Need advice/suggestions on what to do with Silkies...

[WindRunner]

What type of feed are you feeding them?

A mixture of millet, whole corn, whole oats, black oil seed, and flax seed.

 

[MysteryChicken]

A mixture of millet, whole corn, whole oats, black oil seed, and flax seed.

That's more of a treat thing, not a complete feed. High in fats/carbs.

I feed 20% protein feed to all my birds.

 

[Chicken poppy]

A mixture of millet, whole corn, whole oats, black oil seed, and flax seed.

Not a expert at feed, (at all) wouldn’t you need starter feed aswell? Sounds like a lot of treats.

 

[MysteryChicken]

The silkies i have had anyway. What i said is everything that has happened to most of my silkies.

Mine get along with other breeds, survived many frigid winters, Heat waves, never gotten a Disease, I keep mine semi wild etc.

 

[WindRunner]

That's more of a treat thing, not a complete feed. High in fats/carbs.

I feed 20% protein feed to all my birds.

Oh. I got that from a homesteader site before I found this site. I also have pellets -18% if I remember, but I started feeding them the mixture two days ago as I thought it would be better for them. Jeeze there is sooo much to learn.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Out of the birds i have had, silkies definitely get the dodo award for me. Maybe i just always end up with the wonky birds, but thats my experience with them.

Mine are more wild, & smarter.

It could just be your luck. I've been raising/breeding them for years. The only less smart ones I have are from Show Breeder stock I got from Ohio.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Oh. I got that from a homesteader site before I found this site. I also have pellets -18% if I remember, but I started feeding them the mixture two days ago as I thought it would be better for them. Jeeze there is sooo much to learn.

Are the pellets layer, or an all flock?

We are all here to learn.

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

Right now I have two silkie laying hens and they both just went broody. One of them is her second time in six months. Personally, I think silkies are actually really good layers because mine lay everyday and rarely take a day off. I think if you did want to keep your silkies they would be fine with the others. I used to have two of my silkies with a flock of good egg layers. You can never really know if a hen will go broody or not because recently one of my sex links went broody and they're not really supposed to but she hatched out three chicks with a little bit of my help. Ultimately the decision is yours and best of luck with your flock.

 

[WindRunner]

Not a expert at feed, (at all) wouldn’t you need starter feed aswell? Sounds like a lot of treats.

They are pretty big, I thought starter feed was for chicks. I need to research feeds on this site. I'm not concerned, too much, about the Silkies I have, but I have to be squared away before the Barred Rock chicks start eating regular food.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Mine are more wild, & smarter.

It could just be your luck. I've been raising/breeding them for years. The only less smart ones I have are from Show Breeder stock I got from Ohio.

Poppy’s luck includes: Loudest, constant crowing roosters, derpy breeds, weird chickens that stalk eachother.