people with house chickens

[Sylvester017]

Covered litter boxes work well for nest boxes, too.

We priced litter boxes and they were expensive. The only way I'd use a covered litter box is if I got it cheap in a yard sale or thrift shop. But I agree, a new one is very nice. If you happen to have a smaller-size plastic dog or cat carrier, they work well too if you leave the door off. Again, one has to shop around to find a good deal. So far, our best deal $$$ was the HOMZ tote and because it is so compact for a bantam to lay her little eggies.

 

[Ponyfeather]

In the long run, Lulu found a very reasonable place to lay even though it wasn't in the nice wood nesting box I got her. She is currently most often laying them under a chair pushed up against the wall in the kitchen that gives her a nice hidden feeling near where we keep the chicken feed.

I have a somewhat sad question, sad because of the reason I am asking it. We're likely going to be getting some new chicks this year because Dot has fallen ill with ascites and we'll likely have only a few more month with her depending on how things go. What is a good friendly breed you can find easily in a feed store? I'm thinking about another Orpington or a Sussex but I'm open to any breed as long as they're not known for super high egg production. The vet said he thinks Dot's ascites is related to that. We don't want Lulu and Jet to be alone as we have seen how much better Dot and Jet started to function after Lulu was accepted into the flock.

On a lighter note, we watched Lulu run around like a nut today inside and outside until she laid her egg and with good reason! She laid an egg almost as big as a standard store-bought egg.

 

[Michelle Guynn]

Silkies are small good natured late layers and may only lay 3-4 times a week.

 

[Ponyfeather]

Silkies are small good natured late layers and may only lay 3-4 times a week.

If I can find a female I'd love to have a silkie I had a part silkie baby roo for awhile until he had a serious health issue. I think getting a silkie would also mean finding a line that didn't have a vaulted skull which caused Topaz's issues.

Any other recs?

 

[Michelle Guynn]

I have 3 for sale. A roo with a vaulted head 5 weeks old and 2 hatched 5/4. They are black.

 

[Sylvester017]

Silkies are always a good gentle choice -- small enough around bantams that are smaller yet big enough around slightly larger breeds. We bought our Silkies at an age when we could tell males from females at about 3-4 months old. I don't think feed store Silkies will have the gross vaulted skulls that show Silkies have so it should be safe to get a feed store Silkie. We bought from a feed store that had a Silkie breeder contact who brought in his older Silkie juveniles so we could get a for-certain female Silkie.

i would stay away from chicken breeds that get to 6 or 7 lbs like Orps or Sussex. They might or might not be gentle enough around bantam breeds because of their larger heavier size. Even though Leghorns are smaller around 4.5 to 5 lbs they are prolific egg layers and eventually become very domineering in the flock -- same could be said for Wyandottes. Unfortunately feed stores will either carry Silkies for bantams or egg layers like Rhode Islands, Leghorns, Marans, Orps, Australorps, Sussex, or BRs and I wouldn't recommend any of those assertive egg layers around gentle smaller breeds.

Sometimes a feed store might sell Dominiques which is what we got -- 3 Dominique chick babies -- very pesty-friendly breed -- I have 3 of them in my flock with my one old Silkie and docile Breda (Breda is a rare breed you won't find in a feed store). Our feed store moves their juvenile chickens to their barnyard for sale but they sell so fast I haven't been able to get an older juvenile Dom from them. The Doms don't get as big as Barred Rocks, have smaller rose combs and wattles, and will follow you around like puppies after a couple days of bringing them home from the feed store. Most other chicken breed babies are wary but the Dom babies are very outgoing unafraid little chicks. We played with our babies for a few minutes every day (not to tire them out too much) and by one month old they were running around the kitchen jumping in and out of their kiddie pool brooder and pecking at our toes and pant legs.

