Silkie thread!

[chikincrazee]

Hi Silkie Lovers my son won Champion Featherleg in the Jr show today at the central Illinois Poultry Show in Peoria....it was with a lovely white pullet he bought from Premier Silkies...thank you Connie for allowing us to buy such a beautiful girl from you....and he got RV with a white pullet from stock hatched from CJ exotics eggs that we bought here on BYC....he also had a RV with a buff hen in the Jrs...Premier won BB with a white girl and Seriously Silkies won RB with a buff hen in the open....it was a great show with a lot of outstanding stock...he is so happy with all his birds

 

[LeasureChix]

Quote:
I've actually had better luck hatching silkies than several breeds of LF and guineas. My first batch was 78% of the fertile eggs (I did pull some clears). This week has been my second batch. Not quite as good but I have a TON of chicks. Great assortment of colors. Haven't figured out the rate yet, I'm fighting a bad infection and haven't been out of bed much for the past 3 days.

I used egg cartons with 1 bator this time, hated it. A couple chicks couldn't make it out and died, even after zipping. Since I've had good luck the other way, I probably won't try that again. To each there own, you have to find what works best for you. I also keep my humidity pretty high, around 50% for the first 18 days, 60%+ for the final 3. This time I've had chicks hatch out from Wednesday evening through Saturday morning. I've never had chicks hatch out over that span of time before.... and that was even in the same bators.

Best of luck to you!

Julie

 

[LeasureChix]

Quote:
Congrats to your son, awesome success!

Julie

 

[Larkspur88]

So excited because my husband got me my first silkie today! He surprised me with it! What color is it? I can take better pics later with the heat lamp not glowing on it.

If it makes any difference it came from a breeder and not a hatchery. My husband drove a few miles away to her small farm. She breeds mainly silkies and has a few bantams and pheasants. My husband didn't ask any questions about it. He didn't think to. He just wanted to bring it to me and surprise me while I was in bed with a migraine. Isn't he AWESOME?

 

[pistol123]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh he is a sweetheart, I say white....

 

[Larkspur88]

Cool beans!

Wasn't sure it looks pretty white to me, but has a blush of gray on it, but so did my cochin chick and my cochin is white.

 

[laughingdog]

@tgrlily and all im trying to break into at least a pair of silkies as suppose i dont need a dozen even, or try for some pq, dq (or what not..), as not sure what constitutes what or how they rank silkies. so was just looking for culls, pet, test eggs (alot just say mix for fun or leave roos with other hens they arnt working with), or whatever to try to hatch some to get a pair at least to test how like personalities of both sexes (as so far love the dutch, cochin which didnt think id like at all for fuzzy feet and block bodies, and most off all oddly my rosecomb roo who keeps getting said i can keep then that just been able to borrow since december and have one chick with me that looks like him). why do the good quality silkies now have feathers or feather shafts/ quills even now? they always just were like freshly dried chicks in past, but now showing feathering especially on wings. also been searching for rosecomb (cause i love the heck outta this roo and curious if they all are like this and wha hens are like personality wise, and if i can just breed in rosecomb and how to do), thread with no luck, unless there just isnt one. also if just got a silkie roo, how hard would and how would i know if i bred silkie to some chicks? ive seen some birds around here who seem to be mixes, and only the whites seem to be pure and the downey fluff. has anyone bred their silkies to other birds and have any odd pics of them to post?

yeah, im a total newb... lol

 

[LittleChickenLady]

I know that Silkies are pretty hard to determine the sex while they're still chicks, but does anyone have some tips/tricks that are somewhat accurate?
They don't have to be proven to be right, but anything that you've tried/known people to try and it seems to work most of the time.
I'm planning on going to buy just one Silkie chick later today, and want to try to make sure I get a girl since it'll be in a bantam straight run bin.

 

[Teresaann24]

Quote:
With my own stock I use to notices those with vaulted skulls turn out to be girls but not always anymore people are starting to raise roo's with better quality top knots and I have been hatching both sex's with vaulted skulls.

Honestly there is no tricks...It's a guessing game sometimes till they lay or crow.

 

[LeasureChix]

I just learned a valuable lesson. I had 8 dozen silkie and sizzle eggs split between 3 incubators. They were due to hatch last Thursday. The first chick (a sizzle) hatched on Wednesday. The chicks continued to hatch until Saturday morning. I thought they were done. I had quite a few eggs that hadn't done anything but it was 2 days past their due date and I've been fighting a bad infection and wasn't quite right in the head. I shut off 2 of the bators. I left the third going as I had 2 chicks not doing well and I didn't have the heart to cull them yet so they were in the bator. Imagine my surprise this morning when 2 new chicks were there to greet me. And 2 other bators with very precious eggs had been shut off. This is only my second time hatching silkies. My LF and guineas all hatched within a day of each other, I've never experienced hatches taking several days. Three of my incubators are still air, the fourth has a fan. All have turners. The temp in the other 2 bators has gotten down to about 70 degrees so I imagine the eggs have died, even if they had still been alive. I'm so paranoid about not over heating the eggs that I probably kept my temp a little low this time.

Anyway, next time I will be even more careful with my temp and won't shut the bators off until a few extra days past the last chick.

On a more positive note, I now have 2 brooders full of gorgeous silkie chicks and I can't wait to watch them grow.

Julie