Chicken Breed Focus - Silkie

[Bogtown Chick]

I'm a fan of the Buff Silkies.

This is Dixie Doo...











You'll note she is small crested. She is not a showbird. She works in our flock of free ranging birds. Basically because she can see. She's spunky enough to tolerate larger flock members and she has proved her worth in our flock as a broody hen and excellent mother. She has quite a bit of character & tenacity as you can imagine. She winters well in the upper midwest. A silkie with a larger crest would not really work well in our set up.

 

[sharingchickens]

I do keep one in the house as a pet! She stays in my laundry room most of the time, but I have an outside playpen for her when I am out too.

 

[Suzierd]

Love my Silkies!

 

[MumsyIII]

I discovered Silkies in 1988 and fell in love with them. These days I'm focusing on breeding Whites, Blue Cream, Buffs, Lemons, Partridge projects, and Self Blue. I hatch year round and never get over how delightful they are from chick to breeding pen.

 

[hens2makesmiles]

I want silkied so badly!! I will pay any price if you're willing to sell them to me!! I live in Southern California

 

[Banaynaychicken]

I saw how fluffy and friendly they were at the local Feed store, and had heard great things about them. I just had to have a few! I plan on breeding and incubating once my White Bantam Silkie, Yukon, starts laying ^.^

They are a fantastic pet, and quite a calm "Lap Bird" , as my dad has referred to them as, and although they do go a bit broody ( okay ALOT broody) it melts your heart to see that they are just so sweet to care

I love how fluffy and friendly they are! Literally, the fluff. Rub them on your face because they're so fluffy. cuddle them, hug them, make them your favorite. They are amazin' ^-^

This is my Favorite Bantam Silkie, Nugget, my little Rooster
Picture heavy ( heh heh)

 

[CherriesBrood]

I've been waiting for the silkie breed focus!!! I want some silkies so bad! Love to here all of your experiences, so I can learn what they are like before I get them.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

My flock depends upon my Silkies as they have been the mothers to them all (except for a few feed store birds or an occasional pullet purchased).

Mine have not been really friendly, as in lap quality, but they are very docile and can make for excellent brooders and mothers. I purposely purchased my first Silkie years ago because I wanted to be done with heat lamps and artificial house brooding (what a mess). My first Silkie Oma-San hatched many clutches for me and helped me build my flock. Sadly she was picked off by a hawk about a year ago as she was free ranging with her oversized babies (she never knew when to cut the apron strings).

I replaced her with another maternal Silkie who was a proven broody. Again not lap docile (many of your fine brooders are not as docile...they have to have some pluck to protect those babies) and added a couple of bantam Cochin to boot so that there is never need to free range for company (too many hawks here).

My broodies live the life of queens in their own designated hutch and hawk covered run, regularly going broody and hatching wonderful babies for me.

Here are some of my favorite photos of my lovely brooding queens.





She never knew when to launch them...she just kept mothering

 

[Sylvester017]

I got this breed because of their reputation for being extremely docile and friendly, and while none of my silkies have demonstrated that quality so far, I'm hopeful for future generations.

I've actually got the hair-brained idea to try to produce white-crested-black silkies by crossing them with one of my Polish. I don't know if it will work, but I'm going to give it a shot.

With vaulted skulls on Polish used to cross-breed with Silkies to give Silkies a poofier crest, I didn't want to get any Silkies with vaulted skulls - good chance of pecking injuries on the head from other chickens and sometimes they get neurological tremors/seizures or head-shaking and can even die. Only skin and a bit of feathers covers the brain pushing against the opening in the skull exposing the brain to easy injury. One Silkie breeder that has had them for years said her vaulted skull Silkies seldom lived past 2 years. I do not have vaulted Silkies but I feel their crests are still full and fluffy without the vaulting - safer and healthier. I'm finding that the vault vs no-vault hasn't made a significant difference in the Silkie crest poofiness but then it's IMO only.


A - Is a Vaulted Skull.
B - Is a Non-vaulted Skull

THIS IS A POST FOUND ON THE BYC THREAD CALLED "VAULTED SKULLS"
I found this on Photobucket. It must be a Silkie skull since it is black. The brains are exposed and sometimes bulge from the openings. There are varying degrees of vaulting, to a huge vault to almost non-existent, to everything in between. I can sex my Silkies from the time they hatch since the pullets will have the largest vaults.

My no-vault Silkies




Partridge molting - no vault ------ Black Silkie no vault


Just sharing my concerns about the new interest for vaulted skulls when there is such a danger to the bird - often owners of newly hatched Silkies can't figure why their chick's head posture is hanging or why there is mild to violent head-shaking or why the chick is walking funny or seizing or - worse - dead. The vaulted Polish or vaulted Silkie is the reason I advise new owners to not mix these delicate gentle birds with heavier dual purpose or assertive breeds that love to assert themselves by giving a good hard peck to the head of a Polish or a Silkie. To each his own but I just wanted to share info I've accumulated through research and talking to breeders.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Silkies are definitely on my wish list!

Lovely birds everyone.