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I think you made the right call in bringing them inside. I have a house hen right now (an elderly silkie bantam) who I'm sheltering from the cold. The rest of my flock is a little more hardy but are staying in the coop until temps are in the double digits this afternoon. I second putting up...

Thank you so much! I've got a cold little rooster on a 30 min house warmup right now and wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing. I just moved to the midwest and have never dealt with temps like this before! I have the inside temp set to the 50s, which seems to be pretty comfortable for...

Thoughts on shorter-term stints indoors? If I have a particularly cold-looking chicken, how long can they stay inside before they would need to acclimate? Is it fine to bring them inside to warm up for, say, 30 min? An hour?

That makes sense! I'll try a combination of the two. She's in my room/studio apartment so I'm not keen on letting it get too cold, but I'll drop the temp by 10F a day over the next few days.

That's a good call! I can't put my hen in the garage so I have her in my room (I live in a shared house). Acclimating her would involve also acclimating me (lol) but I can bundle up and maybe drop the thermostat by 10 degrees a day for the next couple of days.

My 7 year old silkie hen looked very cold and lethargic this morning after an extremely cold night. She's the lowest ranking and a little frail, so I was worried about her dying in the -30F with windchill, -10F without wind temperatures. I brought her inside and she perked up and has been...

You might want to isolate her away from the rest of the chickens. If she's getting picked on, she's less likely to be eating and drinking enough. Also, there's a chance she could have something contagious. Vent gleet is a possibility. I'd also be concerned about worms. Other possibilities I'd...

It's -30F here with the wind chill. I put my silkies out in the run earlier (sheltered from the wind with hay bales) but then an hour later found them all flat and looking cold. They're now in the coop for the day--- maybe I'll get them out again this afternoon if it warms up a little...

This is horrific--- -30F from the wind chill today. I found that snow blew in through the ventilation last night (even though the coop is in an open barn) and one of my 7 yr old silkies got wet and looked half frozen this morning. I brought her and the other 7 yr old into the house to recover...

Update at 4 months! The little yellow chick that looked like he'd become a pale partridge is a handsome dark red rooster with black tips and funny little white cheek puffs. The little grey chick is all white except for a couple of feathers of black leakage in her top knot. I'm guessing she's a...

Update: the little yellow chick the breeder originally thought was splash and that we later thought would be a light partridge is maturing into a gorgeous red cockerel! The little grey chick is maturing into a very fluffy white pullet. I know their sexes because I sent out blood for DNA...

Ooh good call! There's 24 hour vet I could have stopped at on the way home--- it's probably a bit late for that now though. (The ornithologist collecting samples for me was a bird scientist friend, not a vet. She does lots of blood draws and deals with minor injuries in small birds though.)

Thanks! It looks healed this morning!

Update: the cotton fell off and the toenail appears to be fully clotted. I dabbed it with an antiseptic wipe to gently clean it without reopening it, applied neosporin, and then put on a little more cornstarch just in case she somehow opens it back up first thing in the morning. I'll clean it...

I (with help from an ornithologist) trimmed my month-old silkie's nail to collect a little blood for a DNA sex test. Afterwards, we held a cotton ball with corn starch on it for a few minutes till the bleeding stopped. Then the bleeding restarted so we held a fresh corn starch cotton ball on...

My little yellow chick is now getting some red in, so maybe he'll be a red partridge? Still not sure if he came from the red pen or the partridge pen, though. The little grey chick is for sure going to be white and probably came from the splash pen (apparently splash x splash can give white...

Any updates on your implanted rooster? I'm thinking about doing the same with my male chicks and am wondering how well it works long-term. Like yours, my chickens are pets and I don't want to rehome them :)

I'm looking into getting an implant for my male silkie chicks. Did your roo ever start crowing? At what age did he get the implant? Thanks!!

Hi! I was wondering if you have any long-term updates. I have at least one silkie chick I'm pretty sure is a male and I'm looking at options for keeping all my chicks as pets in an area that doesn't allow crowing roosters. Did the crowing continue, and did your roo get the implant before or...