Silkie

Great chicken to have around the backyard! Rooster are pretty quiet when they're crowing and the hens are very sweet. Never met a mean silkie.

I have 2 silkies, a white, and a splash. The splash, Gabby, is small, fast, and NOT the cuddly type. The white, cottonball, is large, slow, and sweet. Feet are always muddy. I can't say anything about their laying abilities, as mine will be 4 months old on the 18th.

My silkie is really cute and adorably tiny, but she's also easily panicked. I'd recommend getting multiple silkies, and not just one, so they can fit in with birds their size.
I don't really want any more birds like her, she is usually freaking out about some random thing, but she's a cutie.

they are small fluffy small and noisy. Hatch eggs out nicely.
mine love to be held. have beautiful colors

I like silkies, and the only reason I got the two I have is for their broodiness. I keep them separate from the bigger birds. I will always have two in a flock to brood and raise young of other breeds. If you hand raise them then they are very good pets. But if you leave them to nature they tend to be mean tempered, I had a silkie roo who was just plain mean to the girls and he had to go. He didn't find food for them he was rough and would whack the smallest, youngest female on the head to get the food she was eating. The key if you want a friendly silkie is raise it by hand. They don't lay every day, but if you feed them well they'll lay about 4 small eggs a week, even in winter.

Again, excellent broodies and mothers, I wouldn't trade mine even though they aren't very friendly.

I only have 1 Silkie. Binky is a white Silkie who is currently broody. She was a life saver when my incubator started acting up. I put the eggs from it under her and although the incubator killed the chicks, she was determined to be a mommy. She laid about every other day, sometimes 2 days in a row. She is very difficult to break broodiness so I gave in and gave her an egg which hasn't developed. Infertile I'm guessing. I had another Silkie "hen" that actually turned out to be a rooster when he did the mating dance to one of my hens. Very disappointing but I love my Binky! She super sweet and very protective of her nest.

I have had quite a few silkies at all different age groups. In my experience, they are true to their reputation in personality.

I absolutely adore my silkies! I have a small flock consisting of my buff roo, three black hens, pair of whites, and two partridge hens. I also have eggs in the incubator with two blues already hatched! My little silkie flock gets along great with our bigger flock of large layers, bantams, ducks, and turkeys with everyone living in the same pen without any problems. I also show and my top show birds are......you guessed it! my silkies!!!!

I love my silkies to death, just love, love, LOVE them so much! They make the sweetest sounds, and let themselves be picked up. Don't eat too much feed. But they get picked on by my Rhode Island Whites, and the rooster(a silky) ditched them for my RIWs. I have to wipe mud, and snow from the feet if they get clogged in there. The silkies aren't too smart, and often get entangled in things. More than once Ive had to cut them out of string or wire that I didn't even know was in the pen. Over all, my silkies are the best birds, and I love them so much! They are great birds for beginners and experienced poultry raisers!

My silkies are my meanest birds. They aren't so fuzzy either.

My silkies (past and present - I have just one now) have been very laid back and friendly. They did go through a period when they were pullets that they were afraid of people. I think this has to do with their vision - or lack thereof when their downy feathers cover their eyes - and possibly not knowing their owner yet. But once grown, they are very sweet, easy to pick up and cuddle, and so lovely. They are a little ungainly looking and definitely unusual looking for a chicken - kind of like a stuffed toy. Friends who don't own or know chicken breeds are often surprised at their appearance.

I've had silkies who go broody every couple of months, and silkies that have not gone broody at all. The ones who went broody were hard to break of it. I had to put them in a wire cage with no bedding for a couple of days - with food and water, and within sight of the flock. Hated to do it, but it was the only way that worked.

The silkies' slower gait and possibly blocked vision has caused my silkies (in a mixed flock) to be the first target for predators.

I got a silkie because I really wanted a cuddly, fluffy chicken. But, I raised mine from hand since she was a day old, and she still isn't that friendly. If you sit VERY still and you don't move a muscle, there is a chance that she will come up to you and get within arm's reach. But, she is definitely the scaredy cat of the group.

**UPDATE**
My silkie is all grown up now, and is much friendlier. She loves to sit in my lap and cuddle in the sun, and enjoys cleaning my hair too. She hasn't started laying yet, but should start any day now! Overall, she is one of the bravest of my flock now!

We had a Silkie that my 2 year old loved & used to carry around. She went broody a lot and did not lay well but we tolerated her cause my daughter loved her. She ended up being a lot of trouble for us though because she did not get along well with our other hens. They were always picking on our Silkie to the point where they attacked her so badly she ended up dying. Maybe they would do well with only Silkies, but if you have other chickens as well they might not mix well with them.

Marco Polo mentioned these birds on his travels and many early writers have also mentioned them. They were primarily used to rear young chicks before incubators, the silk trade, and are considered a fine cuisine for the Asians. They a characterized by their wool like feathers, turquoise earlobes, crest, muffs, beards, and five toes on each feathered foot. They are calm and great pets. Silkies aren't well known for their egg laying skills but still can lay more than once a week. White Silkies can be hard to clean and as the bird get's older pasting can be a problem with older birds. Silkies can easily get Marek's Disease than most chickens

I have 2 silkies, 1 roo and one pullet and they are great pets!! I am also thinking of putting my girl in some local pet shows. They are so calm and don't run from you.

