE LARGE BREEDS. I DON'T HAVE LARGE FOWL OVER 5-LB AROUND OUR 2 SILKIES.



THIS IS WHAT ONE LARGE HEAVY MARANS DID TO OUR PARTRIDGE SILKIE ON THE ROOST EVERY NIGHT BEFORE WE REALIZED THE SILKIE WAS NOT MOLTING BUT BEING CANNIBALIZED! SO NOW I DON'T KEEP LARGE, HEAVY, OR DUAL-PURPOSE HERITAGE LARGE FOWL ANYMORE -- NO BREED OVER 5-LB AROUND THE SILKIES. THE 2 GENTLEST LARGE FOWL SO FAR HAVE BEEN A 4-LB BLUE BREDA AND A 5-LB BLUE WHEATEN AMERAUCANA WITH THE SILKIES. THE LEGHORNS AND MARANS WERE TOO NASTY TO THE LITTLES.

You were NOT kidding about the potato chip factor! We could not decide on a color, so we ended up with a white, buff and a splash! All Bearded. I almost got a black, but decided 3 was my limit for the coop/tractor I bought. Will definitely need to make adjustments to the run with the addition of the 3rd one. I can't wait to get them!

 

[kellyloveschad]

so is this one a silkie??

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

That black one it looks like it