Silkie thread!

[Debbiedoobs]

aww sorry to hear that she was beautiful

Just can't believe how attached I got to her and then lost her. She fell asleep cuddled up to me and is buried in the garden. Devastated!

 

[RobinB84]

I had to put one of my baby silkies to sleep on fri, my vet said we were only prolonging the enevitable and there was nothing more he could do. Can't believe how much I miss her. She had a vaulted skull which leaked fluid and formed a scab, she was separated for 5 weeks from the others where I kept her with me almost 24/7. She appeared to be dwarfed and her development was far behind the others. But that's what made her beautiful personality!

RIP little dotty

Sleep tight sweet pea!

Awww... I am so so sorry

 

[roostercantrell]

Just can't believe how attached I got to her and then lost her. She fell asleep cuddled up to me and is buried in the garden. Devastated!

i know you were. i had one die while i was gone one day got home and found her i was heartbroke she was only 2 weeks old

 

[kculbert]

I had to put one of my baby silkies to sleep on fri, my vet said we were only prolonging the enevitable and there was nothing more he could do. Can't believe how much I miss her. She had a vaulted skull which leaked fluid and formed a scab, she was separated for 5 weeks from the others where I kept her with me almost 24/7. She appeared to be dwarfed and her development was far behind the others. But that's what made her beautiful personality!

RIP little dotty




Sleep tight sweet pea!

So sorry for your loss. She was a real cutie.

 

[Cynthia12]

Bred to a correctly combed bird, chances are at most only 25% for incorrect combs. It really depends on what you have to work with and what else is avialable to you. If the bird is otherwise awesome, and a better bird is not available, then using it may well be best. If there are equally nice birds without the flaw, then use those instead. If the single combed bird is a project bird, single combs are probably the last of my worries.

Thank you for this.

 

[Cynthia12]

I had to put one of my baby silkies to sleep on fri, my vet said we were only prolonging the enevitable and there was nothing more he could do. Can't believe how much I miss her. She had a vaulted skull which leaked fluid and formed a scab, she was separated for 5 weeks from the others where I kept her with me almost 24/7. She appeared to be dwarfed and her development was far behind the others. But that's what made her beautiful personality!

RIP little dotty




Sleep tight sweet pea!

Such a cute little one. So very sorry.

 

[Suzierd]

i took this photo if my little silkie momma with her one little baby last Thursday...happy and enjoying the sunshine. Friday morning I found her dead...face down a little pool of blood out her beak. Baby was just fine and cuddled under her little bum. I am so sad!! Has anyone had this happen to them? She was a year old girl, about her 4th time being broody but the first time we let her hatch. The baby was a week old to the day. I just am curious if it was a fluke thing or a complication of broodiness?

That is really odd, maybe a head injury or ate something bad. Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Suzierd]

I had to put one of my baby silkies to sleep on fri, my vet said we were only prolonging the enevitable and there was nothing more he could do. Can't believe how much I miss her. She had a vaulted skull which leaked fluid and formed a scab, she was separated for 5 weeks from the others where I kept her with me almost 24/7. She appeared to be dwarfed and her development was far behind the others. But that's what made her beautiful personality!

RIP little dotty

Sleep tight sweet pea!

She was so cute. Very sorry, I too know how you feel.

 

[kabhyper1]

I went to feed mom and babies today and found this. These little boogers think they are old enough to not sleep under mom anymore apparently. Maybe the food dish is more comfortable. They are a whole 4 days old.

 

[Half Moon Ranch]

Congratulations on your chickeneering! I never had a Buff Orp and after my friend's experience with hers I probably never will - at least not around my Silkies. My friend had her Buff since it was day-old and it was over a year old before it went broody with puffing up while holding her wings out and growling. So my friend set eggs under her. She was a good momma but very offensively protective of the chicks. She went broody the following year but she was just allowed to sit out her broody time and not given any eggs to hatch. My friend re-homed several of her original flock but kept the Buff for her eggs. The Buff is very pushy but with no Bantams in the flock it is not a serious issue.

The Buffs are supposed to be good birds but I noticed in a youtube video how the Buffs as chicks were very aggressive towards White Leghorn chicks who were minding their own business foraging and towards juvenile ducklings who were just snoozing in the same pen. Buffs are very large birds and can cause quite a thump on the coop floor when they jump down from a roost. One fellow keeps his roosts a bit lower to accommodate both the large Buff and a couple of his Silkies.

