Silkie thread!

[K Epp]

What purple meat???? Chinese cooking marinates a lot of things in soy and other sauces which can make even white grocery-store chicken black. Here is a picture of three Silkie carcasses. When cooked, the meat was darker than white chicken breast, of course, but not very different from dark leg meat except for the very thin layer of pigment where the meat lays against the bone. Even the "black" bones are not as black as the literature suggests. Don't feel sorry for these Silkies--they died of an acute case of testosterone poisoning. .

How do you process your birds? I have several LF roos who needs to go to freezer camp.

 

[jajeanpierre]

How do you process your birds? I have several LF roos who needs to go to freezer camp.

Here is a BYC thread to help:

Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

I was assured by the feed store, before I bought any chicks, that I could hire someone to do it for me. A few months of buying the chicks (from a hatchery, not the feed store) they told me he only did 4H Club kids' birds. I ended up having to learn to do it myself.

I skinned the birds and used the meat in a curry and for soup.

I still have two LF Ameraucana cockerels I need to do, but I keep putting it off. My last excuse is one of my better ones--they came down with Fowl Pox. I now want to wait until they have completely recovered.

 

[OohLaLa]

I have a question.


I have a silkie who has gone broody for her first time, she has been sitting on eggs for over a week now. I have a Tolbunt chick that is a sole hatch out on Friday. The poor little thing is alone in a small brooder box with a wool sox for a Mama and a mirror for a companion. Would it be taking too big of a chance to move the silkie in and set her up alone in my ward with the single chick. I know everything is up to chance but what is the likelihood that she would take it as her chick to raise?

 

[PaintedFeathers]

I have a question.


I have a silkie who has gone broody for her first time, she has been sitting on eggs for over a week now. I have a Tolbunt chick that is a sole hatch out on Friday. The poor little thing is alone in a small brooder box with a wool sox for a Mama and a mirror for a companion. Would it be taking too big of a chance to move the silkie in and set her up alone in my ward with the single chick. I know everything is up to chance but what is the likelihood that she would take it as her chick to raise?

Are the eggs fertile? If you give her the chick and she takes it in to raise it, she will abandon the eggs she has been siting on. But typically a hen who has not been broody long enough will reject chicks.

 

[BelleFarm]

I've seen people say that their broodies will take chicks, but mine never have. On hatch day when the eggs they've been sitting on start hatching, I can sneak a few very young chicks under them, and they won't know the difference. But I've never had a mamma take a chick if her own eggs weren't hatching. Before you move her or anything you should probably introduce them and see if there's any chance.

 

[Viollettt]

Before you move her or anything you should probably introduce them and see if there's any chance.

x2 This is exactly what I would try. Probably at least 3 hours after my chickens went to roost normally. Then check on them for a few minutes and again in an hour if all seems well. Then I would make sure to check them again very early in the morning.

 

[OohLaLa]

This is her first go at being broody. I do have a rooster that has came of age and ever since has been hopping on top of everyone including her. I don't know if the eggs she is sitting on are fertile or not. I do know she has taken up residence at the coop door. The only way I can get in is to push her aside. I'm thinking about moving her inside to my ward with what ever she is sitting on. Not sure why she did not choose one of the 5 nest boxes instead.

I'm not keen on hatching anything form the mix either. One rooster is a Welsummer the other a mutt slikie with white skin. The Wellie was a gift to hubby the other an pops thought you were a girl.

 

[PaintedFeathers]

This is her first go at being broody. I do have a rooster that has came of age and ever since has been hopping on top of everyone including her. I don't know if the eggs she is sitting on are fertile or not. I do know she has taken up residence at the coop door. The only way I can get in is to push her aside. I'm thinking about moving her inside to my ward with what ever she is sitting on. Not sure why she did not choose one of the 5 nest boxes instead.

I'm not keen on hatching anything form the mix either. One rooster is a Welsummer the other a mutt slikie with white skin. The Wellie was a gift to hubby the other an pops thought you were a girl.

At night shine a flashlight through the eggs. Then you will know if they are fertile. Chances are they are if the rooster has been mounting her.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

What purple meat????

Chinese cooking marinates a lot of things in soy and other sauces which can make even white grocery-store chicken black.

Here is a picture of three Silkie carcasses. When cooked, the meat was darker than white chicken breast, of course, but not very different from dark leg meat except for the very thin layer of pigment where the meat lays against the bone. Even the "black" bones are not as black as the literature suggests. Don't feel sorry for these Silkies--they died of an acute case of testosterone poisoning.


.

It is not the marinading that does the coloration. Trust me. It is the genetics behind the silkies that do it - the melanization that makes the skin, meat, and bones dark. I have butchered and cleaned a few evil silkie roosters from my flock for asian friends (after a couple years swearing I never would) - and have since even ate silkie meat. It varies, but the bones were definitely a dark coloration (not so dark to be called purple or black though) and the meat was usually like bruised in coloring, the skin usually very dark if not actually purplish black. A silkie's skin should be purple to black, the meat and bones should be a bruised purple in color. Its all in the genetics. Hatchery silkies definitely tend to NOT have very dark meat or skin - due to out crossings and losing the melanizers.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I have a question.  





I have a silkie who has gone broody for her first time, she has been sitting on eggs for over a week now. I have a Tolbunt chick that is a sole hatch out on Friday. The poor little thing is alone in a small brooder box with a wool sox for a Mama and a mirror for a companion. Would it be taking too big of a chance to move the silkie in and set her up alone in my ward with the single chick. I know everything is up to chance but what is the likelihood that she would take it as her chick to raise?

I would certainly give it a try. I gave 6 chicks to a lady to pop under her broody. She had only been broody for 10 days and took to her week old babies like a duck to water. As PF pointed out, you would have to ditch the eggs or put them in the incubator or even pop them under another broody.