Silkie, what breed? What sex? Is he/she really 6weeks old?

[LynnaePB]

Can you believe was still up at 1:15am researching Silkies, lol x_o

The good news is, dustmop chick was in good spirits this morning and very active!

They don’t drink much water, I wonder if that’s normal?



Here are some better photos! I did my best for dust mop...
Her crest probably is very inacurrate since I chopped off a bunch of head feathers yesterday

I can definitely believe it! I've done the same many a night.

I'm so glad your little frizzle baby is feeling better. I'm sure she/he appreciated the haircut, sometimes they aren't very active because they can't see well.

I'm not sure how much water they should be drinking but as long as they are willingly drinking some I'd think they are probably alright.

I agree the little frizzle satin baby is going to be harder to sex. Crest shape and streamers aren't going to be obvious with that little cutie. I can't see the comb and they are still young to sex but just looking at the frizzle I'm leaning a bit more towards female. I don't know just something about her/him, it's definitely just a guess though.

I still think the little paint looks fairly pullet like despite being young.

 

[yakitori]

Is satin a type of silkie or could it be used to describe any kind of chicken?

Sorry if it’s a dumb question, still learning *hides*

In updates - Frizzle dust mop is apparently only active when she wants food. sigh. I really hope it’s because she’s used to being inactive and not due to any other underlying health issues.

atleast I’ve managed to slick up her crest into a better mohawk. She has a face now!

She’s also a big eater, I ended up taking the food away because I swear if she ate any more her crop would burst

 

[LynnaePB]

Is satin a type of silkie or could it be used to describe any kind of chicken?

Sorry if it’s a dumb question, still learning *hides*

In updates - Frizzle dust mop is apparently only active when she wants food. sigh. I really hope it’s because she’s used to being inactive and not due to any other underlying health issues.

atleast I’ve managed to slick up her crest into a better mohawk. She has a face now!

She’s also a big eater, I ended up taking the food away because I swear if she ate any more her crop would burst

Aww well I'm glad the little frizzle has a good appetite! I hope she is just a laid back girl and otherwise healthy. Maybe once she gets used to the fact that she can see better her behavior will change.

Anway to address your question satin is the proposed breed name for a bird that is bred to the silkie standard but has non silkied feathers. They can come in smooth and frizzle. It is not a recognized breed at this point though.

Because they are bred to the exact same standard other than feather type many breeders have their satins and their silkies mixed together. The offspring with silkie feathers are considered silkies and the offspring with non silkie feathers are considered satins. Both silkies and satins can have frizzled feathers if the frizzle gene is bred in (which it often is). Some breeders consider the non silkied feathered offspring to also be silkies but that is kind of a debated topic.

I don't personally have any satins so I haven't done a huge amount of research into it but from what I have researched that is the gist of it.

In projects where the birds are now over 15 generations in (where each time the satin was bred back to a silkie) there is very very little of their cochin ancestry left. Less than .2% cochin with the other 99.8% or more being silkie. I wouldn't even consider it mixed in lines that far along myself. A lot of birds were mixed with other breeds long ago to get new colors, I'm not sure at what generation they are considered to no longer really be mixes.

 

[yakitori]

Anway to address your question satin is the proposed breed name for a bird that is bred to the silkie standard but has non silkied feathers. They can come in smooth and frizzle. It is not a recognized breed at this point though.

Wow, that takes dedication, 1 generation takes what? half a year? and then there's winter... I really hope they do become a standard, because these two have been amazing. It really makes me wonder whether all silkies so tame? I was originally worried that getting them at 6 weeks rather than as day olds would make them skittish birds, but these two are happy to just sit in my lap and nap. my other chickens would let me hold them, but they definitely don't care for it, and I got them at about 3 days old!

 

[Cynthia12]

Can you believe was still up at 1:15am researching Silkies, lol x_o

The good news is, dustmop chick was in good spirits this morning and very active!

They don’t drink much water, I wonder if that’s normal?



Here are some better photos! I did my best for dust mop...
Her crest probably is very inacurrate since I chopped off a bunch of head feathers yesterday

They're adorable.

 

[Cynthia12]

Msn, I accidentally ran across this post. Just seeing these silkies .. almost...makes me want to hatch them again. Special circumstances made me stop. I love the little stinkers, and I hatched some cute frizzles too. Let's see if I can find a couple of silkie photos. I love them! Post more photos...lol...of any and all.

Then there's the showgirls. This is a youngin..he grew into a big beautiful rooster. ...Well that was fun going through a few photos. I miss them

 

[yakitori]

Msn, I accidentally ran across this post. Just seeing these silkies .. almost...makes me want to hatch them again. Special circumstances made me stop. I love the little stinkers, and I hatched some cute frizzles too. Let's see if I can find a couple of silkie photos. I love them! Post more photos...lol...of any and all.View attachment 2344791View attachment 2344792View attachment 2344793View attachment 2344795View attachment 2344796View attachment 2344800View attachment 2344801Then there's the showgirls. This is a youngin..he grew into a big beautiful rooster. ...Well that was fun going through a few photos. I miss them View attachment 2344802

wow! they’re gorgeous. I didn’t understand the silkie hype until I got these two myself, they have such great temperaments! Im seriously considering making them house chickens. I caught myself researching chicken diapers last night, someone send help

 

[LynnaePB]

I find my silkie hens very often have such sweet temperaments. The pullets can be super sweet too but I've had some aggressive little stinkers that later calmed down around the time they started laying. I have some hens that are skittish and a few who are just little stink pots but most are so laid back and sweet. My boys are another story. They can be the sweetest little things before the hormones really start kicking in but afterwards they really want to challenge me if put in with hens/pullets. They do alright with me in a bachelor pen but can get too rough with each other. I think some lines have worked out more of the male aggression though, I hope I'll get there with my line eventually too.

 

[yakitori]

I hope mine are both pullets! I don’t think there’s a rule against roosters in my area (agricultural rural zoning), but I don’t want to disturb my neighbors as they are only an acre away. I do hear a rooster in the morning really early, so someone else around here must have chickens too... probably the family with the goats next door.

So update: Aside from when she wanted food, frizzle dust mop really didn’t move much. So I decided to move them both into my fenced off veggie garden. I thought that maybe I could encourage them to explore a bit by scattering the feed and some scratch around...and It worked!

Hopefully she finds those muscles again soon, she definitely has the potential to be very lively, it’s a shame she’s bogged down by all those frizzles.


video of the two out and about. the big girls discovered that I had scattered goodies around inside and were desperately trying to get some for themselves

 

[yakitori]

Hmm, she also seems to have trouble picking things up, do you guys think it’s because she’s not experienced or her beak is too long?