Silkie saga

[Debbie292d]

I was trying to get good photos today to repost them. They may sell in the spring, they aren't in the way so they are welcome to keep flaunting their absolute cuteness around here all winter. More body heat for the coop

We have poultry swaps two Saturdays per month, I only went to one, all the roosters were being picked up for just a few bucks and being stuffed into one big cage in the back of a pickup. They were fighting and it was not pleasant to watch. It seemed the meat buyers got there and picked up all the cheap roos then left.

Here, it's Asians that do that same thing with all the silky roosters people are giving away or selling for cheap. Asians came here once when I put some on Craigs List, a dad and his son. They took the three roosters I had advertised, then asked about buying a hen. I was surprised so said I was sadly thinking they were going to be culling my roosters. He said they may but they wanted to get into raising their own so they'd have more than driving around finding people's unwanted roosters. They use the black meat for some traditional recipe, but also said the bones make the best chicken broth ever. I couldn't look anymore and just walked away with tears. I know chickens are obviously for meat too, but when you raise them, name them, and they become pets, you really don't intend for them to wind up in a pot. But, what else can we do if nobody else wants them?

 

[Debbie292d]

I haven't ever added plastic around my runs, but I've noticed several people on here, and now yours too, with it and it looks like a good idea. We do get some bitter cold winds in the winter, and they are calling for a lot of snow this winter.

A small hutch with a cozy coop heater seems silkie appropriate. I have 2 of the heaters but they don't do much in the large coops.

For a temp fix, I heard of people buying clear shower curtains at dollar stores. They aren't UV resistant though so won't last more than a couple of years I would assume.

We needed a lot as we have to do two sides of the outside pen, and redo the dog kennel that's off of our main coop. Hubby put heavy-duty plastic on it last year which wasn't UV-resistant, so it made it through the winter, but this summer it started falling apart. If you want to put something that'll last, just be sure it is UV-resistant.

Yesterday I went right to the company and bought this 12x16 then found it on Amazon for the same price so should have done that. In addition, our neighbor's giving us a package of what came with some hoop greenhouse she bought as she bought two of those greenhouses for her chickens, but is only covering one. She has Brahmas and Orpingtons and doesn't baby hers like we do ours.

https://www.amazon.com/Watershed-In...text&ref_=fplfs&smid=A974GOQM0G5P3&nis=7&th=1

 

[2ndTink]

She's more a splash but I see what you mean. Maybe we'll have to change her from a splash to a mauve. Hot damn, that's awesome! Love it! Thank you!


This is her with the one we call mauve. This was when they were about 4 mos old.View attachment 3682565

I've been trying to figure out exactly what mauve looks like, I've googled photos but they vary a lot. I'm going to be crossing JetPack (black split to chocolate) with a blue pullet, a splash pullet, and a black pullet. The splash and the blue will give me chances at mauve pullets, this sounds really fancy, I just don't really know what the color will look like

I've also seen reference to a chocolate splash, but again, I've had trouble finding photos of them. If you waded through some of my previous posts I've decided to hope for some chocolate satins, again, I've had trouble finding photos, so I'm just going to try and raise some of my own and see how they turn out I would love to cross my black / chocolate cockerel with the chocolate pullets I have, but they are all frizzles.

 

[2ndTink]

Here, it's Asians that do that same thing with all the silky roosters people are giving away or selling for cheap. Asians came here once when I put some on Craigs List, a dad and his son. They took the three roosters I had advertised, then asked about buying a hen. I was surprised so said I was sadly thinking they were going to be culling my roosters. He said they may but they wanted to get into raising their own so they'd have more than driving around finding people's unwanted roosters. They use the black meat for some traditional recipe, but also said the bones make the best chicken broth ever. I couldn't look anymore and just walked away with tears. I know chickens are obviously for meat too, but when you raise them, name them, and they become pets, you really don't intend for them to wind up in a pot. But, what else can we do if nobody else wants them?

I've read that silkie meat is somewhere between chicken and duck. I'm really curious to try it but I'm not very courageous about eating my little cutie pies. I do have some old laying hens I "need to process" and for knowing where our food comes from my hubby and I would like to raise a few meat birds next year. I want to, but it's the follow through that is so hard for me. I know a lot of people on here raise and eat their own birds, I'm working on it... maybe I can do it with a dual purpose bird that I buy maybe 12, don't name them, don't spend much time with them...

When I moved away from Idaho I sold all my Nigerian Dwarf goaties, this really nice family, grandparents, mom and dad, and kids, came to get them. I understood enough that the men wanted to eat them and the women wanted to keep the females and one male for breeding, and then eat the babies...

