Silkie thread!

[blackrose211]

Not really. She's stuck with the flock a little bit more since I found a new home for my silkie roo but she's perfectly happy to chill by herself. I'll see her chilling out by herself under her favorite tree while the other 4 are on the opposite end of the yard.

 

[mom of silkies]

Not really. She's stuck with the flock a little bit more since I found a new home for my silkie roo but she's perfectly happy to chill by herself. I'll see her chilling out by herself under her favorite tree while the other 4 are on the opposite end of the yard.

I think it would be better for her, if you brought one of your other ones so she's not alone.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I think it would be better for her, if you brought one of your other ones so she's not alone.

I would agree. Any change can upset their little systems, at least a friend would soften the blow.

 

[fancychick1]

These are my new babies at a day old

This is the first time I had four hatch at one time I usually get just one. The mom usually hatches everyone else's eggs but hers don't ever seem to make it.

This is them now 3 1/2 wks later. I have never had a partridge and I was told two of them are partridge.

 

[workinnanie]

Nice babes! Congrats!

 

[Kisune]

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!

That's awesome, I'm going to look into that myself. Mine are all young and smart so they should pick it up real quick

 

[Imhaas2]

I am fairly new to raising chickens. I bought 5 different breed of chicks and then about two months later decided that I really wanted to add some silkies to the group. I kept them separate and then gradually added them with the older chickens. What I am noticing is that my first 5 chickens have grown to be quite large and my silkies have stayed very small and don't seem to be growing. They have all been raised with the same feed and I do have the smaller chickens access to feed so they aren't bullied by the larger chickens and unable to eat. So, they seem to be eating but yet do not seem to be growing much. Any ideas out there as to why they aren't getting that big?

 

[Sylvester017]

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

Our Black Silkie gets a nice fluffy round crest after a molt and looks pretty for about a week but she is such a tomboy that it gets spider webs, grass, debris, etc and hard to look pretty again unless I wash her - which I don't unless it gets matted and then use a warm washcloth to spruce her up little. She's always been smallish while our Partridge Silkie is solid and very full feathered, dainty, and fluffy; however a mean Marans picked her head bald and chewed some of her walnut comb once and her crest never really grew back full again. By the time we figured she wasn't molting but being chewed on by the Marans on the roost the damage was done!!! That nasty Marans also attacked the little Black Silkie when she was a pullet so the Marans is gone now as are all our assertive dual purpose breeds. We only keep gentle or timid breeds now - smaller and less egg production but there's more peace in our little cottage backyard.

I know what you're saying about the nipple valve waterers. We thought we made a tragic mistake trying to teach older hens how to use the valves and it was a great temptation to set out the old water bowl again but with Mark's patience at chickenwaterers.com we got the hens finally transitioned. We made sure there was no standing water in flower pots or puddles on the grass for the chickens to drink. We probably baby our pets a lot since we went into the backyard at least 20x a day to tap on the valves to get the chickens to understand where the water came from. Our little Black Silkie picked up how to use it immediately and a couple days later after feeble attempts the oldest Partridge Silkie caught on but it took almost 9 days before the Ameraucana understood - she's a stubborn independent personality and we've learned to let her do things at her own pace. She is so kind and submissive to the two Silkies we decided she warranted a forever home - she is also very good at chasing away stray cats in the yard and with her high-strung nature makes an exceptional sentinel/guardian. We set out two Brite Tap Rubbermaid jugs at two different heights to accommodate both the bantams and the LF but we found that the taller Ameraucana will use either jug to drink from.

Following Brite Tap's detailed instructions on how to use the jugs and transition the chickens made it go a lot easier and set our minds at rest as we persisted with following the directions exactly. Let me tell you we were frustrated day after day but persistence finally paid off. With my DH's help we took turms going outside to tap the water valves for the chickens. The Black Silkie caught on immediately when we carried her to the Brite Tap and put her beak close to the dripping water valves. She reached for the water as we tapped the valve to release drops. Several times during the day she'd go up to the valves and accidentally found that pecking released droplets of water. The other chickens knew water was there and drank from my fingertips as I hit the valves. They approached the valves several times a day to get a drop of water but it took the Partridge 2 days to realize she needed to give the valve a good peck to get dribbling water. My DH and I spent a lot of hours for a few days to tap the valves so the chickens could get drinks from the valves to prevent them from dehydrating while educating them that this was their only water source!

One breeder I purchased from was appalled at anyone using metal waterer valves because it "is so unnatural for chickens to drink from metal." But I find the stainless steel valves and plastic nipples very clean and better than drinking dirty poopy water out of galvanized metal drinking waterers or easily dirtied plastic waterers but then, everyone forms their own opinions and I just share what happened to work for us. Granted it wasn't easy but in the long run has been so wonderfully helpful not to change expensive bottled water 2 to 3x daily because of debris or wild bird poops in the drinking water. We can set out bottled water in the Brite Tap jugs for many days and add bottled water ice cubes to the jug water on hot days. We don't use tap water because of extremely hard minerals that can clog nipple valves or buildup inside the jug - plus we figure our hard tap water isn't that good for either pets or humans to drink anyway.

 

[Sylvester017]

I am fairly new to raising chickens. I bought 5 different breed of chicks and then about two months later decided that I really wanted to add some silkies to the group. I kept them separate and then gradually added them with the older chickens. What I am noticing is that my first 5 chickens have grown to be quite large and my silkies have stayed very small and don't seem to be growing. They have all been raised with the same feed and I do have the smaller chickens access to feed so they aren't bullied by the larger chickens and unable to eat. So, they seem to be eating but yet do not seem to be growing much. Any ideas out there as to why they aren't getting that big?

I have a little Black Silkie that weighs 2.2 lbs at her heaviest but usually less and a Partridge Silkie that weighs 2.4 lbs at her lightest but usually more. They are mismatched as a pair when side-by-side and my understanding is it's not unusual for Silkie bantams to vary in sizes and weights and that weights/appetites can fluctuate during molt, brooding, illness, weather changes, etc.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Chances are your other breeds are not bantams.