Silkie thread!

[Debbi]

Had to repost this over here as this may be a Silkie thing?? I do my morning whining over on the Marans thread, and while this behavior may be typical for all breeds at some point, I thought I would get a Silkie perspective. These are my first ever broodies, so I am guessing what is going on here. Here is what happened yesterday..

Ok, I guess I experienced the "dark side" of the broody world yesterday. My Splash hen went psycho, and started killing chicks! She started off with the two that I had hatched in the bator and had put in with them that morning. Looked like a mob killing, one good peck to the side of the head, right behind the left eye in both chicks! Ok, so I thought maybe she realized that these chicks came from the other pen, and maybe she saw them as intruders?? She was taking care of them in the morning, but by 1pm, the two were dead. Then the hen started going after the other hens and their babies!

She is normally the mellowist hen in that pen, so what's up here? The roo alerted me to the fact something was terribly wrong. So now I'm thinking, first time broody, and now all of these babies (16), she just couldn't handle the pressure? So, out I go with a bucket lined with shavings to bring in some chicks. What a fiasco that was! Babies running, this Splash hen attacking me now, trying to fend me away from the babies, and all the other adults running and screaming. NOT the peaceful scene it had been that morning, for sure! I managed to get 7 chicks inside with me hoping that would lessen the stressfulness for her and the others. I guess I'll find out when I get out there this morning if it worked or not. I guess if push comes to shove, I will remove the hen from that pen, but really have no place to put her right now. Anyone ever have this happen? Is it something they "grow" out of with more experience, or will this behavior recur?

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

What colors are these called please.


Black or Dark Blue


White


Dark Partridge


Silver Partridge


White


Grey/Silver partridge...possibly columbian depending on how it feathers out.

Any help would be great.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Had to repost this over here as this may be a Silkie thing?? I do my morning whining over on the Marans thread, and while this behavior may be typical for all breeds at some point, I thought I would get a Silkie perspective. These are my first ever broodies, so I am guessing what is going on here. Here is what happened yesterday..

Ok, I guess I experienced the "dark side" of the broody world yesterday. My Splash hen went psycho, and started killing chicks! She started off with the two that I had hatched in the bator and had put in with them that morning. Looked like a mob killing, one good peck to the side of the head, right behind the left eye in both chicks! Ok, so I thought maybe she realized that these chicks came from the other pen, and maybe she saw them as intruders?? She was taking care of them in the morning, but by 1pm, the two were dead. Then the hen started going after the other hens and their babies!

She is normally the mellowist hen in that pen, so what's up here? The roo alerted me to the fact something was terribly wrong. So now I'm thinking, first time broody, and now all of these babies (16), she just couldn't handle the pressure? So, out I go with a bucket lined with shavings to bring in some chicks. What a fiasco that was! Babies running, this Splash hen attacking me now, trying to fend me away from the babies, and all the other adults running and screaming. NOT the peaceful scene it had been that morning, for sure! I managed to get 7 chicks inside with me hoping that would lessen the stressfulness for her and the others. I guess I'll find out when I get out there this morning if it worked or not. I guess if push comes to shove, I will remove the hen from that pen, but really have no place to put her right now. Anyone ever have this happen? Is it something they "grow" out of with more experience, or will this behavior recur?

I have had this happen...I will tell you you should have taken the evil hen out not the chicks...She very well may kill more chicks by the time you've gone back out.

Some grow out of it, others just make good incubators but not good mothers and will keep up abusing chicks.

 

[Debbi]

I have had this happen...I will tell you you should have taken the evil hen out not the chicks...She very well may kill more chicks by the time you've gone back out.

Some grow out of it, others just make good incubators but not good mothers and will keep up abusing chicks.

Well, you were right there! Just got in from the run, and she had killed another one! The only ones she has killed are Partridge marked, and eggs that I took in to hatch in the bator. All 3 went out the next morning to the flock, and she was the one taking care of them. All was fine until yesterday, and the chick from this morning was at least a week old. Seeing as how there are 2 more Partridge marked chicks in there, that SHE hatched, I pulled her out, and she is temporarily in with my Marans roo and 3 four month old Marans chicks. All the others out there are going about their mommy duties, and the other chicks are fine. I beginning to think there is something amiss with Splash birds in general; my Splash Marans pullet of 8 months, has got to be the ditziest chicken I have ever seen! I will set up a small pen for her in the Partridge pen later today. The chicks I brought in yesterday are doing fine, I wasn't about to chance losing all of them, in case the other mothers decided to go whacko too! Crazy chickens!

