Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Tell me about it!?@?@%$

I came home with just 3 eggs from Crossroads last year at this time. No expectation that anything would even hatch. Confirmed large fowl girl. Well, Elliot (my avatar) had other ideas. So far, I've worked on hatching 42 Silkie eggs - friends for Elliot, currently have 8 Silkies, and just set 47 more Silkie eggs in the 'bators. These fuzzy little buggers are SERIOUSLY addictive. Chicken math times infinity ....

 

[Hawkeye95]

FIVE coyotes on your mare, Hawkeye??? Oh my GOSH! I would have been livid with rage (I'm sure that you were!)

I lost 11 guineas to a coyote attack this summer while I was at work, broad daylight right next to my garage. The following week I had one, middle of the day, jog thru my back yard right next to my coops while I was cleaning stalls. My cockatoo, who was out in her aviary, sounded the alarm which made me run from the barn and see him. Birds must all speak a similar language cause my silkies all dove for the coops when Parasol screamed. That did it - I've adopted a guard llama to keep those predators at bay...and enlisted the help of a small army with hunting skills for a spree...

I'm so, so sorry to hear about Beth's birds - absolutely heartbreaking....I can't even imagine. My prayers are with her...

yeah, it was insane. I told my ferriar and then reported the incident. All I heard back that year was that coyotes were on the rise and to hunt them. Sigh. A llama, hu? Very cool! We have a guy down the road that runs a large llama with his cattle. It's funny to see her in there. She's not particularly friendly, so they never really touch her. (don't shave her) That is so neat about your cockatoo sounding the alarm!

Sorry for picture overload. This is Fred. he is about 6 months old and appears to be molting. I found pin feathers on his back. Looking for opinions. He was a freebie I got of Craigslist about 2 months ago. He is my first silkie. Please let me know if I need to take different pictures, he was not very cooperative today! But he is cleaner!

He is beautiful! But, I culled like 5 roosters and numerous pullets this year for exactly that wing problem. If it doesn't improve over the next few months, (the gap fill in) it WILL carry on to offspring. You may get some percentage that are fine.. only if you have a hen that has perfect wings. I did wind up with a small percentage that did not have it. But say out of 10 chicks-- 8 of them had it. That's how bad it is. Then again... maybe that just says that's how bad *MY* luck is! LOL Fortunately, that was only the one pen, but I was very disappointed because they were my best looking birds in that one. Watch the wing carefully and if it fills in, you're totally fine because otherwise, he is really a great looking bird.

Gatorade or pedialyte. Force feed a few drops into her, and that will hopefuly get her started drinking. Add liquid baby vitamins. Those should hopefully start her eating. Then you need to treat for coccidiosis. All ASAP.

Agreed, it sounds like coccidosis. If you don't get Corrid down that bird, it's going to be dead in no time at all.

Tell me about it!?@?@%$

I came home with just 3 eggs from Crossroads last year at this time. No expectation that anything would even hatch. Confirmed large fowl girl. Well, Elliot (my avatar) had other ideas. So far, I've worked on hatching 42 Silkie eggs - friends for Elliot, currently have 8 Silkies, and just set 47 more Silkie eggs in the 'bators. These fuzzy little buggers are SERIOUSLY addictive. Chicken math times infinity ....

very addictive, and oh-so cute and fluffy!

 

[moomoodiddy]

Hey, I was expecting to see the word "Guard......dog", not "Guard [COLOR=FF0000]Llama[/COLOR]".  I didn't know Llamas made good guard animals.  Pretty cool.

donkeys make good guards too ... if not spoiled too much oh well...

 

[Hawkeye95]

donkeys make good guards too ... if not spoiled too much oh well...

I have other horses out in that pasture where my mare was attacked by coyote-- so you'd THINK that they would go after them, kick them... etc?? I have a gelding that has killed one before and was out there that night. I had never heard of a pack of coyote taking down a horse... until my own incident. I did research on it and discovered that it's rare, but has happened before. How would a donkey be any better against a pack? My neighbor has a mule, but he's in with horses and he seems pretty laid back to me. (I know that's not the same thing as a donkey, but I have a friend who has donkey and they are teeny tiny things--pony size) *shrug* Sorry, I don't mean to take this off topic!! I just always hear about donkeys and llamas being good and figure best bet might be sitting out there "waiting" on them.

So far, have never known anyone that has had their equine kill a predator. Except for my own gelding, and he's not fond of dogs, so I'm not surprised he killed one a while back.

Anyone else noticed that the hawks and owls are REALLY bad? I have had to keep all of my silkies in their covered pens, which is a real shame. I had a few silkies out in an open round pen just last week and while I was out there cleaning the water, TWO hawks dove at that pen! I ran over there and waved them off while yelling and they flew over and sat in a tree and watched me. I put the birds back in a covered run and called it a day for their play time in the grass. Ever since, I have noticed they are hanging out in the tree watching my pens.

 

[Adoravachick]

I have other horses out in that pasture where my mare was attacked by coyote-- so you'd THINK that they would go after them, kick them... etc?? I have a gelding that has killed one before and was out there that night. I had never heard of a pack of coyote taking down a horse... until my own incident. I did research on it and discovered that it's rare, but has happened before. How would a donkey be any better against a pack? My neighbor has a mule, but he's in with horses and he seems pretty laid back to me. (I know that's not the same thing as a donkey, but I have a friend who has donkey and they are teeny tiny things--pony size) *shrug* Sorry, I don't mean to take this off topic!! I just always hear about donkeys and llamas being good and figure best bet might be sitting out there "waiting" on them.

So far, have never known anyone that has had their equine kill a predator. Except for my own gelding, and he's not fond of dogs, so I'm not surprised he killed one a while back.

