Silkied Ameraucana Project

[EdenCamp]

Do you have the broodies in a safe enough place they can raise the chicks too? How did the batch from last week feather in?

 

[marsha tutterow]

Yes, Eden. They are safe in their own pen. Three hens raising the chicks together. Hens are silkies and they are the best mothers ever. They will do great. Nice large pen. And my other hatches are really growing. Just bought the materials today to separate the large pen into brood pens. 4 within the large one. Then I can separate the chicks into groups of silkies, sizzles, and SiAms. Each will be 2 1/2' by 3'. I can take a divider out to make it 2 pens instead of 4. Once they get feathered out good, they move to a larger pen. This will be for the smaller chicks. I'll send pic when I get it set up.

 

[artjb3]

Hello everyone! I'm joining the project thanks to hatching eggs from EdenCamp. I enjoy reading a few threads and have decided to join this one. The following pictures are from my recent hatch on March 16-17. The pictures show the chicks 11 days old.

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[marsha tutterow]

Hello everyone! I'm joining the project thanks to hatching eggs from EdenCamp. I enjoy reading a few threads and have decided to join this one. The following pictures are from my recent hatch on March 16-17. The pictures show the chicks 11 days old.

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Cute chicks. Congrats. Welcome to the world of SiAms.

 

[Watermelon123]

Out of curosity, is there anyone in/near Ohio that sells chicks? My sister wants silkies and I want blue eggs. I thought this was the perfect compermise.

 

[EdenCamp]

Saaweet Marsha! Let those silkies do the work!!!!!!!!!!! They even have the same feather type and limitations - makes perfect sense.

Artjb3 - fingers crossed that last chick pictured is full silkied - give it a little while longer.



Like these silkied feathers will keep growing out long and never open up into blunt or rounded feathers.



Same chick at about a month - the wing feathers still stringy and instead of hard feathers coming in on the shoulders - fluffy silkied feathers .

I still get some I'm not sure of til about 2 weeks - males feather slower so they can draw it out deciding.

 

[EdenCamp]

Out of curosity, is there anyone in/near Ohio that sells chicks? My sister wants silkies and I want blue eggs. I thought this was the perfect compermise.

Melon - This is an extremely rare and difficult project in progress. In all the years I've been working on this project I've only seen juvenile silkied chicks offered up for grabs once by someone with a situation having to get out of birds. Two breeders producing enough silkied birds that can be spared and shared have a waiting list of established project breeders who have struggled with establishing their own breeding programs and/or to bolster the progress of the project.

I do sell probable split for silkied chicks from time to time and will ship - the splits are a lot heartier than silkied. Once grown and bred together a % of their offspring should be silkied. Hatching eggs a number of people offer on occasion and you would have the same chance of hatching a full silkied bird as the breeder.

People like Artjb3 who are seriously interested in taking on the project will find a very supportive network in place to help them once they've done their homework, understand the challenges they are in for and still decided to take the plunge. We love to find new people to come on board with the project like that. If that level of interest is therefor you I would suggest taking the time to read "What's wrong with their feathers" the project parent thread that spans the 17 year odyssey of this project from the first mutated pair hatched from pure Ameraucanas in Texas. They are cool. They just aren't easy!

 

[cgmaster]

Melon - This is an extremely rare and difficult project in progress. In all the years I've been working on this project I've only seen juvenile silkied chicks offered up for grabs once by someone with a situation having to get out of birds. Two breeders producing enough silkied birds that can be spared and shared have a waiting list of established project breeders who have struggled with establishing their own breeding programs and/or to bolster the progress of the project.  

I do sell probable split for silkied chicks from time to time and will ship - the splits are a lot heartier than silkied.  Once grown and bred together a % of their offspring should be silkied.  Hatching eggs a number of people offer on occasion and you would have the same chance of hatching a full silkied bird as the breeder.

People like Artjb3 who are seriously interested in taking on the project will find a very supportive network in place to help them once they've done their homework, understand the challenges they are in for and still decided to take the plunge. We love to find new people to come on board with the project like that. If that level of interest is therefor you I would suggest taking the time to read "What's wrong with their feathers" the project parent thread that spans the 17 year odyssey of this  project from the first mutated pair hatched from pure Ameraucanas in Texas.   They are cool.  They just aren't easy! 

I read that thread and I am still willing to take the plunge, but only after I have gain more experience hatching my own eggs (I have two hens sitting on eggs, some of which were fathered by my ameraucana rooster) I am going to experiment with my silkie rooster over the easter eggers that are hatching soon

 

[EdenCamp]

I read that thread and I am still willing to take the plunge, but only after I have gain more experience hatching my own eggs (I have two hens sitting on eggs, some of which were fathered by my ameraucana rooster) I am going to experiment with my silkie rooster over the easter eggers that are hatching soon

Prudence and patience will serve you well in this project. Silkied AMs will have the same limitations and requirements as the Silkie breed - low roosts, better protection from the elements and preditors. I don't breed or have silkies so can't tell you if a Silkie bred to another type of bird will give you silkied offspring or not (splits) - surely Marsha could since she has them. I do know the black skin and extra toes will get passed to offspring - was one of the early arguments that any such cross would have been very noticeable and extremely difficult to breed out had Silkies ever been introduced into the SiAms. Later, that supposition was disproved, Never, ever, Silkies in SiAms.

 

[LBKS]

Some bad news, one of my black silkied pullets is very lethargic and not wanting to eat. Going to separate and see if she will recover, but if she does I think I'll move her to backup and out of the project. Not worth using her if I don't have to, so hopefully her sisters do better.

Still waiting on the first couple round of hatches to land before I share eggs, still a few weeks out on my end.

On the upside, the black pullet that was looking roo-ish only looks more so by the day. I'd say he's a real late bloomer. I'll take late blooming if it means hardy any day.