silkies

[miss heny]

i am getting five silkies chick from Cackle Hatchery any thing need to take care of them as chicks and hen and roo

 

[Elite Silkies]

Not sure what your asking?

 

[nzpouter]

Quote:
just like raising any other chicks, hen and roo will be determined later on way down the road....

 

[SonRise Silkies]

Sounds like maybe you never had Silkies before?
They are cared for the same as other chickens...might take a little [or a lot] longer to decide which is roo and which is hen.
Remember they don't fly and don't really jump...[as in up to a perch] they don't run fast, and they don't see real good, because of their crests.
So they need to be sort of pampered and watched over a little more than "just chickens"

They will sleep together in a nice snuggly warm pile on the floor or in a box if they can get in it.
I have a sort of second floor in my chicken house with a nice big wide heavy ladder that goes up to it.
About half my Silkies sleep on the floor and the other half climb the ladder and sleep upstairs. It's their choice.
i know you'll love your new Silkies. Congratulations!

 

[brendapa]

Cheryl,

I really like this 2nd floor loft/balcony idea. I would love to see some pictures of the upstairs and see the ladder.
Is it a ramp?
I was also wondering what you did as a guard rail to keep them from falling/getting pushed off.
Maybe a little garden fence around the outside perimeter would work for me.

Do you think I could do a loft in this area?

I was thinking about a "L" shaped balcony area with 2 supports.
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Brenda

 

[SonRise Silkies]

Bren,
Sure you can do a loft nicely in that space. Any where that you can stand up in is great. But not necessary.
You know how some chickens are, they just want to be up off the ground, doesn't matter if they are 10 ft up or perched on the water trough
Mine is about eye level [to me] and no I don't have a guard rail but the end of the loft or the part closest to the edge is a 2X4 that they sit on, no has ever fallen off that I know of, they have an order they sit, and it's the same every night.
Also I have 3 to 4 nests up there and some insist on putting their eggs up there. About half my eggs are gathered from up top.
This could be a problem if the hens want to sleep in the nest but mine don't.
The "cuddlers" sleep in a big box on the floor, but the upstairs folks don't gang up like that.

My nests are cat litter boxes, the ones with the tops......and the big one on the floor is a big plastic dog crate.

Litter boxes come in all sizes and are easy to clean and disinfect, pretty colors too. I fill them with hay and everyone is happy!!!!
The BEST thing about them is that they are portable.....you can pick them up easy.
When a hen goes to setting and the others want to lay with her I just pick up her box with her and eggs inside and move it to a cage, put in feed and water and she is safe and secure till she hatches!!!!

Anything to make life easier!!!

I'll try and get a picture...the ladder is really just a ladder my hubby made, they love it, even the tiny ones will climb at least half way up playing around.

Cheryl

 

[SonRise Silkies]

OK I got a half decent pic of the ladder, nothing fancy, and I guess I lied, my nest boxes are pet taxies....but USUALLY I use cat litter boxes

We don't have lots of money so we improvise on lots of stuff. My husband built me a lovely yard for the Silkies and it is 6 ft tall, covered with wire on top, and has a trap door the birds can go out and that I can shut when I want them to stay in.
The little trap door is under the steps.
The chicken house is not finished, we still have to get the trim on it but it works fine.

Nothing as fine as Bren is showing by any means. The "loft" is just a sort of shelf, but the chickens don't care much... they are just country cluckers!

The "shelf" is large enough to hold a large cage, and that's where I keep the heat lamp and all the little chicks if I have any.
Right now it is home to the Serama roo and his wife!

I'll try and upload pics.

 

[brendapa]

OMG! I can not believe your silkies use a regular chicken ladder.
I have a ramp with i/o carpeting. I have 3 large rabbit hutches now, which works for 10 silkies.
Here are 2 with the electric fence.

You have a great set up and 3x as much room as I will with this new coop.
I'm trying to keep it to conform with code and accent the house. right....

This is a little coop 4 x 8 and is raised. I need to be able to say it's a raised/movable pen/coop so i do not have to pour a pad and get a permit.


Brenda

 

[SonRise Silkies]

I need to clarify something in my message.....I have Speckled Sussex and some SS/Silkie cross hens.

The ladder was for them, but the cross chciks hatched with the Silkie chicks and........ monkey see...monkey do!

BUT the round fluff ball short legged older Silkie hens don't get up there, in fact I doubt that they even know there IS a loft.

The poor things have never looked up!!!! The roo likes the snuggling on the floor too much to climb a ladder.
Too much crest to see and too much foot feathers to climb a ladder.
Some of them have trouble negotiating the little step out the trap door!!!!
The option is there though, and the floor is much less crowded when half of the population is up in the attic!!!

 

[brendapa]

Thanks Cheryl!

I thought I had "special needs" silkies.
I'm still going to do the loft & guard rails, with the carpeted ramp and try to teach them to go up.
If they don't want to, I'll still have the space for caged broody's. Right at eye level!

Brenda