Silkie thread!

[Scifisarah]

Anyone from this silkie thread going to be at the Michigan Fall Fowl Fest October 13-14? http://www.fowlfest.org/ I am hoping to find a silkie or two to add to my flock.

 

[chickendales]

Anyone from this silkie thread going to be at the Michigan Fall Fowl Fest October 13-14? http://www.fowlfest.org/ I am hoping to find a silkie or two to add to my flock.

i well be there there usually silkies for sale there

 

[Suzierd]

So I was in the other room bathing one of my silkies, and I had my splash in the livingroom. I walked back into teh livingroom and my dog looked to have been licking her, or trying to play with her (she likes to put her mouth on thing's necks), she looked fine so I took a picture of the slobber covered pullet and went back to bathing my other one. Well while she was back in her cage I saw her panting and laying low, I thought she may be ready to lay an egg, she hasn't started yet, but then I realized a small spot of blood on the back of her neck. I thought maybe my dog accidentally scratched her thin skin so I wet her down and checked her over. Nothing. If my dog accidentally plucked a feather would there be a little blood? She looks fine now, though a little wet. Do they get noisy when they are going to lay soon? she will occasionally start a squawking fit, of like "bok bok bok bokawk!" over and over. she is 9, maybe 10 months now.

oh, and here is the slobbery chicken

The dog scared the heck out of her. I would deffently not let the dog do that he broke the skin and things would have been much worse had you not been there.

 

[chickendales]

my dogs would ate it

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: In my case, I bought paint eggs (again). Seven of the paint eggs hatched. Out of them I have three paint chicks, two of which are lightly marked and four blue chicks.

I believe you have to have a paint parent in order to get paint eggs. And paints don't breed true, so it's the proverbial Forrest Gump box of chocolates, "you never know what you're going to get"!

I ended up with 14 silkie babies in this hatch, not as many as I hoped, but good for me with shipped eggs. I'll post pictures later today. I've been up to my eyeballs with tasks all week. I'm remodeling my kitchen and the contractor will be here on Thursday to demolish the existing cabinets

And yesterday I was busy all day watching chicks hatch

Deb

 

[Scifisarah]

I seem to have lots of random chicken questions today... Can anyone tell me about how long it takes for a silkie's "head pouf" to finish growing in initially? My 3 gals turned 4 months old yesterday and their heads are still a mass of feather tubies. Just wondering how much longer I have to wait for them to be in their full glory.

 

[Sanna]

As an example, say you start with a blue pullet.

She can get first place in her class (blue ribbon). Then they judge the blue cocks, hens & cockerels, they could each get first place in their classes. They then judge those four first place birds against each other for Best of Variety (BV). They then pick Reserve of Variety (RV).

That procedure is repeated for each color (variety) of silkie entered in the show.

Then they take all the BV's and they compete for the best silkie (Best of Breed or BB) and Reserve of Breed or Best Opposite Sex of Breed (some shows do one or the other).

Then the BB silkie would compete against all the other feather legged bantams (cochin, brahma, etc) for Best Feather Legged Bantam. That bird would compete again all the other best category bantams (SCCL, RCCL, Game, etc) for Best Small Fowl.

A similar thing would happen in Large Fowl (American, Continental, etc). Those two birds would compete against the Best Turkey and Waterfowl (goose, duck) for Best in Show.

It all works similar to a dog show if you are familiar with them.

See, lots of blue ribbons available!

And this doesn't even count youth shows which may judge Danish system.

Deb

Ok, now that makes perfect sense.

I don't remember seeing any other blue pullets at the fair, so she got lucky. lol There was a second grey rooster though, that definitely had more "fluff" than my rooster. I guess sir Curly had to have some better qualities about him to get 1st.

I wish I would have had more time to inspect the silkies... I didn't have enough hours in the day to do everything.

Thank you debs_flock!

Had to share this sweet moment.

My splash girl has been on hatching duty and did a wonderful job. This is her baby, a LF blue langshan. Gotta love them silkies!!

Beautiful picture! Love the colors.

 

[Suzierd]

Nobody's tried Fermented Feed huh? Well I've been hearing a lot of good things about it and thought I'd give it a try. Started a patch last night. Here's the thread if anyone is interested.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds

 

[chickendales]

I seem to have lots of random chicken questions today... Can anyone tell me about how long it takes for a silkie's "head pouf" to finish growing in initially? My 3 gals turned 4 months old yesterday and their heads are still a mass of feather tubies. Just wondering how much longer I have to wait for them to be in their full glory.

6 to 10 months

 

[peepblessed]

Thank you two for the compliments. I have a couple chicks with that coloring. I'm curious how they will look as they grow up...but oh yeah, I'm not supposed to keep them...I already picked the 3 I'm keeping...but...

Most of my dark blues are marked like this at hatch.