Silkie thread!

[tilosi]

I have one of those masked Silkies! Here she is at eight weeks:

Wow!! How unique!!

Some pics of mine from today.

Pretty white roo!!

 

[peepblessed]

I was thinking that was a possibility. I have no idea if ours are vaulted or not. They were 3 days old when they got here. Plus I did not know to look for it. They are 5 1/2 weeks now. One of my smaller OE bantams went crazy on the Silkies last week. Started grabbing feathers and pulling them out of all 3 Silkies. I think it was a disturbance in the pecking order, lol. At least it is back to normal now. But this little hen was really mean all of the sudden and grabbing any white fluffy bird. And she was pulling out their crest feathers. So that why I was asking about health issues. Not to mention when you are petting their head, you are actually petting their brains. Hope the crests give them some protection.

I think you said you had hatchery chicks? They are rarely vaulted. Crests do offer some protection for sure.

 

[peepblessed]

We got some cuties!

We have more, but can't catch them all just yet.

Beautiful chicks!!!

 

[peepblessed]

I have one of those masked Silkies! Here she is at eight weeks:

What a great photo of an adorable chick!!

 

[peepblessed]

Some pics of mine from today.

Love that beautiful white fluff in the grass!! Looks so cool.

 

[Abstrax]

Here are some new pics of Sunny from today.

For anyone who may be interested he is available.

 

[SunnySkies]

We got 2cuckoo and 6 blues. Local breeder Two have that poofy looking head. Is that the vaulted skull I have read about? It's covered with fuzz. Only one seems to have that mask. Le sigh. It's so pretty.

They all seem to have the correct number of toes. When do I need to check for split wing? I'll watch for correct coloration on comb and wattles when that appears. Any other things I should watch for?

I'm not sure we will do a lot of showing, other than 4-H, but I prefer my critters to meet breed standards, even if they never leave my place.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Just to add to the great info from Hawkeye, I go a lot by personality. My girls start getting less active than my boys at around 10 wks. The boys stay very active. But some times you get a quiet boy or a busy girl.

X2... this is why I think two of my chicks are boys, and yet show no sign of comb growth. It's just that gut feeling.

Thank you... I am on day five... maybe I will turn the turner on tonight... I did alot of research on hatching with detached air cells and the general opinion was 7 days with no turner... I let them sit for 12 hours but they were in our mailbox

for another 12 before that... then they were only handled to unwrap and candle... I am not getting my hopes up too high

Have you candled? It's best not to touch them until after day 5 especially with detached air cells. But I'd go ahead and put the turner on and give them a chance. Those first few days are very crucial. That is pretty awful that they sat outside in the heat for so long. Wow, the PO can really mess things up. So sorry about that. It doesn't sound good, but you never know! You could be surprised. If any do make it, be sure to keep a good eye on how the air cells are growing --it's going to be even more important that you have your humidity low to begin with so they have plenty of air. I had some air cells develop down the side of my eggs even though they were upright because shipped eggs just do all kinds of odd things.

Those are some cute chicks, so tiny. Thanks for the information. It sounds like both the vaulted and non-vaulted skull is acceptable in a well breed chick, and both are acceptable for the standard. Is that right? Are there any health issues with the vaulted skull? I have 3 white Silkies now from a hatchery and now that I learned alot about them, would like to get some that can improve our flock. One of ours is very small (and cute) and the other 2 are tall. They are all filling out nice. But we have 2 different combs, one narrow and 2 wide. Plus one has 4 toes on one foot. So when I look to get more, I will know what is acceptable and what is not for breeding. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again.

Yes, vaulted and non vaulted are just fine in well bred birds and both are acceptable. Health wise, they are fine, just have to take care they are not being picked on by other birds. Your combs and feet are very important- one of the first things you can see on the bird.

I was thinking that was a possibility. I have no idea if ours are vaulted or not. They were 3 days old when they got here. Plus I did not know to look for it. They are 5 1/2 weeks now. One of my smaller OE bantams went crazy on the Silkies last week. Started grabbing feathers and pulling them out of all 3 Silkies. I think it was a disturbance in the pecking order, lol. At least it is back to normal now. But this little hen was really mean all of the sudden and grabbing any white fluffy bird. And she was pulling out their crest feathers. So that why I was asking about health issues. Not to mention when you are petting their head, you are actually petting their brains. Hope the crests give them some protection.

I started out with hatchery silkies-- I just got rid of the last of them a couple weeks ago. None of them had vaulted skulls, so it's unlikely that yours have them. They are cute and sweet, but didn't fit into my breeding program, so I'm not saying get rid of them! I didn't have the room for birds I'm not going to use. And yes, it's best not to pet them on the head (if they are vaulted). It's just a good idea to be very careful with their heads.

I have one of those masked Silkies! Here she is at eight weeks:

WOW!! Gorgeous!!! I love that mask!

 

[Hawkeye95]

We got 2cuckoo and 6 blues. Local breeder Two have that poofy looking head. Is that the vaulted skull I have read about? It's covered with fuzz. Only one seems to have that mask. Le sigh. It's so pretty.
They all seem to have the correct number of toes. When do I need to check for split wing? I'll watch for correct coloration on comb and wattles when that appears. Any other things I should watch for?
I'm not sure we will do a lot of showing, other than 4-H, but I prefer my critters to meet breed standards, even if they never leave my place.

Once they fluff out, it can be difficult to determine if they have a vaulted skull or not. But sometimes you can tell if it's a pretty significant one. Post picture of them if you are unsure. Close up of the head. You can start looking for split wing around 3 months, but I've really been learning more about this lately. Wings are not fully mature until they are a year old. You could have pin feathers coming in that will fill in the split. I've been reading that birds around the age of 8 months can change once they get just a couple of months older. I'm guessing that is NOT the norm, though. My bet is that if you are still seeing a split by 8 months, they are indeed split. And I start looking for split wings in my 3 months old, but it doesn't mean I'm getting too upset about it right now-- that's awfully young to be sure about it. Other things to look for-- I was judged harshly at my last show a few days ago because one of my roosters was too heavy. I didn't think about the weight of the bird! But you must fall into all ranges to do well. I had a nice chat with the judge after the show and he gave me some great pointers on my breeding program. He was very helpful. I need smaller boys. So right when you think you have the perfect bird--- you discover you just ran into a new set of problems. LOL!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Okay, I said I'd post a picture of a couple of my chicks... I'm not sure I have the best pictures and I'll have to get a couple more. One is very obvious. The splash chick is right about 3 months. The comb path is getting wider than the line of the beak-- I'm not sure if it's very clear on this picture, but I can see it. Also, there is quite a bit of a bump starting to grow there. At this point, it seems to me (and my birds) this is a lot of growth for a chick so young. I'm guessing this is a little boy.

(BELOW This one is going to be much harder to tell. This is the same age of chick as the one above. This one has a flat comb right now, and is looking like a girl comb wise. This one could really go either way, because I have some that really look like girls and this one isn't fitting into that "look". So could be a slow maturing boy. Honestly, at this point, it's waaaaay too early to be guessing! But I do enjoy taking pictures of them so I can go back and study them later and say yeah-- I was right it was a boy, or vice versa. These guys are into the awkward stage- where they look more like punk rockers than having the nicely rounded crests they will get later. But it goes fast-- these birds are developing nice round crests right about 4 months of age and start filling in from there. (I should qualify MY birds do... depending on what lines you are working with, will determine how fast they mature)