Silkie thread!

[Hawkeye95]

Sanna, yeah, probably best to separate out your hen like you did before. The kennel idea is really a good idea!

BUT... an incubator is a lot easier and less worry. I really like my Brinsea. It rotates from the outside, you don't ever have to lift the lid. Let us know how the egg fared. Your cockerel does look blue. There is nothing wrong with being non bearded, unless you just don't prefer it. His wings are more shredded than they should be. I doubt anyone is picking on his wings, I've never noticed that kind of behavior in my own flock... but any number of things could be going on there. But it's too early to know what they will eventually look like. His feet are REALLY feathered, so that is nice! Very nice. Hopefully his chest and cushion will fill in. He's young, so that is a ways off. You want his cushion and tail to come in and pouf up-- the judge pointed out when I was clerking at the last show that some tails just slope right down like a slide, which isn't good. But he's young-- so that could still come in.

 

[Sanna]

Yes, I love the foot feathering and I think you are right, the smaller chick looks blue. You don't say how old the beardless guy is. Are you sure it's a he?

He's 3 months old.
I figured he was a he because of these purple wattles starting? And I thought the beak looks more like a boy's beak. What do you think? I'd be happy to be wrong on this one!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Oh, and I made a mistake, my chicks are actually 2 months old. Woops!

 

[Sanna]

Sanna, yeah, probably best to separate out your hen like you did before. The kennel idea is really a good idea!

BUT... an incubator is a lot easier and less worry. I really like my Brinsea. It rotates from the outside, you don't ever have to lift the lid. Let us know how the egg fared. Your cockerel does look blue. There is nothing wrong with being non bearded, unless you just don't prefer it. His wings are more shredded than they should be. I doubt anyone is picking on his wings, I've never noticed that kind of behavior in my own flock... but any number of things could be going on there. But it's too early to know what they will eventually look like. His feet are REALLY feathered, so that is nice! Very nice. Hopefully his chest and cushion will fill in. He's young, so that is a ways off. You want his cushion and tail to come in and pouf up-- the judge pointed out when I was clerking at the last show that some tails just slope right down like a slide, which isn't good. But he's young-- so that could still come in.

Thanks for your input.
I'll definitely get myself an incubator in the future. The reason I let our hens sit on the eggs was because there were 18 of them (eggs) and I was pretty sure just one hen wouldn't take care of all the eggs. At least not our white girls who are the best broodies. The last batch of chicks they hatched, once they hit 5 chicks they abandoned the rest of the eggs. Luckily more hens had gone broody by this time and stayed with the rest of the eggs. I suppose I could have put a couple of hens in a couple of different cages. We have tons of them up in the loft somewhere. Well...too late now!

I'll know better next time.

As for the chick with the good foot feathers. I think I'll keep looking for a home for the little one. I'm in no rush getting rid of them and if I can't find a home, that's ok too as long as all the boys get along. When I started working here at the farm, we had more roosters than hens in a pen and everyone got along just fine.

They all grew up together though. Then a fox or a raccoon got in their pen & the turkey pen next door and killed everything except for the turkeys. Ate all the eggs too. Somehow they had dug a path under our barn, continued digging under the chicken coop and came out in the pen that way. The path under the barn started behind all sorts of shrubbery and it was in an area no one ever would have thought of. Needless to say, our silkie and turkey pens got a complete overhaul and are now predator proof! Nothing will get in their pens now unless the predators bring their own tools with them. lol
Now I'm babbling again..! lol

 

[aoxa]

Are you sure this bird is 3 months old?  It looks like it's 6-8 weeks old.  It also doesn't look like a black.  Most likely this is a Blue, and it looks like it either has gold leakage under the beak, or it's the lighter grey showing thru.  Anyway, for now, favoring more of a girl look... but that could change the older it gets.  I'd say this bird is really too young to know.  

Now, I realize they all grow at different rates, so if you hatched it and you show 3 months, then totally fine.  I have a couple of birds right now that are "runts"-- they are teeny tiny!!!  They are nearly 3 months old and still look like they are 5-6 weeks old!  It's insane.  Anyway, it's a cute little bird you have there.  

It looks the growth rate of my 8 week old broody babies. My hand raised chicks seemed to grow faster than the broody raised kids, and they look similar to this at 8 weeks

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Might be; I simply said I could not tell. Photographs can look different on different computers.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

...
Pretty sure they said they were an F1 cross with sebrights.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

OK, so I have an Ideal hatchery blue silkie, about 3 months old, who is not so attractive, but is of course the sweetest hatchery silkie I have. He just loves people and loves to be held.

Being a hatchery chick, he obviously does not have good breeding at all so his crest [amongst other things] is rather pitiful. He also still has some pin feathers on his neck and such, so all of his feathering is still coming in.

My question is this: Is he a pitiful bearded or is he non-bearded?
I am confused as to what non-bearded is --> does it have feathers under the beak and sticking out on the cheeks? He has these, tho not full and fluffy like a good quality chick. Or do non-beardeds have feathering in these places too?

Just curious. I don't really care, just wondering how to label him. I have some wonderful bearded silkies that I hatched from two great breeders so I am not worried about this blue [except for trying to find him a good pet home].




Below, when he was younger and cuter....

He is pitifullly bearded. A true non-bearded has no beard or muffs at all.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

...

The bird on the right is a true non-bearded.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

It's me again with more questions! lol

I have this little black cockerel, at least I thought it was black, but I think it's starting to look blue? Am I right? It's the little guy on the left. And he is only 2 weeks younger than the blue cockerel on the right. He looks awfully small.

And just out of curiosity, what do you guys think of this little guy? I'm trying to get better at identifying what's good and what's not by using my own birds. lol
He's non-bearded, not a plus in my opinion, but I think he has some pretty decent things going on for him? Especially his foot feathering! I think he has ok type too? Lacking some poof on his head/neck area, but that might fill in ok as he gets older, correct? He is only 3 months old.

Gosh, the quality of picture REALLY suffered uploading it here by being shrinked so much. Makes the wings look waaay worse than what they really are. And I promise, there are no split wings. Just some shredded feathers. I'm guessing someone has been picking on him. There are more feathers growing in also.



And just to get a better opinion on his feet, here is a bigger picture:

And of course I forgot to take pictures of the bottom of his feet. He does have 5 toes and spacing seems good etc.
This chick probably has the best foot feathering out of all our silkies! lol I have no idea where he got it from?! Our birds are pretty much all pet quality. Too bad he is non-bearded, otherwise I might keep him around just to see what he'll look like as he gets older.

So please pick this bird apart! Any advice on what I might not be seeing would be greatly appreciated.

AWESOME foot feathering! Very nice for non-bearded; much better than the usual.