Silkie thread!

[Mommahen4]

so this is nugget now 10 weeks later with his mother hens yokie and butter!! Its so cute to see them interac with eachother. They really treat nugget like there baby and they are also still babys! Love my flock!!

 

[Adorkable]

so this is nugget now 10 weeks later with his mother hens yokie and butter!! Its so cute to see them interac with eachother. They really treat nugget like there baby and they are also still babys! Love my flock!!

Still cute as can be! Is she blue?

 

[TherryChicken]

 

[Mommahen4]

Still cute as can be! Is she blue?

not sure

 

[prizepete]

She Looks kind of like a splash maybe? not Blue tho

 

[Adorkable]

She Looks kind of like a splash maybe? not Blue tho

Oh yeah, you're probably right. The baby pic does look splash.

 

[Sylvester017]

Wow,thank you. I've been trying to find a better water bowl for them since they always knock over their bowl and it gets dirty real fsdt

We got so freakin' tired of changing the chicken water 2 to 3x a day - chickens are messy enough kicking debris into the water troughs and/or bowls but when we started finding wild bird poops in the water that was the final straw. We researched nipple valve water options for our little flock of 4 hens and the Brite Tap Rubbermaid jug pkg from chickenwaterers.com was our final choice. The water stays clean for days and on heatwave days we just drop ice cubes made from bottled water into the jug. I've gone up to 2 weeks with clean water in the jugs and we use bottled water because our tap water is too heavy with lime minerals. With bottled water it's not wasted inside the Rubbermaid jug and there's no mineral buildup at the bottom of the jug or inside the Brite Tap window. We keep the jug in the shade all day.

Since our older hens were not accustomed to using nipple valves for drinking so Mark at chickenwaterers.com helped us with a lot of suggestions of how to transition the old biddies. He was so nice answering our email questions -- our little Black Silkie picked up on how to use the valves the very first day! A couple days later the oldest Silkie started to understand. But it took 8 days for our last Ameraucana hen to finally get the idea. You can't have any other water source for the chickens when transitioning them to nipple valves. You need to train your smartest chicken and then the others pick up from watching the smart chicken. There's a nice write-up on the chickenwaterers.com website on how to transition chickens. We did it during cooler weather so the hens didn't dehydrate before learning how to use the Brite Tap. It's a real temptation to want to set out the old water bowls but we resisted. Instead we gave the girls a little extra cucumber and watermelon and cantaloupe as usual just to be sure they got some moisture. It's such a thrill to watch as each girl finally figures out how to use the valves. We don't have glutton chickens throwing up water any more!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Sylvester, do your Silkies have large crests?
I use rabbit drinkers on all of my brooders and grow out pens. The chicks pick up on how to use them VERY quickly. I love how clean the water stayed, and how much dryer everything was. So, I decided to switch my big birds over to nipples. After almost a week, some of them had really gone down hill and had to be nursed back to health (we gave cukes and melons to supplement as well). After they were doing well, I trimmed crests and gave it another go. Nope, I had to nurse them back again. I REALLY wanted it to work for the clean factor, but theyre not having it. Some of these birds even used the rabbit drinkers as chicks, so I figured they'd take to the nipples no problem :/

 

[blackrose211]

I'm going to be moving into an apartment soon and the plan is to take my Silkie with me. I am working on a small coop and run big enough for two banties that I will have out on my balcony. She was raised with my mom's 4 hens and another silkie who turned out to be a roo (he's been rehomed). She's very independent and doesn't seem to care about always being with the rest of the flock. Is it going to be devastating to her to be seperated from them when I move out and take her with me? I know chickens are social so will it be okay for her to be alone for a bit? She's 5 1/2 months old and hasn't started laying yet (hopefully she will soon) but if it's okay to take her with me, I was planning on getting her a chick to raise as soon as she goes broody in her new home. Please give me your thoughts on this.

 

[RubyNala97]

Our baby nugget at 1 week old!

Such an adorable baby!!!

I'm going to be moving into an apartment soon and the plan is to take my Silkie with me. I am working on a small coop and run big enough for two banties that I will have out on my balcony. She was raised with my mom's 4 hens and another silkie who turned out to be a roo (he's been rehomed). She's very independent and doesn't seem to care about always being with the rest of the flock. Is it going to be devastating to her to be seperated from them when I move out and take her with me? I know chickens are social so will it be okay for her to be alone for a bit? She's 5 1/2 months old and hasn't started laying yet (hopefully she will soon) but if it's okay to take her with me, I was planning on getting her a chick to raise as soon as she goes broody in her new home. Please give me your thoughts on this.

I've read that as far as chickens go, silkies are the best breed for apartments. Is there anyone else in the flock that she tends to hang out with? Maybe you could take another one with her?


Eta:because I accidentally hit quite without quoting!