Silkie thread!

[Lynzi777]

How does everyone keep their silkies clean when it rains?

Don't let them out in the rain!

Seriously though, Mine have gone out plenty of times in the rain, especially my Roo when he's out with the bigger girls because I like to give the silkie hens a break from him every once in a while. And to be honest, I don't do a thing to clean them up. I was so surprised the first time he went out in the rain, how beautiful he looked the next day. It's like he had gone to the groomer! He had dried off and preened himself so nicely that I don't mind him going out in the rain. I leave it for him to decide. I used to have a while silkie hen that did the same thing - went out in the rain and I couldn't believe what a mess she looked like, thought I'd never get her looking nice again. Went out the next morning to get her and clean her up - she looked better than ever! It was a nice shower for her!

 

[Jharper]

Splash

Splish

Sorry it took sooooo long for me to put pictures up!!! Finally remembered to get some though

Oh and need some advice! I noticed that both of them have of course 3 toes and then farther up their legs they have 2 more

This is my first time ever having silkies so I don't know if this is just a silkie thing or what... Most of my other 'laying breeds' have 3 bottom toes a only 1 farther up the leg..... Thanks!!!!

Paint then a white.

 

[Urchin]

This is White Flame and I wish I could get a better picture of him/her (I'm hoping "her" because we already have 2 confirmed roos and two suspected). This chick looks like it is probably self blue, but all the pictures I've seen of self blue birds do not have the little streaks of black that appear on its neck and wings. You can kind of see on in his shot in the middle of the neck and some below that. Is this just bleed through, like getting gold on a black silkie? Or do self blues sometimes get darker streaks in their feathering? This is not going to be a show bird, so it doesn't matter if it is a mess color-wise. I'm just curious.

 

[drumstick diva]

Urchin cute chick

 

[Yvonne13]

Can silkies live with other kinds of chickens?

 

[sillycmoy]

Can silkies live with other kinds of chickens?

I"m sure you will hear a bunch of people saying no, due to their skulls not fully closing, so a beck at the top of their head can severely hurt them or kill them. I actually raised mine with a few other bantams that were all the same age from 4 days old, and now since they are 2 1/2 months old, I actually let them choose to free range with my large chickens. They do have their own separate run and coop. Just so you do know, my Silkies and the larger chickens have been living together for 2 months with a fence separating them in their own coops/runs, so they are very used to each other. I also would only let the Silkies have free range time and then the big girls have their own time, so they were used to seeing each other out of the runs. When I did start to let them out together, I have a huge area for free range, I waiting till the other girls where a good distance away, and then let the Silkies out. I've never had any problems. I do leave my runs open so everyone can come home if they want. I do have food and water in both runs as well as in 2 different spots in the free range, and everyone shares just fine.

But I have heard that you shouldn't let them with the larger birds, but I really didn't want to run 100s of feet of chicken wire to separate them for free range, unless I had too, but in the last 2 weeks of doing this, they all get along. Right now all 12 of them are under the same pine tree in the shade.

 

[Lynzi777]

Can silkies live with other kinds of chickens?

x2 what Silly said...I tried it, integrating my silkies in with my orpingtons, didn't go over so well. I actually also raised a two silkies with two orpingtons, all were hatched around the same time. As the Orp rooster got older I had to separate them before he caused damage trying to mate with the silkies. I was told I better remove the silkies from at least the rooster because he could actually end up killing them. That's when I decided to get into silkies and get more for breeding and trying to get the colors I wanted. They now have their own coop. My Silkie roo however goes from coop to coop. Right now he's free ranging with the bigger girls so the Silkie hens can have a break from him. He'll be going back with the Silkie hens when my teens are a little older. He's already tried mounting one and ended up hurting it and it passed away.

 

[Urchin]

Urchin cute chick

Thanks!

 

[Urchin]

Can silkies live with other kinds of chickens?

My silkies are integrated with the larger birds and we've had no problems with silkies getting bullied. In fact, my eight-week-old splash thinks its a big bird and spends all its time hanging out with them rather than the other silikes.

Oddly enough, I'm trying to integrate my cochin chicks since they've outgrown the brooder, but the SLWs are not happy about that. Yet they have no problem with the coop silkies nor did they go after the three silkie chicks we integrated a couple of weeks ago. I guess they just don't like cochins for whatever strange reason is in their little chicken heads.

 

[aaswanson]

x2 what Silly said...I tried it, integrating my silkies in with my orpingtons, didn't go over so well. I actually also raised a two silkies with two orpingtons, all were hatched around the same time. As the Orp rooster got older I had to separate them before he caused damage trying to mate with the silkies. I was told I better remove the silkies from at least the rooster because he could actually end up killing them. That's when I decided to get into silkies and get more for breeding and trying to get the colors I wanted. They now have their own coop. My Silkie roo however goes from coop to coop. Right now he's free ranging with the bigger girls so the Silkie hens can have a break from him. He'll be going back with the Silkie hens when my teens are a little older. He's already tried mounting one and ended up hurting it and it passed away.

Hmm....this has me wondering now :/ We have 2 buff orpington that are 17wks old and we got 2 silkie that are now 7 weeks old. We decided to give the orpington their own coop and to get the silkie their own coop. Yesterday I picked up up a bantam ameraucana (12 wks old) and a bantam silver laced wyandotte (12 wks old). The day has been interesting .....lots of ganging up on the silkies and not letting them eat,...the poor things were a mess by late morning, so I took the SLW out to her own space and things have gotten a bit better. The ameraucana is not much bigger, so I think they are going through normal pecking order, but the silkies are so small and sweet I hate setting them get picked on. I thought most bantams would have been a good fit or else I would have got a couple more silkies. Do you find this not the case? Do they need extra protection from the pecking order or am I just being a over protective mom lol