Silkie thread!

[mama23grlz1boy]

Silkies are a very broody breed for sure. While it is not hard to deal with their broodiness, it's definitely something you will encounter frequently when you own them. Mine typically brood 2-3 times a year each. If you don't want to deal with breaking broodies this often, then you might consider that a big deal. However, broodiness does not hurt them or the flock in any way, and can usually be dealt with within a week or two at the most using broody breaking methods.

I have a mixed flock of 2 EE's, 3 buff orpingtons and 1 cuckoo maran. I'll be adding a Lavender orpington or 2 at the same time as possible silkies. Will I NEED to build then their own house, or would they be ok in our existing house?

 

[QueenMisha]

I have a mixed flock of 2 EE's, 3 buff orpingtons and 1 cuckoo maran. I'll be adding a Lavender orpington or 2 at the same time as possible silkies. Will I NEED to build then their own house, or would they be ok in our existing house?

I would strongly recommend against housing them with your standards. Even mixing Silkies with certain other breeds of bantams can have adverse results. Silkies are fragile and frilly things and do best completely on their own, or at the most with other equally fragile and frilly things such as Seramas.

 

[Sylvester017]

One of my 3 silkies turned out to be a boy this morning when I caught him crowing

. He will now have to go to my friends farm(I live right on the city limits line). Should I send him with the other one people have guessed may be a roo or should I keep the non crowers here for now? The only reason I ask is because my older flock of hens is still aggresssive towards my silkies. I have to separate them at night and run out to keep the peace at times when they are free ranging. Will my one lone silkie hen be ok by herself without the other 2? Makes me sad. Any suggestions would be welcome. Here is a pic of my chick in question-most have guessed roo.

Just me -- but if my Silkies were getting bullied I'd send them all off together if you can't keep the roo and he shouldn't be sent off alone -- I'd send off all 3 Silkies to the farm to be together. Dealing with Silkie roos is why I wait until they are 4 or 5 months old and definitely identifiable as boy or girl before I buy them or else get a DNA sexed female Silkie from Amber Waves Silkies but it is expensive to get DNA-sexed but worth it for me. I wouldn't keep one Silkie alone around large fowl. Some large fowl are docile but most dual purpose layer breeds are assertive breeds and will harass gentle Silkies that will not fight back. I found it out the hard way when I didn't heed advice to not mix Silkies with dual purpose breeds that are 2 to 3x heavier than Silkies and turn into bullies when they see the Silkies are not good at defending themselves. Some chickens can be so mean to each other. My DH loves his Silkies and we had to re-home all our nice egg layers because they did not play nice with the Silkies in our small backyard. We settled to keep an Ameraucana and docile Bredas around the Silkies who played "nice" with the bantams and those larger fowl gave us plenty of eggs even though they were not considered dual purpose -- they were lighter-weight and nice gentle temperaments compared to the more assertive heavier dual purpose breeds. JMHO.

 

[QueenMisha]

Just me -- but if my Silkies were getting bullied I'd send them all off together if you can't keep the roo and he shouldn't be sent off alone -- I'd send off all 3 Silkies to the farm to be together.  Dealing with Silkie roos is why I wait until they are 4 or 5 months old and definitely identifiable as boy or girl before I buy them or else get a DNA sexed female Silkie from Amber Waves Silkies but it is expensive to get DNA-sexed but worth it for me.  I wouldn't keep one Silkie alone around large fowl.  Some large fowl are docile but most dual purpose layer breeds are assertive breeds and will harass gentle Silkies that will not fight back.  I found it out the hard way when I didn't heed advice to not mix Silkies with dual purpose breeds that are 2 to 3x heavier than Silkies and turn into bullies when they see the Silkies are not good at defending themselves.  Some chickens can be so mean to each other.  My DH loves his Silkies and we had to re-home all our nice egg layers because they did not play nice with the Silkies in our small backyard.  We settled to keep an Ameraucana and docile Bredas around the Silkies who played "nice" with the bantams and those larger fowl gave us plenty of eggs even though they were not considered dual purpose -- they were lighter-weight and nice gentle temperaments compared to the more assertive heavier dual purpose breeds.  JMHO.

X2. Silkies mixed with large fowl is asking for trouble, a single Silkie in a flock of large fowl is begging for it.

 

[Sylvester017]

X2. Silkies mixed with large fowl is asking for trouble, a single Silkie in a flock of large fowl is begging for it.

We cycled through 14 chickens in 5 years to get this gentle group of 2 older Silkie hens, a docile 11/2 yr-old Blue Breda, and a non-combative 3-yr-old Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. This was such a perfect group for a year together and then BOOM we lost the Breda and Ameraucana 2 months in a row this summer!


The two Silkies have been toodling alone outdoors while we are growing out the new Cuckoo Breda to integrate with the Silkies when her wattles grow out a bit more -- Breda are a light-weight fowl and very slow maturing but an incredibly docile breed to mix with Silkies.


Because our humid climate was bad for the Ameraucana we won't be getting any more heavily under-downed chicken breeds and will get a lighter-weight Dominique to add to the flock next Spring. We had a Dom before and they are an outgoing curious unafraid pesty-friendly breed like the Breda and make good flockmates around Silkies. The following year after the Dom I hope to again add a different variety Breda -- they come in so many colors!

