Battlepants
Songster
- Dec 13, 2021
- 918
- 2,237
- 241
I want to share with you the legend that is my little puffball Ms. Silkie. Through a series of unfortunate (or fortunate) events and inexperience on my part, she should no longer be with us, but somehow this badass bird just keeps pushing forward!
Picked her up from a kinda local farm late last year and she was part of my very first set of 5 brooder chicks. She was the runt of the group and had some issues with pasty butt, but I was able to clean her up and get her back on track.
Moving out to the yard, integration with the big girls went very smoothly. Set up a temp run/coop made out of chicken wire and a cat carrier and let them exist in that for a few days. Ended up putting said cat carrier in the big coop in the night and everyone just kinda accepted this new arrangement the next morning. Unfortunately, Ms. Silkie, being the smallest of the group, was at the very bottom of the pecking order.
We had a tragedy where we lost one of her flockmates due to them slipping through the fence and getting grabbed by one of my dogs. Rebuilt the electric fence to keep the dogs away to stop this from happening again (original interpretation was that the dog grabbed the chick through the fence, but I now realize that the chick was able to walk through a different fence to get into the dog yard).
One of her flockmates started crowing! Initially, I was disappointed in having a rooster, but this boy was so sweet. Whenever I would go out into the yard, he would be right at the front begging for treats. If I put my leg out a bit, he and one of the other flockmates with jump up and perch on me to get treats. Unfortunately, tragedy struck again when a hawk attacked and killed my beautiful roo. If nothing else, he died a hero protecting his flock.
I thought I had scared off the hawk, but 2 or 3 days later, we start hearing distressed chicken noises again. I run out there to try to rescue the rest of my flock and find the hawk tangled in the chickenwire fence. It shakes off the fence and flys off, I head into the chicken yard and start escorting chickens into the coop for security. All of my girls were huddled in the brush for safety, but Ms. Silkie was stuck in a corner of the yard very exposed. If the hawk wouldn't have hit the outside of the fence and got tangled, Ms. Silkie absolutely would have been grabbed.
This was my wakeup call that I need secured runs if I intend to keep these chickens alive.
I went ahead with the secured run made from fence posts, chicken wire and electric fence wire to sew it all together. It is by no means a quality enclosure, but it will be enough to keep the hawks out.
Fast forward about a month, I'm really missing having a rooster out there, so I decide to look out on craigslist to see if anyone is looking to rehome. Find a beautiful australorp who has the same tail feathers as my previous roo and decide to bring him home. Introductions go about as well as you would expect - big girls start trouble with him and he flairs up and puts them in their place. After a few days, everyone is just mingling together as a flock and he is attempting to mate.
Unfortunately, the combination of an inexperienced full size roo and a small silkie is not one that will end well. Due to some botched mating attempts, Ms. Silkie had to be moved into my hospital crate for neck/head wounds. In time she as "re-integrated" into the flock as an outsider who appears in a crate outside the run to hang out with the flock during nice days. She would go back into the hospital crate at night for safety reasons.
This got my butt in gear to fix up that shed on the property. My theory was to transform this 8x12 shed into a big ol' coop and to put the big flock into that one, while Ms. Silkie takes the little coop. More blood, sweat and tears on my part and the job is done, the big flock has their place to stay and Ms. Silkie has her very own bachelorette pad. Fortunately, with the setup of the yard, the two flocks can still see eachother from their respective runs.
A combination of thinking Ms. Silkie is lonely in her coop and knowing that the hen to rooster ratio in the other coop is rather low, I decided to go ahead with getting some chicks from the farm store. Planned on picking up 6, but ended up getting 8... you know the struggle, I'm sure. Started raising these up in my makeshift brooder and at about 4 weeks, decided to plop them in with Ms. Silkie.
Ms. Silkie was initially very apprehensive to these invaders to her space and wanted to do the dominance peck on every single head she could find. Through a weirdly fortunately event, I think her big pompom was blocking her sight and she missed like 90% of her pecks, resulting in her new roommates receiving an almost warm welcome despite her efforts.
Fast forward about 2 weeks and here we are with Ms. Silkie and her flock of littles running around the run just as happy as can be. Even teaching them how to properly roost on the roost bar. During one of nightly check-ins I found this adorable scene where she decided to shelter one of the chicks that was on the roostbar next to her.
Last night during the check-in, Ms. Silkie wasn't on the roostbar at all. She was in the nest box instead. Being a little concerned about this new behavior I decided to go over to the nest box and check her out. I am greeted by a very sassy Ms. Silkie who proceeds to (attempt to) peck my hand over and over. Thinking this might be broody behavior, I just let her be for the night.
This morning, I decided to be a bit more invasive and check under her. Sure enough, she has the training golf ball that I kept in the nestbox under her. As a test, I set another golfball next to her and walked away to tend to the other coop. When I got back with yesterdays harvest of eggs, the other golfball had disappeared under her. With one final act of annoyance from my part, I removed both golf balls from her and set 3 eggs from the big coop next to her and walked away. One final peak in there a bit later and all 3 eggs have disappeared under her.
So, here is where the story currently continues. Will these 3 eggs hatch? Will she be a good momma? Only time will tell.
If everything goes well, 5/23 is the day to watch for!
