Consolidated Kansas

[Ivywoods]

Quote: Tweety-What other chickens are you comparing them to? Silkies are bantams and thus will grow slower and be smaller than other chickens. Other than that, some chickens do grow slower than others, (just like kids) and some lines grow faster or slower than others. It can vary a lot. As long as they are continuing to eat, grow some and feather out I would not worry about it and you know you are feeding them a good quality feed and they are getting all the nutrients they need.

Even within the bantam lines some grow faster than others. My bantam partridge wyandottes seem to grow quite a bit faster than some of my old english. They will end up being a slightly larger bantam, so that is probably normal. I have not raised silkies in particular, so I can't speak specifically about them.

 

[averytds]

Our Silkies don't grow any slower than any of the other bantams we've raised from chicks. Compared to a standard at 3 weeks, they would seem tiny though. If you go get some newborn chicks from Hawkeye and compare the two you'd likely see a huge difference. We've got some 6wk old babies, one a feed store D'Uccle, all tracking right along together. Maturity is a different story.


Sadly the commercial and PO exemptions aren't enough to address the total problem created in Lawrence. You still wouldn't be able to have a poultry show, swap or sale without being in violation. Also, every brooder in town would be in violation.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Ya'll might have missed my question in this blast of activity we've had lately, so i'll post it again:

For those that have raised silkies. Do they grow slower than other chickens? Mine are 3 weeks old now and I swear they are not much bigger than when I got them. They are getting all their big girl feathers on their wings, so I know they are at least maturing, but they are still so very very tiny!. Any insite would be appreciated.

Hope everyone has a great day! It's going to be gorgeous outside - wish I were out there instead of here in the ER!

They are slower growing and slower to mature. But they SHOULD be growing! Look for their wing feathers to start coming in when they are around 6-8 days old. By 2 weeks, they should be more leggy and heavier on the body. They will look a terrible mess when they hit about 3 weeks old. They just explode with pin feathers and they are NOT cute! LOL As long as they are energetic and running around and eating and drinking, don't worry about them. They are smaller birds, anyway. It takes them a long time to fill in. They will continue to fill out past a year of age, and you'll see a big difference from when they were 6 months to when they are a year old or more. Their cushions don't fully fluff until after about 8 months. My cockerel looks a lot different now than he did when I got him last November. He was 6 months then, and it's amazing how he is still filling in.

For example-- I took this picture yesterday-- you can see the stair steps of my 1 day old, 2 day old and 6 day old chicks:

 

[Hawkeye95]

Our Silkies don't grow any slower than any of the other bantams we've raised from chicks. Compared to a standard at 3 weeks, they would seem tiny though. If you go get some newborn chicks from Hawkeye and compare the two you'd likely see a huge difference. We've got some 6wk old babies, one a feed store D'Uccle, all tracking right along together. Maturity is a different story.


Sadly the commercial and PO exemptions aren't enough to address the total problem created in Lawrence. You still wouldn't be able to have a poultry show, swap or sale without being in violation. Also, every brooder in town would be in violation.

Yeah, Lawrence really did create an awful mess, didn't they!? What in the world were they thinking? Idiots!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Hawkeye your chicks are SO CUTE and fluffy. You sure can tell the difference between hatchery stock and good breeder stock. Is your brother getting involved in the Lawerence chicken controversy at all?

I did manage to get my second set of pens moved into the barn yesterday. They did get rained on the night before, which I didn't want, but really had no choice. With the tops and the bottoms of the pens being plywood water is not good, but I think the wind dried them out quickly and it doesn't seem to have hurt them.

My DH suggested a place in the barn for them that I would not have asked for because I considered that space "his" for his goats when they are having their kids. It is not an ideal place, but it will work. I'm happy to get it in there. Now I can work on finishing them for the chickens. I want to put some scraps of linoleum down for the bottoms of the cages, and I think I will do the sides different than I did the other set. With the others I made a bowl shape out of some heavy plastic that I scrounged. I am out of that stuff, so I think I will just make some sideboards to go in there to keep them from throwing the shavings out. I've got quite a bit of salvaged 1" boards, so it should work out well. Once that is done I will hook up my auto waterer for it. I will just have to order a few more of the little cups for the system.

