Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
My vet did NOT like the idea of using Sevin dust on chickens - nor did a farmer I know that has an apple orchard. Is there a brand name on the "permethrin dust" you might recommend? Where might we purchase this dust? (I used a permethrin horse fly spray to treat my nest boxes last summer. Worked like a charm. Not sure I would want to spray it directly on a chicken however.)

 

[blessedchick]

I had a scary experience last night and wanted to give my fellow silkie lovers a heads up.

I have 6 chickies that hatched out very early Friday morning. I moved them into my smallest brooder around 7 pm last night. I use the rubberized shelf paper for flooring and the quail waterers for the first few days. At 11 pm I heard one of them raising a ruckus so I went to check them out. Their waterer had tipped just enough that the water was flooding the floor of their small brooder (24"x18" rubbermaid tote). 3 of the chickies had taken refuge on top of the stuffed bear that I have in with them, one was leaping to climb the bear, but the two smallest were DRENCHED, cold and almost lifeless. I grabbed them, threw all but the 2 teenies in the incubator, and furiously massaged those 2 little bodies. One even did the sputter to spit out water. When they both, thankfully, started showing signs of life I put them in the bator with their buddies. So sweet that the other laid on top of them to speed up their warming! I checked on them several times during the night and this morning all are perfect! Praise God!

I don't know if this will help anyone, but just shows that you can't be too careful with these little guys. You do everything you can to make sure everything is perfect for them and freaky things still happen. I'm thankful that I keep chicks in my bedroom for that first week, just for this very reason. Keep an eye on those precious little ones!

 

[thedragonlady]

Thank you. Where is a good place to purchase these things?

TSC has permethrin dust, and most garden centers carry permethrin liquid to dilute. Look at Wal-Mart too in the head louse section. They had a liquid with permethrin a while back.

 

[thedragonlady]

The only product that killed my red mites and other bugs has been Frontline.
By the way, I checked my sick girl (with her skin problem) and after applying Frontline, she seems to look better

. I am going to bath her tomorrow and get rid of all of the dead skin (I heard the eggs live in the dead skin) and hopefully she will continue to improve. I still don't know if it was mites (I never saw any bugs on her) but whatever it was destroyed her skin and feathers. It took me months to find something useful. She has crust all over her face (not the body), it even attacked her eyelids and she lost all her feathers in her neck, throat, face and half her crest. It is going to take her months or even more to look what she used to, but I am just glad I didn't give up on her.

That sounds like Crest Mites. They stay on the head and face, and will drive a bird crazy. Permethrin will get those too.

 

[peepblessed]

I had a scary experience last night and wanted to give my fellow silkie lovers a heads up.

I have 6 chickies that hatched out very early Friday morning. I moved them into my smallest brooder around 7 pm last night. I use the rubberized shelf paper for flooring and the quail waterers for the first few days. At 11 pm I heard one of them raising a ruckus so I went to check them out. Their waterer had tipped just enough that the water was flooding the floor of their small brooder (24"x18" rubbermaid tote). 3 of the chickies had taken refuge on top of the stuffed bear that I have in with them, one was leaping to climb the bear, but the two smallest were DRENCHED, cold and almost lifeless. I grabbed them, threw all but the 2 teenies in the incubator, and furiously massaged those 2 little bodies. One even did the sputter to spit out water. When they both, thankfully, started showing signs of life I put them in the bator with their buddies. So sweet that the other laid on top of them to speed up their warming! I checked on them several times during the night and this morning all are perfect! Praise God!

I don't know if this will help anyone, but just shows that you can't be too careful with these little guys. You do everything you can to make sure everything is perfect for them and freaky things still happen. I'm thankful that I keep chicks in my bedroom for that first week, just for this very reason. Keep an eye on those precious little ones!

So glad you were there to rescue them!!

 

[dwegg]

That sounds like Crest Mites. They stay on the head and face, and will drive a bird crazy. Permethrin will get those too.

What is the difference between lice and mites? And can they've treated the same way?

 

[thedragonlady]

What is the difference between lice and mites? And can they've treated the same way?

Lice are much bigger pale pink critters that leave white egg cases , particularly in the beards in Silkies.I cannot tell you how many louse balls I pulled out of Silkies bought off traders' row when I got started. Yuck ! Mites are blood suckers that are very small dots that look like red pepper down near the skin.They multiply faster than lice, I think. Permethrin will get both, as will 1% Coral powder from Jeffers or Omaha Vaccine.Liquid Permethrin in it's diluted form, is used on human head lice too.I've used it on every kind of bird for years from canaries, parrots to all species of wild birds that I re-habed for the DNR. Never lost a bird to it yet, and no bugs.

 

[JacquiJ]

Thank you so much dragon lady!!! I'm guessing the liquid form has the dilution directions on it?

 

[JacquiJ]

I had a scary experience last night and wanted to give my fellow silkie lovers a heads up.

I have 6 chickies that hatched out very early Friday morning. I moved them into my smallest brooder around 7 pm last night. I use the rubberized shelf paper for flooring and the quail waterers for the first few days. At 11 pm I heard one of them raising a ruckus so I went to check them out. Their waterer had tipped just enough that the water was flooding the floor of their small brooder (24"x18" rubbermaid tote). 3 of the chickies had taken refuge on top of the stuffed bear that I have in with them, one was leaping to climb the bear, but the two smallest were DRENCHED, cold and almost lifeless. I grabbed them, threw all but the 2 teenies in the incubator, and furiously massaged those 2 little bodies. One even did the sputter to spit out water. When they both, thankfully, started showing signs of life I put them in the bator with their buddies. So sweet that the other laid on top of them to speed up their warming! I checked on them several times during the night and this morning all are perfect! Praise God!

I don't know if this will help anyone, but just shows that you can't be too careful with these little guys. You do everything you can to make sure everything is perfect for them and freaky things still happen. I'm thankful that I keep chicks in my bedroom for that first week, just for this very reason. Keep an eye on those precious little ones!

Omg! How scary!!! So glad you were there to help them!

 

[delisha]

Quote: I scorch them in a hot fire and spray it with neem oil before bringing them in.