Silkie thread!

[emvickrey]

We are in the middle of this winter storm, and I went into the den to check on the silkies in their box and found 2 eggs. I guess they like it in the house. lol

My brother is in Portage and they shut down the roads and snow plows at 6pm tonight. They have the national guards and police out only.

 

[chickydee64]

We are having very cold temps for the next few days and I"m worried about my silkies. They did fine when it gets around 15 degrees but it's going to get to 2 degrees the next couple of days. Wind chill will make it below zero. I have their pens covered up to keep out any drafts and I have my juveniles with a heat lamp. I can't get heat lamps to my other pens. My pair of paints I worry the most of because there is only 2 of them. Not alot to huddle together to keep warm with. My sizzle pen has a dog house inside of it that they get inside of with alot of wood shavings to nestle down in. We have completely covered the paints pen with a couple of tarps and I put a piece of wood on the north facing side to help try to divert the wind. My orps have always done well but we haven't had these low temps since I've had them. They have a condo house and they sleep on the top floor. The door for them to go into their run is at the bottom. I"m pretty sure they will be fine. My geese are more open. I just got them and didn't have a good pen but the one they are in keeps them in but their house part is more open to the elements. I have a thick layer of wood shavings for them to hunker down in. There is some protection from the winds but the north side is pretty much open.

Will the silkies or at least my paints be okay being completely covered. They won't be getting any drafts but they have no heat. The north side of their pen where the cold winds will be coming from is behind a big pecan tree so it is also blocked by that along with being covered by a tarp and a piece of wood over that. If that makes any sense. We put wood boards over the tarp to hold it down from any winds moving it around and used bricks to hold it down all around the bottom. Oh, and this pen is an "A" frame.

We're not getting all the snow that alot of other people are getting but it rained today and now it's all gonna freeze. So everything is gonna be big ice cubes.

Any advice is welcome.

Hi. I do not have a lot of experience with Silkies.....but with our other breeds we put down lots of hay.. thick, thick bedding. I think it helps..........
Good Luck

 

[justin24]

I wish i had my silkies back i luv those birds

 

[K Epp]

Thank you for the help! Its good to know. We got them all from our local feed store. They order from Privette hatchery.

Would it be bad to use a baby from Pouf as the daddy though?

I would love to get a really nice splash roo to go with Pepper.

Choose the one with darkest comb and wattles. For pets anything is game. I will be breeding my blue boys to a dark buff (looks red) white sizzle and black frizzle silkie. I'm defiantly going to get more silkies and want some of all colors. I run all mine together which makes the breeders of show silkies cringe. I have a silkie egg I put in with some D'anver eggs just to test for fertility and it is most likely crossed with a Porcelain d'Uccle. They should hatch Thursday. Here are my boys as you can see they have leakage too. They are great quality and because of the leakage I got a wonderful deal.

 

[emvickrey]

These are my babies in the juvie pen. The first ones are from porcelain parents I bought and the others are from my flock.

 

[emvickrey]

This is my red (?) frizzled silkie cockerel. I think he's red. He dn't have the stripes on the wings a partridge has. He has had an issue with one of his eyes since he was a week old. So he's been in the house getting regular eye cleanings to keep the gook and anything else that sticks to it off. I tried all the antibiotics I have along with some powder antibiotics that is put into the eye and nothing helped. Sh he went to the vet. All he wanted to do was preen himself and watch the people pass by the door. He was given some oral Bactrim and eye drops Ciprofloxacin Ophthalmic solution. It seems to be helping some but he is almost done with his meds and I still have to clean out his eye but not as often. I guess we will be going back by the weekend. He is such a sweetie but he isn't crazy about having me shove a tube down his throat twice a day. He don't mind the eye drops. They must make his eye feel better.

When I discovered the problem his eye was just gross. He was with a broody hen so of course they hid under her. It was when he was standing away from her and the other chicks when I noticed his eye. I managed to remove what looked like a plug of infection and then puss oozed out. i got the infection gone with antibiotics I had and rinsed it with salt water everyday. He was also isolated with no wood shavings. I kept his brooder very clean to prevent any more infection. He has what looks like a catarac cloud in the middle of his eye. There is no swelling and he can see out of it. I don't know how well but he don't favor the other eye at all. He's gotten used to our ritual of making a chicken burrito out of him with a towel so I can clean his eye and give meds then back to his brooder. He's now too big for the chick brooders and is in a trough on my carport room with another silkie with her top beak that was broken when she was a chick. She eats fine and is healthy but these two seem to have a bond so I leave them together. Anyway, these 2 in my carport room and my house hen are the only 3 I don't have to worry about in this frigid cold. It was announced on the TV that we are under a state of emergency due to the cold temps. Where my brother is in portage indiana they shut down the roads and the snow plows at 6pm. Only the national guard and police are out. I can't imagine anybody wanting to get out in this mess anyway.

 

[RockerHen]

My naked neck silkie cockerel is NOT enjoying this cold weather. Poor guy keeps his bare neck tucked back into his fluff most of the time.

I 'winterfied' the silkie coop yesterday. Put plastic sheeting over the exposed portions of the run and put down thick layers of shavings. The silkies, of course, panicked at the sight of the new shavings and hid in their dogloo for the longest time. But after a while, they got up the courage to leave and set about scratching it up everywhere. I also gave my biggest crested girl a good crest and beard trimming. She may not be the prettiest thing now, but she can see and she won't get her face all wet anymore.

 

[Urchin]

It's bad here with the cold. We're expecting fifty below wind chill tomorrow. I have a heat lamp set up in the coop and it hasn't gotten below twenty degrees in the coop, thankfully. The silkies seem to handle the cold better than my LF. They'll hang out for fifteen or so minutes in the little, covered chicken yard when it's in the teens, but the LF won't step foot out there. So far everyone's doing ok, except my cochin rooster, who got minor frostbite on his wattles and comb. My oldest son's upset because that rooster is his pride and joy. I might bring Cottonball in because she just went broody and went overboard plucking her breast. She's pretty much bald and I don't want anything happening to her.

 

[drumstick diva]

some people fashion sweaters for their birds and they apparently like them. I wonder if some neck gator could be made for the showgirl. I wear one myself in the house and an ear warmer and it makes a big difference to me outside as well (under hood and parka)

 

[kculbert]

Happy New Year everyone! I just attended my first poultry show and fell in love with the silkies, particularly the black ones. I am looking for someone with a black silkie pullet or hen for sale. I live in Houston and am willing to drive a couple of hours for the right bird. Looking for a friendly girl who will make a good pet. I will not be breeding her so she doesn't need to be "show quality" but she does need to be bearded and fluffy and preferably on the large side. Please pm me if you can help!

Thanks,

Kimberly