Silkie thread!

[JenS9]

The second one appears to be a smooth sizzle - They can be shown- Same SOP as a Silkie other than they have barbed feathers rather than the unbarbed of the silkies. They come in smooth and curled (frizzled) . You may want to check here for more info on them : https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/664348/the-sizzle-thread I've been working with and showing these for years now - one of my many grey penciled hens "Paisley"

I'm not quite sure what this is, but I want like 5 of them!

 

[Jharper]

Awww, they are cute.  Please find out what is going on - to protect all your birds.

I am. These are not infected. Cotton died because she choked on something in her pen.

 

[jajeanpierre]

How about you go the other way around, keep the pullet and get her a nice Cochin boy? I bet its easy to get a SQ Blue or Splash Cochin cockerel, much easier to find and less expensive than the pullets...

Thanks for the info, I will be looking at one of the "extra" boy in a different light. To bad he is still cute. I would rather find him a good home with nice ladies to play with.

I too had to make the difficult decision to process the extra boys myself - or not hatch any chicks. I call it processing instead of slaughter because slaughter always sounds violent to me and when I process I do it in the least violent way possible - they do not suffer and I make sure of that. Around here you either pay to process batches of 20 or more birds, or they won't do it. I decided when push came to shove I could do it. I also read that thread, and a few other threads before I did anything myself. I haven't been able to do any Sillies though - they are just too darn cute. I have a total of 3 birds that I have done, all large fowl, and it doesn't get any easier but it is better because I know they are not suffering at the end. They had a good life (which I created by hatching them) and they have a useful death and not a wasted one. I can't afford to feed them forever and if I can't find them a good home with other girls I am not going to give them away to be possibly inhumanely processed and then eaten by somebody else.

I processed my severely curly toed gold leakage Lav/Split AM boy not that long ago. He tasted like chicken - real stuff. Like you said, nothing like that rubbery tasteless Cornish cross mush you get in the store. He wasn't buttery though - although he had probably 2 cups of yellow fat stored in there. I still have to distance my feelings from those I choose to process, and it takes a lot longer than it "should". Like you, I have a few that will live longer than necessary until I get up the emotional detachment to process them. I have to talk myself into doing it.

One thing I have noticed - their bones are a lot stronger. You know how people always say NOT to feed cooked bones to the dogs? Well I have had dogs for years, and never had a single problem with them eating cooked chicken bones - the store bought ones. After I cooked my first bird I looked at those strong flexible and HARD cooked bones and said to my self - "This is what they are talking about not feeding to dogs. Those would really make trouble".

I apologize to anybody that this offends, but the realty is that these are chickens, they were bred to produce meat and eggs. Silkies are more like pets than chickens, but they are still chickens. I have had other chickens for many years (EEs) and I have only recently come to the realization that the boys provide better food than what is available in the stores. I have always eaten the eggs knowing they were better, but I hadn't hatched out my own chicks before - so I never had an excess of boys to deal with. I now do, and I am facing reality squarely.

I definitely don't want another rooster. I'll be keeping two Ameraucana cockerels that will be free ranging--I'm more than full up with roosters. I will be keeping that little ugly frazzle unless he turns nasty, but I don't think he will. He and the frazzle pullet will probably end up as a house chickens in the winter. Apparently frazzles have a lot of trouble with the cold. I'll have to go through the SOP to evaluate him, but I don't know how useful that will be since the feathering is nothing like a frizzle or a normal feathered Cochin.

The other Silkie cockerel is not too problematic, either, so maybe he will manage to avoid freezer camp, too. I'm not sure. My ideas of how to house them are evolving.

I would much rather add a pullet than a cockerel. But, the frazzle pullet I have has much nicer feathering than the cockerel. Hmmmm. She might produce better frizzles than the cockerel. Also, I could put three in my parrot flight and I don't think they would tear up the ground. My worry would be that he would seriously hurt the frazzle pullet because her feathers are so brittle.

Don't feel bad about eating your culls, and I don't think you should apologize for possibly offending anyone. Chickens that were created to produce food, eggs and meat. Even the little Silkie is a meat bird in the Far East. Half of all chickens produced will be roosters that are problematic to keep. I know it is really hard, but if you're going to eat chicken and you really love animals, the kindest thing to do is to raise your own. I'm having trouble getting my head around it, too, but I know it is the best for everyone. Best for the chicken that becomes food and best for me because I know what went into that meat. It's just really hard.

 

[alamb1]

We woke up to hear some peeping this morning. I thought a chick must have escaped the brooder in our basement. To our surprise this little chick hatched. They're not even in lockdown yet. They're supposed to go in lockdown on Monday. I bumped the humidity up to 65% and turned off the automatic turner. Do you think the other eggs will be ok? Am I correct in thinking this chick can stay in for 3 days? This is our first hatch. Our friend has been hatching for us. We're using the Brinsea Octagon 20 with automatic turner.

 

[ChickNmamma]

We woke up to hear some peeping this morning. I thought a chick must have escaped the brooder in our basement. To our surprise this little chick hatched. They're not even in lockdown yet. They're supposed to go in lockdown on Monday. I bumped the humidity up to 65% and turned off the automatic turner. Do you think the other eggs will be ok? Am I correct in thinking this chick can stay in for 3 days? This is our first hatch. Our friend has been hatching for us. We're using the Brinsea Octagon 20 with automatic turner.

Congratulations, hooray for hatching chicks. There is usually an early bird... he wants his worm! It is unusual for them to hatch that long before lockdown - are you sure the dates didn't get mixed up? I have heard of them hatching on day 18, but not day 16.

Yes, it can stay in there for 3 days, it absorbed a good supply of food from its yolk.

 

[OohLaLa]

We woke up to hear some peeping this morning. I thought a chick must have escaped the brooder in our basement. To our surprise this little chick hatched. They're not even in lockdown yet. They're supposed to go in lockdown on Monday. I bumped the humidity up to 65% and turned off the automatic turner. Do you think the other eggs will be ok? Am I correct in thinking this chick can stay in for 3 days? This is our first hatch. Our friend has been hatching for us. We're using the Brinsea Octagon 20 with automatic turner.

Wow congrats and good luck with the rest of your hatch. I've got my first batch of eggs in my new incubator. Day 21 is this coming Friday. 7 out of 10 have made it to this point. What breed and how is your little early bird doing?

 

[Fur N Feathers]

We woke up to hear some peeping this morning. I thought a chick must have escaped the brooder in our basement. To our surprise this little chick hatched. They're not even in lockdown yet. They're supposed to go in lockdown on Monday. I bumped the humidity up to 65% and turned off the automatic turner. Do you think the other eggs will be ok? Am I correct in thinking this chick can stay in for 3 days? This is our first hatch. Our friend has been hatching for us. We're using the Brinsea Octagon 20 with automatic turner.

Were they shipped eggs? Makes me think maybe it started "cooking" before you got it? Warm temperatures can do that. I'll be watching for progress reports!!!

 

[chickieluver26]

I lost one of my 2month old blue silkie chicks last night to internal dammage our 120 pound boxer male got into the chick/pullet pen killed one immediately, and ingured many including her. she was stepped on, sadly she was the smallest out of all the chicks and never recovered

 

[alamb1]

Update on the chick: It's doing great! It's a blue and very active. No they are not shipped eggs. My son gathers them daily and then I go behind him to check to make sure he gets them all. I've got the date they were collected and the date they were set written on the egg.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I lost one of my 2month old blue silkie chicks last night to internal dammage our 120 pound boxer male got into the chick/pullet pen killed one immediately, and ingured many including her. she was stepped on, sadly she was the smallest out of all the chicks and never recovered

So sorry