Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[PippinTheChicken]

This is drifting off of silkies, but I can't help showing off my house chick.

 

[chickengr]

I went through 3 boys before I found one that my hen Kana likes!
You can try posting photos of the chicks, we can give it a gender guess anyway!

thank you. when the little ones grow a bit I will post a pic. at the moment 2/3 are 99.9% girls and just 1 is going to be a pleasant surprise whatever it is.

 

[Sara S]

Bob Ross is back! On my head

 

[Sara S]

Are you planning on breeding your Silkies? If so I would get Blue and Splash, that way you will get more color variety in the chicks. A well-bred Blue Silkie is gorgeous.

My silkie Cochin mix looks so weird from his parents! His mom is a red bantam Cochin and his dad is a splash silkie roo but he’s beautiful!

 

[LynnaePB]

I know some of you here were wondering about the vaults lately. If you have access to facebook I just found a great compilation with details about the vaults. It was in a silkie group but looks like it may have been taken down. It's still on the original farm page "Fluffy Silkies - Sedosas Fofas". The compilation is in a pinned post at the top of that page. There is some graphic content (showing autopsies etc.) It is very informative for those wondering about vaults though. Just thought I should throw that out there in case anyone is still curious.

It's also been a while since I've posted any pictures so here's a couple recent ones.

Here are a couple younger grow outs just shy of 5 weeks old. A paint and a surprise red pyle-ish baby that popped up from the paint pen.

Here's probably my nicest marked paint so far of my recent hatches (biggest spots) she/he is about 7 weeks old.

And here is my group of 4 I hatched mid August that are 5 months now.

Group shot

And one of just the girl who was hiding in the back in the above photo.

And I'm excited about eggs from this pair. Quarantine is over and now I've broken the girl from being broody and she is laying again I'll be collecting some eggs to hatch. I can't wait to see if any of the chicks will be mottled and it'll be fun hatching some Nn silkie babies for the first time too!

Guess what.... FINALLLLLLYYYYY... got my coop and run setup and leveled and ready to go! Girls moved in last night!!

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They look so tiny in all of that space!

I had to take Elsa out.. because she was just totally attacking Esmeralda. I put her back in her old coop until evening, then she seemed calmer. Still chasing, but not feet in the air hawk attack style.

They were all so funny, no one wanted to go into the coop. So i had to wait til it was almost dark, then put each one up on the roost. Not only that, they wouldn't get down in the morning either So i carried each one down again. I could see Minnie and Daisy exploring in there this morning after breakfast, so maybe they'll get it. Curious where they are going to lay eggs. Probably in the run instead of one of the 8 nest boxes

Oh it looks fantastic! I'm sure they'll love it in no time.

This is drifting off of silkies, but I can't help showing off my house chick.
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Aww such a pretty little cochin! I'd love to get some satins in this color at some point, I know some breeders are working on it.

 

[Sara S]

I know some of you here were wondering about the vaults lately. If you have access to facebook I just found a great compilation with details about the vaults. It was in a silkie group but looks like it may have been taken down. It's still on the original farm page "Fluffy Silkies - Sedosas Fofas". There is some graphic content (showing autopsies etc.) It is very informative for those wondering about vaults though. Just thought I should throw that out there in case anyone is still curious.

It's also been a while since I've posted any pictures so here's a couple recent ones.

Here are a couple younger grow outs just shy of 5 weeks old. A paint and a surprise red pyle-ish baby that popped up from the paint pen.

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Here's probably my nicest marked paint so far of my recent hatches (biggest spots) she/he is about 7 weeks old.

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And here is my group of 4 I hatched mid August that are 5 months now.

Group shot

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And one of just the girl who was hiding in the back in the above photo.

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And I'm excited about eggs from this pair. Quarantine is over and now I've broken the girl from being broody and she is laying again I'll be collecting some eggs to hatch. I can't wait to see if any of the chicks will be mottled and it'll be fun hatching some Nn silkie babies for the first time too!

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Oh it looks fantastic! I'm sure they'll love it in no time.


Aww such a pretty little cochin! I'd love to get some satins in this color at some point, I know some breeders are working on it.

