Silkie thread!

[TOOCLOSE]

Here's my Silkie Rooster! This is Mr Cotton!

TC

 

[viqui baby]

My yard chickens are smarter than most people. Honestly, they can figure out how to get away, and they know their place in the pecking order.
IL even have a rooster that adopted an orphan chick who was abandoned because he was the last one to hatch. He kept him warm at night for the3 first week until some of his feathers grew in, and now Orphan, as IL call him, has become yard smart really fast. He knows how to stay away from the feral cat and the humongous ( almost 5 feet long) monitor lizards and snakes (8 feet long).. Ya Gotta hand it to him. Not even a genius two week old human baby is a millionth as smart as Orphan.

 

[mystonedgarden]

My stonegarden!

That's a handsome fellar there! Never seen a silkie with white earlobes though! Thats funny about him running ppl and unwanted critters out of your garden. Our large Moran rooster isn't mean, but due to his size and him wanting to come out to greet ppl. People are afraid of him! LOL I call him my Wa Wa Wa boy. He's always singing Wa Wa Wa to me! Theres times I have him and our large dog following me around the yard. I tell my husband - me and the boys are going for a walk!

He could be Pumpkins husband!

TC

Thank you! He came from hatchery stock so he has very washed out earlobes, only a tiny hint of blue. Aw, we have a cochin hen that rushes to our side when we go out into the yard. I love roosters, too bad I cant keep em all. I'm torn between possibly 7 roos this year from my brooder. Pumpkin is super cute!

 

[Fancychooklady]

  My yard chickens are smarter than most people.  Honestly, they can figure out how to get away, and they know their place in  the pecking order.
  IL even have a rooster that adopted an orphan chick who was abandoned because he was the last one to hatch. He kept him warm at night for the3 first week until some of his feathers grew in, and now Orphan, as IL call him, has become yard smart really fast.  He knows how to stay away from the  feral cat and the humongous ( almost 5 feet long) monitor lizards and snakes (8 feet long)..  Ya Gotta hand it to him.  Not even a genius two week old human baby is a millionth as smart as Orphan. 

Roosters are much more useful than they are given credit for. My red partridge roo lets the youngsters sit under his wings once they can find their way up to the perch. My coronation sussex roo, king George spends more time with the chicks than the hens do. He calls them to food and just loves hangin out with them.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Okay! The ice pack answer! LOL The silkies get really hot underneath the covers/blanket! So I counteract their desire of wanting to be covered up by placing a well wrapped ice pack underneath them so they stay cool and comfortable all the way around! When in their crates in their bedroom? I take an old bottom leg piece of sweatpants and cut them off. I make a sort of sleeve out of it so I can drop the ice pack into it. Then I wrap paper towels around it. I set one in each crate for the girls to stand on when they want to cool off! Simplicity in itself! LOL

I believe the baby throwing itself at the cage was a black sexling! Not really sure of it now. That was a long time ago. It too didn't want any part of other chickens. Only wanted to be with us people. It would sit on my husbands shoulder in the recliner. Anytime I was left holding her she ended up inside my sports bra because I was always working around the place!

I had a few hens myself that wanted to come inside the kitchen door to go sit in the milkcrate I had in the corner filled with hay. They'd knock on the door. I'd let them in. They'd do their business then would stand at the door to be let back outside. I tell people all the time; "Chickens aren't no dumb yard bird like most think they are!"

My Ameraucanas  were very flighty and scared to death of us. They were the large breed ones. Then I got a free bantam one with a order from M/M! She laid the prettiest little blue eggs.

Sylvester! Thank you for the Thanks on serving our country! I was truly devastated when I was medically discharged. I had been in the Army for half a lifetime and didn't know what to do with myself after that. When I run into fellow soldiers now and they ask what am I doing with myself? I tell them I'm sitting at home playing chicken momma! They love it!

As for Maria being spoiled rotten! My momma says; "You can spoil anything!" How right she is!

