Silkie thread!

[tjo804]

You might have some luck Re-Homing on this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/16182/animals-in-need-of-free-re-homing

Good luck
Nice looking boy I would take him if we were closer.

 

[Half Moon Ranch]

Fancy, I have a question or two.
I mentioned before having what I thought was soft moult on my hens, based on a lack of feathers on the saddle, in particular on one BO.
She also had what appeared to be slow crop due to the finding of feed in the waterer.
I put everyone through a two week regimen of Strike III for deworming.
Once it got hot out, I started everyone on Rooster Booster for electrolytes and vitamins because she had gotten listless and her comb and wattles lost color and rigidity.
We also fed both girls scrambled egg and for a couple days everyone seemed happy and she seemed to be coming back until today.
She has one eye closed and she is just laying in one spot.
The lack of backwash in the water tells me she's not drinking, so I know that's bad.
Any guesses as to what might be happening to our girl?

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy, I have a question or two.
I mentioned before having what I thought was soft moult on my hens, based on a lack of feathers on the saddle, in particular on one BO.
She also had what appeared to be slow crop due to the finding of feed in the waterer.
I put everyone through a two week regimen of Strike III for deworming.
Once it got hot out, I started everyone on Rooster Booster for electrolytes and vitamins because she had gotten listless and her comb and wattles lost color and rigidity.
We also fed both girls scrambled egg and for a couple days everyone seemed happy and she seemed to be coming back until today.
She has one eye closed and she is just laying in one spot.
The lack of backwash in the water tells me she's not drinking, so I know that's bad.
Any guesses as to what might be happening to our girl?

Poor girl, what's her poop look like? If she is looking anemic I would isolate her , check her over thoroughly for mites and or lice. You need to get a good look at her poop, check her vent area , when was the last time she laid an egg ?

 

[tjo804]

Does anyone know?
If I were to purchase a hovabator with auto turn to hatch Silkie eggs would I need the Quail rack or will the chicken rack hold the bantam size eggs ok?

Is there a better incubator I should take a look at? I am not wanting to do large number hatches right now but I am not sure that won't change.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Does anyone know?
If I were to purchase a hovabator with auto turn to hatch Silkie eggs would I need the Quail rack or will the chicken rack hold the bantam size eggs ok?

Is there a better incubator I should take a look at? I am not wanting to do large number hatches right now but I am not sure that won't change.

The regular chicken egg turner racks work just fine for bantam eggs... however, if you're going with Hovabator I recommend their Genesis 1588 over the other models... you can find decent deals on ebay or go directly to incubatorwarehouse.com...
I've been using 2 Genesis for the last year and love them, recommended them to someone else and he swears by them now... hope this helps!

 

[tjo804]

Quote:
That is the exact one I was looking at

that and the Mini Advance fully digital 7 egg incubator that is off to the side of the home page here.

 

[Ravynscroft]

That is the exact one I was looking at  that and the Mini Advance fully digital 7 egg incubator that is off to the side of the home page here.

The Mini is great, but if you ever want to set a larger batch it limits you a lot... either one is good though, just depends on if you stay with small batches or go bigger...

 

[WVduckchick]

I made little rings of soft packing foam to put around my bantam eggs because they flopped a little in the turner. I think my sister in law said she put a bit of tissue paper around hers. I doubt the flopping hurts them, but I didn't like it lol. I think the quail trays would be too small, but it would depend on the size of your eggs I guess.

 

[Half Moon Ranch]

Poor girl, what's her poop look like? If she is looking anemic I would isolate her , check her over thoroughly for mites and or lice. You need to get a good look at her poop, check her vent area , when was the last time she laid an egg ?

If I could characterize the appearance of her poop as anything, it would be dark and sort of dry.
I'm not sure if she's eating much, but she did appear to be looking for bugs this morning.
Her eye is open this morning though she tends to blink it more often than the other and it has a sort of lazy look to it.
Her vent appears to be clear.
She last laid about 3 days ago and has been hit and miss for a while to which I attributed to what I thought was a soft moult.
The eggs are lighter in appearance than her sister's and that's not usual either.
I haven't seen any signs of mites or parasites on her saddle, but I did notice something this morning that somehow I missed before and that is
a dark cast to her tail feathers. The other BO hen doesn't have this and I don't know much, but I would think if she had mites or other parasites, the others would have it too.
The Silkie boys seem fine, full of beans and ornery as always.
There is by the way only one Silkie roo in with the girls and he doesn't abuse them at all.
I keep the others separate because they fight like crazy.

Here is a picture of the feathers I mentioned with the other hen in the background for comparison.



Here's a better shot of her saddle

 

[silkiecuddles]

I have a BO whose saddle looks like that. Both of my BOs did but then I seperated one because she hatched chicks. Her feathers grew back. I think I've got a feather picker. As for the dark feathers, I think that's normal in BOs, esp hatchery stock which mine are.