Silkie thread!

[Iluvmysilkies]

What could be making my silkie chicks poops so gross and runny? Could it be the scrambled eggs ive been giving them as a snack everyday? They have been eating crumbled medicated chick food. Just curious why their poos are so gross, it gets all over their pretty feet feathers.

 

[ChickenLover WI]

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!

ok thank you so much didn't understand why I couldn't breed the pair so wanted to ask didn't make any sense to me at all. You helped me greatly.

 

[Fancychooklady]

What could be making my silkie chicks poops so gross and runny? Could it be the scrambled eggs ive been giving them as a snack everyday? They have been eating crumbled medicated chick food. Just curious why their poos are so gross, it gets all over their pretty feet feathers. 

Scrambled egg should only be used as a treat ! Or for sick chickens to encourage them to eat.
Your chickens will do much better on chook food.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Scrambled egg should only be used as a treat ! Or for sick chickens to encourage them to eat.
Your chickens will do much better on chook food.

Oh poo, i was told it was ok to give them some everyday and let them fight over it. They love it. They have their regular food all day long, and then i'd give them one scrambled egg to fight over between the 6 of them. But I'll just give them only their regular chick food then. No more scrambled eggs. And see if it goes back to normal.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Oh poo, i was told it was ok to give them some everyday and let them fight over it. They love it. They have their regular food all day long, and then i'd give them one scrambled egg to fight over between the 6 of them. But I'll just give them only their regular chick food then. No more scrambled eggs. And see if it goes back to normal. 

There's nothing wrong with them having scrambled eggs , say once a week, but not every day. I give mine steamed veges and rice or a soft pear . This morning mine are having cooked rice with 4 x raw eggs mixed through with 4 x tins of sardines in oil. Now that will feed 50 chickens and it is their once a week treat.

 

[atrueb00]

Bantams are prolific layers when they aren't broody - which is pretty much most of the year for us! Our Silkies rotate laying 3 months on, 3 months off, etc etc. And of course during moult no breed lays. Bantams are cute but a lot of work for the few eggs in return. We got the Silkies originally for pets not realizing how broody and sporadic their egg return was. So we invested in an APA Ameraucana and Buff Leghorn for consistent egg layers. Guess what - now the Leghorn is broody! Will it ever end? The Ameraucana goes from broody to broody trying to choose which broody to deposit her egg with!

That is really funny in a way, the broody trying to decide who to donate an egg to!

My paint silkie pullet

Love this paint silkie! Very beautiful!

 

[Sylvester017]

@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 First-Aid/Supplies Box:

* Poultry Protector - organic OMRI lice/mite preventative treatment for coops and directly on birds (directions on spray bottle - not cheap but works for prevention) use 1x/month ea bird and coop -- we don't use DE because of all the warnings to protect from eyes or inhaling into lungs when using it - if it's that dangerous to humans wearing a mask what does it do to little chicken eyes and lungs? We gave away our food grade white DE unopened after researching all the snake oil treatments the product supposedly covered plus it is not effective - our egg seller friend says she still has lice after using it - anything that unsafe/unpredictable has no place around our family or pets
* Vitamin E oil - $4 small bottle from Walmart - treatment for scaly leg mite prevention plus vitamin is used for dry skin health treatment for legs/toes/nails/beak/comb/wattles - use 1x/month ea bird - treated after birds go to roost and are calm to handle then put back on roost - we no longer use vaseline or olive oil as these are so greasy as to cause stained feathers that hold onto dirt from dust-baths
* Poly-Vi-Sol no iron children's liquid vitamins - ONE drop only on the side of chicken's beak away from nostril and let it drip onto chicken's tongue - don't force beak open as liquid could go down into lungs - 1 to 2x per week ea bird - 3x week for broody hens
* Ivermectin equine paste in a tube - for worming chickens externally - recommended by our avian vet as an excellent product properly dosaged - one Q-tip drop per pound of bird's weight applied to SKIN under wings - 2 drop equivalent for 2 lb bird - 4 drop equivalent for 4 lb bird etc - or use worming product of your choice at feed stores (we like an exact dose w/Ivermectin as the drinking water worming method isn't good with our birds as some drink a lot of water and some not so much). We worm 3x a year on a schedule. Large flocks worm 4x a year. Wild birds continually bring lice, mites & worms to your property
* Baby Shampoo - good to use on gunked/caked vents or feathers where warm water baths alone are not effective enough - for storage convenience we keep the small sample-size bottle
* Pet Silver Wound Spray - recommended by a BYC flock owner who is also a nurse and has used this external antiseptic like an antibiotic for preventing infections of external wounds.
* Small syringe for liquid administering
* Name and phone number for vet
* Powder-crushed dry feed supplements in tight-lid containers - i.e. Brewers Yeast, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, quinoa seeds, whole oats, whole wheat, dried mealworms, shelled raw sunflower seeds, no-SOY high protein dry kitten food, canned no-SOY kitten food, sardines in olive oil, or whatever of your choosing for dry supplements to add to your fermented feed
* Soft tape roll - not the thick heavy first-aid white tape but the softer stuff ( I had to use it when our Silkie ripped a couple nails off so she wouldn't keep pecking at her bloody toes ) This tape stays on the Silkie toes protectively for up to 4 days for us - the tape also secured infant socks over the Silkie's injured feet for a couple days in-house recuperating - great tape!
* Scissors
* Toe nail clippers
* Electric Dremel polisher or electric toenail trimmer
* Septic pencil - stop bleeding of the quick in toenail if nicked during trimming
* Antiseptic liquid wash
* Alcohol - for sterilizing instruments
* Triple antibiotic ointment
* Band-Aids - have many uses - for hobbling splayed leg chicks - we don't raise chicks but many is the time I had cut my finger or got scratched by a chicken's toenails while holding her

A lot of the contents seem mundane but it's surprising in an emergency you can't find most of that stuff around the house so having it all in one box is convenient. We have a big handled box that has French chicken designs on it so we know exactly how to recognize it when we're looking for it. We keep adding things to the box as our chicken education progresses. Unfortunately the Poultry Protector stands too tall to put inside the box so we made an external strap for it on the outside of the box. I suppose we could put the liquid in a smaller spray bottle but I like having the directions at hand right on the Poultry Protector bottle. Eventually we'll have to get a bigger box and I'm looking for one with chickens or eggs on the design.

 

[atrueb00]

Hey everyone!! I'm new to owning silkies i purchased 3 chicks just few weeks ago, their white color, but I done some research i want to show mine this fall, can u wash them if they get dirty? If so what shampoo can i use? How u tell male from female when young? What is the best food to feed them for showing? Any other information be good, Thanks

You can wash a chicken! I have white birds and use the bluing to keep them very white. One thing I noticed is that white birds can get sunburned-looking feathers. They turn a yellow color, I believe it depends on the breeding of the chicken though-some will not get yellow at all, others get yellow from the sun easily. I've researched and not found any solution to this-they just have to molt to get white again.

 

[gamer64]

Cool Thanks!

 

[atrueb00]

i got my first egg today im soo happy to know atleast 1 of my ladies is laying

yay! Congrats to you!