the silkie slickers

[drumstick diva]

Fur & Fowl hope you will submit the gorgeous silkies for the next BYC calendar

 

[LynnaePB]

I found some homes for some of my silkies so my hatching ban is temporarily lifted, yay! It's always stressful finding new homes but I felt really good about where they went this time as the new owners were very nice and very knowledgeable about proper care.

I wanted to compare how eggs were hatching from another one of my pens by incubating side by side since I've been having some issues with malpositions from my paint pen. It's looking like that won't be happening for a while since all the girls in the one pen are broody except one who for some reason is having issues with soft shelled/no shelled eggs.

Anyone with any experience with young silkie hens laying very thin shelled/no shelled eggs? This particular hen is about a year old now. All the other hens/pullets eggs are fine. They have free choice oyster shell for calcium and are on a 20% crumble. I started saving up shells to bake and crush up to try offering as well for extra calcium so I guess I'll see if that helps. I caught the hen with the problem eating some oyster shell today so I hope that might make a difference.

Here is a picture of one of my little grow outs from my paint pen (about 5 weeks old). He's got the nicest spots so far from that pen. I'm almost sure it's a little rooster, no vault, bigger size, comb getting big, and bold/curious temperament all combined are pointing that way, he's king of the brooder right now.

Okay, I have a few questions about silkie varieties.

I hatched 5 silkie chicks (eggs from my own flock!) about 4 weeks ago, add or take a few days. The parent options are a blue cockerel, one blue pullet, and two buff pullets. I don't know which chicks belong to which moms.

At first the chicks looked like 3 blacks and 2 blues, but now some are getting golden-brown-buff feathers on their heads and breasts. I heard somewhere that it might be possible to get partridges from blue and buff parents. Is this true or will they be mixed colors?

I can't post pics right now, but will try to get to it sometime this week!

I wish I could help but I don't know enough about buff to be very helpful. They sound pretty whatever they are, would love to see them when you are able to get pics!

 

[drumstick diva]

Love your paint silkie - think good things are going to come from him/her!

 

[FortCluck]

I found some homes for some of my silkies so my hatching ban is temporarily lifted, yay! It's always stressful finding new homes but I felt really good about where they went this time as the new owners were very nice and very knowledgeable about proper care.

I wanted to compare how eggs were hatching from another one of my pens by incubating side by side since I've been having some issues with malpositions from my paint pen. It's looking like that won't be happening for a while since all the girls in the one pen are broody except one who for some reason is having issues with soft shelled/no shelled eggs.

Anyone with any experience with young silkie hens laying very thin shelled/no shelled eggs? This particular hen is about a year old now. All the other hens/pullets eggs are fine. They have free choice oyster shell for calcium and are on a 20% crumble. I started saving up shells to bake and crush up to try offering as well for extra calcium so I guess I'll see if that helps. I caught the hen with the problem eating some oyster shell today so I hope that might make a difference.

Here is a picture of one of my little grow outs from my paint pen (about 5 weeks old). He's got the nicest spots so far from that pen. I'm almost sure it's a little rooster, no vault, bigger size, comb getting big, and bold/curious temperament all combined are pointing that way, he's king of the brooder right now.

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I wish I could help but I don't know enough about buff to be very helpful. They sound pretty whatever they are, would love to see them when you are able to get pics!

I'm hoping my chunker silkie is a female but I'm not sure. It was in the bantam bin at TSC but it doesn't belong there. I lucked out on it. Now I have to find another one because I don't want it to be the only one in my new bantam run.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Fur & Fowl hope you will submit the gorgeous silkies for the next BYC calendar

I most likely will, I’ll try again this year!

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Mother and daughter

 

[LynnaePB]

I'm hoping my chunker silkie is a female but I'm not sure. It was in the bantam bin at TSC but it doesn't belong there. I lucked out on it. Now I have to find another one because I don't want it to be the only one in my new bantam run.

Good luck finding another and I hope you get lucky with females! If I were closer I'd be happy to help out, ah well. Our tractor supply just got silkies mixed in with the bantam assortment too, these ones were small enough they looked like they belonged there though.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

This year has really started out crap and it’s looking even more like I’m not going to get any chicks at all this year.

All off my breeding hens have gone into full broody mode. I’ve only got one dog crate and when I break one, as soon as she’s ‘broken’ and I put another one in, the one I’ve taken out goes broody again in the matter of days because it’s around all the other broody ones.

I can’t put any eggs under them at all because my new male has to be the most slowest one I’ve ever owned and in the three months I’ve had him he’s never fertilised one egg at all.

I‘ve watched and he is mounting and mating the hens but nothing is fertile so I don’t know what’s wrong with him.

Plus I’m not going to be getting any eggs most likely after tomorrow because the last one that’s just about broody will start to sit full time and stop laying.

From now I’ve got no idea what to do with them. I’m starting to regret getting the new Male and selling my last one I knew was fertile.

With them being broody, all their chest feathers are being plucked so most likely I can’t show any of them either this year.

 

[LynnaePB]

This year has really started out crap and it’s looking even more like I’m not going to get any chicks at all this year.

All off my breeding hens have gone into full broody mode. I’ve only got one dog crate and when I break one, as soon as she’s ‘broken’ and I put another one in, the one I’ve taken out goes broody again in the matter of days because it’s around all the other broody ones.

I can’t put any eggs under them at all because my new male has to be the most slowest one I’ve ever owned and in the three months I’ve had him he’s never fertilised one egg at all.

I‘ve watched and he is mounting and mating the hens but nothing is fertile so I don’t know what’s wrong with him.

Plus I’m not going to be getting any eggs most likely after tomorrow because the last one that’s just about broody will start to sit full time and stop laying.

From now I’ve got no idea what to do with them. I’m starting to regret getting the new Male and selling my last one I knew was fertile.

With them being broody, all their chest feathers are being plucked so most likely I can’t show any of them either this year.

I'm so sorry to hear things aren't going well for breeding/showing for you. It sounds incredibly frustrating. Three months without getting anything fertilized and the fact he is mating but it's still not working would stress me out too! I'd guess having a back up rooster would be really helpful if you are able to keep two roos?

I hope things start looking up for you and you catch a break soon!

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I'm so sorry to hear things aren't going well for breeding/showing for you. It sounds incredibly frustrating. Three months without getting anything fertilized and the fact he is mating but it's still not working would stress me out too! I'd guess having a back up rooster would be really helpful if you are able to keep two roos?

I hope things start looking up for you and you catch a break soon!

Honestly it is so frustrating it really is...I’ll just have to see what happens and see if any just decide to not be broody themselves because I haven’t got the space to break that many at once. Usually I’d use broody to hatch and in the process that would break them and of course I wouldn't end up with that many broody hens at once but I can’t do that

Really I only have space for one Male but I’ve currently got two of my own home bred growers that are both cockerels in the grow out pen. I’m selling the gold cockerel but I was hoping to keep the partridge cockerel because he’s turning out nice.

He’s to young to fertilise eggs anyways though because he’s only 11 weeks old. So he is my back up I guess but he’s no use yet.