 

[Ivywoods]

Hawkeye-Have you got 3 blue silkie chicks? That's what it looks like in the picture (which can be deceiving!)

 

[chicken danz]

Okay time to catch up. I apologize for crashing on everyone yesterday. I am going to slow my pace down. It is absolutely killing me. I am starting this morning but sitting here and enjoying my coffee.
I am sure I will forget someone.
Hawkeye you are having some great success at hatching. Atta girl!
Congrats on all of you passing your finals, and best of luck for the rest of you who still have them to do. I started college at 20 then did a few classes in my early 30's, then didn't get my degrees until I was in my late 40's and early 50's. I so remember what finals were like. I was one of those people if I crammed to try to bring it all back I would get stressed and not remember anything. So I would do a quick skim review of my notes and just go for it.
Ivy it was great looking at your stuff and your birds yesterday. I love those big heavy pens. I looked at some of those a couple years back but the guy was wanting a fortune for them. I kind of wish I had purchased them now. I wasn't into so many breeds of birds back then. I can see why your knees went bad, you have more up and down hill in your yard than most people have in half the county. It should certainly keep your muscles toned though. Ivy is a master of re-purposing. I pride myself on what I have recycled but she has a real genius for taking an ordinary item and making something useful from it. I got some more ideas from her. The main thing I saw I really liked was you putting your food and water bowls on the outside of your cages. I may try to incorporate that into my diamond dove cage inside. I have water outside in tubes but the feeders sit on the inside. That is just so much more practical.
averytds, here is a link to the K &L page. http://exoticanimalsforsale.net/sale/3540_Yates_CenterK__L_Exotic_Sale.asp
They used to do the NPIP testing a few years back but they haven't done it to my knowledge for at least 3 years now. I am a certified tester and if you need some tests done I plan a day in Lawrence with Chooks and a couple others people if we ever get a date set. It will be an all day affair I am sure from place to place. I won't charge much. Just enough to pay for my gas and my serum so the more people that need testing done the cheaper I can do it.

 

[averytds]

It was pricey depending on how you look at it, but I bought textured fiberglass panels that I had cut for cage bottom liners. Came in 4' x 8' sheets w/cut fee was like $34ea sheet. Should last longer than any of the other options and the texturing helps do some natural wearing of nails and beaks. That's my theory anyways.

It seems like we trim less. Cleans up nice, easy & quickly.

 

[chicken danz]

Okay so that was part one. I am last minute learning about my baby Mandarins. It seems I either have to take them from their mother or put up some kind of barrier to keep them in. I am told they can easily go through the 1 inch chicken wire and they can also climb hardware cloth and scale right out of the pen. So I am thinking I am going to have to ugly up my aviary for a while and put metal or something around the bottom so they won't get out. I really want the Mom to raise them if she can. I understand they are sometimes hard to teach to eat. I sure hope she does good job of leading them to food. I was gone yesterday but Dennis said that they were all out swimming on the pond with their Mom. He did say he hadn't seen them eat yet. I am like a worried Mom. Of course that means another project for me. Just what I need!
I've got several birds hatching today. I sure hope nothing goes wrong with the hatcher this time. So far so good.
I really need to get busy on the trailer again probably won't have time with the Mandarin project. Too bad I learn things on the fly! I read and read but when it comes down to it there are always some surprises.
I am really pleased with my Production Red hens Ivy picked up for me. I'll be selling some pullets and stuff starting about next week so I can integrate them as my major egg layers soon.
I have such a huge order for eggs this week I have to keep everyone cranking them out for now.

 

[lizzyGSR]

It was pricey depending on how you look at it, but I bought textured fiberglass panels that I had cut for cage bottom liners. Came in 4' x 8' sheets w/cut fee was like $34ea sheet. Should last longer than any of the other options and the texturing helps do some natural wearing of nails and beaks. That's my theory anyways.

It seems like we trim less. Cleans up nice, easy & quickly.

Are you saying that it's okay to trim my ducks' nails? Since their duck house isn't quite done yet, I've been having to carry them outside in the morning and carry them back inside in the evening. They've been tearing my arm up with their claws. I was just beginning to wonder if it would be okay to trim their nails. Any tips on that?