You can get just one Dom chick at the feed store but be prepared to have to raise that baby in the same room with you because a single baby chick will cry without companionship. You could get 2 chicks together but then if they both live to adulthood, you'll have two slightly larger chickens than your bantams. If you have the time, one Dom chick will be fine as long as you don't leave it alone in a room by itself. It will always want to be around you. As a baby, our first single Dom chick years ago, we put in a large parakeet cage at night in our bedroom and covered her a little bit with a terry washcloth (like snuggling under a momma hen) and at 7 pm every night she was ready to go to sleep with lights out. We put her to sleep in the bedroom cage and we came to bed a couple hours later. I would say "peep" and she would answer me back (in the dark) "peep" -- if I peeped twice, she'd peep back twice -- sort of like a momma hen and baby chick talking back and forth but she stayed under the washcloth blanket the entire night and woke up peppy every morning between 5:30 and 6 a.m. During the day she was free to sit on my computer keyboard or set up her feed and water on the floor by my feet (she HAD to be near me all the time). As she got older she went exploring farther and farther in the room. These chicks are fast and love to jump so I don't suggest having them up high on a table or chair because they are unafraid, jump off, and can hurt themselves. Easter Eggers are sold in feed stores too but they are a skittish breed and usually won't be outgoing friendly -- there are individual exceptions but that's been my experience with Easter Eggers and pure Ameraucanas -- they also can get very big and their skittishness causes accidents like spilled dishes or trampling over another chicken -- very jumpy breed.

Another thing, pullets of any chicken breed (less than a year old) usually start out laying a lot of eggs like almost every day until they stop for brooding or molting -- even bantams. Then, when a chicken resumes laying in the 2nd year it will lay 20% less eggs than their pullet year. The 3rd year they will lay 20% less than their 2nd year, the 4th year they will lay 20% less than their 3rd yr, etc etc etc. If a Silkie lays 60 eggs her pullet year, she'll lay approx 48 eggs her 2nd year, etc etc etc. Each year a chicken lays less eggs than the previous year. That's why laying chickens are cycled out of the egg industry every couple years because of their age and less production. Sad, isn't it, that chickens are discarded like so much garbage?

Hope some of this helps!

 

[Sylvester017]

@Ponyfeather -- In Norco, Calif there's a breeder called Amber Waves Silkies that you can contact to see if they have juvenile female Silkies available. They have DNA sexed females but they can cost $75 to $125 for the sexed babies. If you ask for older females that aren't DNA sexed it should be cheaper. Doesn't cost anything to ask. After Spring it's hard to find any chicks anywhere. I lost two hens in two months last summer and had to scramble to find started pullet juveniles but every place was sold out. I had to put in a special request at my feed store to get me 3 Dominique chicks because he was making his last order of chicks for the year. He ordered 25 Dominiques, 25 Silkies, 25 Rhode Islands, and 25 some other breed. I called him on the day he said he expected shipment and that very morning when the chicks arrived I hurried to pick my 3 Dom chicks. Chicks sell so fast I didn't want to miss out. A good thing about Dominiques and just about any barred chicken breed -- the females and males are sexed by their color pattern so I knew I was getting exactly 3 FEMALE Dominique chicks.

 

[Ponyfeather]

@Ponyfeather -- In Norco, Calif there's a breeder called Amber Waves Silkies that you can contact to see if they have juvenile female Silkies available. They have DNA sexed females but they can cost $75 to $125 for the sexed babies. If you ask for older females that aren't DNA sexed it should be cheaper. Doesn't cost anything to ask. After Spring it's hard to find any chicks anywhere. I lost two hens in two months last summer and had to scramble to find started pullet juveniles but every place was sold out. I had to put in a special request at my feed store to get me 3 Dominique chicks because he was making his last order of chicks for the year. He ordered 25 Dominiques, 25 Silkies, 25 Rhode Islands, and 25 some other breed. I called him on the day he said he expected shipment and that very morning when the chicks arrived I hurried to pick my 3 Dom chicks. Chicks sell so fast I didn't want to miss out. A good thing about Dominiques and just about any barred chicken breed -- the females and males are sexed by their color pattern so I knew I was getting exactly 3 FEMALE Dominique chicks.

Thank you for the info I'll look into it. As much as I like silkies I'm leary over the vaulteed skulls but maybe they might have some that don't have them.

