Silkie saga

[Debbie292d]

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.

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That is adorable. I'm saving it. You make these pictures so cool.

That's Josie the border collie. She's about 8 now and always watches out for our chickens. They are actually up against the forest that starts right there but she and her sidekick the corgi run around in there all the time so keeps the riff raff away.



That's her with Marsha and two others this morning. Marsha follows her around sometimes because she's usually lost. Now there's another picture where Marsha looks more mauve than splashed. Hmm! Maybe it's my camera as she looks so much more contrasty. I'll have to check as it's a new phone and maybe I got some filter thing on there that shouldn't be.

 

[TwoCrows]

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.

Oh this is fabulous news! When they fight you, they are getting better! Keep up all the lovin' on her! ❤

 

[TwoCrows]

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/blogs/silkie/partridge-silkie-chicken-exploring-this-popular-colour#:~:text=Roosters that are redder and,will produce a Partridge chick.


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Adorable! ❤

 

[2ndTink]

Oh this is fabulous news! When they fight you, they are getting better! Keep up all the lovin' on her! ❤

I didn't see much improvement this morning from yesterday. I checked her floof in case it was blocking her eyes and trimmed a little more after I got the pills in her. I noticed yesterday when I let them out she seemed starving and was going crazy over the grass but that didnt last long and she started sunbathing instead so i thought she was just ecstatic to he outisde. I set her down near food this morning and she she wandered off. So I picked her back up and did more trimming on the fluff closer to her beak, when I set her down by the food again she started eating. Maybe her front floof has been giving her sight issues and she hasn't been eating enough?

I will check her little crop tonight and see if she has eaten well today and do another eye check to see if the floof has fluffed back around her eyes. It seems that I trim it and it just readjusts to take up all the space of the previous floof.

Freya is getting a great head floof, that round poof with just a beak sticking out when you look at her from the front, but I may need to trim her more too. As cute as the floof is, I want them to see!

 

[TwoCrows]

I didn't see much improvement this morning from yesterday. I checked her floof in case it was blocking her eyes and trimmed a little more after I got the pills in her. I noticed yesterday when I let them out she seemed starving and was going crazy over the grass but that didnt last long and she started sunbathing instead so i thought she was just ecstatic to he outisde. I set her down near food this morning and she she wandered off. So I picked her back up and did more trimming on the fluff closer to her beak, when I set her down by the food again she started eating. Maybe her front floof has been giving her sight issues and she hasn't been eating enough?

I will check her little crop tonight and see if she has eaten well today and do another eye check to see if the floof has fluffed back around her eyes. It seems that I trim it and it just readjusts to take up all the space of the previous floof.

Freya is getting a great head floof, that round poof with just a beak sticking out when you look at her from the front, but I may need to trim her more too. As cute as the floof is, I want them to see!

Aww....sweet Fray. ❤ They can definitely become malnourished if they can't see well, dehydrated too. It's always a good idea to trim the floof, chickens are very sight oriented when it comes to food being that their sense of smell is quite weak. Chickens are more inclined to eat more if you dampen the feed, however it makes more work for you because if needs to be cleaned up as it spoils after a day. Hopefully she gets her appetite back soon! ❤

 

[2ndTink]

Aww....sweet Fray. ❤ They can definitely become malnourished if they can't see well, dehydrated too. It's always a good idea to trim the floof, chickens are very sight oriented when it comes to food being that their sense of smell is quite weak. Chickens are more inclined to eat more if you dampen the feed, however it makes more work for you because if needs to be cleaned up as it spoils after a day. Hopefully she gets her appetite back soon! ❤

I had been feeding them wet feed everyday and adding supplements until 2 weeks ago and I slacked off. I'm back to doing it again now, with vitamins, and everyone approves.

It sounds like I need to do more aggressive floof trims.

 

[Debbie292d]

It sounds like I need to do more aggressive floof trims.

A few days ago, when Marsha got cut, we used the electric razor. That actually was easier and probably safer than using scissors. I applaud hubby for the idea as that's his razor.

From now on, that's the trick, but we too need to be more aggressive.

 

[Debbie292d]

I wonder if the solids produced by partridge parents are more likely to produce partridge chicks themselves?

Maybe, but this old white silky rooster and his harem of black or white hens that produce partridge, didn't have two parents that were partridge, and am pretty sure they didn't even have one that was. There's no partridge here other than the one I recently kept. I've grown a couple of partridge that wound up being roos and gave those away before they were breeding age.

I'm not hatching eggs from those older ones anymore. When I was hatching say a dozen from white roo and black or white hens, I would get 2 white, 8 black, and 2 partridge, give or take. I do not know enough about this genetics stuff to know why this happens and I didn't keep records on them like I should have. This new "flock" of 7 fancies I'm documenting everything!

 

[2ndTink]

A few days ago, when Marsha got cut, we used the electric razor. That actually was easier and probably safer than using scissors. I applaud hubby for the idea as that's his razor.

From now on, that's the trick, but we too need to be more aggressive.

Maybe we can start a trend of hair styles for silkies that would also be accepted at the shows. The Pixy, the Bob, the Mullet , the Bouffant. Ooh, now I need a silkie with a mullet and I'm going to name it Leroy.

It's odd to me that a breed would be encouraged to have traits accentuated that aren't beneficial to the animal. A non-chicken example is Quarter Horses that are bred to show in halter classes. Maybe it's changed now, but they used to have I've developed muscling, very light bone structure and tiny feet. Why, oh why?

 

[2ndTink]

Maybe, but this old white silky rooster and his harem of black or white hens that produce partridge, didn't have two parents that were partridge, and am pretty sure they didn't even have one that was. There's no partridge here other than the one I recently kept. I've grown a couple of partridge that wound up being roos and gave those away before they were breeding age.

I'm not hatching eggs from those older ones anymore. When I was hatching say a dozen from white roo and black or white hens, I would get 2 white, 8 black, and 2 partridge, give or take. I do not know enough about this genetics stuff to know why this happens and I didn't keep records on them like I should have. This new "flock" of 7 fancies I'm documenting everything!

I have read that breeding to recessive white can sometimes pop out a partridge, very interesting since the white is recessive, how does it hide or produce partridge? Chickens are full of mysteries!

Thats a good reminder to me to document all my chickens and what they produce! I need to start a spreadsheet, I love spreadsheets and lists... lol.