Silkie

Everybody seems to love Silkies because they are so soft and fluffy. We've had five and they've been hard to keep since our other hens tend to bully them. I'd get more only if I could keep them separate or had 5+ bantams. The one we have now has laid maybe two eggs in over ten months.

We had a Paint Silkie rooster named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Amadeus for short. We got him for free from a local silkie breeder who had too many roosters. He was an awesome chicken! Everyone loved him and guests were wowed over him. When he ran through the yard skipping and hopping in that hilarious way, we laughed so hard. He was pretty good to his girls, but not very successful at mating with them. I don't know if he ever actually succeeded in fertilizing a hen, but I think he did. He wasn't a protective rooster, but looked after himself first, but over all a Silkie is a chicken worth having.
Amadeus was killed this March in a storm, and his presence is sorely missed. For some reason he never returned to the coop one night, and I locked things up, making the horrible assumption that he was inside n his special roost. The severe rain and cold killed him we are guessing. But we are getting another silkie, and hopefully another silkie rooster as well.

They make good mothers but they can be so good that sometimes they can forget to eat or drink.... be careful!

I love my fluffy little silkie. I currently only have one silkie hen, but I have had a few in the past. They are sweet as pie birds, even the roosters I've had. They make good mothers. They lay decently in my opinion. Every other day or so I get an egg. They did take a long laying break in winter.

The bad side is they need to be provided relief from the heat and I'm in Georgia. They need shade, lots of cool water, and maybe even a fan if you can provide it. They are also not too fast and not too bright, so an easy target for predators unless they are locked up.

When I first got into poultry, I bought a bunch of silkie chicks from a hatchery. They were a delight to have. I currently own some show silkies, white. They have great personalities, each one is different. Some absolutely love to be held and coddled (they will search you out and bug you until you do), and I have had some roosters defend my from my aggressive leghorn and plymoth rock roosters.

They lay decent sized bantam eggs, and lay frequently...but they go broody so quickly that there isn't much egg production. On the bright side, they are great broody mothers (I use mine to hatch Japanese bantams and wyandottes. )

Since I show my silkies, I can say that it is somewhat difficult to prep them for a show. Some silkies tend to get dirty butts, and their leg feathers collect all kinds of gross stuff. Their feathers tend to yellow if exposed to sunlight for too long. When at the shows, you need to blow dry the chickens to make them "fluffier".

It's also important to keep in mind that if you live in an area/having a bad year with mites, silkies are prone to mite infestation. Once silkies have them, it takes forever to get rid of, and truly ruins their feather quality until their next molt. Also note if that beautiful head of feathers gets ripped out/damaged in some way, they very rarely grow back the same way, and won't be as cushion-y and full.

Overall, this is a fun breed to have (and make great land gnomes, which is what I use my lower quality birds for). It can be a bit challenging to own in terms of maintenance, but they make up for it in other ways.

I absolutely hate them!!
I got them for hatching eggs, never went broody in 2 years.

I was fine with them not going broody as they turned out smaller then expected. But they lay probably 50 eggs a year each not even. The rooster is aggressive and obnoxious. The hens have killed chicks and constantly make noise and chase the other hens around.

Never again will I get silkies

I love these little guys even if they can be a tad bit bossy which I am not sure if it is common or just my little group but when it comes to food and treats they get bossy and pushy with each other, other animals,and even people. Not aggressive, just go after all the food. I have had pizza snatched from my hands twice now by one of my puffballs.Their cuteness and sweetness and social dispositions far outweigh that however. They are sweet and curious making them fantastic pets but hard to gender and slow to mature. I'm alright with that since they were bought for pets and as the safe chickens for my little niece who loves them and honestly I love them too. They are so smart and all know their names and for whatever reason have gotten into the habit of picking shavings out of their own water which is pretty interesting. They are little comedians too who enjoy spending their time with their humans.

Silkie chickens are one of the most sweetest chickens you"ll ever interact with. They are not "flighty" or "skittish", instead they will give no hesitation whenever being handled by anyone! I have received so many positive comments from many of my friends and family about my silkie chickens. They are MUST HAVE in any chicken flock; I highly recommend you get some especially if your looking for a hen to raise some chicks or as just pets!

I'm currently several months in to raising my first pair of Silkies. I have so much enthusiasm for this breed, they are just the best. So much fun, so much fluff, so much personality. What more could you want?

"But they'll get dirty," you say. Um, mine don't. Aside from a little dirt on their feet (which, let's face it, no chicken of any breed is picky about what they step in), they stay remarkably clean. My white Silkie is the color of fresh snow. My buff Silkie shines in the sun like she was poked by King Midas. Which makes sense, because no one can keep their hands off these birds. They are so soft. Like a stuffed animal come to life. Seriously, the cuddle potential of this animal is unlimited.

"But what if it's a boy?" you say. Yeah, what if? I seriously doubt you're getting a Silkie for eggs, because a) they're bantams, their eggs will be little and b) Silkies are notorious for going broody, which will decrease the number of eggs you get anyway. Be honest with yourself, you want a Silkie because they are cute and fluffy, and Silkie roos are just as fluffy and friendly as Silkie hens.

