Silkie thread!

[Caitlin_VT]

Yes, they are good brooders, but they are not the only broody breed. Cochins are as well and are hardier. Silkies do not tolerate cold weather well, but Cochins have a hart time in high heat. They go broody around one year of age usually, but some individual birds never will. It's a good reason to get a few.

In my experience, they are fine with their fluffy feathers covering their faces. There are also beardless varieties of silkie that have no crest or beard if this is something you're concerned about.

Finally, yes they get picked on more than other breeds. They are extremely docile and easily traumatized. They do much better in groups of two or more silkies because they can form their own sub-flock. You have to be prepared to remove bullies from your flock of you want to integrate silkies and be present and observing for the first week or so to make sure they are safely settling in.

I would have to completely disagree with the statement that Silkies do not tolerate cold well! They do just fine in cold weather (from much experience

) and were the only ones of my hens/pullets that did lay AT ALL during the dead of winter. I actually think they enjoy it more than the hot weather because of all of their feathers.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I agree. Mine live in an uninsulated coop and I don't provide them with a heat lamp. Out of all my poultry, they'd always be the ones out scratching around in the snow and they laid quite well in the cold. When its super hot outside, they sit around in the shade and pant, and I don't see many eggs.

 

[FoxholeFarm]

Thanks for the correction! It doesn't often get below 40 where I love so I don't know that from experience, just from reading about the breed. :]

 

[dstinett]

All of my birds do better than in summer. Winter doesn't phase them. Too much sun and they are panting and not laying.

 

[Lacrystol]

I will add a little note about my Silkies/Cochins. I have TWO heating lamps in my coops because of the winters here, I have lost several SILKIES last year due to cold weather. Silkies are NOT that hardy when it comes to the winter. but MAN THEY ARE DEDICATED MOMMA's... They also have weaker symptoms and get sick easier.

Whenever I have an issue the first question out of my vets mouth is "is this a silkie". LOL So even my vet knows that they tend to get sick the quickest and easiest..

I have one Rooster right now that has no toes because he lost them, why because of Frost bite. They do not like the snow at all and will avoid it at all cost so food and Water bowls go into there nesting areas during the winter.

The Heating lamps I have will be directly above the water to keep it from freezing. If I was to open there coops and there's snow on the ground they will NOT exit the nesting boxes.

I have my nesting boxes build so that they can move around with a top and bottom layer.. They can not tolerate low temps.

Now my cochins. LOL they will eat the snow, they could careless. They will have BALLS of snow on there foot feathers that I have to melt off, why they do this to me, is beyond me. But even they have a hard time with low temps.

EXCEPTALLY when that COOOOLD WIND HITS, and takes your breath away..

 

[Rainier]

Those are pretty good looking chicks! The first looks like a little roo with that comb. 2 and 3 almost certainly pullets. 4 I am unsure. Could go either way.

for your guesses. My daughter doesn't care she's keeping them all. My mind was trying to figure out how to build pens for three boys and one girl and then of course having to get more silkies because having one boy penned up with one girl just isn't good for the girl.

Chicken math has hit here pretty hard. Started with 20, culled down to 11, lost one to coon and our turkeys killed another, got the four silkie babies, bought four lemon cuckoo orpington, lost one of the orpingtons to a hawk, have 4 eggs in bator due to hatch on Saturday and have more eggs to go in as soon as they are out!

For Twitch I posted in emergencies and several thought a mineral/vit deficiency and I thought maybe a heat issue. Here is the link to what was said there https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/922975/10-day-old-silkie-chick-help

Although he doesn't twitch as much as he does in the video he still does it and the other three chicks are "normal" so I'm leaning more towards he got a peck to the head. If it was a mineral/vit issue wouldn't all of the chicks had a problem?

 

[Suzierd]

Hello Silkie people 

I don't have a Silkie yet, but am hoping to get one or two soon. I have always loved Silkies, but i've never owned one before. I have a couple of questions about them though. 

