Silkie thread!

[PNWGirl]

20x20 - Awesome!!

I know, right??? Would LOVE that!!!

Sheila

 

[PNWGirl]

I took some pictures yesterday of my little silkie flock

I merged the 2 month olds with the 5 month olds, and they got along wonderfully, and all snuggle up together at night. Silkies have got to be the most gentle birds to young chicks.

The youngest ones love to hang out in our raised shade plant bed.

I just love this fluffy girl

This one too.

My whole sweet flock together. As you can probably tell, it was windy yesterday lol


The end

Your whites are beautiful!!!
Sheila

 

[peepblessed]

I bought these birds two weeks ago. What do ya'll think about type and color?

Looks like you got a couple of pretty nice girls. Very difficult to tell in one photo. The roo looks like he has some color problems. Not a good photo to critic.

 

[PNWGirl]

At that age they are not straight run! Pretty easy to see a cock and two hens. Or maybe that is the parent birds? Anyways, NOT rare.

Also, I VERY, VERY strongly doubt that black can hide paint. I'd be willing to bet a LOT on that! Now breed the black to a paint and THE PAINT can pass the necessary gene(s), but NOT the black. I'm less certain about white (dominant, not recessive) being able to hide paint genes.

Sadly, some poor people will be taken in by this and- maybe- find out later that they were fleeced.

Sheila

 

[peepblessed]

I just hatched my second set of silkies from a reputable breeder this weekend. The ones from my last hatch are 10 weeks and are the fluffiest most beautiful silkies ever. I got one with a lobster claw and some with poorly separated toes, but otherwise gorgeous. This time I am dissapointed that I got a lot of toe issues. One fused and 3 with only 9 toes. Are these issues random or hereditary? These are all the forth and fifth toes by the way.
I've been trying repeatedly to hatch pure blacks to breed to my lav and cuckoos with no luck. This time I had three eggs marked black. One pure black got stuck and died =(. The one that hatched I am not sure about. It looks dark with white wing tips and underside but it has white feet. I know blues have white toes but this guys whole feet are white. I am thinking it might be blue? I will post pics when I get home. Has anyone ever seen this? Will the feet darken or will they stay white?

Black chicks can be born with white. If it's black it will go away. I have read that toe problems can be hereditary or caused by incubation issues.

 

[1chicken fan]

Once your eggs hatch you can kiss that incubator bye lol. Your silkies will brood anything you need hatched. Great moms from what I hear too.

Two of my girls are sitting on Jersey giant eggs, lol.

 

[aoxa]

What a beautiful place you have! So neat to see them free range. I wish I could free range we have hawks eyeballing them all the time. I let some out in the orchard with me watching over them and a hawk flew right at us and scared the heck out of me I stood up and waved my arms and he veered off and landed in a tree right by us so I had to get them right back in. Love those little guys so cute, thanks for sharing.

Thank you Suzierd! We don't get hawks like you guys do. Our biggest hawk is a cooper hawk, and I've never seen one yet. We do occasionally get eagles, but as you can see, we have tons of cover when one flies over. I have 13 roosters (silkies, barred rocks, cochins, houdan, Easter Egger, NN, etc.) and they will sound a call. The silkies run for cover as well, so no worries. Steve (our silkie rooster) can see relatively well, and is always on watch. Blue Jays fly around and he sounds the call many, many times a day.

Suzie, we have the same problem with hawks, right here in a neighborhood. My friend just lost her Wyondotte to a hawk. It was so aggressive after having to leave it there after killing it. It must have been interrupted. It kept flying over them when they went out. They had the chicken in a box, and it still kept flying over them, and landing on their coop. When they went to bury the chicken, that thing swept just feet above their daughter. That was it. They called authorities, and the guy said it was a coopers hawk. She had taken a picture of it just hanging out on the neighbors roof, so he could see what it was..didn't see it flying around though. Of course not. They had buried the bird by then. So what comes by my house a few days later? Yep..I got swooped down on just as I came out of my coop's run Not as low as what happened to my friend, but, I would say it was only about 8 ft. above me. Needless to say, I kept my chickens in the run for days. Silkies, can not, see above them! My other chickens can, but they usually freeze when something like that flies over head! I had Red Hawks come by, but they aren't as brazen as the Coopers when you are out there. But one day, my neighbor heard a lot of chicken noise going on while I was at church. He comes out to look, and there was a huge hawk stuck on top of the chicken wire. He said he couldn't believe the span of the wings on that thing. Had to be a Red Tail. The Coopers are smaller, but stubborn! Read a bit up on them if you have a min. Unbelievable.

