Silkie thread!

[Suzierd]

Looks to me like she is sun bleached or bronzed from older feathers.  Pretty common in blues and blacks.

Thanks Sonoran! It's just a slight tint you can hardly tell its there. She really stood out from the rest of the blues when I picked her out, such a pretty slate gray/ blue I really like her color. I just Love your avatar beautiful!

 

[NovaAman]

Thank you so much for the advice. I am sorry you had to lose so many birds. I don't know what to do with her. She had the runny nose (one nostril-little clear drainage) and an occasional sneeze for three days. No other symptoms ever developed and now she shows no symptoms at all. She sneezed a couple of times yesterday but not at all today and I wasn't sure that it wasn't the dust that made her do that. I gave her Ivermectin on day one and she never pooped any worms but I always do that anyway just to be sure. When I got her she was in a separate pen from the showgirls I picked up. They all shared a cage on the ride home (I didn't know she was sick at the time) but she was isolated as soon as I got home and has been a separate cage since. They are in cages next to each other in the garage. (Now looking back I hope it isn't an airborne thing.) Because the showgirls were with her for a few hours, are they not safe to eventually merge with my flock either? They show no symptoms at all. Is it possible that the silkie pullet could have had a "no big deal" runny nose without it being something serious? Especially since it cleared right up on medicated feed and VetRx? Could I be making something out of nothing? There are no avian vets of any kind anywhere in my area. My hubby would flip if I spent 20x the cost of a bird on vet care anyway. I believe in taking the best care possible of all my animals but I also have to be practical. I just didn't realize that sick birds could pass things on even after they were well. I always quarantine, worm, dust, bathe etc my newbies and would never bring home a sick bird if I knew it. Mites, lice and worms are common and easy to clear up but I have never dealt with a sick bird otherwise so I am at a loss. I hate to cull her if it wasn't necessary but I also don't want to risk my other birds. Also, does she need further medication when she no longer shows symptoms? I am thinking that time will tell. I have had her for five days now so no matter what they all need quarantined a few more weeks. I hate not knowing what to do. To make it worse, she is my 10 yr old daughter's and she is very attached already. The longer I take to decide, the more attached she will be and it will be hard to explain to her how I need to put the bird down when she is "better".

maybe you could get a throat swab in for MS and MG testing. Then you will know for sure what you were dealing with, and could go from there.

 

[Hawkeye95]

That's the info I was looking for, silkies are not for me. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING THAT. I'm sure it saved me lots of trouble and time and money. Thanks again.

but silkies are so laid back and wonderful and great birds!! Good for kids, and eat less and take up less room. They don't even need roosts. All of mine lay on the ground, even though they have the option for roosts. They are fairly easy to care for. I know they aren't for everyone, but they are so fun and addicting! If you have an established flock of birds, yeah I wouldn't put them in there. But they are great to run with other crested breeds.

And that is why a broody mama does not leave the nest once hatching starts.... I love natures incubators. I have 11 days to go! Then I will have 3 new silkie babies! Mom, snow bunny, is white, Roger is black with gold leakage. So, I do not understand colors... Will the chicks be black or white, or mix of each? Both of the ones from Leila were black, and she was buff. This is why I ask.

White is one of those colors that you really shouldn't breed to anything else but white. White X white will give you white. BUT, if you mix white with any other color-- there is absolutely NO way to predict what you will get. Doesn't matter what you pair them with, still no way to know. You will likely wind up with colors that are not recognized by the Standard. Buff is another color you should not mix with other colors, either. You can't get a true black from a buff breeding as far as I know. I would guess they will grow up with leakage or off colors in them. Sooooo... you'll just have to wait and see what colors you will wind up with.

 

[elieugene6]

Just wondering. Are there large fowl silkies in the us? All of mine are bantam size and I recently acquired a pair of white that I would consider large fowl and the hen lays a large white egg. I was going to put my white silkie hen in with them but they are twice her size.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

You can't fix bleached feathers. Only a molt can do that. Don't let them in the sun from now on if you are going to show them. I had set up a pen and shaded it quite well this summer and still ended up with bleaching! So I'm building new pens in my horse barn, completely out of the sun.