1. I'm hoping to use them as broody hens to raise chicks... I read that Silkies are very very regularly going broody, is this true for all silkies? And at what age roughly would a young Silkie first become broody?

2. Do you find they have trouble seeing through all their feathers? I have a British Araucana chick at the moment, and she was acting quite depressed for a while, I soon realised it was because she couldn't see, so i trimmed her feathers back and she's fine now.

3. Do you find they get picked on much when they're kept with a flock of larger birds? At the moment i have 4, 13 week old chicks (Araucana, australorp, cochin, and production layer) I was thinking I could get a silkie that is perhaps a little older than them so I can put her with them and she won't get picked on too much. Then when that bunch are old enough, they can all move in with the big flock together. Keeping this in mind, would I be better to get two, so that they can hang with a bird of similar size? Or would one be okay?

Thanks in advance!

I would trim the feathers if it gets where they can't see well I had a few that would stop eating because they couldn't see. Once I trimmed them up they were so HAPPY! Running around eating and scratching.

 

[Sylvester017]

We're planning for Pekins, my hubby said if we do ducks we need to be able to butcher the extras. My Calls were tiny, not worth the time it takes to butcher.
I absolutely adore our turkeys! They're such personable birds and we love their eggs! We had geese for a while, they got in the habit of chasing and pinching my kids, so we haven't tried them again. Though I would consider them. Our last geese came to us as adults, from pretty horrible conditions, so I didn't hold it against them

My Mom always had Pekins and loved their eggs and the drakes at 7-8 weeks went to freezer - a bit noisy though. She had wished for quiet shellducks (Muscovy) but they weren't readily available back in the 1940's. We never had turkeys but I used to go to a farm on Thanksgiving where they raised and butchered them for you. Mom had a gaggle of geese and they were better watchdogs than the dog was. And they had huge eggs. Needless to say Mom was always baking with those eggs. How nice of you to save geese that needed better homes. I have seen photos of Sebastopol geese and they are gorgeous birds. If I was ever able to have geese or ducks it would be Runner Ducks and Sebastopol Geese just because they are so unique - they wouldn't be table meat 'cause my DH won't eat our birds but their eggs would be great, Runners are prolific - almost no need for chicken eggs except that we enjoy our chickens too much not to have some in the yard. We have a tiny cottage backyard now so aren't zoned for more than 5 hens and no roos so having a lot of poultry is not possible for us. It's fun to remember how much fun the farm was when I was a kid. We had a horse, cow, sheep, goats, geese, ducks, and chickens. The larger livestock all got sold because they produced too much milk for a small family. Eventually the poultry was reduced also to where the geese were the last to be kept and then they ultimately were gone. Self-sufficient farming is not so sufficient when you need an outside job to maintain the farm!

 

[Sylvester017]

The 3 ducks I got after the initial 2 were half black runner and half khaki campbells. They were the most skiddish birds ever. I could never pick them up or even walk by them without them running away. And I got them when they were less than 24hrs old and spent many many hours with them as they grew. My first two ducks were a male mallard (super sweet) and a buff orpington (also super sweet and played fetch!)

I've never been around 1/2 & 1/2 duck mixes but the pure Runners were a hoot and weren't afraid to nip at squabbling hens as they waddled by - Runners are always on the move and wary but not unfriendly. Even our tamest backyard birds run from us if we're walking but if we sit down they'll start milling around our feet. Mom had Mallards that migrated and would stop over a couple days with our Pekins before continuing their flight. Migrating geese often flew overhead but never stopped to join our gaggle. But I agree about Mallards - they are great pets and even the wild ones are easily lured with treats. Never saw a BO however but fetch sounds like a fun trick!

 

[lightchick]

Is it bad to try and get a Silkie to go broody? I have a 21 week old Silkie that I was hoping would start laying soon (i've heard it takes much longer for silkies) and then go broody. Would it be bad to try and get her to go broody before she starts laying? Is it even possible to get her to go broody before she starts laying? I would like her to hatch a few eggs.....not very many.