Silkie thread!

[Sylvester017]

I've only seen silkies at our local stores once and that was last year when we got four, I was hoping to get some silkie eggs somehow and put under her next time she goes broody and then she can raise some silkie babies but I don't want her to have silkie/sex link babies. Especially since our sex link roo is just plain mean. Bites everyone and clawed my SO all the way down his side. Not the kind of roo I want fathering Danny's chicks lol if I can't find any silkies at the store though I'll see if anyone has eggs on Craigslist. Tsc ended there chick days but I think rural king and farm&home still have chicks. Last week farm&home's chick selection was not very impressive but I never did get to see rural kings.

GL with your quest. Sometimes u luck out finding the right thing at the right time right away and sometimes it takes until the next season. I've waited for orders on breeds I wanted sometimes over 6 months before I got/found them. Best time to find/order chicks is Feb/Mar. After that it gets harder. Hatcheries seem to be available year-round but who needs 15 to 25 chick minimum orders?! I asked my local feed store if they were going to get sexed Silkie pullets and this was in March 5 yrs ago. He said normally he didn't carry juvenile sexed Silkies but he just happened to have a local Silkie breeder who was bringing in a dozen Silkies to sell on consignment and we rushed to the store to make a selection before they sold out. I was going to get a Partridge pullet to match our Partridge at home but we fell In love with a sweet fluffy quiet little Black Silkie and took her home. She turned out the loudest, spunkiest, funniest little personality out of all our backyard hens. She still makes us laugh!

Black Silkie picked up a white feather in her "hair" -- funny, but I don't have any white chickens! This Black Silkie has lost a couple toes over the years from scratching too hard.


During molt her faded feathers start growing silky shiny Black again.


She's an energetic girl and is always running -- seldom has two feet on the ground at the same time! Missing toes don't slow her down at all.


She loves taking "showers" under the ice cold nipple valve waterer and works the icy water into her chest feathers with her beak. The other chickens can't get a drink when she's taking a shower.



She's a great forager and often has spider webs and debris in her "hair"


When she was a pullet we kept her in the house in diapers -- here she escaped the house into the garden still wearing her diaper.


The Partridge is a calm sweet gentle dainty girl and the Black is a spunky comedienne but they seem inseparable:

 

[Sylvester017]

Your birds are beautiful and have amazing colors!!

TY! I paid good money for every one of them and I think the quality does show. I mean, I love all chickens, even some mixed breeds turn out gorgeous. But DH and I wanted certain breeds and docile ones so we looked for the best private breeders we could find with the best quality birds. We can have only 5 zoned hens, no roos, so we had to be very selective in choosing birds we could enjoy and love. We've loved all the breeds we've tried over 6 years and currently have settled on the Silkies and Breda's for our chicken TV afternoons!

 

[KaylorFarms]

Your birds are beautiful and have amazing colors!!

TY!  I paid good money for every one of them and I think the quality does show.  I mean, I love all chickens, even some mixed breeds turn out gorgeous.  But DH and I wanted certain breeds and docile ones so we looked for the best private breeders we could find with the best quality birds.  We can have only 5 zoned hens, no roos, so we had to be very selective in choosing birds we could enjoy and love.  We've loved all the breeds we've tried over 6 years and currently have settled on the Silkies and Breda's for our chicken TV afternoons!

I agree! I would love some silkies!

 

[CalicoSprite]

New to chickens and new to silkies but super excited to start our new adventure, we have had our new babies for 3 days (2 silkies, 1 buff orpingtion, and 1 ee) They were all nearly the same size when we got them, but the buff(Astrid) and the EE(Cleopecktra) seem to already have doubled in size leaving our sweet silkies in the dust. so far they are all getting on well, seems our striped silkie(Leafpool) will even chase our big EE off if she feels to crowded. Our little silver/yellow Silkie (Greyleaf) is the sweetest thing, loves to be held!! ( our children named them, can you tell? lol!)

 

[Sylvester017]

I agree! I would love some silkies!

I started with just 2 pet Silkies rather than a dog, cat, or another indoor aviary species. We love Silkies so much and over the years large fowl have come and gone in our backyard but the bantam Silkies are still here! People don't think bantams are practical but this breed is very functional. Besides being good broody mommas, Silkies lay one of the largest of bantam eggs at 1.25 to 1.5 oz, they are a peaceful flock, they are adorable fluffy little Teddy Bears, and they make for fun chicken TV. Like all breeds they lay less eggs every year but they lay a lot of eggs in short spurts -- 4 to 6 eggs a week until they stop to go broody at which time you take them off their "empty" nest to go eat, drink, dust-bathe, and exercise before they run back to their "empty" nest. You don't HAVE to give a broody Silkie eggs to hatch unless you really want to -- I have no outlet for finding homes for chicks so we don't give our broodies eggs to hatch. They stop brooding naturally in about 3 to 4 weeks at which time they rejoin the flock like normal.

