Silkie thread!

[Fancychooklady]

I wanted to see what you all thought about one of my baby's bums. When she hatched she was covered in yolk but naval shut and she made it but her bum remained huge and spongy. I thought about possible infection, maybe from bacteria getting in but from what I've read, that usually kills them a lot sooner. This baby is 5weeks old now and still has an abnormal looking bum. It's spongy, and even kinda crunchy feeling, and when I hold it, it feels twice the weight of it's normal looking siblings. It acts perfectly normal and active though. Any ideas what this could be?

It is probably a form of mushy chick disease but as @Sally Sunshine says, MOST chicks die, not all. I've had one that had a large sack to one side of its vent , it is about 12 months old now. I guess you will just have to wait and see whether or not this has any long term health effects.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

for those of you who have frizzle and sizzle silkies....what is the featheration of the bird in the middle? one of my girls has curly feathers but theyre still silkie feathers....so I know its not sizzle, but its not crazy curled to a frizzle....so what could this be called?

I think that is a frizzled silkie.

Yep, frizzled Silkie. They're not as dramatic as the normal feathered frizzles, just sort of look like they've got a case of bed head. Here's one of mine:

 

[bantambury]

Yep, frizzled Silkie. They're not as dramatic as the normal feathered frizzles, just sort of look like they've got a case of bed head. Here's one of mine:

aaahhh! ok thanks so much! now I hatched 2 chicks from my frizzle girl and the boy you see in the back who is smooth 50% silkie 50% Japanese bantam. one of the chicks look to have flipped up curling wings so it could be frizzled...but im not sure if its silked. its feathers look different from the other chicks though...









but then do you think the frizzle effect could be making his feathers which are smooth look messed up like a silkie?

I think that is a frizzled silkie.

ok awesome, thanks!

 

[Lacey1988]

Chanel's eggs didn't hatch so I bought her two sizzle chicks.

 

[Sylvester017]

1 - Silkie color is most definitely a personal choice. I had considered getting white, but for reasons stated by Sylverster017 as well as the fact that white chickens are more frequently targeted by aerial predators than any other color, I decided to go with tan. Here in AZ we have a lot of dusty earth and the tan ones somehow managed to always look good ever after a dust bath.

2 - The names you chose are adorable. I've heard more really cute names like this for Silkies than any other breed. I believe someone on this thread named one of their birds, "Poptart" and another "Marshmallow". Have fun with the names no matter what your sisters think! The birds will love you no matter what you call them.

3 - I have a mixed flock of 4 Australorp pullets (my eldest birds, currently at 11 weeks), 3 Silkies (currently 9 weeks), and 3 Barred Rocks (currently 8 weeks). I don't know what the future holds for this mixture, but right now my Silkie cockerel named Gingy is dominant over my other Silkie cockerel, Tika, and my Barred Rock cockerel, Shadow. My largest birds, the Australorps, are at the BOTTOM of the pecking order and all three of my Silkies boss them around despite being so much smaller than they are. Even my weakest bird, my little Silkie pullet named Didi, will force the Australorps to wait until she's found her place at the feeder before they can close in on the food. It's an interesting dynamic to witness...but I also know it may be fluid and everything could change as the other birds continue to grow larger and heavy, and my little Silkies stay small, but for right now the mixed flock is working for me. That said, it could also be very different for you as you'll be introducing these birds to your flock and all of mine grew up together.


This photo is from when they were all finally in the coop together about a month ago.



And these are from the winter solstice when we finally completed the run and set them loose in it. The Barred Rocks are a week younger than the Silkies but are already considerably larger...not that the Silkies realize that. The Australorps are two weeks older than the Silkies and even larger than the BRs.



The darker BR in the back of this photo routinely snuggles in and dust bathes with the Silkies.

My 2 Partridge Silkies grew up with 6 LF chicks all of them born on the same hatch. However, as time went on the LF chicks grew a lot larger and faster than the Silkie chicks so that the Silkies had to hide most of the day to keep from getting picked on. As pullets the LF and Silkies were somewhat compatible but at 6-months-old the LF picked on the Silkies too much to keep them together. In my mature flock I found the assertive Leghorns and sneaky Marans were mean to the Silkies. I no longer will mix dual purpose/assertive LF breeds with gentle breeds like Silkies, Ameraucanas, Araucanas, Easter Eggers, Cochins, Dominiques, Sultans, Polish, Crevies, Breda, Houdan, Faverolles, etc. Heavier but gentle LF breeds like Brahmas, Sussex, Jersey Giants can usually hold their own with dual purpose LF but a small 2-lb Silkie doesn't have a chance against a 7-9 pound larger breed even it is supposedly a gentle LF.

