INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Kiniska]

Thanks guys. I was just wondering. Culling is never easy. It seemed there were several people with silkies having respiratory issues. Thought perhaps it was a predisposition of the breed.Thankfully no one culls me for that.

 

[racinchickins]

Is it common for these sorts of things to happen to silkies? If I was having issues like these with a bird that animal would be a cull. Now if it was the entire flock I would be looking at housing and other outside issues that could be causing it. To me a bird prone to this sort of thing is weak and should not be allowed to breed. Not trying to be mean, I am just curious and trying to understand.
Thanks!

I currently have around 20 sub adult to adult silkies and around 30 chicks. I've hatched probably around 60-75 silkies thus far. I don't think this is common as I've only had two chicks total with these symptoms. I would have to disagree with culling the chick due to this issue. While it has not been examined by a veterinarian, it is responding to the last antibiotic I'm using. Appears toy the previous antibiotic I was using was not effective against the type of bacteria causing these symptoms. It would be like culling a chick due to it have an infected cut, it would be senseless.

Now, I'm not against culling. I have hatched deformed chicks that will not have a good quality of life. I feel that is not the case with this chick. It's just the matter of running the antibiotics their full course and finding the correct one with out having a culture taken by a vet.

It is never easy to cull when you can help the chick get better in a week or so. But for me it depends on how busy I am as well as how the chick culd grow up. I have rehomed a special chick before with notice that it would be blind in 1 eye as it was pecked by its sister.

Thanks guys. I was just wondering. Culling is never easy. It seemed there were several people with silkies having respiratory issues. Thought perhaps it was a predisposition of the breed.Thankfully no one culls me for that.

Keep in mind that cull usually just means 'Remove from the breeding pool'. Not always killing the chick. So taking them out of the breeding pen or re-homing is also "culling". As far as the goopy eye thing goes, some breeders would remove a bird that had that problem if none of the others came down with it. Just to keep the vigor of the breeding stock at the highest level possible. I have three legbar hens, but I have 'culled' one because she doesn't walk normally and hasn't grown as big as the others. She was one of my first hatchlings, so she will lead as long a life as possible with my flock, but I won't hatch any eggs from her.

 

[barb s]

Its taken me two days but I have finally caught up. Just wanted to drop in and say hey. Lovely pics everyone, sorry to everyone who has lost birds or who is dealing with issues. Don't remember who it was that was looking for hay up here in this area but we may have some alfalfa hay if you are still interested. I have to talk to my bf. He works 3rd shift so he is sleeping right now but I will talk to him tonight if still interested.
Hope everyone is having a great day. Back to lurking now.

 

[browncow15]

I think nature gives so many beauties! I feel everyone's pain with the weather and caring for our beloved extended families outdoors but even as I drove home from Btown this afternoon in the mess of it all watching folks slide off the highways I was so happy to come home and as always the first thing I do is tend to my flocks...no matter the weather or what the crazy daily life brings me I know they will "brighten" my day!

Don't get me wrong. .I can't repeat all the nasty 4 letter words I rant when fishing out a silkie from under the coop for nightly lockup...or when one flies out and lands on my head because they just realized there's snow on the ground..or when I slip and fall walking up the steps into the coop because my bloody boots are a sloppin' mess..when I reach into a nest box to recover an egg only to realize I just ran my arm through a huge mess of poo right there on the perch...let's see I could just go on and on! !!!!!!! Right!

Who's with me! ?!

HAHAHAHA!
But O how I love them! LOL

Lol! Personally I don't mind the weather but I'm also VERY thankful I can stay home when the roads are bad!

You should have heard my rant last night! I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy! Apparently some of my birds didn't make it back to the coop before it started snowing yesterday afternoon so they got stuck in the barn. Well of course the rafters are the best place to roost so I'm out in the dark trying to get 6 birds back to the coop! I could have done without that!!

 

[bradselig]

 Keep in mind that cull usually just means 'Remove from the breeding pool'.  Not always killing the chick.  So taking them out of the breeding pen or re-homing is also "culling".     As far as the goopy eye thing goes, some breeders would remove a bird that had that problem if none of the others came down with it.  Just to keep the vigor of the breeding stock at the highest level possible.  I have three legbar hens, but I have 'culled' one because she doesn't walk normally and hasn't grown as big as the others.  She was one of my first hatchlings, so she will lead as long a life as possible with my flock, but I won't hatch any eggs from her.

You are correct.  Personally I will not cull (be it killing or removing from breeding) until I either now it will never improve or raise it up and monitor it through its development. If the bird never fully recovers from previous illnesses or is permanent changed from illness (stunted growth, limp from leg injury, ect) but will still live a quality life, then I'd opt for keeping in a pet situation, be it at my place or a new home.  I hear of people killing birds because they don't meet their standard or the SOP for the breed.  I can not agree with this nor will I ever kill because it doesn't fit the SOP for type.

Its taken me two days but I have finally caught up. Just wanted to drop in and say hey. Lovely pics everyone, sorry to everyone who has lost birds or who is dealing with issues. Don't remember who it was that was looking for hay up here in this area but we may have some alfalfa hay if you are still interested. I have to talk to my bf. He works 3rd shift so he is sleeping right now but I will talk to him tonight if still interested. 
Hope everyone is having a great day. Back to lurking now.

Hi Barb! How's the flock doing?

 

[bradselig]

I have 3 silkie Roos to give away if anyone is interested. 2 partridge and a buff with blue. All less than a year old.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

You are correct. Personally I will not cull (be it killing or removing from breeding) until I either now it will never improve or raise it up and monitor it through its development. If the bird never fully recovers from previous illnesses or is permanent changed from illness (stunted growth, limp from leg injury, ect) but will still live a quality life, then I'd opt for keeping in a pet situation, be it at my place or a new home. I hear of people killing birds because they don't meet their standard or the SOP for the breed. I can not agree with this nor will I ever kill because it doesn't fit the SOP for type.

I have given this a decent amount of thought. At first I was of the same mind you are, never kill a healthy bird just for not meeting the SOP. But then I got my HRIR chicks and the majority were roosters. I was able to re-home a few. However in the future I am going to be very careful about re-homing any of the HRIR. Now my HRIR are dual purpose so narrowing down the flock and eating the ones that don't meet SOP is a good way to provide food for the freezer as well as prevent future instances of fake HRIR breeding ~ where the pet quality roo is breed to a hatchery hen and the chick is sold as a show quality chick from "my" line. Thankfully I only re-homed 2 locally and both are far enough away that I don't think the breeding will be an issue. Plus I'm not a name brand breeder by any means so it won't be my name on their fake heritage line.

 

[kabhyper1]

I just think this has been a really bad year for respiratory stuff, and silkies are just more sensitive. Lilys eyes are still sealing shut at night. Cluck (curtis) has a roo with it, Brads, and a few people from fb that I know have silkies with it. Not sure what it is, but I hope it clears up. So far the rest of my flock is still okay.

 

[Kiniska]

My birds are dual purpose as well, so I plan to only keep breeder quality birds for my flock. Everything else get a trip to freezer camp. The silkies are more of a passion and fancy pet I think, so I can understand culling being simply re-homing as a pet and not euthanising.

 

[lilmizscareall]

My first egg! I just happened to go check on the flock, one last time, before I headed to work and there it was.
Phew! One of the Cochins is finally paying her rent.
Edited to add: My husband told his coworkers and they're all asking him what we are going to do with it... *le sigh*