We can't keep them all, in understand that. Life has its unpleasant side.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've been trying to figure out exactly what mauve looks like, I've googled photos but they vary a lot. I'm going to be crossing JetPack (black split to chocolate) with a blue pullet, a splash pullet, and a black pullet. The splash and the blue will give me chances at mauve pullets, this sounds really fancy, I just don't really know what the color will look like

I've also seen reference to a chocolate splash, but again, I've had trouble finding photos of them. If you waded through some of my previous posts I've decided to hope for some chocolate satins, again, I've had trouble finding photos, so I'm just going to try and raise some of my own and see how they turn out I would love to cross my black / chocolate cockerel with the chocolate pullets I have, but they are all frizzles.

You're doing what I'm going to try this spring. For roosters, I have a blue and a mauve. For hens, there's Marsha the mauve or splash hen, and (I guess we'll see what her chicks look like in a few months), two chocolate, 1 black, and (1 partridge I won't breed this one.)

This is the guide I went by when deciding who is breeding who.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rpington-color-genetics.1219858/post-19511066

The person who posted this just redid someone else's earlier in that thread but hers was easier for me to understand for some reason.

 

[2ndTink]

You're doing what I'm going to try this spring. For roosters, I have a blue and a mauve. For hens, there's Marsha the mauve or splash hen, and (I guess we'll see what her chicks look like in a few months), two chocolate, 1 black, and (1 partridge I won't breed this one.)

This is the guide I went by when deciding who is breeding who.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rpington-color-genetics.1219858/post-19511066

The person who posted this just redid someone else's earlier in that thread but hers was easier for me to understand for some reason.

I reference that thread a lot, I finally took a screenshot of it so I didn't have to keep trying to find it.

I've considered doing a partridge pen, I really like Sylvi, and I traded two other partridge pullets with black heads back to the breeder. I might get eggs from them next summer.

 

[Debbie292d]

I reference that thread a lot, I finally took a screenshot of it so I didn't have to keep trying to find it.

I've considered doing a partridge pen, I really like Sylvi, and I traded two other partridge pullets with black heads back to the breeder. I might get eggs from them next summer.

I just bookmarked it, but then, did similar and pasted only the ones that referenced chickens I own into OneNote on my computer, so it's easier.

I got a shot of some chickens today when they were all crowding around a dog kennel for some strange reason. When I got out there, of course, they stopped, but she's on the left. She's one of our own, from my other backyard silkies. Those are one white roo and several white or black hens, and they were spitting out partridges all summer. I kept this one as I hadn't had a dark one yet so wanted to see what it would be. The other one was another rarer partridge one I hung onto for a while but someone wanted him so he's gone. I don't breed those as my understanding was they won't make partridge chicks even if you bred two of them.

I do not like to go to pages like this, but it is where I read that, so take it with a grain of salt.

https://silkiechickenexperts.com/bl...are redder and,will produce a Partridge chick.

 

[2ndTink]

I just bookmarked it, but then, did similar and pasted only the ones that referenced chickens I own into OneNote on my computer, so it's easier.

I got a shot of some chickens today when they were all crowding around a dog kennel for some strange reason. When I got out there, of course, they stopped, but she's on the left. She's one of our own, from my other backyard silkies. Those are one white roo and several white or black hens, and they were spitting out partridges all summer. I kept this one as I hadn't had a dark one yet so wanted to see what it would be. The other one was another rarer partridge one I hung onto for a while but someone wanted him so he's gone. I don't breed those as my understanding was they won't make partridge chicks even if you bred two of them.

I do not like to go to pages like this, but it is where I read that, so take it with a grain of salt.

https://silkiechickenexperts.com/bl...are redder and,will produce a Partridge chick.


View attachment 3682629View attachment 3682630

Chickens do the oddest things I skim read the partridge section, I wonder if the solids produced by partridge parents are more likely to produce partridge chicks themselves? I don't understand much about genetics, I've tried using that genetic calculator online and it is way over my head!

Wow, your silkies are beautiful those tails are amazing!

 

[2ndTink]

I'm not sure what your animals are planning but it looks like you busted your dog teaching them to throw spears. The dog looks very guilty.

 

[2ndTink]

Oh, and hopefully 2 pieces of good news on Fray, she was more fiesty tonight trying to get her vitamins in her, and the second good part is that she is brown, I'm sure if she was light feathered you'd see a mess of poultry cell all over her beard and head poof.