I notice after molting the LF get really aggressive to re-establish their place in the flock after being reclusive and quiet during their regenerative molt sessions. After regrowing their molt feathers both of our Leghorns went ballistic on the rest of the flock, chasing, pulling beards/crests on the gentle birds, pushing them out of the nestboxes (one Silkie was bruised getting pushed from a nestbox and had to take her to the vet), and overall stressing of the gentle breeds. The 7-lb Marans full-out attacked a 2-lb Silkie pullet with claws until the poor little thing was screaming. The White Leg was buddies with the Partridge Silkie for 3 years and then went ballistic on her for no reason. Like Zgm12 said she had a Silkie surrogate momma killed by her own adopted LF chicks she hatched and raised.

I no longer tempt fate by mixing combative LF with non-combative gentle breeds. Everyone needs to make their own decision of what works for them but in my small free-range suburban backyard I chose to go with all gentle non-combative breeds and all weighing 5-lbs or less. I gave up prolific egg-laying/dual-purpose breeds to have a mellower compatible flock - easier on them AND me! Slightly less eggs but a more peaceful environment.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I am very bummed that so many people are saying that I should not mix silkies with large fowl hens

. But there are also so many people who say they have not had a problem with it and there silkies get along with large fowl hens just fine. So now I don't know what to do. Should I just not get the silkies?

This is making me very sad.

Do your homework on the temperaments of the LF you have. I wish I had heeded the advice of owners not to mix Silkies with LF but I learned the hard way. My recommendation from personal experience and a friend's experience is that the gentlest breeds to mix together with Silkies are: Ameraucana, Araucana, Easter Egger, Breda, Cochin (bantam), Dominique, Sultan, Houdan, Polish, Crevecoeur, possibly Faverolles since they are very docile (but still a bit heavy to mix with Silkies). Jersey Giants, Brahmas, and Sussex are calm gentle giants but still a bit large around Silkies.

Assertive or wild temperament LF breeds can be calm when mixed with other assertive breeds - RIR, BR, Wyan, Java, Marans, 'Lorps, 'Orps, Campine, Jaerhon, Mediterranean class (Legs, Buttercups, etc). But these dominant chickens eventually take advantage and bully smaller or gentler breeds just because they can - it's a chicken thing. Calmness may prevail for several months and then something like coming out of molt or changing the flock dynamics by adding new members or a heatwave can suddently trigger obnoxious behavior - anything. In our case we tried to give our gentle alpha White Leg a chance to calm down but after 2 weeks her behavior escalated and we finally had to re-home her. With the Buff Leg and the Marans we didn't wait and just re-homed them immediately. We gave someone very prolific egg layers for free - it was difficult but we had to do it. We didn't have the space to have two separated flocks in our little yard.

Do your homework and don't let runaway chicken math get in the way of prudent research. The only one who can make the ultimate decision is yourself after taking your time. You'll be happier for it and so will your flock. Smiles and GL!

 

[Sylvester017]

I wanted to see what you all thought about one of my baby's bums. When she hatched she was covered in yolk but naval shut and she made it but her bum remained huge and spongy. I thought about possible infection, maybe from bacteria getting in but from what I've read, that usually kills them a lot sooner. This baby is 5weeks old now and still has an abnormal looking bum. It's spongy, and even kinda crunchy feeling, and when I hold it, it feels twice the weight of it's normal looking siblings. It acts perfectly normal and active though. Any ideas what this could be?

Even when sick or injured chickens will act "normal" so maybe this chick needs a vet visit.

 

[missbecky]

Miss Becky, so sorry you have to get rid of them. I'm just wondering though because I have a white bearded that I thought was a Roo, even crowed once, just started laying eggs shy of 6 months old, she looks like the birds in your 2nd photo. The first photo of the NB is definitely a boy. Do you have face photos of the other two bearded Silkies?

I don't have any close ups of the bearded boys (all 3 are crowing, and mounting my hens). They were busy doing something else beside hamming it up for the camera.

 

[nayeli]

I think my silkie is broody. Everytime we go out lately she is sitting and today she got up to eat and I saw 12 eggs in her nest than the rooster went to stand over the eggs. I did find a small egg on the ground though so I am confused...
Broody hens don't lay right?
I also have a hamburg who should be laying any day now so she might have laid it... but it looks similar to the silkie's eggs so I'm not sure!

Any help/advice?

 

[Fancychooklady]

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I think my silkie is broody. Everytime we go out lately she is sitting and today she got up to eat and I saw 12 eggs in her nest than the rooster went to stand over the eggs. I did find a small egg on the ground though so I am confused...
Broody hens don't lay right?
I also have a hamburg who should be laying any day now so she might have laid it... but it looks similar to the silkie's eggs so I'm not sure!

Any help/advice?

Your hen is definately sitting. The egg could belong to the hamburg as they are similar to silkie eggs. The silkie may also have rolled it from the clutch, often eggs get caught up under them as they are leaving the nest. Best to put a little spot on the eggs that she has started and remove any others or they will be at different stages of hatch. The other alternative is to lock the hen away from others, so that they cannot add to the clutch.
Sounds like your flock will be expanding in the coming weeks.