Awww that one looks like a little cow

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

I finally got my first silkie egg!! There is only 1 problem, I don't know if it was from Poppy or the new girl Chiquita. Chiquita is so wild and would try to escape the isolation coop that I broke over and introduced her to Poppy. If she had gotten out on her own their would have been no way I could have caught her. In 4 days she and Poppy have bonded and are best friends already. Whatever 1 is doing, the other is there joining in. Poppy is also making it easier for me to build trust with her. Before if I went in to try and even hand feed her she ran around like a crazy thing, now with Poppy she will come up and eat out of my hand. I've taken these opportunities to stroke her back which she is starting to like, but I'm not picking her up yet. I found the egg yesterday evening in the little nest both were sitting in. When I picked up Chiquita I was told she had not started back up laying yet but was housed with 2 silkie boys, another Buff and a white boy. If I knew for sure it was Chiquita's and I could get at least 3 more from her I would incubate those. If it is Poppy's first egg I need to wait a month before I even think about turning on the incubator. Whichever girl it came from I'm honestly shocked at the size of the egg, while it is small compared to what my big girls lay, considering how tiny both girls are its a big egg.
This little gem was definitely worth the 7 month wait.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I finally got my first silkie egg!! There is only 1 problem, I don't know if it was from Poppy or the new girl Chiquita. Chiquita is so wild and would try to escape the isolation coop that I broke over and introduced her to Poppy. If she had gotten out on her own their would have been no way I could have caught her. In 4 days she and Poppy have bonded and are best friends already. Whatever 1 is doing, the other is there joining in. Poppy is also making it easier for me to build trust with her. Before if I went in to try and even hand feed her she ran around like a crazy thing, now with Poppy she will come up and eat out of my hand. I've taken these opportunities to stroke her back which she is starting to like, but I'm not picking her up yet. I found the egg yesterday evening in the little nest both were sitting in. When I picked up Chiquita I was told she had not started back up laying yet but was housed with 2 silkie boys, another Buff and a white boy. If I knew for sure it was Chiquita's and I could get at least 3 more from her I would incubate those. If it is Poppy's first egg I need to wait a month before I even think about turning on the incubator. Whichever girl it came from I'm honestly shocked at the size of the egg, while it is small compared to what my big girls lay, considering how tiny both girls are its a big egg.
This little gem was definitely worth the 7 month wait.
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Congratulations!!! It's so nice to get to see em getting along!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Congratulations!!! It's so nice to get to see em getting along!

I'm actually really happy for Poppy. After Lil Bit made himself known as a cockerel and I had to rehome him she became sort of a loner. She would stick close to her hatchmate Bubba my Marans rooster but she had no hens her size who liked to hang out with her. She and Lil Bit were super close and she like's Branch but for a bit he was too much for her. If I had not been able to find another hen her size for company to be honest and it would have killed me but I was starting to think of trying to rehome them to a bantam flock. I love my silkies, but it would have been selfish of me to keep them and Poppy continue to try and isolate herself.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I finally got my first silkie egg!! There is only 1 problem, I don't know if it was from Poppy or the new girl Chiquita. Chiquita is so wild and would try to escape the isolation coop that I broke over and introduced her to Poppy. If she had gotten out on her own their would have been no way I could have caught her. In 4 days she and Poppy have bonded and are best friends already. Whatever 1 is doing, the other is there joining in. Poppy is also making it easier for me to build trust with her. Before if I went in to try and even hand feed her she ran around like a crazy thing, now with Poppy she will come up and eat out of my hand. I've taken these opportunities to stroke her back which she is starting to like, but I'm not picking her up yet. I found the egg yesterday evening in the little nest both were sitting in. When I picked up Chiquita I was told she had not started back up laying yet but was housed with 2 silkie boys, another Buff and a white boy. If I knew for sure it was Chiquita's and I could get at least 3 more from her I would incubate those. If it is Poppy's first egg I need to wait a month before I even think about turning on the incubator. Whichever girl it came from I'm honestly shocked at the size of the egg, while it is small compared to what my big girls lay, considering how tiny both girls are its a big egg.
This little gem was definitely worth the 7 month wait.
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Congratulations on the new egg! Great that Chiquita is learning to trust you with help from Poppy! So awesome that Poppy has a friend now too! All chickens need a bestie.
As far as incubating the egg and being able to tell the difference between them that’s another matter. Technically the rule of thumb is to wait a month when you have a new layer before incubating the eggs so that she can get her egg laying apparatus in order. But I have sometimes only waited a few weeks.
Is there any way you can put a coop camera in so you can see which one is laying?
I have at least three different hens’ eggs in my incubator right now but I am honestly not sure other than Kana’s, whom the other two belong to! I used to be able to tell the difference between them but now there’s several that lay eggs that look almost identical.
I have heard of people putting lipstick on the chickens vent so that when they lay the egg some lipstick comes off on the egg. Sounds a bit weird to me but hey if it works why not?