Grumpy Silkies

[SheeReno]

Hey all

In our flock we have 4 silkies at 10 weeks of age. They aren't quite living up to the "friendly" billing they had received. They are still very skittish and just don't seem that trustworthy, though they've gotten a good amount of wormies and other goodies from the Evil Hands. I'm hoping that they will calm down soon, but our 6 week Silkie is already under foot, trying to hop in our lap, something the other 4 NEVER do. Is this just a "personality of the chicken" thing because that would be terrible. I don't know what their deal is, one minute it seems like they're gonna turn the corner and then I'm the monster of death again.

It is sad to me that I have to catch them and keep them from squirming in my lap still. They can take a good while to calm down a lot of times. Our 13 week BO is much more friendly, though she's been a little more standoffish the past week or so, getting teenager-like symptoms is what we think.

 

[pixie74943]

its a nature and a nuture thing.. you cant convince a crazy skittish hen to be a lap chicken, but you can make them less afraid of you.

My White Leghorn refuses to come near me, shes even super skittish about being fed. Whereas my ISA crawls up onto my knees, or shoulder and gets her treats from there.

I treated all my chooks the same, it's just a personality factor. They wont ALWAYS be petrified of you, they may even grow to love you, but you can't force them to be your bestest buddy. Just feed them, touch them gently, make being with you a good thing (food ) and hope that they have a friendly cuddly personality just waiting to come out

Good Luck

 

[chixie]

my silikies are 7 weeks old and now are out in their coop... they are all getting friendly except for two...but they are comming around.. I go and sit in their coop evryday and hand feed them boiled egg.. if I make a sudden noise the get scared... I have one that sometimes will sit in my lap... its gotta be his/her idea... give it more time and maybe they will come around

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Once my girls starting laying eggs they became much more friendly. The roos were usually pretty good growing up. I have some Silkie chicks running around with the Silkie flock now that the girls hatched out and they are skittish and hard to catch for inspections but I am sure will grow up fine.

But, I am with you, all the hype about how wonderful Silkies are did not prove to be so in my case. My bantam Cochins are tremendously better in all ways than my Silkies. And again, jmho.

 

[SheeReno]

I see I see...these are also the 4 from the "order from hell" we got from Ideal. When I can get good pics I'll post them in the What Gender thread because we don't have a clue as to the sex of them. Thanks for the input!