I have to use AI to breed mine. Unless you trim them way down on their rears. But I've been showing the birds I've been breeding and can't trim them. The AI isn't too bad, once you get the hang of it and know what you're doing. I don't let them hang around out in a rain storm-- they get soaked and their feathers don't shed water. They just end up looking like drowned cats. It's pathetic. So no rain, no sun (it bleaches them), and I don't trim beards, unless they aren't going to be shown. If you aren't going to show, you can trim beards-- NOT crests. The crest is not effecting their eye sight, it is the beard directly below and around their beaks. I would never butcher a crest... ever. I would never put them in with my LF birds. They can't see, so if they are going to get picked on, they can't get away or defend themselves. These birds are very laid back and get along with each other. I already have issues with running my Polish with my layer birds. IN fact, my layer birds love to pick at their fluffy crests, so all of my naughty layers are wearing Pinless Peepers. So I keep my silkies separate.

this is one of my layers. They are baaaaaad birds. They don't play nice with birds that have crests. So if you run into that problem-- buy the Pinless Peepers and save yourself a headache. Or just don't run crested breeds with your LF. Of course, I'd never put silkies in there with them, but my polish are standards and can handle themselves now that the LF are restricted.

Wow really? your layers bully your silkies? My layers were raised with silkies so maybe that had to have something to do with it...but the silkies are almost all higher on the dominance chain than my big brahmas are. The polish like to pick on the silkies though, but for the most part are all easy going. I let my silkies range in this heat with my layers all over the yard, I have covered areas in the pens, but I don't have the money to build a completely covered area for them, and they do just fine.

 

[aoxa]

[COLOR=800000]Wow really? your layers bully your silkies? My layers were raised with silkies so maybe that had to have something to do with it...but the silkies are almost all higher on the dominance chain than my big brahmas are. The polish like to pick on the silkies though, but for the most part are all easy going. I let my silkies range in this heat with my layers all over the yard, I have covered areas in the pens, but I don't have the money to build a completely covered area for them, and they do just fine. [/COLOR]

My girls get along fine with the big hens. My current two broodies sharing babies are 1 silkie and 1 barred rock hen. The silkie beats up on the barred rock.

Only issue I have is with a LF rooster and my silkie roo. The poor little guy had a lot of feathers pulled out of his rear end.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Just wondering. Are there large fowl silkies in the us? All of mine are bantam size and I recently acquired a pair of white that I would consider large fowl and the hen lays a large white egg. I was going to put my white silkie hen in with them but they are twice her size.

No, there are no LF silkies in the US. If you have one, it's an accident or a breeder's cull. I have just recently been judged very harshly on showing a cockerel that was too heavy! They are not accepted here and I would avoid breeding them at all. Since I found out about my boy-- which is very typey and good looking--- I'm not going to use him to breed anymore. I'm crossing my fingers his offspring don't grow too large, either. And I think a couple of his offspring are actually growing too big. So I will be getting rid of them. If your only concern is putting other smaller silkies in with a larger silkie-- I wouldn't think that would be a problem at all. They all usually get along pretty well.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Wow really? your layers bully your silkies? My layers were raised with silkies so maybe that had to have something to do with it...but the silkies are almost all higher on the dominance chain than my big brahmas are. The polish like to pick on the silkies though, but for the most part are all easy going. I let my silkies range in this heat with my layers all over the yard, I have covered areas in the pens, but I don't have the money to build a completely covered area for them, and they do just fine.

Indeed they do! I have Barred Rocks and Wyandottes-- they are the WORST offenders! But no, they do not get along at all. The layers have bloodied my Polish and silkies. I had a near massacre last year. Blood all over the walls of my coop because I caught it almost too late. I think you are just lucky! That... or I have really mean layers! LOL! I have covered my pens with the privacy lattice-- works out great, but doesn't keep all the sun off of them. My really dark blues have bleached out a bit. I absolutely can not free range, so you are lucky there. I have very bold coyotes and neighbor dogs that would love a chicken snack!

 

[sager:)silkies]

Indeed they do! I have Barred Rocks and Wyandottes-- they are the WORST offenders! But no, they do not get along at all. The layers have bloodied my Polish and silkies. I had a near massacre last year. Blood all over the walls of my coop because I caught it almost too late. I think you are just lucky! That... or I have really mean layers! LOL! I have covered my pens with the privacy lattice-- works out great, but doesn't keep all the sun off of them. My really dark blues have bleached out a bit. I absolutely can not free range, so you are lucky there. I have very bold coyotes and neighbor dogs that would love a chicken snack!

some of my silkies are in my laying flock and they do just fine some of my birds do pick on eachother but not often.

 

[Lady Chickadee]

You can't fix bleached feathers. Only a molt can do that. Don't let them in the sun from now on if you are going to show them. I had set up a pen and shaded it quite well this summer and still ended up with bleaching! So I'm building new pens in my horse barn, completely out of the sun.

Thanks for the reply. I keep their pens in the shade but I move them so that they can have fresh grass. I can't keep them out of the sun because I don't have a barn or anything to make pens in. I do have a small horse barn but we have had problems with raccoons in it and I would hate to have anything happen to my silkies. Its okay though, I only have three blue silkies(two are sun bleached) and I have plenty of other colors to show that are not sun bleached.