Please help.

[BowedCookie52]

Hello. Last week I bought 4 chicks. A silkie, barred rock, black sexlink, and buff orpington. My silkie seems to be growing a lot of normal wing feathers instead of more softer stringy feathers like most silkies have, it has 5 toes and the people at IFA said that it was silkie but its skin is not super dark, just slightly. My other question/worry is that my black sex link is a Male. When we got it, it didnt have a white dot on its head which usually means hen. But I noticed that its comb is bigger and instead of having like a fan for tail feathers it has more of an upside down taco shape to it and it is longer than the others. Someone please help me. It would also be nice to know how to tame baby chicks, they are always frightened of us.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello. Last week I bought 4 chicks. A silkie, barred rock, black sexlink, and buff orpington. My silkie seems to be growing a lot of normal wing feathers instead of more softer stringy feathers like most silkies have, it has 5 toes and the people at IFA said that it was silkie but its skin is not super dark, just slightly. My other question/worry is that my black sex link is a Male. When we got it, it didnt have a white dot on its head which usually means hen. But I noticed that its comb is bigger and instead of having like a fan for tail feathers it has more of an upside down taco shape to it and it is longer than the others. Someone please help me. It would also be nice to know how to tame baby chicks, they are always frightened of us.

The white dot on a black sexlink chick means male so it's a good thing she didn't have one!
It sounds like your silkie might be a mix.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Congrats on being a chicken owner. When my chicks were little (1 to 4 weeks), I didn't fuss with them much because, as you say, it just seemed to stress them. When they got old enough to start having treats, we got them some baby chick grit and put it in a bowl in the brooder. This was in March so it was still pretty cold here. The next day I took them some freeze-dried mealworms, crushed in my fingers. I did this a couple times a day every day. I called them, "Here, choock-chook, chickeeeens!" Just as I will when they are older. And I talked and talked to them. Soon they came running out to me and by week six a few of them were climbing on me. Fear is natural and good in a critter that, well... tastes like chicken!