 

[QueenMisha]

We cycled through 14 chickens in 5 years to get this gentle group of 2 older Silkie hens, a docile 1[SUP]1/2[/SUP] yr-old Blue Breda, and a non-combative 3-yr-old Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. This was such a perfect group for a year together and then BOOM we lost the Breda and Ameraucana 2 months in a row this summer! The two Silkies have been toodling alone outdoors while we are growing out the new Cuckoo Breda to integrate with the Silkies when her wattles grow out a bit more -- Breda are a light-weight fowl and very slow maturing but an incredibly docile breed to mix with Silkies. Because our humid climate was bad for the Ameraucana we won't be getting any more heavily under-downed chicken breeds and will get a lighter-weight Dominique to add to the flock next Spring. We had a Dom before and they are an outgoing curious unafraid pesty-friendly breed like the Breda and make good flockmates around Silkies. The following year after the Dom I hope to again add a different variety Breda -- they come in so many colors!

That Breda is a gorgeous bird. Might I ask if you got her from a hatchery or a breeder? I've never properly looked into the breed before - I've heard of them, but I don't think I've ever seen one outside of photos, either. I have to think they're quite rare.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have a mixed flock of 2 EE's, 3 buff orpingtons and 1 cuckoo maran. I'll be adding a Lavender orpington or 2 at the same time as possible silkies. Will I NEED to build then their own house, or would they be ok in our existing house?

The 2 EEs with the Silkies might work since EEs can be a non-combative temperament but I found the Blue Wheaten Ameraucana our gentlest large fowl around Silkies. I also had a gentle Blue Ameraucana and a docile Blue Breda. Amer's seem to avoid conflict with flockmates and would rather flee than fight. Some EEs are that gentle too. Amer's will accept orphaned chicks or injured birds into the flock with no notice while other large fowl or dual purpose breeds are not as kind. Orps are sweet birds but very heavy compared to Silkies and when Orps go broody can be nasty tempered toward littles. Any gentle large fowl can be tempted to bully Silkies when they find out they can get away with it. My opinion from experience -- don't mix large fowl dual purpose breeds with gentle Silkies. Silkies can sometimes be cranky with each other but they don't stand a chance against a large fowl challenger who is 2 to 3x heavier!

 

[Kelxey]

My three silkie girls (around 6 m/o) laid their first egg today!! I knew they would start laying soon but didn't expect that they would all start on the same day <3 The eggs are pretty small but hopefully they will get bigger over time!

The third egg was cracked when a big gust of wind came and blew it onto the floor But we had it for dinner, its the one with the smaller yolk!






Apparently they had no idea what they were doing and basically walked around frantically until the egg popped out onto the ground while they were walking, haha. I hope they figure out that they need to sit and do it like the other hens. I love them but they are definitely not the smartest chooks on the block.

 

[Sylvester017]

That Breda is a gorgeous bird. Might I ask if you got her from a hatchery or a breeder? I've never properly looked into the breed before - I've heard of them, but I don't think I've ever seen one outside of photos, either. I have to think they're quite rare.

TY - Breda are very unique indeed! I've never seen the rare Breda offered in any hatchery inventory or feed store -- the hens are a lighter-weight bird about 4.5 to 5 lbs and have odd looks of no-comb, triangle tassle, cavernous nostrils, vulture hocks, and heavily-feathered feet. The feathered feet are not good for snow/muddy climates but we have feather-footed Silkies and they do well in our drier climate. My DH was fascinated with the beautiful BBS and Blue was our first Breda. She was a pleasant surprise being an excellent layer and gentle bird who doesn't go broody.

We got both our docile Blue and Cuckoo Bredas from RFR of CA. RFR has closed their BBS and Cuckoo varieties and only breed beautiful Mottled right now. I got their last Cuckoo pullet this summer. @chicken danz in KS has BBS Breda. RFR & chicken danz are the only two breeders I chose to deal with for Breda after a lot of research. I want a Mottled and another Blue in future since these birds are exhaustive layers of MED to LG eggs and as pesty-people-friendly a bird as one could want. Because of their prolific laying cycle (our Blue layed 4 to 6 eggs/week for 10+ consecutive months) I recommend a steady vitamin supplementation both in the feed and with Poly-Vi-Sol to keep up their nutrition. With our newest Breda we are giving her a mix of Turkey grow game feed 21%, organic layer pellets, organic Scratch & Peck layer 18%, Pollack fish flakes, some raw shelled sunflower seeds, fruit and produce, cooked organic brown rice with Brewers Yeast, Rooster Booster vitamin granules, trace selenium additive, mealworms, and when she gets close to POL some calcium carbonate with oyster shell. If she'll eat it we give cooked or canned meat/fish or boiled eggs. Our Blue Breda was such a laying machine we want to be sure the Cuckoo gets more than average supplementation in case she turns out just as prolific.

The Cuckoo pullet took over Mom's bench.


The Blue liked to take over the computer bench!

 

[Sylvester017]

Apparently they had no idea what they were doing and basically walked around frantically until the egg popped out onto the ground while they were walking, haha. I hope they figure out that they need to sit and do it like the other hens. I love them but they are definitely not the smartest chooks on the block.

Silkies are funny indeed -- Our Partridge Silkie always uses the nestbox but we have our littlest Black Silkie who can get creative about where she lays her eggs or drops them as she's walking!!! Other times the little Black Silkie will complain all morning long until she finally settles in a nestbox to lay an egg and then she complains more after the Partridge sits on the egg! Silkies love to steal other eggs to brood!