Idk what your flock consists of but we have silkies with our large fowl flock also OEGB and a golden laced sebright hen. Granted most if them were raised with silkies but usually I think flocks can adjust well to silkies.
If you do decide to give them a go they're great birds especially if handled a lot as chicks. I would consider keeping two or three together especially for introducing them to the flock as they are different and could be picked on keep and eye out for that but silkies are great and some strains of them are pretty good layers. We had one silkie that we lost to a predator last year that except for being broody once that spring had layed us an egg a day all through the winter but maybe for a week or two. She was an amazing layer if course the eggs were smaller than the large fowl but they're not terribly little once they get going.
Our silkies also do well in the heat and cold despite most people saying they're delicate. They are also our only birds that winter 2015(-40* in southern Wisconsin) didn't get frost bite. Even our rose combed breeds like our SLW roo got a little frost bite that winter.
Hope this helps.
Wonderful another person who plans to do coturnix! What varieties/colors do you plan to do?
We are in the middle of our first ever quail hatch after we were given chicks in December from a BYC friend. I did lots of research before hand but am always liking to double check all my info.
Any helpful pointers on raising or hatching coturnix?
Whoopsie whoopsie whoopsie. I went back and fixed the above post. Stupid autocorrect. "Mother was supposed to be another" as in Yay! Another person hatching quail.
"Wonderful mother person who plans to do coturnix! What varieties/colors do you plan to do?"
I have a silver wild one and two brown wild ones, we have only done them last year and lost most of the flock to quails disease i believe
except three males so I will be incubating eggs from the farm down the road to get some ladies for them!
"We are in the middle of our first ever quail hatch after we were given chicks in December from a BYC friend. I did lots of research before hand but am always liking to double check all my info.
Any helpful pointers on raising or hatching coturnix?
"
We were so lucky in having a bantam hen go broody right as i got the eggs, so we put them under her. We were told she would kill them when they hatched and to remove her but she took are of them until they were 8 weeks old and ignoring her! All 12 hatched but we lost 4 the first night, they're incredibly daft and had stranded themselves behind the nest box and died of cold
they are so so so much tinier than we expected so make sure there isnt any places they can get stuck! Theyre like the size of bumblebees when they are born. Waterer had to be super shallow, we ended up using a rabbit waterer to keep them dry. I also highly highly recommend giving each male his own space and girls, they will fight to the bloody death over women. I was surprised how vicious and rapey they were to be honest they make the sweetest sound though <3 good luck![/quote]
What is quail's disease? I've never heard of it. Yes we discovered that they are quite aggressive and rapey too. We ended up with 5 males and 1 female and they all ended up quite the mess with the males raping each other and scalping everyone they grab the back of the heads bso hard it bugs me.
We are also hatching for more females boys will go to freezer camp. We have 8 eggs in that have about a week left and added ten more eggs last night. I would love to see pics of your silver if you dotn mind sharing?
We are thinking of buying some quail hatching eggs from a quail specific farm and getting a few new varieties for new blood. Mostly Jumbos but I can't help but love the beautiful colors.
It looks like a bantam of some breed doesn't it? Cute.
Yeah definitely a bantam or a massive spoon. I know it's not your pic I was just wondering of you knew. With the size I am thinking maybe OEGB or something along those lines. Perhaps a serama?
Can't sleep. Sick tummy. Haven't had the stomach flu in years! What? Hope this is gone by morning.
Oh goodness. I saw your updates I hope you're all better now. I got the flu the week of Valentine's day talk about ruining plans. I was also sick for 5-6 days. Ick.
[quote name="orrpeople" url="/t/1151482/the-8th-annual-byc-easter-hatch-a-long/600#post_18087634"]
Idk what your flock consists of but we have silkies with our large fowl flock also OEGB and a golden laced sebright hen. Granted most if them were raised with silkies but usually I think flocks can adjust well to silkies.
If you do decide to give them a go they're great birds especially if handled a lot as chicks. I would consider keeping two or three together especially for introducing them to the flock as they are different and could be picked on keep and eye out for that but silkies are great and some strains of them are pretty good layers. We had one silkie that we lost to a predator last year that except for being broody once that spring had layed us an egg a day all through the winter but maybe for a week or two. She was an amazing layer if course the eggs were smaller than the large fowl but they're not terribly little once they get going.
Our silkies also do well in the heat and cold despite most people saying they're delicate. They are also our only birds that winter 2015(-40* in southern Wisconsin) didn't get frost bite. Even our rose combed breeds like our SLW roo got a little frost bite that winter.
Hope this helps.
Yes! Any input is greatly appreciated! Right now I am thinking they will probably have to be "non free range" because of our hawk issues. I have also heard they are very difficult to sex until they're much older. Thoughts on this, since I'm a certified genius at hatching mostly cockerels!!
Yes tractors work very very well if you want to take that route like Daethan. We personally let them free range. We have lost some to foxes but haven't lost any to hawks that we know of. We also have large fowl roosters though too and they of course are great at sounding the alarm. We have actually lost several roos to predators protecting the girls.
I have thought about tractoring our silkies or our favorite birds in general to protect them but I don't think they would be truly happy now that they've free ranged. Our silkies are actually great foragers and some of our best. Yes even better than some of the lf. If you have a hawk problem but want to free range be sure you have lots of cover bushes and trees you can even build a free standing lean to for them to run under.
We had a couple hawks show up last year but I don't think they ever got anything. Still it scared me half to death. We have several buildings they run to or under the truck, lilac bushes, hydrangeas, porch and of course the coop. Silkies are pretty fast faster than people for sure and when they hear a possible predator call they run for cover so fast they almost look like they're floating or rolling. Like little fuzzy tumbleweeds blowing across the yard. Lol
They can be hard to sex, some more than others. Also some have larger crests than others, if you're thinking about wanting smaller crests. It is true that their crests can restrict their vision and make them more prone to predators. We like medium crests although we have some of each.
Usually about 12 weeks you can sex them but sometimes not until they lay or crow.
If you want them to free range but are worried about them tractoring them is a good option. You could the free range them when you are there to supervise them.
HTH
I set 14 eggs from my blue ameraucanas and 8 from my blue Am cockerel over my SLWs yesterday. Gonna candle tonight because last time I was able to spot several of the fertile ones on day one and wanted to see if I was as successful this time around. Fingers crossed for lots of babies! These will be the first Ameraucana babies I've hatched this year...I'm very excited. Can't wait till my blue wheaten girls start laying, too, so I'll have even more! I'm totally addicted to hatching!!!
I would love to see pics of you blue Ameraucanas' eggs if you don't mind sharing? Thanks
