Silkie thread!

[Sanna]

So, my Catdance chicks are two months old now. I know for a fact one of the splashes is a rooster. No doubt about it! Everything about him says boy. I'll be shocked if he turns out to be a girl. lol
Rest of them, I'm not so sure yet. I'd like to think most of them are hens. They're just so round. lol But I know two months is early.


Two of the chicks, actually both of my splashes, are developing that purplish mulberry color in the area where the wattles will be. Rest of the chicks, the wattle area is very very small, dark in color and covered mostly with feathers. How good of an indicator is this at 8 weeks old on the gender?


I'll have to get new pictures soon.

 

[TheRookie]

Sorry to interupt all the serious conversations, but I just had to share today's "attempt" haha. Hunny-Bunny was such a patient girl, I can't believe she just sat there and let me put this on her, but then I am still getting used to silkies and their docile temperments. My bantam cochins would have been squawking and flapping their wings in my face if I tried to pull this on them. The fit around her wings is off and they keep slipping through so if I ever decide to make another, I'll have to make some adjustments there. Her feet are wet from the rain or else she would be quite poofy. If I can figure out how to make them comfortable and fit to stay on, I am so making some for my two other silkie gals!

If you do get the fit right, will you be selling them? I have a special needs Silkie who would look so adorable in a sweater!

 

[littlecritters]

Sorry to interupt all the serious conversations, but I just had to share today's "attempt" haha. Hunny-Bunny was such a patient girl, I can't believe she just sat there and let me put this on her, but then I am still getting used to silkies and their docile temperments. My bantam cochins would have been squawking and flapping their wings in my face if I tried to pull this on them. The fit around her wings is off and they keep slipping through so if I ever decide to make another, I'll have to make some adjustments there. Her feet are wet from the rain or else she would be quite poofy. If I can figure out how to make them comfortable and fit to stay on, I am so making some for my two other silkie gals! 

My goodness, just too cute! Perfect for the southern birds coming up north for shows!

 

[Scifisarah]

If you do get the fit right, will you be selling them? I have a special needs Silkie who would look so adorable in a sweater!

I may, but right now I am so many human baby pants I need to finish, it will probably be a while before I'm able to make a pattern I am happy with. I'll certainly make an announcement here if I start selling silkie sweaters.

 

[ChicksNherps]

I mix mine 1/8 teaspoon a gallon and fine mist above her head three times a day she was fine in about three days. The finer mist the better for them to breath. Are you having bubbly eyes or runny snoty nose? May be something worse if that's the case.
Here's some good threads
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/chicken-fungal-infections
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-poultry-often-mistaken-for-crd-mycoplasmosis

no just a cough/sneeze/wheeze. Already tried antibiotics. I just mixed a solution of 2 1/2 teaspoons to 1 cup water for the nebulizer. https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/chicken-fungal-infections

 

[peepblessed]

A new photo shoot today - they are two weeks old.

Such great photos!!

So, my Catdance chicks are two months old now. I know for a fact one of the splashes is a rooster. No doubt about it! Everything about him says boy. I'll be shocked if he turns out to be a girl. lol Rest of them, I'm not so sure yet. I'd like to think most of them are hens. They're just so round. lol But I know two months is early. Two of the chicks, actually both of my splashes, are developing that purplish mulberry color in the area where the wattles will be. Rest of the chicks, the wattle area is very very small, dark in color and covered mostly with feathers. How good of an indicator is this at 8 weeks old on the gender? I'll have to get new pictures soon.

If I see anything resembling red at two months I am suspicious of boy. My BBS Catdance were very difficult to sex. The lavenders were early crowers. I was sure the girl in my avatar was a boy till nearly 4 months. She looked like she had streamers.

 

[LavendarFeather]

I hatched some Catdance Silkies last weekend, and to my embarrassment I let some I was trying to keep separated get mixed together.

I wanted them separate because I had some from her lavender pens, some from her paint pens. So I figure the darker chicks from the lav pens are splits, would that be right? Not sure what the non-paints from the paint pens would be. Can anyone tell me what colors these chicks might be, and what genes they might carry that it would be helpful to be aware of? To make matters worse, there were also a few b/bl/spl silkie eggs from another source :-( Also quality birds, but makes it harder to ID everybody. I can post pictures, but wanted to check first if there were any specific things I should be aware of... for instance, I did get two paint chicks. If I later wanted to breed one, should it be to another paint, or a different color chick from that same group, or something else altogether? Thanks for any information you can share. I did email Karen, so I'm sure I'll hear from her too, but I know there are things I can learn from the Silkie people on this thread. Thanks in advance!

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: I thought it was 6oz per gallon when treating a problem and 7 drops in a gallon of drinking water. I will have to check too.

 

[LaPetiteFarmer]

I've had a hard time with hobbles on silkies. Their legs are so tiny and short compared to other breeds.. I have one right now with splayed leg, but it's not as bad as my first. The first chick I had with it (silkie) it was really bad, and she rested on her hocks on top of being splayed. She couldn't move enough to get to food and water even without the hobbles, and she died overnight

The one I have right now is eating and drinking fine, but is not active like the rest. I wish I had better advice to give! I did have a really successful time with hobbles on an EE chick. He is 4 weeks old now and legs are awesome, but he developed cross beak as well. It's a male by the looks of it, so he will either have to be used for meat - or given away to someone wanting a pet for free.
We call him Edward Scissor Beak.

Hobbles

a week later. You can see his beak starting to slip out of line. It's really noticeable now.

I tried my best but I soon as it walked the band fell... arg
At the end I had to leave it alone because I feel I am making its leg worse. I really don't think it's gonna make it. It seems it getting weaker which make me sad and mad. I went to the feed store to see if they had anything for it but the guy told me there was nothing to do and it was better to kill it...

and he said the most humanly to do it was to put it in the freezer

. That is just terrible and awful to do. I will never do that. Now I am wondering (for future when I will have chicks that are suffering) how do you guys (especially breeder) cull a cute little chick? One day, I really would love to start breeding and unfortunately sometimes chicks are not able to continue their journey, but I don't know what I will have to do in those circumstances.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: I just went back to the article at www.shagbarkbantams.com and read that for nebulizing or fogging use 6.5 oz in a gallon of water. Hope this helps. I have used it with success before, but it has been awhile so I couldn't remember what the solution should be.