Silkie thread!

[Chickengirl47]

I have 3 silkies and this weekend I discovered they were HEAVILY infested with red mites. I think they came in on the new hay bale I picked up from the feed store.

I spent last night dusting them with Sevin dust, and spent all of today bathing them with flea shampoo, blow-drying, re-dusting, and feeding them scrambled egg and liver to try and help them make more red blood cells. I'm pretty sure they are anemic, and they seem kind of thin to me. I also think it knocked down their immune systems because they are having a CRD flare-up.

I'm positive this is because they sleep on the floor. Is there anything I can do to help prevent them from getting so heavily infested again? I cleaned out the bedding, dusted the floor and fresh bedding(no hay this time, just shavings) and coop corners as well, but I'm in the middle of integrating so I'll have to do a deeper de-mite clean after she's joined the group.

Has anyone successfully roost-trained their silkies? I can build one their height, but will they use it?!

I roost trained my white silkies after a raccoon successfully killed five of them when they were sleeping in a corner of their kennel. The raccoon simply reached through the bars of the dog kennel, and grabbed them, and pulled them out.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

look at these action shot of my partridge hen

Grey, NOT partridge.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Some silkies will naturally choose to roost. My second silkie rooster's favourite spot was atop a four foot tall loose wire fence. If you provide solid walls where silkies pile or at the ends of roosts, animals can't reach through to grab them.

 

[LaPetiteFarmer]

I just wanted to thank this site for all the knowledge and help I have had since I started with chickens...everything I know is from here...one of my little paint chicks hatched yesterday with one splayed leg...I search for info on here and I had step by step instructions and pictures of how to splint and treat it...today she is walking just fine like the others...I really just wanted to say thank you to this wonderful site and the knowledge of others, and for people taking the time to post info and pics about all this information....

Here she is walking around just fine with her little splint on....

That is awesome! I am so happy for the both of you!

 

[Chickengirl47]

I know, this was my first time with silkies. So I didn't know better. I provided them with roosts, but they chose to sleep in the corner. They were fine for a couple of weeks, and I had no idea a raccoon would reach through the bars to kill them. The bars were tiny, and the chicks were huge, and I didn't think they could fit through it. But the raccoon ripped them up when he pulled them through the bars, because I found one.

 

[aoxa]

Grey, NOT partridge.

My PC screen shows partridge. Colours are yellowish and not silver.

 

[ChickensXOXO]

Wow Chickensxoxo...your boys are beautiful...is misha what they call calico?

Micah is from a Porcelain project pen. He's a really dark shaded porcelain I guess, almost like a lavender partridge. Love his color.

 

[Herducks]

Can you see the silkie in the tree?

 

[Herducks]

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

too cute!