 

[ThaiChick]

Okay, with ALL chickens, 95 degrees the first week, then decrease by 5 degrees each week.  When the outside temperature is the same as what they should be, voila!

Great rule of thumb!

 

[littlecritters]

Hi again.
SORRY to go back in time here to the chat about sexing chicks.  Man this thread zooms!     I missed the further comments.

MY understanding [please correct me if I'm wrong] is that Amber Waves silkies will sex them via DNA after you buy them.  So if you buy 12 and they tell you they all came back cockerels that's what you get.  You can't ask for and pay for sexing ahead of time and then buy the pullets.  Please correct me anyone, if necessary!!  Apologies if I read their info wrong.

I checked with my exotics vet and there are lots of labs that will do avian sexing.  Your vets will know as they DNA sex parrots etc etc all the time.  You don't have to go through your vet either to get it done.  The labs will send you a card and you either clip a toe nail a tiny bit tight to get a few drops of blood on the card, or on larger birds, pull out a few breast feathers.  The latter method isn't as fool proof though.  The testing is pretty inexpensive at about $15 - $20 each I believe.

Just food for thought.   

[PS:  I'm hatching some silkie eggs soon---I caught the fever!]

Thanks for sharing info on DNA testing. This may come in handy.

 

[ThaiChick]

Had to repost this over here as this may be a Silkie thing?? I do my morning whining over on the Marans thread, and while this behavior may be typical for all breeds at some point, I thought I would get a Silkie perspective. These are my first ever broodies, so I am guessing what is going on here. Here is what happened yesterday..

Ok, I guess I experienced the "dark side" of the broody world yesterday. My Splash hen went psycho, and started killing chicks! She started off with the two that I had hatched in the bator and had put in with them that morning. Looked like a mob killing, one good peck to the side of the head, right behind the left eye in both chicks! Ok, so I thought maybe she realized that these chicks came from the other pen, and maybe she saw them as intruders?? She was taking care of them in the morning, but by 1pm, the two were dead. Then the hen started going after the other hens and their babies! She is normally the mellowist hen in that pen, so what's up here? The roo alerted me to the fact something was terribly wrong. So now I'm thinking, first time broody, and now all of these babies (16), she just couldn't handle the pressure? So, out I go with a bucket lined with shavings to bring in some chicks. What a fiasco that was! Babies running, this Splash hen attacking me now, trying to fend me away from the babies, and all the other adults running and screaming. NOT the peaceful scene it had been that morning, for sure! I managed to get 7 chicks inside with me hoping that would lessen the stressfulness for her and the others. I guess I'll find out when I get out there this morning if it worked or not. I guess if push comes to shove, I will remove the hen from that pen, but really have no place to put her right now. Anyone ever have this happen? Is it something they "grow" out of with more experience, or will this behavior recur?

So sorry you're going through this! She needs to be in chicken jail.

 

[ThaiChick]

Good call!

 

[littlecritters]

Brachydactyly is the other side of the toes, and is too short outer toes, frequently missing toenails.  If the bird has 5 toes, and the hind two are okay (as in less than perfect, but not horrible), brachydactyly would take precedence with me over not quite right 5th toes.  FWIW, in Europe it is a DQ, and the European breeders consider it quite important to select against.

Being new to this, I'm a bit confused as to brachydactyly and what are good toes vs bad toes. And are extra toes a no no for breeding? If extra toes are a DQ, then I assume birds with extra toes would not be used for breeding? Could anyone post pics of some good vs bad examples?

 

[lil mama]

I was debating on wiether or not to post this but I need advice so here i go. I bought a young silkie pullets online from a breeder. When I recieved it she was covered in lice. She had lice eggs everywhere. I was very disappointed that I had paid all this money and now have to deal with this issue. So I dusted her and isolated her. A week later I gave her a bath and cut/plucked most of the feathers that had eggs on then off (this look an hour) then dusted her again. So it has been another week and she is still scratching. I plan on bathing her again today and treating her again. Now since she has been by herself all this time she seems depressed. She hardly moves from one spot. She is eating and drinking okay but always seems to have her eyes slightly closed. She seems miserable. I am new at owning silkies and I dont know what to do?