Silkie thread!

[robin416]

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My guess is you have something going on in your flock. You lost one hen, you've got another down that I'm not convinced is a head injury. Have you had them checked for internal parasites? Have you checked for external parasites?

16% should be adequate. Many raise their birds successfully on that protein ratio. Is the feed fresh? Not just when you brought it home but has it been sitting on the feed store shelves for too long? That is a problem in my area right now with economy so bad. Is it being stored safely? Out of the sun, in an air tight container where rodents can't get in to it?

 

[CarolinaChickenKeeper]

Colie <3 :

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I have tried the Mylicon gas relief infant drops. Haven't tried the tea... She just gets to the point that she's too tired to be sociable and yet too nosy to close her eyes yet either.

Gas drops haha those are a joke IMO!!

The best stuff I found was called Colic Calm it's a gripe water that is all natural and I would have rather cut off my right arm than have gone without when my little boy was younger. He had undiagnosed silent reflux and for the first 5 months it was a war zone in my house. My friend swore by this stuff and I ordered some the first night I used it when fussy time rolled around he quieted within 10 minutes and fell asleep! I couldn't believe it LOL now I put it in gift bags along with my shower gifts, it's a little messy that's my only problem with it.

http://www.coliccalm.com/​

check out "gripe water"

 

[reereechickens]

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The boys head to the bachelor pen right away for a couple reasons. The girls stay in condition.... No rough young cockerels testing out their mating skills. If the weather is decent, I can throw 3 week old babies right in with 6-8 month old pullets (and anything in between) and they all get along. If you pull the males before they really realize they have testosterone, they all get along too and hardly any scuffles. I can pull boys to sell or add younger ones periodically too. They pretty much stay in condition for showing too then. I think the most important factor is that they have no girls to fight over.

Ex... these are all cockerel pens. They all look in pretty decent condition yet.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/destiny_56085/2010 silkie youngsters/im002222.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/destiny_56085/2010 silkie youngsters/PICT2768.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/destiny_56085/2009 Silkie youngsters/PICT0837.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/destiny_56085/2009 Silkie youngsters/PICT0834.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d196/destiny_56085/2009 Silkie youngsters/PICT0967.jpg

Hi Destiny! Very cute baby! I have a question. When you separate your roos are they right next to the pullets as shown in your pics? If you separate the roos are they happier if they can see the girls or do they do better not seeing any girls?

 

[Teresaann24]

Quote:
My guess is you have something going on in your flock. You lost one hen, you've got another down that I'm not convinced is a head injury. Have you had them checked for internal parasites? Have you checked for external parasites?

16% should be adequate. Many raise their birds successfully on that protein ratio. Is the feed fresh? Not just when you brought it home but has it been sitting on the feed store shelves for too long? That is a problem in my area right now with economy so bad. Is it being stored safely? Out of the sun, in an air tight container where rodents can't get in to it?

Oh its 100% head injury I put her in a small crate and took her out of the breeding pen to move her to a different pen. The cat and pup had followed me in she saw them and made the awful sound and jumped hitting the top of the cage. All I heard was THUMP and she was silent she just set there...100% Head injury. The other hen I lost I bought her locally and had not even had her a month. She was seperated from the flock till she passed her 30 days. She did not make it past her 30 days. I worm my whole flock with Wazine I do not nor have had any sick birds. I blame myself for her getting hurt I should have never left the door open. I always close it I do not know why I did not close the door.

 

[Gordonhillfarm]

Thank you Sonoran for answering . I beleive I will take her and a couple of others . I've never shown any bird and guess that after a few years of raiseing poultry I should at least try my hand at it . And your right it'll give me a chance to at least meet people that enjoy them also . Thanks again ~~ Tammy

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Have fun! I bet you'll be joining us at all the shows soon. It's as addictive as hatching.

 

[TK Poultry]

At what age can you attempt to sex a Silkie? I have my guesses on my chicks but I'm not sure...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

They will lay or crow eventually. Anything before that is a guess. With experence it is an informed guess, but still a guess.

 

[ultasol]

Amen on that Sonoran! I thought all the blue showgirls I hatched last year were boys, until one laid an egg. If you think silkies are hard, nice showgirls are worse! I almost sold them all as boys, too.


Oh, I had a VERY strange occurrence the other day. A chick that was about two weeks old started to blow up,.. literally inflate like a balloon. It was a round ball with legs sticking straight out from either side. It had obviously pooped in the past, and some poop was near it's rear end. It was so inflated that there was liquid underneath the skin on the inside of it's thighs. First thing I thought of was liver failure with related ascites. I gave the chick a little bit of steroids and vitamins, and then tried to draw off a little fluid from just underneath the skin to find out if it was air, fluid, etc.....

What came out was liquid stool.

Somehow the chick must have either gotten a blocked intestine leading to rupture or something else happened. Poor thing. Didn't make it.


Thank goodness I had never seen anything like it before.

Have you, Sonoran?

 

[ultasol]

Colie <3 :

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FINALLY someone whose chickens react the same way mine do with cockroaches!

Try Sweet PDZ for drying. I prefer the granular form, and I much prefer it to DE.

HAHA! Yes I'm not the odd ball out!

I'm going to hatch some favorelles and a few more of my bantam lav ameraucanas for egg consumption purposes maybe they will decide that roaches are good snacks but the silkies don't even react!

I have Sweet PDZ in the granular form. I mix it in with the shavings when I strip the runs not working so great. My feedstore only sells the granular and at first I worried the silkies would eat it but they haven't tried. Maybe I need to try another approach with using it. What do you recommend? Maybe putting it down as a layer before the shavings or adding it more often to the runs? Two of my runs are on concrete so adding the shavings works the best I think but two others are on the grass.​

Can you block the sprinklers from hitting the run? If you're wetting it daily of course there will be mud and bacteria growth and odor.

Dry is good. Block those sprinklers! Take advantage of one of the few benefits of living in the desert, the power of DRY!