Looking to buy silkies, best hatchery/place to get them?

[koakritters]

I'm now pretty sure i'm 2 for 2 on roosters with my silkies, my 2 month old already has a little bulge forming on his head

oh well, i still love him! our feed store isn't getting anymore in until the end of summer, so now i'm trying to find a place to get them from that cheap/reasonable without me having to spend a min amount of $. where's the best place (or person on here!) that you've found to get some from? i want to get 4 or 5, i've got to have a girl in there somewhere, right?!?! LOL.

 

[KDailey]

I'm pretty new to chickens in general so I'm not just real knowledgable but maybe if you answered a few more specific questions you might get more answers.

Where are you located?
Do you prefer to pick-up only or are you ok with shipping?
Are you looking for hatching eggs, day old chicks or chicks that are a couple weeks old?
Are you looking for show quality or are hatchery chicks ok?

 

[dolly85]

McMurray has decent silkies. I ordered some from Ideal this spring and they just aren't as hardy or as pretty as Mcmurrays that I ordered last year.

 

[Elite Silkies]

I'm sure someone on here is close enough to you, and would have some decent priced ones. I think it's way too hot to ship right now depending on where your at.

 

[kerrysmommy]

where are you located if you look on craigslist there are really good show quility silkies thats where i got mine and the outcome of both male and females are great you can find silkies from mccmurrays too

 

[lovesgliders]

How on earth can you accurately sex a Silkie at two months old? Mine are four months old and still have me--and everyone!--guessing. I have never heard of sexing them by a bulge on the head... would you mind elaborating?

MyPetChicken.com is where I got some of my Silkies, and only 2 or 3 out of 10 actually look like Silkies. They are fugly little guys. LOL I got my others from a local breeder and they are MUCH larger and prettier, so I recommend that route if at all possible. We are coming up on fair season and you might be able to get sexed, started birds there.

 

[kerrysmommy]

Quote:
if you could send me send good pics (body and head) i might be able to tell you mine is 4 days old and i know for sure its a rooster
(pm only please)
court

 

[koakritters]

i'm going off of what my other male looked like at this age, and from looking at pictures of males v females at this age, the males already have the black 'bulge' growing on their heads, and the females it is still flat. and mine definitely has a bulge that is getting bigger, so i'm pretty sure it's a boy. i'm holding out hope that it's mothering instincts that it showed with the other younger chicks proves it's a girl... but... LOL.

I'm in the SF bay area, north bay. I think it's way too hot to ship also. I haven't seen any silkies on CL, and only one of the feedstores around here even gets them in, and they barely get any! i've been lucky the last 2 times and got the very last silkie they had.

 

[HHandbasket]

Here's my take on "ordering" silkies. (MY opinion only.)

I would never buy a silkie from a hatchery unless all I wanted was the cute silkie eggs OR a nice, broody silkie hen. Silkies from hatcheries, while the do tend to be really fun pets and really healthy birds, are rarely of the quality to be shown or bred.

If you are looking for only a nice pet silkie, I say order from a hatchery! The reason they don't ship them in the summertime, however, is that they often arrive dead from the heat, so most hatcheries will not ship in the summer months (which is probably why your local feed store is out of chicks until later in the year). Even if the chicks don't arrive dead, it's kinda cruel to ship them in the heat & they die shortly afterward more often than not.

I agree with other posters about checking on craigslist and looking for a local breeder. That's how I got mine.