Silkie thread!

[Sonoran Silkies]

Hi everyone, I have a question for the experts.

I just received a shipment of Silkie chicks (I buy from hatcheries to resell locally) and one little black chick has a very obvious leg deformity. It looks like the knee joint is locked in a bent position, probably where it was positioned in the egg. Is there a good treatment for this? Is it likely to loosen up over time or is this likely a permanent Issue? I know Silkies are prone to feet deformities so I was thinking this might be a somewhat common issue for the breed.

Any advise is appreciated.

The chick otherwise seems healthy and full of energy.

Sounds like the hock joint is dislocated, and I know of no way to fix it. I have never heard of silkies being prone to feet deformities, and have hatched many hundreds over the years.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Splash is splash. There is no such thing as "blue splash." Splash is two copies of the blue gene. Blues have a wide variation in shade; some are so dark they can be mistaken for blacks, and some are as light as lavenders (self blues).

Chicken genetics are very complicated; no easy "chart" for breeding different colours. Recognized varieties are white, black, blue, splash, buff, partridge, grey and self-blue.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: The crop is actually ahead of the stomach in the digestive tract. It is kind of a holding place for the food they eat. Not all that different than the cheek pouches of squirrels and chipmunks.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Peepblessed - only the roo is a blue lav split. The hen was a splash. So could they be splash?

So the roo was Bl/bl+ Lav+/lav and the hen was Bl/Bl Lav+/Lav+? If that is correct, not possibility of lav/lav offspring; about half will be Lav+/lav, but no way to tell which ones. As for blue, half will be Bl/bl+ and the other half will be Bl/Bl.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

After being over 100 pages behind, I'm caught up!

My husband has to be the worst chicken enabler that I know... I got off of work yesterday and let my white pen and my momma's and babies, well, when all the whites shuffled out, I saw one slinking out, completely covered in mud (We have had a LOT of rain here lately, along with threats of Tornados, "Don't like Ohio weather? Wait 5 minutes, it'll change!") I quickly scooped her up and a quick cleaning of the zip tie on her leg told me she was my most promising pullet that I hatched as a Christmas present to myself. I showed her to my husband, normally he bars me from bringing adult birds in the house, but he opened the screen door and I went to work. She was CAKED! with mud, didn't resemble a silkie at all. I placed her in the sink and went at spraying her down to get as much of the mud cake off as possible, mean while, Joe, my dh, was googleing if it was safe to give chickens gator/poweraide, chicken diapers and potty training chickens. After two shampooings, she still has a brown tinge to her feathers, but at least you can tell what color she is supposed to be... poor girl.

We sat on the ground near the couch with a hair dryer, fermented feed and poweraide, I thought she was going to drown herself! She dipped her whole head in the little dish with the water and food. She finally had a full crop and started to fall asleep, as I was going to take her back out to one of my quarenteen coops, DH, with a plastic tote in hand, says put her in here, let her stay in the house. I was flabbergasted! He hates chickens in the house!

This is the second time I have had to "rescue" her from the rest of the flock, her crest and beard are so thick, she submits to all the roos and doesn't fight for food, she can't see to get to the food or water. Needless to say, I now have a house chicken...

Just wanted to share, is there anything else I can do for her? The fermented feed is Meat Bird (22% protien) crumbles and has cayanne pepper, oregano, garlic and ACV w/ mother and Poly-vi-sol (no iron), and I mixed up some red gator or poweraide, I can't remember... We are going to keep her separate for a while, may get Christal, her SG sister to keep her company.

Trim the feathers that block her vision with baby nail scissors. Most are prbably from her muffs, but there may be some crest feathers blocking her vision as well. And if you plan to keep her inside, consider chicken diapers.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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!!!!

There are five 5-toed breeds, and silkies are one of them "Splash" is a paint, not a splash

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I'm about out of chick feed... wondering when I should start on big chicken food? They're 2 months and about 3 months. Should I go ahead and get another big bag of the chick feed?

If you are talking about a layer ration, do not give it until they begin laying (usually somewhere between 8 and 10 months, but can be later). If you are talking about a gamebird or other ration that does not contain higher levels of calcium, then changing over now is fine.

 

[JenS9]

If you are talking about a layer ration, do not give it until they begin laying (usually somewhere between 8 and 10 months, but can be later). If you are talking about a gamebird or other ration that does not contain higher levels of calcium, then changing over now is fine.

Thank you! I wasn't sure when to switch. That makes it much easier!

I still don't even know what gender who is yet. Trying very hard not to pick favorites, because I know if they do they'll be roos and I'll have to get rid of them, cause that's how my luck goes.

 

[JenS9]

Oh, I had another random question haha. Well, two actually.

a) How much do nicely marked splash pullets go for? I'd be looking for SQ or close to it as a pet (I want my darn pretty pretty splash!).

b) What's shipping cost like? I've only ever had day old chicks shipped in, so I'm not sure how it differs for grown birds.

Thanks guys. <3

 

[PaintedFeathers]

The crop is actually ahead of the stomach in the digestive tract.  It is kind of a holding place for the food they eat.  Not all that different than the cheek pouches of squirrels and chipmunks.

Learn something new every day! =D