Silkie thread!

[sonderah]

So, I have some little chicks. They are actually sizzle chicks, but still basically the bantam sizes. Plus 2 EE babies. I've only ever had LF. I'm curious if worming is different with these babies? With my BO's I use Wazine at different intervals starting at like 3 weeks.

 

[Caitlin_VT]

Help me figure out what color these chicks are! First full hatch from my birds.

Father

Mother


Some of the chicks





About 2/3 of the chicks are born with stripes so I assume they will be partridge? But I also have had 3/7 hatch out without markings...?!

 

[Sylvester017]

quick coop question.... building our first coop for the silkies, my husband really likes the raised coops so they will have a litte "front porch" and a place to go underneath. however I am worried the silkies will just fall off the "porch" I will have a ramp on it, but not on the entire thing, just going down the front. please let me know what anyone things. should I just build a coop flat on teh ground or an elevated coop??

My reason for not having a wooden floored coop flat on the ground is because of our downpour rains. Doesn't rain often but occasionally we get flooded a bit. The dirt at the bottom of the coop seldom gets wet even in our heavier rains. Our nestboxes are the only raised enclosed area. Everything else is open wire and the 4 birds have the ground floor to move around til we let them out for ranging in the yard. There's a low perch barely visible opposite the nestboxes. At night we cover with a tarp but are working on adding a 4 x 8 kennel attachment and a canopy overhead. We have since raised the whole coop on low blocks to give us a few more inches of headroom when we enter, It was a custom built coop at the feed store and we got the last one. Sadly the gentleman who builds them had knee surgery and doesn't make them anymore and the store only carries the commercial pre-assembled coops now. We absolutely love the workable design on this customized coop and the flat nestbox access door drops down from the back of the boxes instead of having nestboxes sticking outside the coop like some pre-assembled designs.

 

[Sylvester017]

This is what we are turning into our silkie coop, keep in mind we still have 2 windows and an next box that we can get the eggs from the outside, paint it and we are going to raise it 2 ft. at 2 ft I can get under it if I need too and they can too.

I like your sloped roof for rain/snow run-off. That's one thing I would change on our coop - it sold as a flat roof - love our coop but not the roof so we're going to put a pop-up canopy overhead after expanding with an attached kennel run.

 

[chick rookie]

With a lick of paint it'll be great. Don't forget the ramp and possibly some ventilation holes at the top end of the box.

lol I did forget to say that... but it is planed.

 

[chick rookie]

I like your sloped roof for rain/snow run-off. That's one thing I would change on our coop - it sold as a flat roof - love our coop but not the roof so we're going to put a pop-up canopy overhead after expanding with an attached kennel run.

this is a little porch we put on for a snow free/rain free zone. we are going to do the roof in metal, the tarp is just a temporary thing, I had a pop up tent over it one year, didn't last long with the wind and such so I replaced it with

that lasted all winter this winter, go figure... lol and when the weather broke a couple weeks ago we did the porch thing ( top pic's )

 

[Sylvester017]

Just so everyone knows, my last comment was not meant to be offensive. I know bipolar can be a very serious condition, I jut believe it is highly OVER diagnosed these days.

It's Kismet that you brought up bipolar - Smiles

It happens I know some people who are classed under the Bipolar Umbrella - General Anxiety Disorder, Manic-Depressives, Suicidal tendencies, Schizophrenia, and a couple more I can't remember. It can be anything from a minor symptom to all-out personality disorders bordering on insanity. I personally am glad it is a condition that's over-diagnosed - it might've saved my first marriage had this been a more well-known or well-publicized medical condition. Problem is that Bipolars don't think anything is wrong, mask/hide the symptoms, blame others or other circumstances for their behavior. My ex still doesn't think there's anything wrong and it's everyone else's fault for his/her uncontrollable behavior. My ex mother-in-law and her sister were Bipolars and had bizarre behaviors - seems to run in families. Without treatment behaviors get progressively worse with age.

Poor actress Patty Duke thought she was crazy until she got properly diagnosed and treated which is another whole bowl of wax to go through to find the right combination of medications to treat it. Bipolar used to be a stigma but with proper diagnosis doesn't have to be anymore just like Autism, CP, ADD, etc.

Yes, Bipolar can be a sensitive issue but I don't think it's confined to humans - I've seen some bizarre behavior in some of my hormonal hens LOL

 

[Sylvester017]

this is a little porch we put on for a snow free/rain free zone. we are going to do the roof in metal, the tarp is just a temporary thing, I had a pop up tent over it one year, didn't last long with the wind and such so I replaced it with

that lasted all winter this winter, go figure... lol and when the weather broke a couple weeks ago we did the porch thing ( top pic's )

Nice digs!

We're gonna use a pop-up canopy since we have an extra one in the garage. We don't get snow - the Sun is harder on the covers than any other weather. We just buy a new tarp and use ball tarp fasteners clipped to the canopy frame whenever the tops get old.

We'll try heavy weights on the canopy legs and if it doesn't hold down then we'll bury the legs into the soil like the 1st canopy we have set up for the chickens' shade in the backyard. We had 100 mph Santa Ana wind gusts and the canopy top shredded and blew away - who knows where - but the buried frame stayed anchored in the soil.

Using tarps is much cheaper than new canopy fabrics and if fastened down nicely with reusable ball tarp fasteners can look as nice as a new expensive fitted cover. Instead of paying $50-$100 for a fitted cover every year we pay around $10 for a tarp that can look fairly nice and lasts just as long as the expensive fitted cover. It's nice that tarps are starting to come in all sorts of colors now - black, brown, silver, green, and the traditional blues. I just wish they'd stop being Made in China as there are always hazardous warnings on nearly everything made from there.

 

[dah2s]

 

[hollymh]

My partridge Silkie chick passed today.

we are going to get a few more silkies tomorrow. It's still so sad to lose a little one.

Aw so sorry Its always a bummer