Silkie thread!

[kellyloveschad]

Thought I should do a update on Blue!!! He has mad almost a full recovery and sadly since he is show quality I decided to rehome my black rooster because they just couldn't resolve their difference's!! Now Blue is the only rooster in the neighborhood!!!

 

[Hinotori]

Thought I should do a update on Blue!!! He has mad almost a full recovery and sadly since he is show quality I decided to rehome my black rooster because they just couldn't resolve their difference's!! Now Blue is the only rooster in the neighborhood!!!

The feathers should all eventually grow back. It just may take until his next molt.

Sometimes the guys just get some awfully big chips on their shoulders. Combs bleed bad and make it look even worse still

 

[kellyloveschad]

The feathers should all eventually grow back. It just may take until his next molt.

Sometimes the guys just get some awfully big chips on their shoulders. Combs bleed bad and make it look even worse still

I thought when it happened his brains where coming out!! but one rooster is enough for me I cant take braking up all the fights!! I think he is molting now he looks like a old man with plugs!!

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:

The only roosters I have that get along are either in a bachelor pen or in the pen with the large fowl girls. There's only three boys there now and two of them work together to try and hold down a hen sometimes.

 

[Cerise1924]

Well, at five months old, my handsome blue Silkie cockerel began to crow. Loudly! So, I rehomed him and his best girl, a pretty splash pullet, that same day. That afternoon, I noticed that my white Silkie, Cottonball, was starting to squat.

(Here she is with her muddy cropped crest. I missed seeing her eyes, so I gave her a cut and some gel.)


A couple days after that, I found she had laid two eggs in the nest box!

I guess there's a slim chance the eggs may be fertile, so I have put those two in the incubator, and I am letting her keep all the rest of this week's eggs, if she wants to. I'm really surprised what good eggs she is laying at five months - strong shelled, even in size, nice and smooth. She wasn't even on layer food yet, but I've made sure she is, now.

 

[kellyloveschad]

I have 9 large chickens 10 if you count north she doesn't talk to silkies she in her mind is a large chickens! So now I have 18 chickens and one rooster!

The only roosters I have that get along are either in a bachelor pen or in the pen with the large fowl girls. There's only three boys there now and two of them work together to try and hold down a hen sometimes. 

 

[QueenMisha]

SOP question: I'm currently choosing between two cockerels for breeding my Cuckoo line. I plan on keeping both to maturity to make an informed choice, but nonetheless would like to start determining their good/bad characteristics as soon as I can. Could anyone post pictures of a good quality cock's head? One of them so far seems to have a body I like better - he's nice and broad in shoulder and saddle, though perhaps a little too long in back. Very sturdy and well fleshed with a good frame. However his head appears (to me, anyhow) not that great. Wattles and earlobes are overlarge, beard is too small and flat, comb isn't awful but has an ugly depression running down one side of it. Overall it has a "coarse" look to it. Also, I think his saddle is not necessarily as full as it ought to be - forms a bit of a sharp angle with the tail, which I know it should not. The other male, however, has a significantly better head - very small, almost completely hidden wattles, a pretty good comb, better sized and much more turquoise earlobes. It just looks better, overall. However, he is a bit less broad in saddle. His tail is a little lower. His skin is darker, too, by a couple shades, which I know is more difficult to achieve with Cuckoos.

Also... I know the standard calls for "fully feathered outer and middle toes"... but what about the insides of the shank and the inner/back toes? I'm seeing lots of stubs and fluff on these parts of the feet, especially the back two toes. Is this a defect?

 

[Sylvester017]

Filing Silkie or dog nails -- a Dremel tool is nice to use. I had a kit left over from my miniature model painting and the electric Dremel with it's assorted tips came in handy when we had to smooth down clipped nails. Silkies are somewhat calm and get accustomed to electric appliances like nail groomers, hair dryers, fans, etc. But ours still don't like the sound of our house vacuum turning on!

 

[Sylvester017]

Thought I should do a update on Blue!!! He has mad almost a full recovery and sadly since he is show quality I decided to rehome my black rooster because they just couldn't resolve their difference's!! Now Blue is the only rooster in the neighborhood!!!

Poor baby! You'd never think Silkies can get into disagreements or recover from injuries but they do.

Here's a pic of what a Marans did to our Silkie 6 years ago -- chewed off her crest and comb completely (comb never grew back) and chewed off all her outer feathers except the under-down. We thought the Silkie was molting until we caught the culprit starting to pick on the other Silkie too -- we immediately re-homed the nasty Marans! I felt so guilty not picking up on the problem sooner.



The little sweetie grew back all the feathers



The comb unfortunately did not re-grow -- she only has a flat smooth bit of skin where a bumpy little comb used to be -- she's my faithful little garden/ yardwork companion

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks I do my dogs and cat so I just went with it I made one bleed a little but put baking soda on it like the vet said to do!!

I'm always learning and surprised there's always more to learn about chickens/ pets. I read that in trimming chicken toenails to do it gradually over a few days, that as the clipped nail starts to regrow, the vein actually recedes a little so that a little more can be clipped a couple days later. That's the way I chose to do it and it seems to work, at least for me. I have a styptic pencil for stopping bleeding just in case but so far in 6 years haven't needed it. I clean all the clippers and chicken toenails with Hyd. Peroxide beforehand. I have to laugh at myself for fussing over our 3 (almost soon-to-be 4) chickens while my farm Mom had over 50 chickens, ducks, and geese to tend daily besides a milking cow, goats, and sheep!