"But they can't get wet!" Were you planning to leave your chickens in harsh weather unprotected? No?? Well then keeping Silkies out of the rain should not be an issue. They can get wet, btw, it's just not a good idea to leave them that way. You can blow-dry them. I said blow-dry them.

Silkies are wonderful. If you want to hatch some eggs, Silkies make great moms. If you want a great pet, Silkies are your go-to chicken. If you want an unusual-looking bird with a great personality...yeah, you get the point. Here's my white Silkie, Sugar:



And my buff Silkie, Spice:


And if all that didn't convince you, here's my winning argument:

Silkies can wear Build-A-Bear clothes.




I rest my case.

ITS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT THEIR CUTENESS OMG

I have a Partrige Silkie named Shea, and she has the most beautiful and soft feathers that feel softer then silk, and I absolutely love her 5th toes! But because she is a bit strange looking, the others often pick on her.

Every morning when I let the chickens out into the yard, she paces back and forth along the perimeter of the coop trying to find a way to get out to be with the others. While she dose this, the door is literally a foot away from her, and she wails loudly as if I locked her in the coop!
We also have a concrete walkway that raised above the grass, and the chickens walk across it regularly to get to the other side of the yard, and Shea will always trip over it and then squeal.

Despite the other reviews that silkies are poor layers, my silkie was actually the first of my chickens to start laying, she lays a small tan egg nearly every other day.

She really isn't the smartest girl in my flock, but we love her, and overall she is a great chicken.

good

I adopted 2 silkie rooster from the sale barn as adults. One is fully white and the other is fully black. They are sweet and timid. They let my hens run the show.

We purchased 2 silkies in our original flock; Gipsy, a hen and Clem a rooster. The two bonded and are together almost always. Our first reaction to discovering we had a rooster was that we couldn't keep him, but upon realising the extent of Clem's quite, kind, protective and gentile qualities, mostly directed towards Gipsy but also the rest of the flock, we decided to keep him. Due to our Silkie rooster's smaller size he is not top of the pecking order however he still maintains a high rank and is constantly watching out for ALL of our chooks. Gipsy is the cutest chicken ever, she always has something to say and is always making funny sounds. She to Clem is like a nagging wife, always yapping at him whilst he dutifully carries out her chores, whenever we pick up our Silky hen Gipsy, after a few chirps, Clem is instantly by her side, regularly at night Clem is seen carrying/pushing his sleepy maiden up the ramp to bed.

Silkies are undoubtably one of the cutest chicken breeds.

We have also recently purchased 2 new Silkie crossed hens; Nia and India.

First of all, I only got the silkies because they were free to me, and I want to eventually be able to use them to hatch out my other chicks. I never expected to be so enamored with them! What sweeties they are. They don't see well, and because of that, if they are with other chickens they don't normally get the treats unless you hand feed them (but you have to pick them up so they have TIME to figure out you are even giving them a treat before someone tries to snag it.

They really are a fun little novelty to have in the coop. Visitors always oooh and ahhh about them and want to hold them-which is fine because they are so STINKING SWEET AND FLUFFY! OMG!

They don't do well with a flock of crazy hens that can see well because they get trampled. This is why our silkies are in their own half of the coop with a separate run...It's for The Littles we call it. Currently, our Americaunas are there as well because they are smaller compared to the other counterparts and they seem equally mild tempered and everyone gets along like that.

My rooster has the most ridiculous crow. I cannot help but bust out laughing when I hear it. He sounds like a cartoon character...This is Jar Jar Beaks:

we got a silkie hen and named her lola, 5 months later when lola grew spurs and started crowing we changed his name to ricky. we have 2 buff orpingtons and they tower above him but he still acts like he is the boss, he is a good rooster that has shown almost no aggression towards me besides skwaking when i pick up one of HIS hens, he is very good at being held, they are very fast though.
he crows like he's being strangled.

My partridge silkie didn't lay till she was almost 9 months old. I was thinking maybe my she is a he. She lays good, small brown eggs. But when she goes broody she is extremely hard to break and just wants to hatch some babies. She isn't to noisy and I really only ever here her when she sings her egg song and her growls when she is broody.

I miss my sweet Silkie hen Izzy Lou. She lived to be almost eight years old and raised many fine families for us. Our Silkie rooster Tweety was very low on the pecking order, but it did not bother him, he was good at staying out of the way and the others did not harass him. He lived to be seven years old also, and was an excellent protector of our hens and young birds. I miss them both.

I highly reccomend this breed especially for family's who have kids that would want to hold the chicken and feed them some bread or something with out having a breed that is going to jump out of there arms and there wing hit them in the face. They love to be pet and held also which I like to do a lot just to pet them talk to them give them a treat and let them go back to the flock but I highly reccomend this breed for small children and people who love Broodys

I have 2 golden silkies 1s a hen and the other one is a cock. At the moment we are keeping them with our hybrids. Great for people that have had chickens before because they are difficult to catch and being so broodie can make them a bit grumpy. Payed 25 pounds each for them.