And in closing, here's my angry puffball in all her glory
Picked her up from a kinda local farm late last year and she was part of my very first set of 5 brooder chicks. She was the runt of the group and had some issues with pasty butt, but I was able to clean her up and get her back on track.
Moving out to the yard, integration with the big girls went very smoothly. Set up a temp run/coop made out of chicken wire and a cat carrier and let them exist in that for a few days. Ended up putting said cat carrier in the big coop in the night and everyone just kinda accepted this new arrangement the next morning. Unfortunately, Ms. Silkie, being the smallest of the group, was at the very bottom of the pecking order.
We had a tragedy where we lost one of her flockmates due to them slipping through the fence and getting grabbed by one of my dogs. Rebuilt the electric fence to keep the dogs away to stop this from happening again (original interpretation was that the dog grabbed the chick through the fence, but I now realize that the chick was able to walk through a different fence to get into the dog yard).
One of her flockmates started crowing! Initially, I was disappointed in having a rooster, but this boy was so sweet. Whenever I would go out into the yard, he would be right at the front begging for treats. If I put my leg out a bit, he and one of the other flockmates with jump up and perch on me to get treats. Unfortunately, tragedy struck again when a hawk attacked and killed my beautiful roo. If nothing else, he died a hero protecting his flock.
I thought I had scared off the hawk, but 2 or 3 days later, we start hearing distressed chicken noises again. I run out there to try to rescue the rest of my flock and find the hawk tangled in the chickenwire fence. It shakes off the fence and flys off, I head into the chicken yard and start escorting chickens into the coop for security. All of my girls were huddled in the brush for safety, but Ms. Silkie was stuck in a corner of the yard very exposed. If the hawk wouldn't have hit the outside of the fence and got tangled, Ms. Silkie absolutely would have been grabbed.
This was my wakeup call that I need secured runs if I intend to keep these chickens alive.
I went ahead with the secured run made from fence posts, chicken wire and electric fence wire to sew it all together. It is by no means a quality enclosure, but it will be enough to keep the hawks out.
Fast forward about a month, I'm really missing having a rooster out there, so I decide to look out on craigslist to see if anyone is looking to rehome. Find a beautiful australorp who has the same tail feathers as my previous roo and decide to bring him home. Introductions go about as well as you would expect - big girls start trouble with him and he flairs up and puts them in their place. After a few days, everyone is just mingling together as a flock and he is attempting to mate.
Unfortunately, the combination of an inexperienced full size roo and a small silkie is not one that will end well. Due to some botched mating attempts, Ms. Silkie had to be moved into my hospital crate for neck/head wounds. In time she as "re-integrated" into the flock as an outsider who appears in a crate outside the run to hang out with the flock during nice days. She would go back into the hospital crate at night for safety reasons.
This got my butt in gear to fix up that shed on the property. My theory was to transform this 8x12 shed into a big ol' coop and to put the big flock into that one, while Ms. Silkie takes the little coop. More blood, sweat and tears on my part and the job is done, the big flock has their place to stay and Ms. Silkie has her very own bachelorette pad. Fortunately, with the setup of the yard, the two flocks can still see eachother from their respective runs.
A combination of thinking Ms. Silkie is lonely in her coop and knowing that the hen to rooster ratio in the other coop is rather low, I decided to go ahead with getting some chicks from the farm store. Planned on picking up 6, but ended up getting 8... you know the struggle, I'm sure. Started raising these up in my makeshift brooder and at about 4 weeks, decided to plop them in with Ms. Silkie.
Ms. Silkie was initially very apprehensive to these invaders to her space and wanted to do the dominance peck on every single head she could find. Through a weirdly fortunately event, I think her big pompom was blocking her sight and she missed like 90% of her pecks, resulting in her new roommates receiving an almost warm welcome despite her efforts.
Fast forward about 2 weeks and here we are with Ms. Silkie and her flock of littles running around the run just as happy as can be. Even teaching them how to properly roost on the roost bar. During one of nightly check-ins I found this adorable scene where she decided to shelter one of the chicks that was on the roostbar next to her.
Last night during the check-in, Ms. Silkie wasn't on the roostbar at all. She was in the nest box instead. Being a little concerned about this new behavior I decided to go over to the nest box and check her out. I am greeted by a very sassy Ms. Silkie who proceeds to (attempt to) peck my hand over and over. Thinking this might be broody behavior, I just let her be for the night.
This morning, I decided to be a bit more invasive and check under her. Sure enough, she has the training golf ball that I kept in the nestbox under her. As a test, I set another golfball next to her and walked away to tend to the other coop. When I got back with yesterdays harvest of eggs, the other golfball had disappeared under her. With one final act of annoyance from my part, I removed both golf balls from her and set 3 eggs from the big coop next to her and walked away. One final peak in there a bit later and all 3 eggs have disappeared under her.
So, here is where the story currently continues. Will these 3 eggs hatch? Will she be a good momma? Only time will tell.
If everything goes well, 5/23 is the day to watch for!
And in closing, here's my angry puffball in all her glory
I have Had so many trial / errors , heartbreaks and overflowing love with my flock too. (Now on 7th generation!) Most were mutts/rehoming ones. I just adopted a local white Silkie that was being picked on too much. Thankfully she is doing great in the current group I have, even showing some sass. I <3 her so much, they are an incredible little breed.
