Silkie thread!

[limited25]

Chickens love greens, seeds, bugs, grubs, and their nutritious feed. Try a can of kitten food or small meat chunks cat food or a few mealworms. They just might be craving some sort of meat source in addition to feed and greens. They love crickets if you catch some overnight in a milk carton or dig up earthworms under a brick. Try a little wild bird seed mix - a good one - not one full of dry coarse ground up corn bits! We give our birds a slice of cantaloupe, cooked brown organic rice (not white rice), add Rooster Booster vitamin supplement to the rice with Brewer's Yeast powder and a little sprinkle of bee pollen seedlets. We give cucumber slices, shelled raw sunflower seeds, watermelon (hot days), corn off the cob, banana pieces, blueberries, cooked shrimp or fish (no bones), cooked turkey bits (no onion salt or onion powder or onions in the cooking), cut up lettuces and chard, etc. Something should grab your Silkies' attention and fuel their appetites. One day they crave one food and the next day something totally different. When we try a new produce to give our Silkies, we break off tiny pieces and hand feed it to them to see if they like it. Usually they love anything you hand-feed them. Ours wouldn't eat banana for 5 years until I offered a tiny piece to a Silkie and she went nuts for it and the other chickens came running to get some too. These are suggestions to add variety to their diet in small amounts but their feed should continue being their main source of nutrition.

Please tell me where you get your bee pollen seedless, and shelled raw sunflower seeds (I am assuming you are not removing the shells yourself). I would like to get some.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Please tell me where you get your bee pollen seedless, and shelled raw sunflower seeds (I am assuming you are not removing the shells yourself).  I would like to get some.

We get ours off of Amazon.com. make sure they are also unsalted..

 

[limited25]

Thank you!

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Welcome

 

[Sylvester017]

Cat food is often recommended for sick birds that are off their food , but it's very high in sodium and shouldn't be included in a regular diet.

Yes, no packaged/canned foods should ever be a continuous diet. The nutritious balanced feeds should provide all the nutrients chickens need. For feed we use an uncooked, unpressed, unprocessed organic feed with seeds, grains, and added supplements like fish meal, etc. - some chickeneers complain there is waste in the powdery parts of the feed but we use the cooked organic brown rice for the powdery nutrients to stick to the rice - less waste. I read that the fermenting process changes the benefits of the B vitamins so we chose to feed the organic mix just like it comes out of the bag with added cooked brown rice. Silly chickens get bored though. They look forward to their afternoon "treat."

 

[Zgm12]

I'm having some trouble with my Silkie hatching eggs. It's nearing the end of day 22 and none have pipped at all. A few were moving earlier today and yesterday, too. Now, none have moved for the last 4 hours. I'm starting to get worried. They were all fine when I locked them down on day 18 and the humidity has been great so I don't know what's happening. Any suggestions?

 

[Sylvester017]

Please tell me where you get your bee pollen seedless, and shelled raw sunflower seeds (I am assuming you are not removing the shells yourself). I would like to get some.

Any natural food store like Sprouts, Trader Joe's, etc, will carry the raw unsalted shelled sunflower seeds - same with pumpkin seeds (which I grind in the blender to a powder and add to feed). I go to a My Nutrition Depot (a vitamin store) to get refrigerated bee pollen and keep it in our fridge at home - we use the stuff ourselves in our protein and vitamin smoothies. You don't need to use much for chickens in their feed - we add any smaller or powdery nutrients to cooked organic brown rice so the stuff get's consumed and not left behind in the chicken feeder. I use Rooster Booster supplements the same way - add it to cooked brown rice so the vitamin crystals don't get left behind in the feeder.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm having some trouble with my Silkie hatching eggs. It's nearing the end of day 22 and none have pipped at all. A few were moving earlier today and yesterday, too. Now, none have moved for the last 4 hours. I'm starting to get worried. They were all fine when I locked them down on day 18 and the humidity has been great so I don't know what's happening. Any suggestions?

Oh boy! I never hatched eggs ever. Maybe the little buggers got tired of trying to get out of the shell and are taking a break? Doesn't it take like 24 or 48 hours to completely break out of a shell? Hope someone can help you!

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks for all this valuable input Sylvester I did buy a chicken tractor tonight just to house the Silkies and have decided to buy at least two Silkies now. My daughter wants a white and I want a splash.... We will start there...haha! But I thought the tractor would be a great idea to do exactly as you suggested. Plus I plan to grow fodder during the colder months. I will let them have closely supervised play in our backyard and around the barn while I clean horse pens. I just know they will not have the same freedom as my layers or broilers who I plan to allow more free range. We have 17 acres of pasture!
My daughter already has hers named ..."Fuzzy-licious". LOL!

They are cute and give them time to feel comfortable with you. Silkies are aware of their diminutive size around humans and just naturally spook out of your way. But they really are a pesty personality once they trust you. Mine weave in and out of my footsteps when I walk across the patio so have to be very careful where I step.

You were NOT kidding about the potato chip factor! We could not decide on a color, so we ended up with a white, buff and a splash! All Bearded. I almost got a black, but decided 3 was my limit for the coop/tractor I bought. Will definitely need to make adjustments to the run with the addition of the 3rd one. I can't wait to get them!

You have a much bigger landspace than I have in my cottage backyard. I was able to free-range my Silkies with our 2 larger fowl in our small yard but you'll have a bigger challenge to face keeping the Silkies from becoming predator bait. The mobile tractor should be a safe and healthy alternative from having Silkies free-ranging with your larger fowl. After 5 years in the yard and a resident Cooper's Hawk that visits our yard, the Silkies along with the 2 large fowl are alert to hide when the hawk shows up. I wouldn't trust baby chicks in the yard but our old Silkie girls are excellent at diving into the nearest doghouse, lean-to, potted plant, popup canopy, lawn furniture, or big leafy or thorny plants.

 

[Zgm12]

Oh boy!  I never hatched eggs ever.  Maybe the little buggers got tired of trying to get out of the shell and are taking a break?  Doesn't it take like 24 or 48 hours to completely break out of a shell?  Hope someone can help you!

Yes it does but they haven't even pipped and have stopped moving. I am considering candling them but I'm not very familiar with that process and know it can be dangerous during the lockdown period. It's almost day 23 and I'm losing hope. Any ideas?