All I can say is Buffs and Silkies are very broody breeds and all those hormones might come to blows someday LOL - the problem being that a 2.5-lb Silkie doesn't have a chance against a 6 or 7-lb aggressive challenger - you do the math. We had to re-home our 7-lb Marans who jumped on the back of our 2-lb Silkie pullet (6 months old) and dug her claws into it's back til it was screaming. You never saw a woman fly out the back door so fast as me. That Marans was isolated and gone the following morning to an egg seller. She was always a sneaky nipper at passersby so I wasn't sad re-homing her.

The White Leghorn went aggressive eventually even towards her best friend Partridge Silkie. They had been together since the first month we had them. But I couldn't risk the situation and sadly had to re-home her too. She was so sweet for almost 3 years and then changed. Now I only keep LF breeds under 5-lbs with gentle temperaments. Our Ameraucana is 5.5-lb and so far has stayed true to her gentle nature, is an alert forager, and is not a broody so we kept her. The other LF is a 4.5-lb Buff Leghorn who is calmer in temperament than the White or Brown Leghorn varieties. Next Spring I hope to try a couple of Breda pullets who weigh around 4-lb and are a very gentle tempered breed.

Hatching and chicks are fun but also heartbreaking as many times babies don't make it. Apparently there are a lot of issues with incubators with inexperienced chickeneers. Broody hens are the best way to hatch. Then there's the issue with shipped eggs whether they are really fertile or shook up during shipment. I am not going through that again. And what are we supposed to do with the excess roos? I don't have the heart to raise them for meat. And giving them away means they are someone else's meat

A Silkie boy, or any roo for that matter, will mate anything that will sit still for him. My Partridge boy kept hopping his sister several times a day and he must've had fun because he tried chasing my White Leghorn pullet who would have nothing to do with him! After his first day of over-mating his sister, we isolated him, and gave him back to the breeder the next day - he was supposed to be a "pullet" when first given to us and we are not zoned for crowing roos.

Sorry about the bullying issue you're having. It's a chicken thing!

Don't think the questions ever stop - LOL. I keep learning something new every time I go to one of these threads or do research. Every time someone recommends something I do research before trying it. DE was supposed to be so wonderful and yet there were a lot of disparaging arguments so I researched it for myself and chose to exercise on the side of caution and not use it - the label on the bag had more warnings than a bottle of lye. Same with what bedding to use in the nestbox, what style of box, how high a perch, how many square feet per chicken, what feed, what treats, what wormer, what lice control, what to use for mite prevention, free-range or not to, etc etc etc. I thought I was going to go nuts and started getting paranoid about what was good for my chickens. I've mellowed some and am comfortable with my health regimen now but still open to learning. I told my DH it's a wonder either my children or my chickens have lived through my experimental parenting! One thing I have never regretted is lining up a good vet that is either an avian exotic specialist or a vet knowledgeable in birds. Birds have the same symptoms for so many illnesses that only a qualified expert can diagnose. So many times I've been wrong thinking I knew what was ailing my bird and a vet visit set me straight!

I spent the $$$ through an Ameraucana breeder to get my guaranteed blue egg layer. I never knew what to expect about blue eggs. I was afraid the first light blue egg we got from our Ameraucana wasn't blue enough. Then I saw my friend's EE eggs that were definitely sage mint or had greenish tint to them compared to my pale blue egg. On the Ameraucana club website there is an egg color chart of all the various shades of blue a true Ameraucana can lay. So I'm satisfied with my girl - her color is in the C zone. Someday an EE might be in my flock except there's no guarantee on egg color. Still they are a colorful, talkative, kooky, alert, sweet mutt of a bird very similar to their cousin Ameraucanas.

We aren't there yet, but things are getting more interesting by the day.
Now I have another concern which may shed some light on the bullying issue.
I bought 5 straight run Silkies knowing there was a 50-50 chance of girls vs boys.
Well, up until a few days ago we thought we had a 3 roo, 2 pullet breakdown, though I know sexing Silkies is tricky at best.
That being said one of the girls started crowing making a total of 4 that are now crowing.
Don't get me wrong, we love 'em and it's amusing to watch, but when we let them out in the morning it's like a contest.
I bet my neighbors love me!

So, if 4 truly turn out to be roos, I'm guessing it will be time to re-home a couple because I think they will be hard on each other and I hate to think about the lonely Silkie girl having to deal with 4 of those bobble heads.
Come to think of it when the BO's hit the run, it's going to be one big party one way or the other and I don't know what to do.