More on Silkies... baby silkie chick pics, incubator experiences, and advice for new hatchers.

[chikymommadukes]

Hi everyone!
I'm a total newbie with chickens. I saw some Silkies at my local zoo in mid-May and fell madly in love! I researched as much online info as I could possibly find, purchased some eggs on ebay, and recieved some Silkie eggs in the mail on May 31st. 17 of the 20 were fertile and all 17 were squirming in their shells at "lockdown".

Sadly one that hatched had a badly deformed right leg and had to be put down. RIP "Eyeball".

Three of them didn't hatch. Guess they weren't strong enough.

BUT... I have 13 fabulously adorable chicks who are happy, healthy, and growing very quickly.

A few of them started to get pasty butt (constipation,) but a little molasses in their water and a few warm butt baths did the trick.

Their names are; "Eyeball" (in namesake memorium), Sookie, Shazam, Scooter, Cool Whip, Puff, Mojo, T.C. (Tiny Chicky), Wally, Yan Yan, Tango, Sugar, and Bogie. They are only 9-10 days old and theyalready love to line-up for regular belly rubs.

lol
(PIC on the way when I figure out how to get "permissions for attachments". lol)

Their "Super-Duper Chicky Palace" (or as my daughter calls it: "The Happy Hatchlings Headquarters") is still in the works. I will post pics when it's completed.

 

[chikymommadukes]

I posted two silkie chicky newborn pics in my profile album for anyone interested.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Hello fellow Silkie lover!

Currently in my flock I have three Silkie pullets, one Silkie cockerel, a Silkie hen and, a Sizzle pullet.
My Silkie hen went broody about a week ago, I'm so happy!!

I'm very used to the Silkie breed but, none of my hens have gone broody until now.

She is sitting on 8 "barnyard mix" eggs so I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing what they look like. They are due tomorrow,

the third, the fourth, etc, etc.
I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[chikymommadukes]

So sweet of you to reply and tell me about your little chickies.

Sorry I've been ill and haven't been on here to respond. My BF is always checking out the new coop pics though. He's always looking for more ideas on how to improve ours when I know it's already perfect...and I keep telling him so. I should posts pics of his amazing work soon.

I would love to hear about how things went with your broody one on all those eggs. I can't wait until next spring when a couple of mine can try the "egg sitting" thing.

Sadly, I've lost two chicks since my last post. One, a buff named Bogie, weirdly never grew. I hand fed her for over three weeks and still she got weaker and weaker until she couldn't even walk anymore so we euthanized her.

The other was a fave of mine. He was a blue splash and his name was Tango and he had the cutest early crowing and was so personable and cuddly that I called him my teddy bear. Tango (my little warrior

) bravely fought off a hawk , but got his neck snapped.

Now we only keep them all in a large run that's fully fenced on all sides (1/2" galvanized hardware cloth). To always remember how he saved all the others we've added a sign to the coop that says "Home of the Free, Because of the Brave" and another naming the coop "Tango Bo-Bango's Bungalow" as a memorial to him.

My very sweet white rooster, Yan Yan, has taken over in Tango's place as head dude. He's doing a wonderful job, although he has yet to attempt crowing. He's so regal and mild mannered that I'm kinda wondering if he ever will (if that's even possible? lol) ... but, no matter either way in my opinion.

I look forward to hearing from you and also from any other silkie lovers too.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Sorry to hear about your loses

I got my first silkie last year and raised him up for one week old but he turned out to be a rooster (which I am not allowed to have) so I found him a good home and started over. Below is my silkie, Ginger Chicken. She has made me a true silkie convert. I plan on having silkies forever now. I took a picture of her every month to document her growth. She is partridge bantum bearded silkie. She follows me all around the yard.

 

[chikymommadukes]

She's adorable! Love her name!

I have two partridges. One of them looks a lot like yours except that her head is dark brown. Please check out the pic of her, "Wally" lol, and her sister, "Scooter Pie", and a few others that I added into my profile. Scooter (a.k.a. Swirly cuz every day she washes her hair in the water dish that's in the run and then struts around with crazy wet hair "spikes". My daughter says she looks like someone gave her a swirly. Hahaha!

) The funniest thing about it is that her head is bright orange so my kids also call her Heat Miser. lol. I read somewhere that in partridges the hens are brown and the roosters are orange, but I'd be very very surprised if little scooter was a rooster. She is such a tiny placid little sweetie and has no signs of height or male feathering or crowing. She actually stills peeps like a chick. Sooo cute!

Sorry about your rooster.

