Silkie thread!

[Fancychooklady]

Do hens usually lay there first egg and then not for a couple days

It can take 3-4 weeks for them to ease into a regular laying pattern. You may even see a few soft shelled eggs.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes, that is very common. But some will start laying, like my Buff Orpingtons, and consistently lay about 6 eggs a week the first year. It depends upon the chicken, laying conditions.

chickenwaterers.com said that Leghorns were found to produce 10% better if offered cold water rather than tepid water to drink. All my breeds go straight for the water when they come out from just laying their egg for the day. I use ice cubes in the Brite Tap Rubbermaid nipple valve waterer to keep the water cold on warm days.

 

[Fancychooklady]

chickenwaterers.com said that Leghorns were found to produce 10% better if offered cold water rather than tepid water to drink. All my breeds go straight for the water when they come out from just laying their egg for the day. I use ice cubes in the Brite Tap Rubbermaid nipple valve waterer to keep the water cold on warm days.

That's interesting. Most chickens drink first thing in the morning, that's why it's recommended that you place wormer in the water at the crack of dawn.

 

[thecreekhouse]

Is it normal for Silkies to avoid using a ramp? My Silkies' coop has a ramp up into the nesting area and my Silkies won't use it. They will stay all night in the run area, huddled up rather than climb the ramp to roost for the night. Does pushing them up the ramp help?

 

[silkiecuddles]

Sylvester: What would you say are pros and cons for using that for a waterer?

 

[Sylvester017]

That's interesting. Most chickens drink first thing in the morning, that's why it's recommended that you place wormer in the water at the crack of dawn.

So far, it's a pattern we've been noticing. Could be because it gets awfully warm inside the coop in our hot SoCalif climate and after a long set on the nest to lay an egg they need hydration. Early mornings we notice the hens go straight for the feed first - shimmying and jockeying for a position at one of the feeders first.

Hey, maybe it's our opposite Hemispheres that cause the backward pattern

.

 

[Sylvester017]

Is it normal for Silkies to avoid using a ramp? My Silkies' coop has a ramp up into the nesting area and my Silkies won't use it. They will stay all night in the run area, huddled up rather than climb the ramp to roost for the night. Does pushing them up the ramp help?

Using dry mealworms up the ramp is a real motivator! My Silkies, in fact all my breeds, were hesitant about using the ramp into the coop. We put bricks under the bottom of the ladder to lift it and to lessen the incline - that helped a lot. We locked them up for a day in the coop during cooler weather when we first set up the coop. That way they explored the new coop and got a feel of where the nextboxes were, and the perches, and there's a ramp that leads from the bottom of the coop to the run below, and the chicken pop door with a ramp that leads outside the run. It usually takes one smart chicken to figure the ins-&-outs to show the other ones where to go. In our case our Breda and our little Black Silkie are our smartest girls. Silkies are cuddlers/huddlers on floors but we lucked out that they like to sleep in the nestboxes instead of the dirty floor.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sylvester: What would you say are pros and cons for using that for a waterer?

* For one thing, I like the Brite Tap assembled into the Rubbermaid jug (comes together as an option on chickenwaterers.com).
* I ordered the Brite Tap insulated red covers that fit over the Brite Tap itself so chickens can't peck at the plugs on the Brite Tap sides.
* My consant water-changing days are over! I used to clean out water bowls 2 to 3x daily before!
* We have very hard/mineral tap water so we use bottled water. We like that the bottled water stays clean and not wasted.
* It holds 2-gallons of water.
* The website says one Brite Tap per 12 chickens. I have only 4 hens but have 2 of these waterers in the yard. I'm a worrier and in case one stops working or leaks out (won't happen but I worry anyway) there is a 2nd waterer available in the yard.
* A 2-gallon jug is easy to carry from location to location and easy to clean out.
* The handle on the jug gives the option to hang it if you choose.
*The water stays clean for days and days although I recommend rubberbanding a fine mesh bridal tulle over the top air valve to keep out tiny insects like ants, gnats, etc, entering the water jug.
* Chickenwaterers.com recommended having the jug placed low for bantams and higher for large fowl but our silly chickens use the opposite jugs with the large fowl using the lower placement and the bantams reaching for higher placement - not always but it's funny why they do this. I solved the problem by having cinderblock steps so the chickens can choose the height they want to get their drink.
* The screw-top lid gives us the convenience to drop in ice cubes on warm days.
* If you have to give medicinal treatments or soluble vitamins to the flock it won't get wasted and stays in clean water.
* The wild birds used to poop in our open bowl waterers and the hens would stand in the drinking water (one Leghorn especially liked to take "Madge" Palmolive spas in the open bowls!). Using the Brite Tap nipple valves positioned from the bottom (not the sides like some valve waterers) keeps the wild birds from reaching the nipple valve water - hurray!
* It is not unattractive like PVC pipe systems and is probably the same cost whether getting two Brite Taps or having to physically install a diy PVC system. Of course, this is a matter of preference but we found it so much easier just to use the jugs.
* Algae is not a problem unless the jugs are left out in the sun all day long. Our jugs are in shade all day. I use vinegar water or ACV to wash out the jugs once a month or as needed - sometimes 2 months before a thorough vinegar washing.
* My last advice received from chickenwaterers.com was in answer to a question I asked them about using ACV for the chicken water in the jugs. This was their reply to my question so I never use ACV:

I did quite a bit of research on ACV and didn't find much compelling to recommend it. If you want to read the blog posting I did on this, you can find it at:

http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2012/12/dont-use-apple-cider-vinegar-acv-in.html

The article is titled "Don't Use ACV" but what the article really concludes is "there's no real evidence that it works, so don't bother." By the way, yogurt is a probiotic because the lactobacilus bacteriait contains can survive in the gastrointestinal tract.( Lactobacilus doesn't need oxygen to survive). ACV contains Acetobacteria that people also think is a probiotic but this type of bacteria does need oxygen to live and so it can't survive in the gut. ACV is not a probiotic. The best time to give your chickens probiotics is when they are baby chicks. At that time, the normal flora in their guts has not developed yet and they would be more prone to get salmonella or coccidiosis. Commercially available probiotic solutions are sold for chick but you can also try giving your chicks some sauerkraut.

Putting some ice in your water jug is a nice touch. Chickens prefer cool water and it will increase their water consumption. Leghorns given cool water versus warm water laid about 10% more eggs because their overall water consumption rate was higher.

Kind regards,

-Mark

 

[jas humbert]

I thought I would post this here and see what everyone thought. **This is not my chick** it was posted for sale on a local facebook page but the color caught my attention. I've done lots of research but never saw a dark bodied chick with white leg feathers. Does anyone know what color it would grow up to be? Or is it a mixed colored silkie with two different colored parents?

I'm not sure about the odd body colors. But iis surprising how much a chick's color can change from down to full feathers. I would guess her color as blue except for that odd buff around the eye She may well be an off color but no way of knowing yet. . But the lighter leg down is not all that uncommon. I hatched a black girl last year with white leg feathers and white wing tips. I thought she might feather out to be something unusual but all the white disappeared and she became an ordinary black. I gave her to young teen friend of mine and have seen her again this spring. Just an ordinary black silkie with full dark pigment of both feathers and legs. I've since heard from other breeders that it is not all that uncommon. . She a sweetheart who loves to be picked up and cuddled.

 

[collie1470]

Our silkies are a week old now. Not good quality, but they needed to be taken in, and we love them already. They're definitely more energetic than our orpingtons were at this age, and seem more skittish....but man are they funny.

Green

Black

Yellow

White

Purple

Red