Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[PippinTheChicken]

View attachment 2639783My big boi

adorable! large fowl or bantam? how old is he?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Such a tough topic (in my opinion)
Our vet who leads a vet clinic already told us she and no vet in her clinic is allowed to treat chickens. In my country vets apparently need to have a special license to be allowed to treat 'livestock'. That was kind of a shock. So the clinic is only for 'pets'. Well, my chickens are pets for me...but not for the law. I had thought I could always get help in the vet clinic and if needed euthanasia. Nope...
If here it was allowed to have weapons as in the United States I would have a 22. But here it is no option.
Difficult situation. And kind of burdensome.

My local vets treated Blue when we couldn't fix his splayed leg

 

[Chickeria]

Can you see if there is a livestock vet in your area? Usually they go farm to farm rather than someone visiting them, but it could be a good contact to have for the future.

It will be difficult. As you say the livestock vets will go to farms, and here - regarding chickens - not to private housholds. Our vet from the vet clinic gave us an adresse of a vet specialized in birds, and he will see chickens, so this would be our point of contact. The vet clinic is always open, day and night, the vet (who is more far away than the clinic) will have opening hours - so I'm still uncomfortable and kind of insecure about the whole situation regarding emergencies. But I'm glad there is a vet for chickens, well, not nearby, but reachable.

 

[Chickeria]

View attachment 2639765View attachment 2639766these are my first ever hens- got them around a year ago. PIPPIN AND FRIES

View attachment 2639773dress-up!View attachment 2639767pickles and kiwi as day oldsView attachment 2639769kiwi, blue and pickles 2 weeks old at easterView attachment 2639771kiwi, pickles and blue now as 6 week olds!
They grow up so fast...
Kiwi is my profile picture!

Gorgeous! They are all adorable

 

[Chickeria]

View attachment 2639783My big boi

How old is your handsome big boy?

 

[Duckbreeder2020]

How old is your handsome big boy?

3-4 months!

 

[Duckbreeder2020]

adorable! large fowl or bantam? how old is he?

Large fowl! He is 3-4 months old

 

[LynnaePB]

The whole excess cockerel thing has definitely been tough for me. I have two larger bachelor pens, a medium sized bachelor pen and 7 small pens for individual males or two males if they get along alright. Finding homes for the boys is often very hard here. In several months I might only find 2-3 boys a home which doesn't work out well when you've got a lot (sometimes I get luckier with finding homes than others). I really tried avoiding culling any healthy birds for as long as I could but I had to give in to culling some of our most aggressive males recently. I researched a lot about culling methods first. I'd hoped to find a gentler method that basically put them to sleep without causing respiratory distress before unconsciousness but wasn't able to find anything. I decided quick was the best way to go and have settled on the broomstick method. My husband kindly offered to do it the first few times but I think I'm about mentally ready to try it myself the next time it is necessary.

We're moving soon and will have more but smaller covered pens once we do. I'll have to see what works best for the males when we do move. I'm hoping maybe the more amicable boys will do alright in bachelor groups of 4-5. I'm getting mentally prepared for having to cull the ones who won't get along (I've got a bunch that are just now getting more hormonal and starting to not do as well together). I don't think it'll ever be something that doesn't make me feel sad and a bit guilty but knowing the rest of the flock is better off offers some consolation.

I'm definitely not to the point where I feel alright about culling the non aggressive males. I'll be a bit more limited in what I can hatch and grow out until I get better at finding them homes but I'm alright with that for the time being.

Right now I have no boys with the girls and they seem to really enjoy that. I found even having 15 or so girls to a single male some still got over mated. I think I've just got a problem with overzealous and over aggressive males.

View attachment 2639747
I got my two silkies about a month ago and love them so much already! To the left is Pepper and the right is Cinnamon! Perfect addition to our backyard flock!

Aww those two are adorable!

View attachment 2639765View attachment 2639766these are my first ever hens- got them around a year ago. PIPPIN AND FRIES

Such cute girls! The earlobes on those girls are so much easier to see than with my bearded silkies, I love how blue they are!

View attachment 2639773dress-up!View attachment 2639767pickles and kiwi as day oldsView attachment 2639769kiwi, blue and pickles 2 weeks old at easterView attachment 2639771kiwi, pickles and blue now as 6 week olds!
They grow up so fast...
Kiwi is my profile picture!

Aww so cute! Love the colors too, gray/silver partridge is one of my favorites!

View attachment 2639783My big boi

What a pretty young fellow!

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Such cute girls! The earlobes on those girls are so much easier to see than with my bearded silkies, I love how blue they are!

I get that a lot!!! Thanks!

Aww so cute! Love the colors too, gray/silver partridge is one of my favorites!

I thought they were silver partridge but I wasn't completely sure so thanks! One of the chicks is getting red colour leakage which I love- it adds some unique patterns!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Twitch is a cute name How is Twitch's eye doing actually? Does (s)he still need treatment?

...I planned to name one baby Yeti if there would have been a buff baby. Well I didn't know light/yellow babies can feather out to buff So I thought there is no buff baby and we chose other names. You do have 2 buff babies - so if you like the name

No, Twitch is still having eye trouble. (S)he has had it since (s)he was born. At first, I assumed that maybe (s)he scratched it or something, but it has never gotten better. I first started treating it with Theracyn. Switched to Terramycin. And lastly tried Tobramycin which is prescription strength. Still has a weepy eye that crusts over so now I'm wondering if maybe it is a blocked tear duct or something.... I'd take Twitch to a vet but our local vet doesn't do chickens AND is ridiculously expensive. University of Arkansas has an entire poultry department (thank you Tyson....) but I don't know if they would be willing to diagnose Twitch remotely/virtually. Might be worth a try though....