Silkie thread!

[Cynthia12]

Out of my original 7 silkies, 4 have survived - will be 4 weeks old on Wednesday. (Two died soon after getting in my order and one injured its leg and never recovered.) Three of them have been healthy from the start - two whites and a buff, I believe. I noticed that the black one wasn't growing as fast as the others and figured out that it was constipated. So for the past week or two, it's been getting special treatments - warm water run over its bum, assistance with a syringe, scrambled eggs with olive oil, and even one day where she got a few doses of an epsom salt laxative while in isolation. We seem to be mostly passed the constipation stage, but are now in the catch up phase, so I give it boiled egg yolk first, by itself, so it gets plenty, before I share it with the others.

It was a bit funny when I had it in isolation. I had it in a tote in my bathroom and was just using a desk lamp for heat. Plenty warm and plenty light. All was okay if I was in the room, but about 30 seconds after I left, it would go to screaming. I'd come back in, fearing something had gone wrong with its heat or water, and it would just go back cheeping and preening itself like nothing. This repeated several times. It didn't want to be petted or anything, but it wanted me in the room! It was a bit hard to let it cry itself to sleep. I would have put it back in with the others, but I wanted a full 24 hours of poop monitoring while I was actually home with no distractions. (Thankfully we got several normal poops.)

Here's a short video of it getting some boiled egg.

This is a video of all the chicks (17 survived). I gave them grapes for the first time last night and it caused quite the frenzy! It is reassuring to watch it run around though, so right now I feel like we just have a bit of catching up to do, but it is healthy.

Ha, love this. And I love the jet black of your black. Very pretty. Now, I need to get me some grapes..and boil some egg. They haven't had anything new yet..mine are about your age from the looks of it, mine may be about a week younger.

 

[TOOCLOSE]

He sounds awesome! Does he have any hens? Thanks for sharing.

Sick Dorothy is his hen as well as Martha Mae! Of course poor Dorothy is healing from her ear problem and is in the room with me. And then of course there's Martha Mae in her cage behind me here. So there aren't any hens in the pit at night with Marvin! Martha Mae is out with him during the daytime though. That is when she's not in her cage doing the egg business dropping!

He is a wonderful rooster to have around! He's not mean and I can pick the girls up around him at anytime. He knows I'm only taking care of them or loving on them!

He escorts me out to the pens when I'm taking the smaller hens out to them too! He Wa Wa Wa Wa's me all the way there! Then he follows me back to the house.

TC

 

[TOOCLOSE]

Chickens are a hoot! Sounds like you are around them nearly 24/7 to monitor.

I just would like Silkie owners to be aware of something I didn't think about when I added LF to the flock. We had a lovely large 7-lb Marans who was sweet until her over 18 months age and then she didn't just become aggressive - she was vicious jumping on the back of a 6 month old barely 2-lb Silkie and digging her claws into the little thing until it screamed. No more over 5-lb LF and only known gentle breeds now.

Sylvester! You do know I was teasing you and joking around too? Would never intentionally try to hurt a fellow chickie persons feelings!

I never put small chickens in with larger ones! That's a BIG NO NO on my side of the fence! People that do that just irritate the hello out of me! I want to take that person and toss them into a ring fight and tell them good luck!

A little trick I learned for pecking chicks. Whenever I caught them pecking others or myself? I would grab their beak between my thumb and finger and wiggle their head back and forth. All the while telling them - no pecking! It didn't take them long to learn they weren't supposed to peck others! We did the same thing for those that thought our eyeballs were for pecking too!

If you have a chick born with a toe that's turned under or crooked? Get a piece of duck tape or gorilla tape and cut it down to fit on it's foot. This will hold it's little toe in place so that it straightens out.

As for a crooked beak? You'd have to get a piece of wire or small rubberband to put at the base of it's beak. Make it loose enough though so it could still eat and drink water. A better way would to do it only at night while it's sleeping.

TC

 

[Fancychooklady]

I've never heard of that treatment for cross beak. Careful trimming and the use of penetran are the therapy ive seen recommended .

 

[TOOCLOSE]

I've never heard of that treatment for cross beak. Careful trimming and the use of penetran are the therapy ive seen recommended .

It's to keep the beak aligned! Just like braces do teeth! The wire would be slid up and down on the beak. Not actually attached! Like a pair of tongs with the wire around them. Slide upwards to close and downward to open!

I have a vivid imagination and have used ways to make things work for me! Couldn't always afford to go to a VET!

TC

 

[blipit007]

Well Folks, Its been a while, but Im getting back into it!

We had a hard winter, but spring has arrived and I am now ready to get some more silkies. I was going to get some chicks from Bobbi Porto but my husband doesn't want to do the chick thing again. So I am hoping to get 2-3 young pullets that are from SQ lines, and have lots of SQ potential. Im not too picky about color as I am starting out fresh. I know I do love the Splash and Paints. (I really wish Judy Lee was selling birds again) I also love the self blue, porcelain, buff, red, BBS, salmon, tye-dye... heck, anything as long as it is sweet, and nice type.

She will be a show bird, but mostly my buddy that will travel with me and be my friend. Any suggestions of who would offer something like this to a girl just starting back up? I was thinking of asking Karen Larsen, maybe Geri G... anyone else?

Thank you all.
Kristen

 

[opeth13]

I'm really bad at this color thing so I figured I'd ask the experts. I was told the light colored big one was a blue, are the 2 other larger ones black or blue? Also is this one I have singled out a white or a blue? Basically is this a box of blues?

I found another local person who has some buff, white, 1 black and possibly some partridge chicks available. I'd like to add a bit of diversity (and yes I have a problem, lol).

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I see blacks and blues. The chick in your hand could be splash or a light blue, time will tell

 

[opeth13]

I figured it was mostly blues, I just wasn't sure if the dark ones were actually black or a dark blue (blue confuses me, it does in dogs too). I just didn't want to grab the black chick if I had some already

I am curious to see what the one in my hand turns in to since it seems to have some yellowish hues (it almost looks cream colored in normal light). They are all adorable, my daughter loves them and I obviously do too

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Some of my blue are much darker than others, almost black, which could be the case with yours. I try not to keep the darker ones so I can tell my blues from my blacks. I know all of these chicks are blue, since they came from a black rooster and splash hens, but you can see just how dark some of them are.

Those darker chicks in the back are blue, but they won't be staying since they're so dark

This one is much lighter, easier to distinguish from black.

My splash start out almost white, with a slight blue cast, like your chick.

This girl started out very light blue and turned splash.

So, my point is, they can be a little confusing and sometimes you've just got to wait and be surprised