Silkie thread!

[destiny_56085]

Selena, Taylor, and Midwest.

 

[destiny_56085]

Not sure how I managed to mess up that last post and trying to use the quote button. When 'Midwest' left here he looked like this. Comb is funky, but as a project bird he had potential for the red project.

 

[abbevilleoz]

Anyone know of a reputable breeder of non-bearded Silkies in the southeastern US?

 

[QueenMisha]

@destiny_56085 Yeah he's looking a bit rough. When I first got him I added him to my general bantam pen; usually this is a pretty easy pen to work with, all the birds in there are more or less quite mellow, excluding a few game hens I have in there, but they stay to themselves unless they're broody. All was fine for
about two days, and on the second day I came home and my Bantam Cochin Carlos had completely lost it and pecked Midwest's head clean of feathers. I was pretty shocked since A. He'd already been in there two days with no incident and B. Carlos is generally quite mellow, even towards other cocks. He wasn't otherwise injured aside from his looks and a few small scabs, but for some reason it's been taking a very long time for his crest to come back in. I'm thinking I may have to wait until this molting season for a full crest to emerge.

And I'm not sure what happened to his shape. He definitely had a lot more cushion and wider saddle/tail plumage when he got here, but there's no obvious feather loss in that area nor was he ever damaged. I'm hoping this next molting season will also fix that up.

Also - wanted to mention something regarding some posts I made a while back - I mentioned how Red Partridge was pretty much non-extant in the US. This sounded obviously stupid since I had already purchased a Red Partridge bird from you and knew where to find some. Then the posts got buried and I never had a chance to respond. Well, some days I'm really bad with words; what I had been trying to say was "there's no Red Partridge like the type I've seen Fancychooklady post", as in that really bright, New Hampshire-ish sort of orangey red, not, "there's no Red Patridge at all" which is what actually came out. I hope this makes some sort of sense, I'm currently on 3 hours of sleep and I'm supposed to be at work in an hour so it may or may not.

 

[destiny_56085]

Oh that poor boy!!!! I know when people come to me for birds, one of my first questions I ask is if they have housing separate from other breeds. Its like putting a maltese in full coat out with a bunch of rowdy german shepherds. It might work, but more than likely they will get trampled, picked on or killed.

Were you looking more towards the darker buffs? They come in all shades from light golden to almost darker red too. I know mine vary greatly! These are pics of my own birds just for an example...

 

[QueenMisha]

Oh that poor boy!!!! I know when people come to me for birds, one of my first questions I ask is if they have housing separate from other breeds. Its like putting a maltese in full coat out with a bunch of rowdy german shepherds. It might work, but more than likely they will get trampled, picked on or killed. Were you looking more towards the darker buffs? They come in all shades from light golden to almost darker red too. I know mine vary greatly! These are pics of my own birds just for an example...

I do keep all the bantams separate from other breeds - the only standards in there are a Shamo and an American Pit Game, both of whom keep to themselves. Well, and a Hamburg, but I basically class those as bantams because they are such a small standard. The bantam Cochin pair are pretty much the biggest bantams in there, almost everything else is around OEGB-size. And they typically get along very well; Carlos hasn't gone after any other cock the way he did Midwest. I can't say what he did to offend him so badly. I'm planning on putting in another coop to house the Silkies and Booted Bantams on their own, away from the other birds, but haven't gotten around to it yet. No, they were a Partridge-type bird - just colored like a New Hampshire cock, gorgeous bright red and orange. Those dark Buffs are incredible, though - the color is similar, just different patterning. I had a Buff cock like that once, but he was hatchery stock and both hideous quality and mean as a snake.

 

[destiny_56085]

I raise a few different breeds of bantams as well and I know not to even mix them beyond in the brooders. The crested breeds like my silkies and polish especially don't do well with other breeds. The huge beards and crests impede vision. The silkies can't fly like other breeds and have no way to get away from an attacker. When you get into stock with smaller crests and beards, then they might do ok. Silkies and polish often have vaulted skulls too and skull plates don't fully fuse and leave the brain exposed with just skin covering it. As you can see from pic below, it will show you why those breeds can be so delicate.

 

[Silkie2]

My first silkies are growing up!

Sorry for the poor pic quality, i'!m gonna try to get some better ones in a bit

 

[QueenMisha]

I raise a few different breeds of bantams as well and I know not to even mix them beyond in the brooders. The crested breeds like my silkies and polish especially don't do well with other breeds. The huge beards and crests impede vision. The silkies can't fly like other breeds and have no way to get away from an attacker. When you get into stock with smaller crests and beards, then they might do ok. Silkies and polish often have vaulted skulls too and skull plates don't fully fuse and leave the brain exposed with just skin covering it. As you can see from pic below, it will show you why those breeds can be so delicate.

Interesting pic, thanks for sharing. That's a great illustration of why crested breeds can be more fragile than regular birds. I think it depends quite a lot on the situation. Generally speaking, I agree that Silkies ought to be kept away from confrontational or aggressive breeds and generally anything much bigger than they are. But I don't find there to be anything wrong with keeping them with smaller or similar sized, non-aggressive breeds of bantam. I've seen innumerable situations where this worked just fine - my own flock included. This occurrence with Carlos and Midwest had been the only aggression incident to occur between the Silkies and other breeds in the bantam pen over the past 2-3 years of housing them together. Granted now that I am going to be working largely with Silkies and since I want to add some more aggressive breeds to my bantam pen for the sake of variety, I'm drawing up designs for an additional bantam pen to house the Silkies and Booted Bantams (also a very gentle breed) separately. But in the case of a small flock, I personally have seen little issue when housing limited numbers of Silkies and mixed bantam breeds in the same coop and run, cocks and cockerels included. The biggest problem I've had is the roosting fowl pooping all over the poor Silkies at night.

 

[QueenMisha]

My first silkies are growing up!

Sorry for the poor pic quality, i'!m gonna try to get some better ones in a bit

Aww, what a cute lil flufferpuff.