My bantam silkies are about 3 1/2 months old now and it looks like I have 4-5 roosters. ( That means 6-7 are hens.) I may have to finds homes for a couple roosters in the future, but as for now they all get along fine. I live where the crowing shouldn't bother anyone...hopefully. lol. I'm glad because a couple of the roosters are my true "teddy bears" and I couldn't stand to part with them. I actually enjoy the sounds of them. Over here we say things like, "Hey, Zammy (Shazam) is roosterin! Haha! He's so dark grey that he's almost black. He's supposed to be a splash. Not a speck of white tho. He also is limited in feathering on his legs and head. I think he's cute, but my mom calls his my homely bird. My mom is the critical type so I just ignore her. Shazam has started pecking hard and biting at my boyfriend lately...must be a dominance test? Haha! The rooster who has found his way to my heart lately is a white named Yan Yan (means elegant bird in chinese.) He is so mild-mannered and quiet. The only time he makes sounds is when he comes over to me and acts like he's trying to talk to me. Way cute. He never pecks or bites and can easily be held and hugged and bathed and blow dried, etc..

My sweetest chickie of all is "Rosy Eyeball". She is a tiny, puffball splash, but she is completely pale smoke grey. What a doll. She will cuddle with me endlessly. She makes the coolest sounds of them all. Sometimes she does a warbly bock bock and at night she does this alien rumbly cooing sound.

What's "Ginger Chicken's" personality like?

 

[ChickensRDinos]

She is very sweet and always runs up to me when she sees me in the yard. She is also surprising brave and has decided that she does not like my pit bull and will chase her out of the yard. How are yours doing?

 

[chikymommadukes]

All my hens are wonderful.

A couple of them have been a bit more timid than the others, and they've wanted to stay close by me, but not be picked up and cuddled. Lately they're becoming more comfortable with me cuddling them and I'm thrilled. This past Wed. and Thurs. we had snow/ice/freezing rain. They had to stay in their coop since we haven't weather-proofed their wire run yet. Sadly, We had to attend my boyfriend's father's wake/funeral so we had to be far away and couldn't even visit them in the coop until late at night each day.

Luckily, we have a live cam to watch them on our cell phones, so we always had peace of mind that all was well with them.

Today was beautiful weather and they got to romp and play a long time. Yay!

Our biggest dilemma now is deciding which roosters must go. We really only need two of them and we have 5 or 6. (One of them, we still can't decide if it's a he or she. lol)

We have been reading about the best way to choose based on best rooster behavior. Still, it will be difficult to say goodbye to Roos I've raised since eggs.

If anyone has any Roo decision advice we'd very much appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[featheredmom]

Really it is up to YOU on what you want in a rooster.

We had 3, 2 on purpose and one "accidental." We were planning on giving one to my FIL because his was attacked by a dog. He didn't want to raise a lone chick and was afraid to add him to the established flock for obvious reasons, so we raised one for him!!

He wanted the "meanest" rooster we had because he had a few very dominant hens. Two of them actually started acting like roo's after they lost their rooster. My husband wanted the meanest too because we live on 111ac in the middle of nowhere with many wild things out there(we lost one baby to an owl early on due a small opening in the coop that we didn't realize was there and 2 more recently to a weasel). I gave my FIL the "mean" red rooster, mainly because he saw my 11yr old daughter as a threat when she fed them. He would fly up at her, he pecked her hand a few times, once he even tried spurring her with his non-existent spurs. He never tried any of that with the adults, only my 11yr old, so going to a home with adults only was a good thing for him(and us). He was definitely the prettiest guy in our flock and dh still gives me a hard time about giving away HIS rooster and will talk about how beautiful he is...although dh is the one that boxed him up for his dad, so it is all in good fun!

We are left with two roosters, one that is dominant and another that has coward with the hens from day one, we call him the gay rooster. Although the "gay rooster" is not what you would want for your only, it works for us because we don't have dominance issues with 2roo's.

So seriously, it is all in what you want in a roo. Some want the prettiest, some want a protector(which is hard with silkies, they are so small, we have 5 ourselves-2 grown and 3 babies), some want a beautiful crow-er, some want a sweet temperament for breeding purposes, just up to the keeper.

We are getting 50 more laying hens in 2 wks and need to add a roo, I am looking into a Jersey Giant because I have heard wonderful things about them, they keep their flock safe, but have a great temperament with humans(mostly-they are all individuals so it is luck of the draw, but averages and norms can helps some). So we will be adding a few Jersey Giant hens and one roo this spring, we don't need the hens, but don't want our roo to grow up alone, he would be miserable!!

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Wow, its been awhile since I've posted.

Since then, ALL yes ALL of my silkies have gone broody. Two have chicks, one gave up (long story) and two are sitting on eggs! I'll post pictures when I get the chance.