These are eggs from our 5-yr-old Black Silkie layed in 21/2 weeks -- who says old hens aren't useful?

 

[Sylvester017]

New to chickens and new to silkies but super excited to start our new adventure, we have had our new babies for 3 days (2 silkies, 1 buff orpingtion, and 1 ee) They were all nearly the same size when we got them, but the buff(Astrid) and the EE(Cleopecktra) seem to already have doubled in size leaving our sweet silkies in the dust. so far they are all getting on well, seems our striped silkie(Leafpool) will even chase our big EE off if she feels to crowded. Our little silver/yellow Silkie (Greyleaf) is the sweetest thing, loves to be held!! ( our children named them, can you tell? lol!)

Baby chicks are so adorable!!!!!


Your chipmunk stripe Silkie will be a Partridge and the grayish will probably turn out White. The Easter Egger should be a good non-combative type to keep with the Silkies but watch the Orp. They get big pretty fast and might be tempted to bully the smaller Silkies or timid Easter Egger just because they are bigger and can get away with it. Of course, individuals vary, so watch for behavior changes made toward the smaller gentler breeds.

 

[CalicoSprite]

Baby chicks are so adorable!!!!!


Your chipmunk stripe Silkie will be a Partridge and the grayish will probably turn out White. The Easter Egger should be a good non-combative type to keep with the Silkies but watch the Orp. They get big pretty fast and might be tempted to bully the smaller Silkies or timid Easter Egger just because they are bigger and can get away with it. Of course, individuals vary, so watch for behavior changes made toward the smaller gentler breeds.

Thank you for the advice!! we will keep a close eye on them,( Easy to do since they are all camped out in a brooding box in our living room!!)

We are loving it!

 

[AWickedChicken]

GL with your quest.  Sometimes u luck out finding the right thing at the right time right away and sometimes it takes until the next season.  I've waited for orders on breeds I wanted sometimes over 6 months before I got/found them.  Best time to find/order chicks is Feb/Mar.  After that it gets harder.  Hatcheries seem to be available year-round but who needs 15 to 25 chick minimum orders?!  I asked my local feed store if they were going to get sexed Silkie pullets and this was in March 5 yrs ago.  He said normally he didn't carry juvenile sexed Silkies but he just happened to have a local Silkie breeder who was bringing in a dozen Silkies to sell on consignment and we rushed to the store to make a selection before they sold out.  I was going to get a Partridge pullet to match our Partridge at home but we fell In love with a sweet fluffy quiet little Black Silkie and took her home.  She turned out the loudest, spunkiest, funniest little personality out of all our backyard hens.  She still makes us laugh!

Thank you! I might have to wait till next season. Right now the chick brooder we made is in the in laws garage and they weren't exactly enthusiastic about us getting more chicks lol but if I can find some and convince SO/in laws then I will try to get some!

And your silkie is gorgeous! If I can get better picture of Dany I'll share them.

AWickedChicken       There is never a good reason to keep a bad roo.  Time for him to swim with noodles in the soup pot. He is dangerous.

I agree but as of now it's either we keep him alive or our in laws keep him lol my dad in law said if we decide we no longer want one we have to give it back because they are all lifers and even though the rooster is rude to us he's the nicest out of the other Roos to the hens and that matters more to us then his attitude towards us. The way I'm wanting to set the coop and yards up is to be able to open the door from the outside so the chicks can go into the yard and I can shut it back without getting flogged, collect eggs, and reopen the door lol and if necessary shut him out for a hen check. He's usually first out the door when we go out to the current coop so hopefully it will work

And if we can find/get a nicer rooster that's equally nice to us and the hens then he will go back to the in laws lol

 

[poppycock1974]

Silkie question: almost done building the new coop and run. I will end up with only one silkie if my little one is a pullet and a mix of other bantys. Given than silkies can't fly, how far off the ground should I put a roost?

 

[snow5164]

Silkie question: almost done building the new coop and run. I will end up with only one silkie if my little one is a pullet and a mix of other bantys. Given than silkies can't fly, how far off the ground should I put a roost?

We put stepping blocks up to the top, mine step/ jump 4-6 inches easily and one of our paints " flys" up 8-10 inches but looks very silly

Kind of like different levels of decks , I like to have them up higher and I believe they enjoy it too!!