Silkie thread!

[Hawkeye95]

some of my silkies are in my laying flock and they do just fine some of my birds do pick on eachother but not often.

what kind of layers do you all have that get along with silkies?? I'm sick of the Wyandottes in particular, they are just down right mean to everyone except themselves and the rocks. The rocks are a little better, but not by a whole lot. I've contemplated getting rid of these and getting a layer that is more gentle with other breeds, especially with cresteds, because I don't want to separate out my Polish. I have far more Polish than layers. BUT-- I like the color of the brown eggs, so I still want brown egg layers... I read how everyone else has layers that get along with their birds and that is not happening here... at ALL. Sigh.

 

[Sanna]

Nah, that's why I asked if you were using a broody-- the egg should be fine. In an incubator, those eggs dry out FAST. But for some reason, under a broody, they do better and taking a quick peek probably wouldn't do anything... I've done it. BUT-- I must say, I did it on accident, because I was checking to see if the egg was still alive and I picked it up just like that, with a pip in it. I would never do that on purpose! LOL!!! Go check on them!!! And don't forget your camera!!!!!

ETA-- however, when I did it, I did go rub the egg down with a warm wet paper towel because I was so worried I messed it up. But it hatched fine.

That's good to know! I was like "Omg, I killed all the chicks!" because I had picked up several eggs and had been listening for pips and stuff.

I feel better now. lol There really is a ton of stuff you need to know about hatching chicks. It's amazing.

Well, there are 3 little chickies now! All splash so far.

I'll post more pictures later tonight after my work day is over.
I'm so excited! I wanted a splash and now I have 3 and more eggs left to hatch!

 

[sager:)silkies]

what kind of layers do you all have that get along with silkies?? I'm sick of the Wyandottes in particular, they are just down right mean to everyone except themselves and the rocks. The rocks are a little better, but not by a whole lot. I've contemplated getting rid of these and getting a layer that is more gentle with other breeds, especially with cresteds, because I don't want to separate out my Polish. I have far more Polish than layers. BUT-- I like the color of the brown eggs, so I still want brown egg layers... I read how everyone else has layers that get along with their birds and that is not happening here... at ALL. Sigh.

i have wyandottes,RiR,polish,houdans,cochins,firzzles just a bunch of cool birds in my layer flock its basically my moms pet flock

 

[aoxa]

what kind of layers do you all have that get along with silkies?? I'm sick of the Wyandottes in particular, they are just down right mean to everyone except themselves and the rocks. The rocks are a little better, but not by a whole lot. I've contemplated getting rid of these and getting a layer that is more gentle with other breeds, especially with cresteds, because I don't want to separate out my Polish. I have far more Polish than layers. BUT-- I like the color of the brown eggs, so I still want brown egg layers... I read how everyone else has layers that get along with their birds and that is not happening here... at ALL. Sigh.

:O My wyandotte hen LOVES the silkies. She hurt her leg/hip (getting better now) and stays with the silkies in their pen at all times. She LOVES the babies, and is such a good auntie!

Best friend Pearl. I have more pictures of her I took last night with the baby silkies, but I have yet to load them to PB.

 

[aoxa]

i have wyandottes,RiR,polish,houdans,cochins,firzzles just a bunch of cool birds in my layer flock its basically my moms pet flock

I have all those as well My houdans are quite ballsy

 

[Hawkeye95]

:O My wyandotte hen LOVES the silkies. She hurt her leg/hip (getting better now) and stays with the silkies in their pen at all times. She LOVES the babies, and is such a good auntie!

Best friend Pearl.
I have more pictures of her I took last night with the baby silkies, but I have yet to load them to PB.

LOL I have to laugh, because this would play out very differently-- think of a hatchet wielding Wyandotte chasing down the poor little silkie and plucking out feathers as the silkie runs and screams! But now that everyone is wearing Pinless Peepers, they actually do much better than before. Although, I could not show any of my Polish this year because the layers had pulled out the tails on my Polish. They are running around with maybe one or two feathers sticking out of their tails. VERY frustrating. We had one really excellent show potential in our Polish and she was just beaten down and we couldn't bring her. I want to set up a conditioning pen for my Polish too.