My husband and I are at a crossroads here right now! I don't want to lose Maria's bloodline due to all the hens in her bloodline are super small and just precious sweethearts. I only have one silkie rooster and he's too big for her. I've often thought of getting a small friendly white rooster from someone to put with her, but then we'd be back to possibly having more roosters hatch and that we don't need or want. And then there's the other case of we would like to visit my daughter and her family in MD someday! That trip is impossible to do while we have our kids. Maria was hatched in March 2011. So I'm not sure how much longer we have to get those fertile eggs from her IF that's the plan we go with! ARGH!

TC

I don't mean to harp on this , but I still don't get the ice pack thing. Could be that manipulating the body temp has affected egg production. Winter chills are certainly in the ' top ' 5 reasons ' for a drop in egg production.

 

[Sourdough1938]

How is Dorothy doing now? What can you do for a chicken you think might have a ear problem? I don't have any chicks with problems now but would like to know if it happens.

 

[Sourdough1938]

6 x22= 132. 12 x16 =192. So if my math is correct then the 12 x 16 will give them 60 more square feet to do what chickens do. But then it is not all about how big it is.

 

[TOOCLOSE]

Fancy! It's okay! It's to keep them cool and comfortable while covered up! That's all it's for! I never thought about it causing them to stop laying! I've used ice packs in many hen crates thru the years and they continued laying! So I'm not sure if that's the problem or not! My cochin hen slept on an ice pack every night and laid an egg every day! And boy did she let me know when I woke up and came into the room. Lord she had the mouth of the south! I knew early on her days were limited. As a chick she was almost killed by my husbands dog. Later on she was grabbed by a 12ft black snake right in front of me. Then after that she was just missed by a hawk. Then she started going down and for the life of me and my VET we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. And believe me I checked her for everything. She quit eating and drinking. She quit laying eggs before that. Then she passed away in her sleep. I had kept her in a box of baby blankets for comfort the last week of her life. She was our little "Peaches"!

Oh! And btw? I do a lot of things for our kids that most chicken ppl don't understand the why of it! You can imagine the non chicken peoples reactions to these things I do! LOL

As for the snake attack? I reached into the pen, grabbed snake and Peaches and threw them into the yard where it was lighter. My husband was coming up from the back of the yard to see what all the screaming was about. Well he figured it out when he saw a snake come flying out of the tent and Peaches wrapped up in the middle of it. He stepped on it's head, unwrapped Peaches and then I brought him a shovel to chop it's head off. Peaches took off after a cricket and was good to go! I was a bundle of nerves and shaking all over! Some soldier I was at that moment - HUH?

TC

 

[TOOCLOSE]

How is Dorothy doing now? What can you do for a chicken you think might have a ear problem? I don't have any chicks with problems now but would like to know if it happens.

Dorothy is slowly improving! She hasn't gotten her equilibrium back yet so she refuses to raise her head up while standing. She does a quick lift of her head to spot the food and then drops her head back down. Then she'll raise her head quickly to grab a bite of food and then drops it again. And then sometimes I'll see her sitting with her head up looking around. She'll catch me looking at her and drop her head back down again. The little sneak! I told her she better not be milking all the attention and pampering!

The ears are a difficult thing to diagnose a problem on. I'd say though! If they are holding their head to one side and one side only like Dorothy has been. I'd say it was an ear problem. Everytime I see one of my chickens dusting! I cringe! I'm always worried about something getting into their ears and of course their nostrils get full of dirt too. If you think in the future a chicken of yours is having an ear problem? I strongly suggest you take it to a VET so they can look inside their ears. If it's an inner ear problem? Then the wait is on!

TC

 

[Suzierd]

I don't know.......still might be a pullet.
Is it true that partridge Silkies are easier to sex sooner then normal?    How?  Why?  

Here's a pic of a young partridge Silkie that you can see by the color it's a boy. It has the red/gold in the hackles and body.