Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[Little Baby Bean]

Right now I have all of them except the silkies and two frizzle roos in a roo pen.

Oh ok!

 

[Verbon30]

Silkies sould come with a warning label " may be habit forming "

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Dumb question:
Can silkies live in a flock of other large breed chickens or would they constantly pick on it for being different? I imagine when molting it becomes more naked or at least different in looks from other chicken breeds? I’m new to this.

My original group of silkies was raised in a mixed flock. I have two of them left in that flock now with standard birds and these two hens are the big bosses even though they are small in size! Nobody messes with them.

So to answer your question as long as they are raised together it should be fine. If you have Silkies with vaulted skulls though, they are at risk of getting injured from larger birds pecking them on the head.
My younger birds are all in a separate coop with other small breeds.

The boss ladies.

 

[Fluffy Lambs]

What is the point of vaulted skull? A bigger head puff?

 

[twouglyducks]

Silkies sould come with a warning label " may be habit forming "

Yes! I definitely need more and none of mine are even fully matured yet.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

What is the point of vaulted skull? A bigger head puff?

Yes, it is believed that polish were introduced at some point to make the appearance of the silkie crest look bigger. The two ladies I posted above do not have vaulted skulls and they still have awesome crests. Many breeders are trying to breed away from this now, due to the increased risk of injury, while still breeding for the larger crests. In some lines, females tend to be hatched with the vaulted skull more than males as @LynnaePB has described in some of her posts.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

How exciting about Smokey and Biscuits 5 eggs! I hope she has a great hatch!

I'm so sorry to hear you are having trouble with Biscuit and Cookie fighting though. This happens a lot with my boys after a certain age too, even when in a bachelor pen with no girls.

Both Biscuit and Cookie are beautiful boys, I don't think either one would be a bad choice if you have to pick between the two. I agree that Biscuit's crest does look a little fuller which is a plus and he may be just a tad more typey. Are Biscuit's tail feathers completely straight or do they go just slightly to one side or the other? I've become very paranoid about wry tail and keep seeing it all over since I've had it crop up too frequently for my liking in my grow outs. Cookie's tail looks straight in his picture but I'm having trouble telling if Biscuit's is or not.

Not sure if you can tell if Biscuits tail is straight in this pic? I'll take another behind pic today.
Cookie was always fighting through the fence so I had to out up some rubber mats to stop them bloodying combs.

 

[LynnaePB]

Not sure if you can tell if Biscuits tail is straight in this pic? I'll take another behind pic today.
Cookie was always fighting through the fence so I had to out up some rubber mats to stop them bloodying combs.

View attachment 2845176

I still can't quite tell. If he has it it's very slight. Some of my boys just hold their tail slightly to the side sometimes but not others (it drives me crazy since I'm always thinking oh no wry tail when they do).

If you pick him up and feel the base of the tail you should be able to get an idea if it is pointing slightly to the side when relaxed (you can feel for the little nub the tail feathers come out of to see which direction it is pointing). You can also run your hand down his back while holding him which often makes them raise their tail a bit. If it goes straight up when you do this he probably doesn't have wry tail, if it goes to the side a bit he may have it. Or at least that is something I've read to do when trying to confirm wry tail or not. I think the very slight cases can sometimes be hard to notice though.

 

[Hinotori]

Dumb question:
Can silkies live in a flock of other large breed chickens or would they constantly pick on it for being different? I imagine when molting it becomes more naked or at least different in looks from other chicken breeds? I’m new to this.

Have to be careful. Had an ameraucana hen get fed up with my breed aggressive silkie rooster. She got him in the head and blinded him. He had a vaulted skull.

I had six hatchery rock pullets that were violently aggressive to any other breed but went out of their way to try to kill the silkies, who didn't even live with them. I ended up having to isolate them for a couple weeks. It didn't help on two of them, and I ended up culling them. They were at point of lay so that saddened me.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

I still can't quite tell. If he has it it's very slight. Some of my boys just hold their tail slightly to the side sometimes but not others (it drives me crazy since I'm always thinking oh no wry tail when they do).

If you pick him up and feel the base of the tail you should be able to get an idea if it is pointing slightly to the side when relaxed (you can feel for the little nub the tail feathers come out of to see which direction it is pointing). You can also run your hand down his back while holding him which often makes them raise their tail a bit. If it goes straight up when you do this he probably doesn't have wry tail, if it goes to the side a bit he may have it. Or at least that is something I've read to do when trying to confirm wry tail or not. I think the very slight cases can sometimes be hard to notice though.

I think his tail is fine Here's a fluffy butt pic.. he's had a few tail feathers come out lately due to fighting

I'm probably more concerned with personality and overall looks, though I do prefer Cookie's longer tail.