Silkie thread!

[235chickens]

 

[Rhapsody1]

Here are pictures. Anyone can tell me what colors they are. Except for the one rooster. I am not sure what sex they are. Any ideas?

Question for all the silkie experts on this thread. We hatched out five silkie babies, they are different colors. A few are tricolor colored, but not sure what the difference in splash and painted are? I will try to get pictures today so you can educate me!

 

[kjscortez]

Question for all the silkie experts on this thread. We hatched out five silkie babies, they are different colors. A few are tricolor colored, but not sure what the difference in splash and painted are? I will try to get pictures today so you can educate me!

I'm no silky expert, but I do know...#2 pic is adorable!!
Do they stay in the doghouses in the pic? We have 1 silky and 1 sizzle, I put them in a tiny little house/w run from the farm store, then I find out they like to stay at ground level...so I was curious about the housing.

 

[Sylvester017]

The Elgu is amazing! I've had no trouble with predators so far as the little house they go into at night is extremely secure and is made out of really strong plastic with great ventilation! I think the only problem I've had with it is that the run was rather tricky to put together as I had to bend the wire to fit the house when I connected them but that could have just been it got bent out of shape in the mail. But other than that it's been perfect. Very easy to move around when needed I think it's the Omlet Elgu Go.

I like the plastic housing idea in all Omelet's chicken coops except that they don't have wood perches. The Eglu Cube starts as a good idea but is really small inside for the space it takes and too small really for more than a couple hens - I don't understand how they say 10 chickens will fit. Well, maybe they can squeeze in but where's the 4 sq ft per chicken for 10 hens? Customers complained the Cube ladder didn't reach the ground, a chicken broke it's leg using it, and it's not a solid ramp so that Silkie's can't use it comfortably and possibly fall through between the rungs. Someone said their German Shepherd jumped on the Eglu Cube wire cage and it collapsed! After reading all those reviews on the Cube I decided to get something sturdier. I mean, Omlet is on the right idea with sturdiness in the housing but not sturdy enough runs. Omlet does make a walk-in cage where the Cube or other Eglu's can be placed safely inside but it makes the yard look ugly to have a big old walk-in lion-cage looking thing ~

! As a chicken tractor the Eglu Go with run looks like a good tractor. I don't think in my yard it would be sturdy enough though as a permanent nighttime roosting coop against raccoons, possums, or stray dogs. I haven't lost any chickens but once we had a dog attack it made us extra wary.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm no silky expert, but I do know...#2 pic is adorable!!
Do they stay in the doghouses in the pic? We have 1 silky and 1 sizzle, I put them in a tiny little house/w run from the farm store, then I find out they like to stay at ground level...so I was curious about the housing.

Silkies are known to be pile-on-the-floor sleepers or nestbox sleepers. Our two hens will sleep in nestboxes. If Silkies are floor-sleepers inside a coop then a covered large cat litter box or doghouse with straw makes a nice place for Silkies to pile together without roosting chickens above pooping on them. I would place the litter box or doghouse on paver stone squares to level/steady the little housing from rocking. If you have nesting boxes at floor level you might find the Silkies using those to sleep inside. Cute quirky little birds!

We have 5 doghouses placed around the yard. All our chickens use the doghouses as hiding/snoozing places during the day but at roost time they enter the more secure coop for laying eggs or roosting. We also use a pop-up canopy, lawn furniture, tables, makeshift plywood lean-to's on cinderblocks ~ even a wheelbarrow, potted plants, and trash cans make little hiding places. Silkies like the doghouses as well as the large fowl. Surprisingly no chicken has ever layed an egg in the secluded doghouses but always use the coop's nestboxes for laying.











Barn Coop for laying eggs or roosting.

 

[Zgm12]

Though I'd tell everyone that my test run for my Sex Linked Silkie project was a success. Despite coccidiosis issues this year that took out a lot of my chicks over just a few days time, I managed to save five of the chicks I hatched from my breeding pair (Cuckoo sizzle hen, carrier of the Silkie gene, and a Red Partridge Silkie cock). I made determinations of sex based on beak and skin color at one day of age and as they've matured I've found accuracy to be 100%. I was unable to sex by the color of the down on the head, like I had expected to; it was all rather muddled gray and the crest tended to distort the spot to the point where it was hard to distinguish. However, their beaks were my saving grace; thank the Barring gene for its tendency to lighten skin. All of the females showed a pure black beak; males had a light gray and white one. Males also had lighter skin. Here they are now, at approximately 12 weeks of age. (Or thereabouts. My hatching records have disappeared into my desk drawers... somewhere).

Cockerels:

Pullets:

Wow, great job! Keep us updated on them.

 

[Rhapsody1]

I'm no silky expert, but I do know...#2 pic is adorable!!
Do they stay in the doghouses in the pic? We have 1 silky and 1 sizzle, I put them in a tiny little house/w run from the farm store, then I find out they like to stay at ground level...so I was curious about the housing.

No, they stay in the coop and pen, but I let them out every night for awhile when I can watch them. The dog house is actually for our goats. He is really cute and finding his maleness, starting to flirt with the girls. The big girls are beating him down!

 

[Zgm12]

I'm concerned with one of my young silkies. She breathes with her mouth open and closes it with each breath. Her mouth is barely you open when she does this. She has no other signs of illness and none of the other chickens she's with have this problem. It's been going on for quite a while. I tried some VetRX but that didn't do anything. Could it be genetic?

 

[lovechicks1293]

I'm concerned with one of my young silkies. She breathes with her mouth open and closes it with each breath. Her mouth is barely you open when she does this. She has no other signs of illness and none of the other chickens she's with have this problem. It's been going on for quite a while. I tried some VetRX but that didn't do anything. Could it be genetic?

it may be because she is hot. sometimes they breath through their mouths when the heat can become unbearable.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I'm concerned with one of my young silkies. She breathes with her mouth open and closes it with each breath. Her mouth is barely you open when she does this. She has no other signs of illness and none of the other chickens she's with have this problem. It's been going on for quite a while. I tried some VetRX but that didn't do anything. Could it be genetic?

Check she has clogged her nostrils with feed. Occasionally if they are eating mash I will need to use a toothpick to clear them.