That's awful I don't know what I would do if I had a hawk problem.. A lot of fencing would be in order I guess. Never EVER lost a bird to a predator. I thank my LGD Clementine for taking care of the land predators. She barks every hour on the hour to keep them at bay. I hear her right this minute in fact

Here she is resting after a long night of work She has a huge kennel when we are not around. Still in training, but the barking really does work. She's always out when we are home. This morning we fed the birds yoghurt that is a few days past the best before, and she got right in there and started eating. One of our birds started eating right by her, and she backed up and laid down. I was very impressed!

I'm so jealous that you can free range. Not safe here for a minute! Beautiful!!

Thank you!

What neat pics. That top one would be good for the molting contest! Yeah your place is beautiful!

I did enter her Sadly this is as bad as I have for molting right now. I'm looking forward to my frizzles molting I hear they are the worst! Thanks!

I took some pictures yesterday of my little silkie flock I merged the 2 month olds with the 5 month olds, and they got along wonderfully, and all snuggle up together at night. Silkies have got to be the most gentle birds to young chicks. The youngest ones love to hang out in our raised shade plant bed. I just love this fluffy girl This one too. My whole sweet flock together. As you can probably tell, it was windy yesterday lol This little guy is 1/3 polish, and the rest silkie. His foot feathers are make him look like he has snowshoes The end

Gorgeous!!

That's disappointing. I was really wanting to do this project if the birds kept the silkie feathering but kept the coloring of the olandsk dwarf. That way, it would make some cool mille fleur pattern on a silkie body... Would that eventually happen over several generations?

Cross the first generation back to silkies and I believe you will get silkie feathers - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[tiki244]

That's disappointing. 

I was really wanting to do this project if the birds kept the silkie feathering but kept the coloring of the olandsk dwarf.  That way, it would make some cool mille fleur pattern on a silkie body... 
Would that eventually happen over several generations? 

It is possible to get silkied feathers in F2 generation.


RockerHen I love your flock of silkies That Polish X silkie is a hoot. His flippers are anyway. Love the picture of all the white fluffy's in the yard!

 

[littlecritters]

is it 2 late in the year to get hatchery chicks and put them outside in decemberish or should i wait till marchish and oh yea does anyone have blrw, cuckoo silkies or lav silkies for sale????????? please????????

Welcome to the silkie thread. If you wish to breed or show silkies, I would suggest that you look for a breeder in your area rather than purchasing hatchery chicks. The different is quality is measurable.

Unless you are in a warm climate, any chicks that you buy or hatch now, may end up in your house or garage all winter. If you can visit a poultry show this fall, you might be able to purchase sexed silkies that are a few months old. After 2-4 weeks of quarantine, they can possibly be moved out to your coop before the cold weather hits hard.

 

[Cynthia12]

Ok, so waaaay back there somewhere, and not "that" long ago, I posted that I would post a picture of my Silkies egg that she started to lay..there was a question as to what color your silkies laid. I said I would post today, but now, with so many posts happening..she/he may not see the picture! lol..plus, I said, that I would post a picture of my baby frizzle. Partridge color! So excited to finally have a Partridge color!!

It really is a nice color of brown. Not dark, but it is brown.

Just the right size to top a piece of toast.

I have a partridge Silkie..a frizzle silkie..what ever..it's a Partridge in color!!!!

Hello! I am famous now! My mug is on BYC!!!!

Frizzle chick...did I say that "she" is Partridge in coloring? lol...

Sweet baby..