Anyone else noticed that the hawks and owls are REALLY bad? I have had to keep all of my silkies in their covered pens, which is a real shame. I had a few silkies out in an open round pen just last week and while I was out there cleaning the water, TWO hawks dove at that pen! I ran over there and waved them off while yelling and they flew over and sat in a tree and watched me. I put the birds back in a covered run and called it a day for their play time in the grass. Ever since, I have noticed they are hanging out in the tree watching my pens.

I had a gelding that would attack anything in his pasture...dog, cat, fox, rabbit. If he saw it, he went for it. As far as the hawks go...yes, yes, and yes. They are out in force, they are hanging around my pens also. The silkies don't go out unless they have a babysitter. I wish that I had a BIG dog to act as a guard animal, I only have a chihuahua and she is likely to get scooped up by the hawk as well.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Hawks are definitely an issue here, especially now with the leaves off the trees. Silkies are only allowed outside at this time of year with STRICT and full time supervision. (They did get to enjoy an afternoon outside yesterday and they made the most of it - sunbathing and digging in the leaves. They do seem to be aware of the overhead predators. They were on the alert constantly. They were quite content to get back under cover when the time came.)

 

[Adoravachick]

Ok, so the new chicks that I am getting aren't Isabel's, they are porcelain. I know nothing about porcelains, I just loved the color.
Sonoran, can you lay down some information on Porcelains or tell me where I can find some great information?

I have a couple of white hens that I am going to part with at some point soon, they have some wing issues. It looks like I will have a nice little trio to breed from. Yay!

 

[blessedchick]

donkeys make good guards too ... if not spoiled too much oh well...

I had heard that about donkeys as well. I used to run a boarding facility and had several donkeys that I just could not get along with, so I opted for the llama route

Llamas will run down and kill a coyote, coons, possums, fox...all those little running varmints. My gelding killed a groundhog one time and I was thrilled to pieces! He also took out snakes and mice...he was really confused about being a horse!

Tony Llama is a rescue and has never been handled, so he is a work in progress. So far he has kept my barn area clear of my barn cats, LOL! He likes the silkies but is petrified of the showgirls. He will just have to get over his prejudice once spring comes and he is guarding the coops outside. The hawks have also been terrible and my chickies have also been stuck inside their covered runs until I can be out there to supervise 100%. So far my cockatoo has been the best alert - she sounds the alarm and everyone dives for cover! Unfortunately she doesn't distinguish between hawks and buzzards, so we get alot of false alarms - better safe than sorry!

 

[moomoodiddy]

I have other horses out in that pasture where my mare was attacked by coyote-- so you'd THINK that they would go after them, kick them... etc??  I have a gelding that has killed one before and was out there that night.   I had never heard of a pack of coyote taking down a horse... until my own incident.  I did research on it and discovered that it's rare, but has happened before.  How would a donkey be any better against a pack?  My neighbor has a mule, but he's in with horses and he seems pretty laid back to me.  (I know that's not the same thing as a donkey, but I have a friend who has donkey and they are teeny tiny things--pony size)  *shrug*  Sorry, I don't mean to take this off topic!!  I just always hear about donkeys and llamas being good and figure best bet might be sitting out there "waiting" on them.     So far, have never known anyone that has had their equine kill a predator.  Except for my own gelding, and he's not fond of dogs, so I'm not surprised he killed one a while back.

Anyone else noticed that the hawks and owls are REALLY bad?  I have had to keep all of my silkies in their covered pens, which is a real shame.  I had a few silkies out in an open round pen just last week and while I was out there cleaning the water, TWO hawks dove at that pen!  I ran over there and waved them off while yelling and they flew over and sat in a tree and watched me.  I put the birds back in a covered run and called it a day for their play time in the grass.  Ever since, I have noticed they are hanging out in the tree watching my pens.  

well around here many donkeys are breed and sold to ise as guard animals and along with thier stubborness and cockiness they will chase off and attack any threat to your herd but not all animals fiy the criteria so not all can do that but this is the reason why we got mne

 

[peepblessed]

I have other horses out in that pasture where my mare was attacked by coyote-- so you'd THINK that they would go after them, kick them... etc?? I have a gelding that has killed one before and was out there that night. I had never heard of a pack of coyote taking down a horse... until my own incident. I did research on it and discovered that it's rare, but has happened before. How would a donkey be any better against a pack? My neighbor has a mule, but he's in with horses and he seems pretty laid back to me. (I know that's not the same thing as a donkey, but I have a friend who has donkey and they are teeny tiny things--pony size) *shrug* Sorry, I don't mean to take this off topic!! I just always hear about donkeys and llamas being good and figure best bet might be sitting out there "waiting" on them.

So far, have never known anyone that has had their equine kill a predator. Except for my own gelding, and he's not fond of dogs, so I'm not surprised he killed one a while back.

Anyone else noticed that the hawks and owls are REALLY bad? I have had to keep all of my silkies in their covered pens, which is a real shame. I had a few silkies out in an open round pen just last week and while I was out there cleaning the water, TWO hawks dove at that pen! I ran over there and waved them off while yelling and they flew over and sat in a tree and watched me. I put the birds back in a covered run and called it a day for their play time in the grass. Ever since, I have noticed they are hanging out in the tree watching my pens.

well around here many donkeys are breed and sold to ise as guard animals and along with thier stubborness and cockiness they will chase off and attack any threat to your herd but not all animals fiy the criteria so not all can do that but this is the reason why we got mne

Here in California we have a terrible coyote problem. Many people use donkeys to protect their sheep and it works. I'm assuming they are deadly accurate and vicious! My LF roos can usually deal with hawks but I recently lost a roo to one so we put up a scare crow in the LF pen (too large to cover) and that is working great. I also got two very large roos to monitor the situation...