I got them to actually look somewhat in my direction! The 'baby' is in the top two pics and she is growing out to be a stunning girl! She could use more foot feathering, but she got that from her mother, who isn't very heavy on foot feathering either. The mother is the third pic. Love her round...
My favorite silkie rooster. Such a good-natured guy.
Where does he end or begin?
Mother on left, 4ish month old daughter on right. Neither wanted to look at me. The family resemblance is strong!
Silkie in back has a thai/wyandotte cross chick, Silke/OEGB cross hen in front has a pure...
5 should be fine. I've had a single silkie hen sit 5 large fowl eggs with all five hatching, and 4 turkey eggs with all 4 hatching, so she should be fine with 5 silkie-sized eggs!
It depends on the bird, but the vast majority of mine molt in the fall. Most of my layer flock is molting heavily now. I find that they do their first 'real' adult molt between 1.5-2 years old.
This girl is beginning to recover from a rather harsh molt. She normally has a big bonnet crest but the whole back of her head now is still mostly bald with new pin feathers now finally coming in! From the front, she doesn't look too bad, but from the back, she still looks rather sad. She's...
Cute chick that hatched out in mid August, I let my broody sit one egg and this adorable baby has grown from it.
This is the biological mother to the chick, she has distinctively large eggs for a silkie. The broody that actually hatched it is half silkie.
She's the brown little hen. She is one...
Everybody got a bath and and a crest/beard trim this week. This girl got a bit fluffier (how that's possible, I'll never know) but she still has a dirty face. She loves her cucumber and squash from the garden, and makes sure to put her whole face in it. Can't complain though, I love my little...
Yep! I normally keep a "path" trimmed between her crest and beard, but when she's "at ease" like in these pictures, she sort of tucks her head down and you can't even tell that there's been any trimming at all.
Here you go, proof of eyes! This was her two years ago, as a awkward teenage chick.
My favorite hen. Her biggest fault is that she's constantly broody! It is rare to see her like this, fully feathered and somewhat clean (she's a bit orange from the new sand I put down), as she will get as dirty as possible and keep her crest and beard and foot feathers worn to nubs as she free...
My main boy right now. He was such a gorgeous cockerel, and as he's matured, he's lost a bit of his beauty, but he's still a handsome guy. His comb has gotten larger and made his crest push back more and lose some of its 'poof', and his little wattles have pushed his beard down, but his tail...
My ambiguous chick decided to finally be a cockerel (what I wanted) Streamers popped out within the past week. He just needed to fill out more (especially in the tail)
And here is my interesting crew of two co-broodies, a silkie hen and a half silkie hen, a turkey poult who is about 2.5...
I love the shape of this little pullet, but I'm disappointed that her crest turned out so small. I'll most likely keep her anyway, I love her curves. She's very spastic and prissy compared to the rest, she seems to stay much fluffier and whiter than the rest (she's never had a bath, believe it...
For the most part, if a rooster acts dominant, he will not let the subordinate rooster breed hens, often kicking him right off the back of a hen. If the roosters seem okay with each others presence, never putting each other 'in their place,' they both will mate. I have 2 roosters in my layer...
he's probably a hatchery silkie. In general, hatchery silkies have poor crests and foot feathering, and many have single combs. Silkies from breeders who breed for quality birds are usually the fluffier ones with big crests and heavily feathered feet.
not on their head- that is a vaulted skull, something different. Bearded silkies have very fluffy 'cheeks' and the area under their beak is fluffy as well.