 

[elieugene6]

Quote: No, there are no LF silkies in the US. If you have one, it's an accident or a breeder's cull. I have just recently been judged very harshly on showing a cockerel that was too heavy! They are not accepted here and I would avoid breeding them at all. Since I found out about my boy-- which is very typey and good looking--- I'm not going to use him to breed anymore. I'm crossing my fingers his offspring don't grow too large, either. And I think a couple of his offspring are actually growing too big. So I will be getting rid of them. If your only concern is putting other smaller silkies in with a larger silkie-- I wouldn't think that would be a problem at all. They all usually get along pretty well.

Ok thank you. I actually don't know their history. Possibly hatchery birds. Their owner passed away and the family didn't want the birds because of the reminder. They are going through a lot right now so I didn't want to bother them with questions. I prefer my small silkies but I might just incubate eggs so I can have some large white cute egg layers. I like docile birds so no leghorns in my coop. On the plus side maybe they will do good as a local meat bird. We have a good size Asian population. Gotta keep the pair I have though. So might as well make the best.

 

[aoxa]

LOL I have to laugh, because this would play out very differently-- think of a hatchet wielding Wyandotte chasing down the poor little silkie and plucking out feathers as the silkie runs and screams! But now that everyone is wearing Pinless Peepers, they actually do much better than before. Although, I could not show any of my Polish this year because the layers had pulled out the tails on my Polish. They are running around with maybe one or two feathers sticking out of their tails. VERY frustrating. We had one really excellent show potential in our Polish and she was just beaten down and we couldn't bring her. I want to set up a conditioning pen for my Polish too.

Maybe you got some bad wyandottes and barred rocks? That would be awful. I'd get rid of those birds if they were that aggressive. I keep a lot of fancy breeds in with regular utility birds. IE: RSL are in with the silkies. They are still young, but my grown RSL hen is with the silkies, as well as a BR & a SLW. I had this chick with spraddle leg and all the bigger breeds were stepping all over it. Poor thing didn't make it. Next time I will definitely put some non-slip shelf liner in the incubator. They seemed to really struggle on the wire, but paper towel was drying out too fast and causing low humidity.. I won't start another lockdown without the liner. Oh and my turkeys are in love with my silkies. They fly over their enclosure to get in and hang with them. It's cute

 

[kahlua]

I just wanted to share...I brought home a 4 black silkies over the weekend. Well 3 silkies and a SG...I am in love, they are so sweet and fluffy!!
Any gender guesses?
The last 2 are about 12 weeks, I think. The first two are older, but I'm not sure exactly how old. Not old enough to have started laying or crowing...LOL




The SG has some gold leakage but carries lavender.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

what kind of layers do you all have that get along with silkies?? I'm sick of the Wyandottes in particular, they are just down right mean to everyone except themselves and the rocks. The rocks are a little better, but not by a whole lot. I've contemplated getting rid of these and getting a layer that is more gentle with other breeds, especially with cresteds, because I don't want to separate out my Polish. I have far more Polish than layers. BUT-- I like the color of the brown eggs, so I still want brown egg layers... I read how everyone else has layers that get along with their birds and that is not happening here... at ALL. Sigh.

This is only our second year with chickens. My daughter did the pullet chain with 4-H last year and loved it. This year we decided to try a hatch and had about a 30% hatch which I thought was good for our first. In the hatch we had Salmon Favorelles, Mottled Houdans, Araucanas and Silkies. Unfortunatly, of our three silkies that hatched, only our one boy survived. We haven't had any problems with them being together.

I didn't know that crested birds have a bad time with regular birds until after we did our merge between the chicks and our year olds. Our girls beat the snot out of one of our Houdans in the first week and I was very concerned that it wasn't going to work but that has been our only incident. They all run together now and except for the "I'm higher than you" peck on occasion, our sex-links are fine with the others. Our Houdans, however, spook when they walk up on a couple of the reds that tend to be higher on the pecking order and will fly staight up in the air with no provication. Our silkie is just too fast. If he thinks a peck is headed his way, he bolts.