Silkie thread!

[peepblessed]

Ive got 12 eggs incubating right now , its going to be a long wait . Trying this vintage one out and having to turn by hand . I'm so getting a turner soon!
So far so good

Wow! That is vintage! Hope all goes well and glad you found a great home for you babies!!

 

[3ChickensinNC]

Curious about looking for a different size beak to help determine male vs. female? Where can I find some information on this?

 

[peepblessed]

Double post

 

[peepblessed]

Wow! Send them my way...... I have a hard time selling any!

I guess we have a silkie drought where I live. Lots more silkie breeders back east. I still have to give away my PQ cockerels.

 

[peepblessed]

we got black an white silkys and we enjoy them

If you hang around here much you will likely end up with more!! By the way, I know it seem really strange but "silkie" is singular and "silkies" is pural. I wonder when that spelling was created?

 

[GoldBarRanch]

GOOD ONE

 

[peepblessed]

Curious about looking for a different size beak to help determine male vs. female? Where can I find some information on this?

We had a great lesson on this a while back from SilverSilkie and though it doesn't always follow true (just one of many indicators) it's the shape of the beak. The girl beak is commonly gently arched and the boy beak is commonly begins straighter and then curves more sharply. I call it the eagle look. This is definitely not a sure indication. My best girl has a boy beak! These photos are the best I could find from my chick photos. They're about 10 weeks.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Glad to see your post! You are about a 2 hour drive from me. I will send you a PM... as I would like to request being put a contact list/wait list for when you have birds available.
In regard to not so good silkies being sold and purchased....As new and potential breeders, it is hard for my family to easily see the differences in a BQ vs SQ bird. It's hard enough for us to pick out DQ's. Reading websites and interpreting a Standard of Perfection are very different from having hands on experience in seeing, touching and feeling good birds. The reference book by Sigrod appears to be sold out, so we don't have access to that. So, we have joined the ASBC and hope to attend some shows to help our learning curve.
Until we can build our konwledge base...we are forced to rely on the folks who are selling us stock, who may themselves have limited knowledge. Not everyone will be honest and upfront, and there is always the chance that we may get taken for a ride. I'm not sure what the solution is and if there is one. It would be wonderful if we could have a series of pics here on this thread showing birds that are different qualities (PQ,BQ,SQ) with an explanation of why. Side by side pics of DQ's vs faults vs normal traits would also be extremely helpful.
Tina

Okay, all of these boys are mine, so I don't mind tearing them apart! The top two white boys are from Ideal Hatchery. This is before I got into the nicer lines of birds. But to point out why they are a Pet Quality--- Their comb is red and not mulberry. They have little to no crest, they have very little feathering down their legs and toes. They also have a lot of hard feathers in their tails. Especially on males, there should be a VERY limited amount of hard feathers in the tail. These guys-- you can see how their tails aren't fluffy and soft and the hard feathers stick straight out. Also, it's hard to see here, but the texture of their combs is not correct either. They should have a smoother comb without all the pointy horns that are on these two whites. They are also a non bearded, which is not a fault at all, but even for a non-bearded, their wattles are red and they are overly large. They are lacking type-- which is that nice S shape you see in really nice birds.. The "type" is where their chests bump out, heads back a bit, and hackle feathers and cushion/tail touch each other. These white roosters are obviously lacking in all areas.

Then you have a breeder/show quality rooster (mine) below them. He is a splash, but ignore his color for now. The comb is the right color and texture. It is a tiny bit on the large side, but a lot of people do like that, and it's not a DQ. You can see his crest is much larger in comparison to his white rooster counter parts. Also, he has the "type" I was talking about earlier-- where he has that nice S shape and his hackles and cushion/tail touch. More so now that he has filled in better. He has a nice wide chest-- it's not rangy and thin like the roosters above him. You want the chest to look like that. He has better leg and toe feathering. The list goes on and on. Basically all the opposite of the two white birds above. The same can be said for a hen-- they should be nice and round and full looking, with good type, nice crest, nice tight wings-- no loose or dropping wings. There should be no splits in the wings when you fan them out.

I hope this give you a good start in identifying the difference in quality. I also have pictures of good toes and bad toes, etc... if there is anything you want to see specifically, please ask and I'm sure we can all come up with something!

I have a question...I have a mix silkie.Had four but 3 got attacked and died.Im thinking about getting a few more so he has a buddy.But what if he attacks the lil ones???Is that good or bad and if so bad what do I do?I dont want to get them and right when they arrive they feel uncomfortable??

Did your rooster attack the last birds, or were they attacked by a predator. I ask because if a rooster is already prone to attacking and killing off other birds, I would put him in soup. That is not something they can really come out of. There is someone on the board here who's rooster killed 3 birds in one day all of a sudden. Thinking it was a fluke, they left him be. He ended up killing more birds over the next few days. They have had to pen him by himself or he will kill birds. And these are not other males--- but female birds that he should be protecting! If he was not the killer, and you are simply finding him a buddy, then I agree with Peep below.

The chicks I hatched in April are around 11 weeks old now.
As some of you may remember, this is my first "real" year raising silkies.
I've had chickens for years, but I bought my first pair of silkies last year.

I'm having so much fun with all the babies! And I think I can tell I have some boys in the bunch.
I know it's hard to tell with silkies though.

So, should I be figuring out genders this early, or could it still go either way?

For example, I believe this splash chick is a boy.


And this one looks girly to me, but I'm guessing it could change?

These look like they are about 4-5 weeks old. My 10wk old chicks look almost fully grown. But I am going to side with you on your guesses. These are beautiful birds, BTW!!

Just separate them with wire that they can become acquainted though with for a couple of days and then put them together but watch carefully. If there is a big age difference it may take longer. Provide a space for the little ones to escape if the big one chases them.

X2!

 

[chitown chicks]

I really want the silkies and we're only hesitating because we don't want to have to keep them separate from our laying hens. Although, I know one could easily keep them separate. They're so tiny they don't need much. We're new to chickens and I'm a nervous nelly.
I've been doing a lot of research and reading about integrating new birds/birds of different ages. I've been told to get the silkies now and add younger than the silkies laying hens. I want to pick up my birds and want NPIP (or similarly reared) layers and this is posing a problem as I'm not finding people in my area.

 

[Sanna]

Ok guys. Can you tell me if this is a sneeze or some other strange noise this black hen is making? I'm starting to think it's not a sneeze...? She's been doing it for about 2 months not, it's not going away. I tried the VetRX and all that. Didn't do a thing. I also had her on a new antibiotic feed for the 14 days it says to feed right on the back. This feed cleared our a runny nose and raspy breathing in a different hen, so I know it works.

What is this hen doing?? lol I don't know if I should be worried or not? She's not laying any eggs yet. I'm pretty sure she's somewhere between 10-12 months now. So she probably should have started laying by now, or at least sometime soon.
I must be missing something? Or this hen is perfectly fine and I'm imagining things? I've tried trimming the feathers around her face to make sure that's not the issue.


I don't know how to make this video work so that it'd be posted right on the topic. Here's a link.