Silkie thread!

[kajira]

Joining thread, since i'm getting into breeding silkies!

 

[rockymountain]

New to silkies. Need help on a few questions on silkies. My only silkie surprised me with a wonderful beige egg,very light beige with light specks,

the other day. Was surprised she laid in the laying box as well. Well three days later nothing. Is this normal? My second question, concerns winter. I live in an area that is normal temp aver.30's high and 20's to teens at night, as well as some occasional temps below, around -5 for a few days. My only silkie of the bunch sleeps in the shavings, prefers not to roost, unless I pick her up every night and put her on the roost. Should I make her roost with the others or leave her a lone and snuggle in a corner in the shavings. Should I think of bringing her inside in a different location when night get below 0? Or should she be okay. She seems to love the rain also. When I check on the chickens she seems to be the only one out enjoying the run in the rain which the others prefer to be in the chicken pen and only come out for treats. Thanks just learning.

 

[ladyfaeden]

I had this cutie hatch from a egg labeled buff that I got from a breeder. I was wondering what color you all thought this is as I'm thinking the egg might have been mislabeled?

 

[kajira]

I had this cutie hatch from a egg labeled buff that I got from a breeder. I was wondering what color you all thought this is as I'm thinking the egg might have been mislabeled?

patridge, or buff. It looks buff to me, but I didn't get my buffs to hatch.

 

[CreamBruelle]

Looks like a buff blue mix. Buffs are ALL buff colored. I bred my buff roo to my blue Silkie hens and the chicks looked like that. I bought some Marans eggs off of someone and one of the chicks was all brown so the genes from another chicken must of gotten into it.

 

[PatiHF]

Frizzle, silkies, bantam or ???? I am totally confused about what I have and didn't realize all the types of Frizzles, sizzles and silkies.... oh my!!! These are all the result of trying to replace 3 chicks that died (I didn't want the solos to be alone, so....)
the larger one is maybe a week older than the other 2, They said she is a Frizzle, the other frizzle type is sort of multi colored, and the little dark one is a BLRW. Both she and the colored frizzle seem to be smaller... bantam perhaps? How long before they are old enough to be fully feathered so I can figure out what they really are?

 

[Britras]

[COLOR=333333]If I were to acquire another pullet or two for my young Partridge Cockerel, what colors are exceptable? Thanks![/COLOR]

It's best to just stick with partridge if you are breeding to sell otherwise colors get muddled up

 

[kajira]

Frizzle, silkies, bantam or ???? I am totally confused about what I have and didn't realize all the types of Frizzles, sizzles and silkies.... oh my!!! These are all the result of trying to replace 3 chicks that died (I didn't want the solos to be alone, so....)
the larger one is maybe a week older than the other 2, They said she is a Frizzle, the other frizzle type is sort of multi colored, and the little dark one is a BLRW. Both she and the colored frizzle seem to be smaller... bantam perhaps? How long before they are old enough to be fully feathered so I can figure out what they really are?

around 12 weeks, you'll get a pretty good idea.

between 6-12 weeks they go through a kind of ugly duckling phase.

 

[generaldsherman]

Got a solution for my bad eggs for Papa'sd Poultry. I placed an order with Ideal poultry for some silkies, along with a few bantam polish (needed packing peanuts for my silkies...) By the way, don't order hatching eggs from Pap's poultry. Got a 0% hatch rate in the same incubator that got me 5/9 guinea fowl keets.

 

[kajira]

Got a solution for my bad eggs for Papa'sd Poultry. I placed an order with Ideal poultry for some silkies, along with a few bantam polish (needed packing peanuts for my silkies...) By the way, don't order hatching eggs from Pap's poultry. Got a 0% hatch rate in the same incubator that got me 5/9 guinea fowl keets.

Do you know that you can't garauntee shipped eggs will hatch? It doesn't mean it's their fault. What the post office does with the box after they ship them could be the difference between a decent hatch rate, and a no hatch rate.

I average 30-50% on shipped eggs... and that's been because i've been lucky so far that the eggs have been packed REALLY well... but I still lose most of them. (And, this is me counting the ones that are viable at lock down and alive at lock down. Not the ones I start with in the incubator.)