Silkie thread!

[flocknfoal]

This is it next to a big RIR egg. It was 2 inches. The only other option is a Cornish bantam. The EE most likely didn't lay it. Could she just lay big eggs?

One of my silkies sometimes lays long eggs that are more narrow and look a lot like that. Could be a silkie egg. Hatch it and see what comes out.

 

[flocknfoal]

Oh My! Those are some of the fluffiest, sweetest looking chicks ever! I want some!!!!! I think you posted a couple of days back that you have a calico roo and are just getting started with your silkie pen. Did you get these as hatching eggs and if so, may I ask from whom? They really are adorable!

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Quote: I got these fluffy cuties (and I believe my calico cock was from her lines as well) from Sheri Minkner. She has incredible Silkies. The BEST I have ever seen.
This is her profile @country And this is her website: http://www.californiacountryranch.com/

I don't believe she ships eggs, but its worth a shot!

 

[EZFarms]

I lost two more black silkies :/ thats now 6 birds in less then 24 hours what the hell is happening ronott1 says its too early for cocci so shat else could be causing them to die

 

[emvickrey]

Those are some cute fluff balls!

Those white ones look alot like my Georgie the house hen. She hatched with several other chicks but she just didn't grow. She has a deformity on one side of her face that includes a blind eye and sunken sinus. She has been spoiled all her life and she will be 5 years old this spring. She was so small when her sisters where out in the pen laying eggs she was still in a brooder keeping any lone chicks company. Her first cage was a 12x12x12. I thought she was a boy till she finally laid an egg several months after her sisters did. She is about half the size of her sister that I still have. She grows out a fluffy crest every now and then after a molt but mostly it's small. She just got over an illness that took me about a month to find out what was wrong with her. She had all the symptoms except for 1 of what it was she had and 1 symptom of mareks. Turns out it wasn't Mareks. Her skin, beak, comb, feet and legs turned powder white as if she was anemic. So of course I wormed her with no success.I treated her for mites although I couldn't find any on her I gave her vitamins then I finally found it and gave her teramyacin for a week and she was cured. She is back to her sweet self. She was acting depressed and refused to come out of her cage or be held, loss of appetite and she normally has watery feces due to the extra water she drinks because of her face deformity so direah was a symptom but instead her feces where firm and mostly white. The name of it started with an E and there was 2 words to what she had. I tried to find it just now with no luck. It took me what seemed forever to find it when she was sick.

So my Georgie baby is all well and happy again and so am I that she is. She is such a sweetie.

 

[emvickrey]

I lost two more black silkies

thats now 6 birds in less then 24 hours

what the hell is happening

ronott1 says its too early for cocci so shat else could be causing them to die

Didn't you say they where shipped? Was it form a breeder or a company? With my experience of hatching hundreds of chicks over the years. They die for no apparent reason at all. They can be doing fine for a week or two and one day you find them dead. I just figure that something didn't go just right during incubation. As long as you keep their brooder clean and dry with clean fresh water and keep feces out of their feed, keep them warm there isn't much else you can do unless you see symptoms.

 

[kmollyhughes]

I got these fluffy cuties (and I believe my calico cock was from her lines as well) from Sheri Minkner. She has incredible Silkies. The BEST I have ever seen. 
This is her profile @country
 And this is her website: http://www.californiacountryranch.com/

I don't believe she ships eggs, but its worth a shot! 

I got my sizzles from her. Smooth and curly. Amazing birds. I drove 4 hrs both ways to get them. Just hatched babies from the sizzles I got from her last summer and they are as amazing as their parents.

 

[EZFarms]

they were from cackle hatchery in missouri

 

[emvickrey]

they were from cackle hatchery in missouri

It could be stress. how many did you get? Last time I bought from a hatchery I bought 25 chicks. I lost 2 I think when they where chicks then after they where grown a mink wiped them all out. It was a masacre. Looked like a crime scene when i went out to feed. That was many years ago when I didn't think about covering the run.

Anyway. I sure hope they stop dropping off on you. I'm having a similar issue but mine are 5 months old now. I bought 6 chicks and raised them with some of mine the same age. i went out to feed one day and one was down so I brought her in and started working on figuring out what was wrong. I turned to BYC'rs for help. They kept telling me Mareks. I really didn't want it to be because that would mean I would loose them all in that pen at least. When she died I had a necropsy done and the report said pneumonia. She had no symptoms of it at all. I even put on the form I suspected mareks. While I was waiting for the necropsy report I found one more so I culled it right away and wrapped it up and disposed of it. About a week later Another. The last 2 never got out of bed. I closed their door to their run so the cold wouldn't creat a draft and they had a heat lamp to keep them warm. Everybody was perfectly fine the night before. Next morning they where sitting under the lamp with their legs out in front of them and their head between their legs. Coulnd't do anything except wobble. I culled the third one and kept the rst isolated till I got the report.

I thought everything was ok and the danger had passed then the 4th one was weak and just standing in one spot. Sure sign one is sick. First I thought he couldn't see due to the fluffy crest so a hair cut it was. He got dusted for mites but still he was unbalanced but eating and drining just fine and he could get himself to his food and water and his poops where normal. So last night I thought that maybe he isn't able to get a good grip with all the feathers on his feet so I gave him a soft rubber mat much like that shelf liner but thicker. He was able to movea round better and he even ate more and drank more. I put him back in his cage when I went to bed and when I got up he was still in the same spot and hadn't eaten or drank anything. To the vet we went. I stated in a previous post what all happened at the vet. Mareks is a suspicion but he wanted to try a few other things just in case it wasn't mareks. If he dies he will go to the vet for a necropsy instead of being cheap and getting a free one at the college.

Only the chicks I bought from somebody else are the ones that have come down with whatever this is. None of mine that where in the same pen are sick. Whats worse is I had only 2 girls and I was needing girls. The first one to die was a girl. Then I lost a beautiful boy then another beautiful boy. Now this one is another beautiful boy. The other boy left has a messed up beak and I'm sure he woun't be able to breed and i know I don't want to breed him with the deformed beak he has. He eats and drinks just fine but he's not going into my breeding stock. I have 1 girl left and I pray she don't come down with whatever this is.

I wonder with them being silkies and their skull being mostly nonexistant if the feather folicles can do damage to their exposed brain. As fluffy as their heads are there are alot of feather shafts, folicles. whatever they are called. I meant to ask the vet that today but just now remembered it. i should have written it down. One of my ideas when the first one went down was that the boys had gottten too frisky with her and did brain damage. She was like the birdie exorsist. Her head nearly turned all the way around. I had to turn her head back in the forward position just to feed her at one point. The day before she died her head went back to normal and she used her wings and stood up with little assistance. Oh and mites became a big problem too. I had bought a bad bag of pine shavings. It was full of tiny mites and where all over the birds. I had to clean out all the pens and nest boxes, dust then replace with new shavings then dist all my birds. I lost 3 chicks to the mites before I noticed they where in the brooder too. I dusted the 1 day old chicks, the broody hen and replaced and dusted the trough I have them in.

I had a hen get a bacterial infection in her lungs too this winter. She went to the vet and she is doing fine now and laying eggs and being sassy like normal. I've had a cockerel with an eye issue since he was 1 week old and I've been cleaning his eye out for months. He also went to the vet and it's not as bad as it was but with having these birds with more serious issues he hasn't gone back yet. He is still inside so I can watch when it needs cleaned. I'll be sooo happy when this winter is over with.

 

[emvickrey]

GEEZ! I need to go to bed. I'm getting chatty