I currently have 3 silkie hens, and I love them! You don't have to clip their wings either, because they are shredded. I have one silkie that is beautiful, kind and wouldn't hurt a soul. I then have another one who is a little bit skittish but would do anything for a mealworm! My silkies are quite smart, if they hear a noise, they will run for it- to a safe place. Silkies have an extra toe and I find it hard to keep their feet in perfect condition, sometimes they lose their nails etc.. They can get a bit noisy when they are broody and sometimes in the mornings they CAN wake you up, even the hens.. But I don't mind it. They are cuddly and so soft. Great birds. Recommended for kids or just a great little chicken with some extra care to add to your flock.

There's a reason these little guys are so popular. They are pretty, sweet, comical, hardy in just about any climate, they love to jump in the mud and dig for worms in the rain like large fowl, when mature they are just as wary to sound the barnyard alert as any other breed, and if provided a lot of shelters like evergreen, rose, or berry bushes, benches, doghouses, low planks on cinderblocks or popup canopies in a free-range they are very predator savvy to hide from aerial predators. Some say their crests impair their vision but ours are fully crested and see just fine - in an open range they somehow manage to wear down their beard and crests so they have a good vision. When not broody or moulting the hens lay from 5-6 eggs/week and our 3-1/2 year-old hen lays 4-5 eggs/week. The eggs are a good size and not peewee like most other bantams. Both our hens lay an average 1.25 to 1.5 oz eggs. Occasionally their butts need their tush baby shampoo'd and blow dried but our Silkies like the hair dryer blowing in their feathers. One Silkie will tap on the floor fan for us to turn it on so she can sit in front of it. The 5th toe tends to curl when growing so will need clipping occasionally. For lice/mite prevention we use organic Poultry Protector sprayed on their skin per label directions and they have been lice/mite free. The roos are sweeter than the hens but we aren't allowed roos and had to re-home our sweet boy. The girls have been a joy and we let them have their broody time on an empty nest and don't try to break them. They are so prolific while laying eggs that I allow them the full 3-week broody time on an empty nest to give their body a rest from laying so many big eggs but I make sure they get out of the nest to eat/drink/dust-bathe every day. My downy-feathered Ameraucana tush feathers are more chore to maintain than my 2 fluffy Silkies. My Amer gets dirtier butts from laying eggs than either of my 2 Silkies. Because we free-range our Silkies I have a Partridge and a Black so the yard dirt doesn't show stains on their darker fluff. We had a white hen but the feathers get dingy, stained, and yellowy so we stick with darker Silkies. As long as there isn't freezing temperatures Silkies do fine mucking through rain water with fluffy feet. Freezing temperatures I wouldn't allow any breed to muck through water. Silkies like most crested/bearded/muffed/tufted/feather-footed breeds are gentle temperament and non-combative so wouldn't mix them with assertive or dual-purpose LF over 5-lbs. Crested/bearded/feather-footed gentle breeds are best to mix with Silkies - Polish, Ameraucana, Araucana, Easter Egger, Breda, Sultan, Houdan, Faverolles, Cochin, Brahma, Crevies, and most other bantam breeds. Layer breeds (like Mediterranean class) or large-sized dual-purpose breeds are too assertive as adults and tend to pick on gentler crested/bearded breeds. A 2-lb Silkie doesn't have an equal pecking order chance against a heavy 7-lb dual purpose like a Marans or RIR, NHR, BR, Wyan, Orp, Lorp, etc.

Silkies are wonderful creatures, I happen to love them, they're kind, sweet, docile birds. Pretty good layers to. Only trouble is they are more of a target for other chickens and predators because of size, but you only need to be cautious. They are completely worth it!

We got our first chickens in the spring...started out with TSC chicks. I mix of production red pullets, Barred Rock pullets and a few mixed bantams. I visited a friends house and flock and she had ONE single silkie hen. She was the sweetest bird and my daughter and I fell in love. It was my mission to have some!

After about a month or more of looking for hens/pullets (they are hard to come by in my area at all, let alone girls!) I purchased a mom and daughter from a localish breeder to me. I was hooked after bringing these lovely ladies home. We re-homed all of our TSC chicks, bought some silkie eggs to hatch and bought a few more pullets (and some accidental roos. LOL). I now have a coop full of these wonderful fluffy butted chickens.

All of them are easy to handle, friendly and great with my daughter. I highly recommend these chickens of you want fun loving pets. They lay small eggs and not tons of them, but that is no big deal to me!

I like silkies but it is a myth that they are "The Most Broody Hens" They are consistently broody but pathetic when it comes to raising chicks in anything but a secured environment.

If you want the most low-maintenance broody bantam, go with a cochin or better yet, an American Game Hen. This way the chicks will grow up with a clue on how to forage and survive from threats.

They are perfect for little kids and folks that have a place to put a defenseless puffball