Silkie thread!

[hatch4fun]

I have 8 silkie eggs in the incubator now - day 9. Candled them, and chicks are developing in every one. Got them at an auction and don't know what color they are going to be, should be a fun surprise!

 

[Sylvester017]

I've had good luck getting my Silkies to nest in a covered cat litter box. I just put shavings in them and sit them on the floor of the coop. I put a golfball in there too. It made it super easy to move the nest when they go broody.

The covered box is what chickens like. We have two Kidz Homz covered storage boxes that have an entrance lip/ledge the hen can stand on. It even has a place in the box's rear to fasten it to a coop wall for stability if you want. Whenever we order juveniles (we don't order shipped babies) they will be from 10 weeks old through12 weeks. We order two juveniles at a time every time. We put the two Homz boxes in their quarantine pen and at night they use the boxes with straw for sleeping. Sometimes two juvies will share one box and sometimes individually but always love the boxes for sleeping. Chickens love seclusion. During the day the hens will snooze/hide under our low-to-the-ground lean-to's we set up around the yard. They used to gather under an old climbing rose bush until it finally died after 25 years!

Thanks for sharing. I love reading people's stories and experiences with their chickens to understand that our own chickens are not that different from other chickeneers' flocks.

 

[Fowl Mouth]

I have 8 silkie eggs in the incubator now - day 9. Candled them, and chicks are developing in every one. Got them at an auction and don't know what color they are going to be, should be a fun surprise!

OO! Those are fun! I love the mystery color batches. Keep us updated!

 

[Sylvester017]

the same hen is acting like she wants to lay another today but didnt when i put them up for the night she has been scratching inside the coop like she is building a nest but wont go in the boxes i have for them is she about to go broody

As similar as Silkies are they can be just as individual as people. I have one Silkie that never announces an egg song - she is quiet, slow, and a real thinker before she acts. We never know she's layed an egg until we go to check on someone's noisy egg song and then we see her quietly layed little egg in one of the boxes.

The other Silkie is a noisy egg song singer from the time of her POL. She squawked and loudly for a couple days and ran back and forth in and out of the nestboxes, She scratched the nestbox, she squawked, she ran to and fro - all that to lay her first egg. Then she spent a couple hours afterwards squawking about the experience. To this day she does that exact same thing with every egg she lays. It sounds like genuine distress calls and sometimes she gets the other 3 hens to join her squawks - really annoying.

As for yours going broody I think it is a bit early. I had one Silkie 18 months old before she went broody her first time. The squawker went broody at about 8 months but she would have been a terribly inconsistent broody if she had eggs to hatch that young. Your "broody" is probably just an agitated egg layer like our "squawker" Silkie.

 

[atrueb00]

@kabhyper1 & bradselig- you mentioned in the Indiana thread that you keep Poly-vi-Sol without added iron on hand as silkies tend to have issues with vitamin deficiencies. I'd really like to know if you and other people with silkies have a "medicine box" of things you always keep on hand. For instance, with my fishtank, there are 5-7 chemicals/tools I kept on hand and make sure they didn't expire so that when emergencies happen, I have everything I need to treat right away. Are there any things you always keep on hand in case of emergencies?

So far I have:

• Vitamin B, E & Selenium (from the wry neck issues I ran into last year)
• Manna Pro life lytes tablets (continued to give to the chickens after wry neck but don't use regularly)
• Apple cider vinegar (though I am not sure what is appropriate dosing and haven't used it so far)
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Saline eye wash solution
• Vasoline
• DE (for treating feather lice)
• Poultry dust (with Permethrin to treat feather lice)

I've heard of Blue Kote, and seen some other products at TSC and RK but not sure if they are worth investing in. I haven't seen poultry antibiotics at either store and not even sure where I can buy them since vets close to me don't treat poultry. I have 6 silkie pullets, 2 silkie cockerels, 7 MF eggs hatching in a week and 7 guinea eggs hatching in 2 weeks.

Your advice is much appreciated.

 

[Sylvester017]

I went thru this, this winter. I had a hen that her sinus was so swollen her comb didn't look like it was there. I brought her in like I do every sick chicken and started her on duramyacin for 10 days. She improved then she started coughing and wheezing so I took her to the vet. He said she had a bacterial infection in her lungs and the swollen face was just the beginning of it. He gave her s shot of Baytril and some liquid I had to give her everyday for 10 days and it cleared up just fine. The antibiotics that we have access to at the farm stores won't do any good for a bacterial infection. At least around here anyway.

I don't bother self-medicating my chickens. I've only had them 3 years and still learning so much about having them as pets. Some health and preventative care is easy enough like nail trimming, lice/mite preventative treatments, worming, small wound care, etc. But for issues that change either the behavior, appearance, or health of a chicken that doesn't go away in 24 hours, I go straight to the vet. Smaller animals deteriorate quickly from ailments so the quicker I get one to the vet the quicker the correct treatment is applied instead of making an animal suffer or die from guess-timate diagnosis or treatment at home.

