Silkie thread!

[Gossie]

Okay that makes me feel better about having one of each. Now both of mine are mostly indoor chicks but i let them out everyday. Im worried about the roo becoming aggressive. How often is your roo crowing?

Our rooster is crowing less often then most of our other roosters, but multiple times a day. Our rooster is the least aggressive of our r

 

[Indyshent]

We have had a friendly visitor the last couple of days. This black/greenish chicken came by herself and now hangs out with my silkies, haha. Our bigger chickens don't like having her around tho. What kind of chicken is she?

First guess was Australorp, but I'm thinking black Orpington now. Australorps have black skin, but this girl has really light legs, which are an Orpington trademark. Either way, she'll be a great layer of brown eggs. Check her over for mites and such, but otherwise, I'd keep her

I'm not entirely sure if I've posted in here before, but I do have two silkies. Wanted them last year but couldn't find any. Will be trading for some more silkies at the end of the week, if all goes as planned. I'm really liking this breed so far, but am a little worried because--of my three banties, two are boys so far. I have one pair of white silkies (hatched buff!?) and one mille fleur D'UIccle roo. Oh, and a ton of ducks, LF and four turkeys...

 

[WVduckchick]

Our blue silkie hen Caroline has been trying to hatch eggs for a year or two, but the eggs either haven't been fertile, or she's decides to get off of them after day 3. 20 days ago she went broody again and sat on 4 silkie eggs, then a 5th one appeared that looked infertile and then disappeared again.

Today, 1 of her eggs hatched. It was the first egg to ever hatch in my coop. It's so exciting. The baby chick's name is Pancake and she hatched around 11:30 this morning. She hatched with a little bit of bloody tissue, and Caroline was pecking at it, so we took Pancake and let the blood dry. After a few hours under the heat lamp, we brought her back to Caroline and she was happy to have her back. They are so cute together!

Aww that is so sweet! Congrats!

 

[Living4birds]

Our blue silkie hen Caroline has been trying to hatch eggs for a year or two, but the eggs either haven't been fertile, or she's decides to get off of them after day 3. 20 days ago she went broody again and sat on 4 silkie eggs, then a 5th one appeared that looked infertile and then disappeared again. Today, 1 of her eggs hatched. It was the first egg to ever hatch in my coop. It's so exciting. The baby chick's name is Pancake and she hatched around 11:30 this morning. She hatched with a little bit of bloody tissue, and Caroline was pecking at it, so we took Pancake and let the blood dry. After a few hours under the heat lamp, we brought her back to Caroline and she was happy to have her back. They are so cute together!

Congrats!!, my EE eggs hatch today and I have Pips!! Best luck to your new baby!

 

[Jkraft]

I just got 2 these 2 silkie chicks. Not sure what color they are. I'm a first time chicken owner!

 

[sonshine15]

Congratulations!!! You may want to wet a tray of food for them for a few days or so. It helps them when they're so tiny!

 

[Jkraft]

Thank you! I will go do that now. I am feeding them chicken starter.

 

[Sylvester017]

I had purchased 2 silkies from local farm store and one of them is now a Roo (he just learned his voice) :/ and the other a hen. Is it okay to have just one of each? Any Advice? Right now they are obsessed with each other, never leaving each others sides and the roo is protective over the hen but still loves to be held and cuddled. Any signs i should look out for?

Thanks

Silkies are absolutely the sweetest, funniest, gentlest, fluffiest breed to have. So glad you are loving yours! Our newest fascination is a Breda pullet that likes to follow us around, let's us hold and pet her, and sleeps on my slippered feet.

If you got your Silkies together from the same hatch they are most likely bro and sis - genetically not a good thing to breed them since chicks may suffer some abnormalities or immunity deficiencies, etc. Father to daughter breeding is a little better but not bro to sis. A cockerel/roo will wear out one hen mating - better to have minimum of 2 pullets for your roo with neither as a sister. I had a Silkie cockerel given to me as a "pullet" and when he got interested in mating his sister it was 15-20x/day and he never shut-up crowing, so we had to re-home him before he wore out his little sister. He chased the bigger Leghorn trying to mate her too but she'd have nothing to do with the bantam. He was a sweet gorgeous Partridge but we couldn't keep him for so many reasons. After re-homing him at 8-m/o we purchased an older pullet to be a companion to the sister. I've had to re-home 5 chickens for various reasons during the last 4 years and it's never easy to part with them but found them good homes (not anyone's dinner!).

 

[sonshine15]

Thank you! I will go do that now. I am feeding them chicken starter.

The starter is great. Just wet the food till it's moist. Since they're Silkies you may want to keep them on the wet stuff longer than a few days. It's so much easier on them

 

[Jkraft]

Silkies are absolutely the sweetest, funniest, gentlest, fluffiest breed to have. So glad you are loving yours! Our newest fascination is a Breda pullet that likes to follow us around, let's us hold and pet her, and sleeps on my slippered feet.

If you got your Silkies together from the same hatch they are most likely bro and sis - genetically not a good thing to breed them since chicks may suffer some abnormalities or immunity deficiencies, etc. Father to daughter breeding is a little better but not bro to sis. A cockerel/roo will wear out one hen mating - better to have minimum of 2 pullets for your roo with neither as a sister. I had a Silkie cockerel given to me as a "pullet" and when he got interested in mating his sister it was 15-20x/day and he never shut-up crowing, so we had to re-home him before he wore out his little sister. He chased the bigger Leghorn trying to mate her too but she'd have nothing to do with the bantam. He was a sweet gorgeous Partridge but we couldn't keep him for so many reasons. After re-homing him at 8-m/o we purchased an older pullet to be a companion to the sister. I've had to re-home 5 chickens for various reasons during the last 4 years and it's never easy to part with them but found them good homes (not anyone's dinner!).

Thank you so much for the information! I did get my silkies from the same hatch. They were not sexed. About how long till you can tell the sex?

I plan on getting 2 more chicks soon. I wanted to go with a different breed and I found a nice farm that sells chicks sexed. I had a hard time finding silkies where I live. I love the way silkies look but I have done a lot of research and read that they tend to be broody, and not the best layers. I was thinking about going with buff orpingtons. I know they are a much larger chicken but I read that they get are friendly and gentle. Both chickens seem to be at the bottom of the pecking order. I am a first time owner so this is just what I read.