Debbi,
I want to say that you are very nice to give away your pet quality silkies! I am sure the folks who received them are very grateful. On this topic of selling and giving away silkies, you all might be interested to know its been very difficult for me to obtain nonhatchery bearded silkies for my handicapped 27yr old daughter.
In my attempts to buy hens... one breeder had hens for sale that had been used for breeding....but they were not hand tame. Another reputable breeder had hens for sale... but took so long to see my reply to her ad.....that she sold them to another buyer. Other breeders that i have contacted either don't reply to my notes or... are all on different timeframes as to when they will be evaluating their younger birds to decide which will be kept vs sold. I don't have the facilities to bring in a new bird or two every few weeks and deal with ongoing quarantines...and then ongoing integration of new birds into a flock.
I had to jump through many hoops and ultimately ended up buying chicks that I picked up in Maryland and Pensylvania.Those two breeders were very kind and I am vey appreciative of their willingness to sell us some BQ stock. Note that i live in NYS about 5-6 hours from those breeders and made special arrangements to pick them up.
My daughter is thrilled with her babies and is hoping to find a few more colors to add to her flock. But, I don't know if I have the energy to drive up and down the east coast to hunt them down!
Tina