I agree with you about feed stores - they have their good points but they aren't a pharmacy or doctor and IMO should not carry products for self-appointed chickeneers to guess the treatment for an unknown ailment. Birds get so many diseases/ailments that have similar symptoms that only a professional should diagnose and treat. People rush their sick dogs and cats to the vet and treat them for fleas and worms - chickens deserve the same priority vet care. Many chickeneers use OTC antibiotics that are either the wrong doses for the undiagnosed ailment or should only be used after a first treatment of an injectable drug, etc. Some chickeneers are medical professionals for people patients and know how to use proper medications on their flocks but I would never presume to do so on my birds since I have no medical training.

If people think chickens/birds are so easy to diagnose and treat at home then why does it take an exotic vet a very thorough exam and sometimes tests before HE knows what the bird's ailment is to properly prescribe treatment? I'd much rather trust a "practicing" professional than trust my own self-practicing medical guesses!

Geez! Did I rant or not? Probably some feel the same way and probably some not. This is just me.

 

[kabhyper1]

@kabhyper1 & bradselig- you mentioned in the Indiana thread that you keep Poly-vi-Sol without added iron on hand as silkies tend to have issues with vitamin deficiencies. I'd really like to know if you and other people with silkies have a "medicine box" of things you always keep on hand. For instance, with my fishtank, there are 5-7 chemicals/tools I kept on hand and make sure they didn't expire so that when emergencies happen, I have everything I need to treat right away. Are there any things you always keep on hand in case of emergencies?

So far I have:

• Vitamin B, E & Selenium (from the wry neck issues I ran into last year)
• Manna Pro life lytes tablets (continued to give to the chickens after wry neck but don't use regularly)
• Apple cider vinegar (though I am not sure what is appropriate dosing and haven't used it so far)
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Saline eye wash solution
• Vasoline
• DE (for treating feather lice)
• Poultry dust (with Permethrin to treat feather lice)

I've heard of Blue Kote, and seen some other products at TSC and RK but not sure if they are worth investing in. I haven't seen poultry antibiotics at either store and not even sure where I can buy them since vets close to me don't treat poultry. I have 6 silkie pullets, 2 silkie cockerels, 7 MF eggs hatching in a week and 7 guinea eggs hatching in 2 weeks.

Your advice is much appreciated.

My chick kit has..... poultry drench, poly vi sol w/out iron, chick saver, electrolytes, apple cider vinegar with the mother, diatom. earth food grade (i dont use it much though because of respiratory issues), I have Tylan 50 and Duramycin 10 antibiotics, wazine dewormer, ivermectin pour on for cattle (for mites and lice), poultry dust, vet rx (awesome stuff), vetrycin eye gel, 1 and 6 ml syringes, alcohol wipes, nail clippers, scissors, tweezers, vet wrap and bandaids (splay leg). I can't think of any more, although I'm sure I missed something, and could use other stuff. It's basically been a collection of meds and supplies for the last year of unexpected injuries and illnesses.

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

So I heard that I should breed my Porcelain silkie hen to a black silkie or a lavender rooster and breed my Porcelain silkie rooster to a black hen or a lavender hens. Is this true you should not breed them together because it will not make that same color unless breed with the color's I posted with? Please inform me please. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure that you need to breed your porcelain to porcelain. You can breed it to a lavender if you are needing more lavender color in yours. A reliable source told me that you might get a weird one that way. I wouldn't breed the porcelain to the black. Lavenders and blacks can breed together. You will get black with the lavender gene. The next generation, bred to a lavender, can produce lavender and more black split lavenders. Hope that helps!

 

[BobbieJo81]

your very wecome, I had that same thing happen to me a couple of years ago, ( not with Silkies though ) it really upset me, but I traded most of them with a friend of mine for hens so it turned out ok.
Now the 2 Silkies I got last winter turned out to be boys so I'm trying to find them some girls. here are my baby boys:



)

I gave a friend that had approx 40 hens and no roos the majority of the Silkie roos, and then traded another to a friend for the 2 grey babies. She really did me a favor thought bc her birds put mine to shame..she has gorgeous show birds. My red hen looks just like the red in your pics..your roo and my hen would be a picture perfect pair though..

 

[atrueb00]

My chick kit has..... poultry drench, poly vi sol w/out iron, chick saver, electrolytes, apple cider vinegar with the mother, diatom. earth food grade (i dont use it much though because of respiratory issues), I have Tylan 50 and Duramycin 10 antibiotics, wazine dewormer, ivermectin pour on for cattle (for mites and lice), poultry dust, vet rx (awesome stuff), vetrycin eye gel, 1 and 6 ml syringes, alcohol wipes, nail clippers, scissors, tweezers, vet wrap and bandaids (splay leg). I can't think of any more, although I'm sure I missed something, and could use other stuff. It's basically been a collection of meds and supplies for the last year of unexpected injuries and illnesses.

This is so extremely helpful and cannot thank you enough for sharing!

Would you recommend giving silkie chicks electrolytes immediately after hatching? Or just any chicks in general? Were you able to get your antibiotics online or from a vet?