Silkies stink at foraging.........

[jason_mazzy]

So I have been raising Leggerns in the house, and if you follow my posts U know I lucked up on some silkies at the TSC. Well I made them a nice egg mix and placed it in the brooder.

You would have thought I let loose a tomcat. They all ran away and will not go near the eggs. I even tossed some crumbles on top. They stink at foraging compared to the leggerns (who would fight and run over eachother for the egg).

 

[FMAFarms]

LOL! But, yes, you are right. A general rule of thumb is that the fluffier a chicken's feathered legs and feet are, the worse it is at foraging. Silkies are not foragers. They also shy away from anything that would get their feathers messy (although they do keep stepping in poop and needing their feet washed). Our Silkies all turned their noses up at Gro Gel, for instance, so we finally stopped offering it to new Silkie chickies. If you hold out a sliver of dry toast or a roasted mealworm, they'll be your best friend!

 

[jason_mazzy]

I understand that in a free range setting, guess it didn't dawn on me that they would be the same in the brooder. It was as if they were terrified of cooked eggs. Really odd to me because they know what chicken feed crumbles are but wont go near crumbled egg and feed............?

 

[chickflick]

Mine do great! Guess they see the big girls doing it and they follow their lead. Mine also roost on the top roost.

 

[FMAFarms]

We keep our Silkies separate from our "worker flock." The chicks will eat crumbles and dried mealworms from my hand. Offered eggs on a little lid, or Gro Gel, or yogurt -- even sprinkled with start crumbles or crunched up mealworms — and they wouldn't go near it. They pecked at room-temp bis of scrambled egg offered on a fingertip (and I mean BITS). That's a start to build on. Maybe you can try that?