Does anyone knew about Maran's I know the local feed store is getting a bunch in on the 9th and I have no idea how friendly and aggressive they are with other hens.

Dot seems to be recovering from the infection she had and the liquid in her body cavity has gone down to almost nothing.

Lulu keeps running inside when we're not home and has been a good girl when my dad has had to lock her in my room. No poo all over my bedroom. I guess she is holding it or only pooing in the 'chicken house' which is a rabbit cage she sleeps in.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you for the info I'll look into it. As much as I like silkies I'm leary over the vaulteed skulls but maybe they might have some that don't have them.

Does anyone knew about Maran's I know the local feed store is getting a bunch in on the 9th and I have no idea how friendly and aggressive they are with other hens.

Dot seems to be recovering from the infection she had and the liquid in her body cavity has gone down to almost nothing.

Lulu keeps running inside when we're not home and has been a good girl when my dad has had to lock her in my room. No poo all over my bedroom. I guess she is holding it or only pooing in the 'chicken house' which is a rabbit cage she sleeps in.

Marans are pretty chickens but they are a big chicken. I had a Cuckoo Marans that was close to 7 lbs and she picked on our 2-lb bantam Silkies and downright viciously attacked them, and attacked our White Leghorn (who put the Marans in her place) but the Cuckoo Marans continued to harass our bantams. We had to give the Marans away because she was not nice to the rest of our flock. People can have any chicken they want from the feed store but have to know what breeds go well together in a backyard flock and what breeds don't. Smaller lightweight breeds go better together but once we start putting layers, dual purpose, or meat birds together with smaller docile bantams, the bantams very easily will get picked on. You'll need to keep Marans separated from docile bantams. You'll love the slightly dark brown Marans eggs, but we decided pretty brown eggs were not worth the harassing our Marans was doing to our bantams.

Breda has been our absolutely best standard-sized chicken breed to keep with bantams -- Breda are very docile gentle souls around our Silkies. But Breda are extremely rare and only come from private breeders. Our next best breed to mix with our Silkies and our gentle Breda were the Dominique chicks we got at the feed store. They are an active medium-size chicken but not aggressive and are calm enough to hold or pet -- especially when raised indoors and handled as babies and Doms love to vocalize if you talk with them. It seems to be their thing to socialize with their humans. They are active but not aggressive or combative like Leghorns, RIR, BRs, Wyans, Marans, or any of the larger laying breeds.

Good luck with your search for a chicken breed that will be compatible with the hens you have now. I've had two Silkies for 7 years and have learned which standard sized chickens go better with bantams. Our Silkies know how to duck and cover and hide and having two Silkies together to toodle around together gives them a companion to hang out with while the other chicken breeds go do their own thing. I'm a believer in having bantams in pairs since each breed seems to understand their own kind best and having an alike companion gives the bantams a normal day to day chicken life. Birds are flock animals who stay with their own breed -- in the wild you don't see turkeys hanging out with crows or buzzards hanging out with parakeets. Some common sense needs to be used to put different chicken breeds together LOL! Hope this helps!

 

[Sylvester017]

So very happy to hear that Dot is doing better! Our birds are not just pets -- they're our FAMILY!

Warnings about vaulted skulls on Polish or Silkie chickens are usually written for people who don't know or care about such information before throwing Silkies or Polish into their backyard flocks. But for people like Ponyfeather who is aware of the possible injuries to the head (actually ANY chicken's head) I think Ponyfeather would make an excellent Silkie owner. It's just people who don't research ahead of time that the info is thrown out there. I had a couple Silkies with nice poofy crests with one having a taller vault than the other and they turned out much sturdier and hardier than I ever imagined pure Silkies could be. In a heatwave all our bigger chickens were panting or dying (we lost 2 standard hens one bad summer) while the bantam Silkies went about toodling and foraging like normal.

P.S. United Kingdom has full-sized regular standard Silkies and small tiny bantam Silkies. The United States of America Silkies are actually considered mid-sized Silkies -- not really bantams like the U.K. and not really big standard sized like the U.K. either.