Breed advice wanted and questions (making a Christmas list)

chick2good4u

Songster
11 Years
May 10, 2008
351
10
141
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
As most here at BYC, I have become addicted to my chickens. I am thinking about adding a few girls to my existing flock. Currently I have 6 RIR hens that are 5 months old. I'm considereing one of the following: Silkies, Polish, or Cochins. Please give me the pros and cons adding each to my flock. I'm looking for a sweet bird - amount of eggs don't matter. Can I keep these breeds with my RIRs? Are feather-footed breeds hard to keep clean? Can silkies be out in the rain/snow? Can Cochins withstand TN heat with all that fluff?

Thanks
 
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I have one silkie, and she stays with my 6 RIR's, 1 BR and 1 EE. In the beginning I kept her separate, but she could free range with them during the day. She would sleep in the barn at night when the others went to their coop. But now, she puts herself away at night with the big girls. She is very sweet and she can be hugged and kissed and carried around!
 
Here in the pacific Northwest, we see snow and heat. I personally dislike polish ,but thats my opinion. Others love them.
The featherfoots do fine in the snow and heat however here are the draw backs
Snow... packs to their feet and makes a muddy mess of the coop.
Snow and rain make the silkies look like drowned rats.
Plus side having the cochins made for a whole lot of warm smaller birds as they would have discussions over who got to sleep next to the fluffiest.
In the heat they don't seem to have a problem at all. But the giant cochins eat a ton and would rather set eggs than lay them, same goes for the silkies on setting the eggs of every bird in the building.
 
My silkie fell in the horse trough the other day, thank goodness dh found her in time. She was very frozen, and I had to bring her inside and wrap warm towels around her, rub her dry in front of heater, and place her on a heating pad set to low, to get her legs moving again. It was so scary! But, thats a little different than getting rained on a little, she also was exhausted from trying to keep her head above water, luckily the trough was at a low level at the time!
 
I live in KY. I haven't had any problems with my cochins or silkies in the heat or cold. Silkies are more hardy than what they look. I try to keep my chickens up when it is real wet out. That is just my personal preference.
 
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What makes you say that?!
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Chickens214.jpg


I personally really like the silkies. They have always been nice little ladies to have around. I'd imagine they would be great with kids because they are so docile. We don't get snow here so I don't know how they would do, but Gwen here always seems to be the last to get out of the rain!
I also really like the BLRWs. I'm sure any Wyandotte would be a good bird to have. They seem to lay well and they are pretty friendly.
 
Quote:
What makes you say that?!
gig.gif


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/cbrown15/Chickens214.jpg

I personally really like the silkies. They have always been nice little ladies to have around. I'd imagine they would be great with kids because they are so docile. We don't get snow here so I don't know how they would do, but Gwen here always seems to be the last to get out of the rain!
I also really like the BLRWs. I'm sure any Wyandotte would be a good bird to have. They seem to lay well and they are pretty friendly.

So it's ok for them to get wet like that when it's cold out? Sorry for the ignorance.
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Its ok for them to get wet like in the picture. As long as they can get out of the rain when they want to. When my silkie fell in the trough, she was way way way wetter than that. When my dh brought her to me, I didn't even realize it was a chicken he was holding. She's normally white, and she was black (skin color) and dripping wet and limp and it just looked like a wet rag or something.
 

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