Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

Pics
Date sort Score sort
Zenzilicious said:
Hi Everyone!

Looking for white silkie chicks/pullets in the philly suburbs area. i'm also visiting my parents in the lehigh valley next weekend.

My husband's favorite chicken turned out to be a roo, and he is devastated. He didn't even want her at first, but I told him if he wanted to get chickens-I was getting a pretty one. Well, he ended up bonding with the silkie instead of me. We can't keep roosters where we are, but I think he would love to have another silkie just like him.

Please let me know if you know of anyone in the area. Thank you! :)
Click to expand...
I am near Pottstown, Chester County. I don't breed silkies, but I do have cochin bantams, which are very similar, but sexable at a much younger age. I have some year old frizzled hens now, and a bunch of young ones growing out in black, lavender and mottled, some are frizzles. I am keeping some very specific pullets for next year's breeders, but expect to have some pullets available over the next few weeks.
I had lots of silkies when I was a boy, now I prefer cochins as pet birds. They are my go to when families visit the farm, I can count on a frizzle hen to sit quietly on my hand while the children pet it. And those are birds that I have never handled much, they are just naturally docile.
Message me if you are interested.
 
dheltzel said:
I just rearranged some breeders to try to get eggs to hatch. 2022 has been an experimentation year for sexlinked Ameraucanas and the Olive Eggers. So far, I am happy with the way the chicks have turned out. I acquired a Lavender rooster named Archie as few weeks back. He came from my stock that a customer bought several years ago, but is moving to somewhere she can't have roosters, so he came back to be a breeder male. Yesterday I put him with 8 lavender cuckoo and 4 black cuckoo (split for lavender) hens. I have gotten a few eggs already, but it takes a couple of days to get fertility. I hope to set a few eggs this Sunday. Most of the chicks will be lavender sexlinks, but a change of getting some black sexlinks.
Click to expand...
That's really great! Do lavender chicks take longer to be sexed? If so, I can just drive to pick them up, since you can only ship day old safely. As long as I can get Ameraucanas (even just Ameraucana-like olive eggers) and a Legbar, my son will be happy. Your ameraucanas are really friendly even when I got Candy as a 12w pullet. Candy always wanted to jump on my nap and let me hand feed her. I was so heart-broken when she died from Marek's.
 
My opal legbar appears to have ascites. I gave her a warm bath, and that seemed to feel good but didn't really help the presenting issue. She is just in the basement in isolation. What should I do-- I don't really see the point of draining her given that (1) I don't know what the heck I am doing, and (2) it appears to be a temporary solution. I will be out of town for a while and the hens will be with a sitter -- I can't leave the sitter with a very sick hen.
 
feliciadawn said:
My opal legbar appears to have ascites. I gave her a warm bath, and that seemed to feel good but didn't really help the presenting issue. She is just in the basement in isolation. What should I do-- I don't really see the point of draining her given that (1) I don't know what the heck I am doing, and (2) it appears to be a temporary solution. I will be out of town for a while and the hens will be with a sitter -- I can't leave the sitter with a very sick hen.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately there are really not any good options. Cull or drain are about your only 2 viable ones. Draining is temporary as you have found on your research. We usually drain once (confirms ascites and clues for probable cause based on clarity of drainage) then the next time it returns we will normally cull to avoid them declining and being ostracized from group.
 
feliciadawn said:
My opal legbar appears to have ascites. I gave her a warm bath, and that seemed to feel good but didn't really help the presenting issue. She is just in the basement in isolation. What should I do-- I don't really see the point of draining her given that (1) I don't know what the heck I am doing, and (2) it appears to be a temporary solution. I will be out of town for a while and the hens will be with a sitter -- I can't leave the sitter with a very sick hen.
Click to expand...
Does she have Marek's vaccination? Is the fluid clear or yellowish? Unfortunately, all my hens having the same issue had Marek's and were not savable. Their bodies just slowly stopped to digest food and eventually quit working. I tried antibiotics and herbs. Nothing worked. I just heard that St Johns Wort will help some symptoms, but I never tried before. If the fluid is clear, it indicates organ failure that could be a result of cancer. Then you may consider to put her down. If it's not clear, it could be reproduction issue and can be treated by antibiotics. But reproduction issues will re-occur too.
 
@TillyPeeps She was from @dheltzel last year after he started to vaccinate, so she really shouldn't have Mareks. She is not able to eat or drink as far as I can tell, so I just feel tremendously guilty watching her die. Last March she had some similar symptoms and then they eased up and she started (briefly) laying again. But now I checked my eggs and I don't think she has layed an egg in a month, and she hasn't been roosting for the last week or two.
 
feliciadawn said:
@TillyPeeps She was from @dheltzel last year after he started to vaccinate, so she really shouldn't have Mareks. She is not able to eat or drink as far as I can tell, so I just feel tremendously guilty watching her die. Last March she had some similar symptoms and then they eased up and she started (briefly) laying again. But now I checked my eggs and I don't think she has layed an egg in a month, and she hasn't been roosting for the last week or two.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, chickens can have many types of cancers/tumors besides Marek's, and organ failure is a common result of cancer development. Do you notice bad smell from her mouth? Mine had the rotted food smell when their bodies not digesting. You can try antibiotics. But if you will be out of town, then it will not work well.
 
TillyPeeps said:
Unfortunately, chickens can have many types of cancers/tumors besides Marek's, and organ failure is a common result of cancer development. Do you notice bad smell from her mouth? Mine had the rotted food smell when their bodies not digesting. You can try antibiotics. But if you will be out of town, then it will not work well.
Click to expand...
So Harlow the opal legbar has passed. My olive egger Skinner, who is half legbar, has pendulous crop and I am not sure how long I will have her. I seem really unlucky with legbars, whereas the Americaunas and Marans do fine for me. Maybe my setup, with it's free range accomodations, isn't ideal for legbars?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom