Silkie saga

[2ndTink]

I think it's easy to hoard any kind of bird, if it has feathers, I need more of it. Those sound like perfect sized pens, side by side, you could squeeze a few in. I wished I had done this originally. And they make good chick or quarantine quarters too.

What exactly does your company do? What exactly do you do at work? You may have mentioned this in the past so forgive me if I've forgotten. But I'm glad you found one person already, hiring people can't be easy!

Well, it's Friday, weekend is in sight! Enjoy your day and have a fabulous weekend too!!

I don't believe I've talked about what I do on this thread, I lead a great team, truly, I am so proud of them and I have the best team on the campus. (I promise I'm not biased... lol) I am over the plant engineering, CapEx engineering, maintenance, utilities, automation, and spare parts departments at a food manufacturing facility. Some teams are for the plant and others service the whole campus, I'm short 3 managers and running a spread thin team. We've had a lot of challenges and setbacks this year. We've been fighting tooth and nail to keep things going. There are 400 to 500 people on campus, that's a lot of families depending on us for their pay. My friend I've mentioned being in the hospital actually is a key manager on my team, still not able to come back yet, just a completely core shaking thing that happened to them, there's so much evil in the world. It's been one crisis after another this year, hanging on by threads most days. Thankfully there are cute fluffy chickens and I have a great hubby to get me through it all

 

[TwoCrows]

I don't believe I've talked about what I do on this thread, I lead a great team, truly, I am so proud of them and I have the best team on the campus. (I promise I'm not biased... lol) I am over the plant engineering, CapEx engineering, maintenance, utilities, automation, and spare parts departments at a food manufacturing facility. Some teams are for the plant and others service the whole campus, I'm short 3 managers and running a spread thin team. We've had a lot of challenges and setbacks this year. We've been fighting tooth and nail to keep things going. There are 400 to 500 people on campus, that's a lot of families depending on us for their pay. My friend I've mentioned being in the hospital actually is a key manager on my team, still not able to come back yet, just a completely core shaking thing that happened to them, there's so much evil in the world. It's been one crisis after another this year, hanging on by threads most days. Thankfully there are cute fluffy chickens and I have a great hubby to get me through it all

Thank you for sharing what you do, your career, I can tell you are passionate about it, devoted to this calling. I'm sorry it's been a rough year for you and your team, hopefully your manager can heal up enough to still enjoy life. ❤ The world is changing, and not for the better unfortunately. Chickens are definitely a wonderful distraction, perfect emotional support creatures. Thanks for sharing yourself!

 

[2ndTink]

Here's a crude sketch of my breeding pen ideas.


Lol, looking at this sketch I'm not sure it will make sense to anyone who isn't me it's very vague.

My goals:
- easy to clean, hardware cloth coop floor with sloped poop collector beneath
- no pest home areas - coops will be high enough for the chickens and dog to fully go underneath (I'm thinking 2 to 2 1/2 ft)
- room for 4 hens + 1 roo per pen, I may shuffle a roo between 2 pens to keep colors separate but utilize one roo (leading to 4x4 inside the coop, but that may be small so 4x6?)
- able to weatherize for winter living, I think I'll use these for the roos to live in year round, the outside end of the coop will be solid down to the ground, the "operator" side where I will be, I want to be able to attach a section over the hardware cloth, this will give them protection under the coop to hang out as well as block drafts going up through the hardware cloth floor. I think I'd add hay or straw over the hardware cloth floor in the winter as well to block the wind.
- silkie friendly, low wide roosting bars, long sloping ramp into the coop
- double as grow out pens, maybe broody breakers too since it has hardware cloth floors and no permanent nesting boxes?
- covered run, I'll likely use one slope over the coop through the run
- run tall enough to walk into, at least 6ft high.
- nesting boxes, nothing built in, just mobile nesting boxes


Questions:
- is 4 to 5 hens + 1 roo "big enough" for my breeding plans? (I really have no clue ), it seems good for having a better chance of tracking specific colors and potential offspring color combos, if I upscale to have 10 hens, would I actually want that?
- do I need 2, or 3, or 4...

Not far, but you gotta start somewhere!

 

[TwoCrows]

Here's a crude sketch of my breeding pen ideas.
View attachment 3660136

Lol, looking at this sketch I'm not sure it will make sense to anyone who isn't me it's very vague.

My goals:
- easy to clean, hardware cloth coop floor with sloped poop collector beneath
- no pest home areas - coops will be high enough for the chickens and dog to fully go underneath (I'm thinking 2 to 2 1/2 ft)
- room for 4 hens + 1 roo per pen, I may shuffle a roo between 2 pens to keep colors separate but utilize one roo (leading to 4x4 inside the coop, but that may be small so 4x6?)
- able to weatherize for winter living, I think I'll use these for the roos to live in year round, the outside end of the coop will be solid down to the ground, the "operator" side where I will be, I want to be able to attach a section over the hardware cloth, this will give them protection under the coop to hang out as well as block drafts going up through the hardware cloth floor. I think I'd add hay or straw over the hardware cloth floor in the winter as well to block the wind.
- silkie friendly, low wide roosting bars, long sloping ramp into the coop
- double as grow out pens, maybe broody breakers too since it has hardware cloth floors and no permanent nesting boxes?
- covered run, I'll likely use one slope over the coop through the run
- run tall enough to walk into, at least 6ft high.
- nesting boxes, nothing built in, just mobile nesting boxes


Questions:
- is 4 to 5 hens + 1 roo "big enough" for my breeding plans? (I really have no clue ), it seems good for having a better chance of tracking specific colors and potential offspring color combos, if I upscale to have 10 hens, would I actually want that?
- do I need 2, or 3, or 4...

Not far, but you gotta start somewhere!

I think 4x4 coop might be a bit small for 4 hens and 1 roo. Silkies need about 4 square feet per bird in the coop, so with 5 birds a 4x6 might be better, especially if your runs aren't too long. 8 ft min per bird in the run, so at 5 birds that's about 40 Sq feet in size. So a run of 4ft x 10ft would be a good size. Making the entire thing 4'x16'. If you used 5 hens instead you'd definitely need to go larger. It gets complicated with too many birds. But I think you should do it!!

 

[2ndTink]

I think 4x4 coop might be a bit small for 4 hens and 1 roo. Silkies need about 4 square feet per bird in the coop, so with 5 birds a 4x6 might be better, especially if your runs aren't too long. 8 ft min per bird in the run, so at 5 birds that's about 40 Sq feet in size. So a run of 4ft x 10ft would be a good size. Making the entire thing 4'x16'. If you used 5 hens instead you'd definitely need to go larger. It gets complicated with too many birds. But I think you should do it!!

You are right, no need to have the breeding pens be social bubble punishment pens! I was wanting to stay at the 4ft deep because I think that will be easier to clean since they won't be walk in, but it will be easy to be 6ft wide. Then with 6 ft wide in the coop, the run will turn into 6x10 or 6x12ft. I'm totally convinced nothing I could ever build will be too big

 

[TwoCrows]

You are right, no need to have the breeding pens be social bubble punishment pens! I was wanting to stay at the 4ft deep because I think that will be easier to clean since they won't be walk in, but it will be easy to be 6ft wide. Then with 6 ft wide in the coop, the run will turn into 6x10 or 6x12ft. I'm totally convinced nothing I could ever build will be too big

It will never be big enough as far as they are concerned. A football field sized pen would get complaints from the birds. Can't wait to see what you build!!

 

[2ndTink]

I think I'm seeing pointy saddle feathers on thr two satins I was 500% hoping were pullets

Svanhild, the laid back blue partridge:



Storm, the pretty blue satin my hubby wanted to keep, and was going to be in my BBS pen:



For comparison, Cracker Jack, I know this one is a cockerel:


My friend suggested I pluck the pointy feathers to reverse the process so now I know where my boys are at still TBD on a few silkied ones.

Any chance these aren't cockerel feathers?

 

[TwoCrows]

I think I'm seeing pointy saddle feathers on thr two satins I was 500% hoping were pullets

Svanhild, the laid back blue partridge:
View attachment 3660717
View attachment 3660718

Storm, the pretty blue satin my hubby wanted to keep, and was going to be in my BBS pen:
View attachment 3660715
View attachment 3660716

For comparison, Cracker Jack, I know this one is a cockerel:
View attachment 3660719

My friend suggested I pluck the pointy feathers to reverse the process so now I know where my boys are at still TBD on a few silkied ones.

Any chance these aren't cockerel feathers?

If only plucking the feathers turned them into pullets!! That said, I don't see any pointy hackle feathers yet, it's possible they are still girls?! How many weeks old are they now?

 

[2ndTink]

If only plucking the feathers turned them into pullets!! That said, I don't see any pointy hackle feathers yet, it's possible they are still girls?! How many weeks old are they now?

They are 11 weeks, 12 this Thursday.

 

[TwoCrows]

They are 11 weeks, 12 this Thursday.

Hmmm....then I think they may be pullets.