Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[TxChickieFan]

I only found this website fairly recently, and I've been trying to work my way through this thread to learn more about silkies...but then I went to TSC yesterday morning to get feed...Apparently the local TSC sometimes clearances their chicks on Sunday mornings, and I couldn't resist. I'm now the owner of 10 silkie chicks. They're so stinking cute, lol!

There are 4 black, 4 yellow, and 2 this color. Will these be buff? Or is it way too early to tell? Pics with black background were taken with flash. The pic where the chick matches the carpet is without flash.

After this I'll go back to pg. 49 and keep working my way forward.

 

[TxChickieFan]

Disclaimer to the post above--I've been trying to learn about silkies because we have 3 older chicks that we got in April. My silkie flock is expanding. I've heard something about chicken math?

 

[TxChickieFan]

Here are our older silkies. One's an obvious cockerel, and the other two are being coy about disclosing gender. Any guesses about the ones my niece is holding?

 

[LynnaePB]

I only found this website fairly recently, and I've been trying to work my way through this thread to learn more about silkies...but then I went to TSC yesterday morning to get feed...Apparently the local TSC sometimes clearances their chicks on Sunday mornings, and I couldn't resist. I'm now the owner of 10 silkie chicks. They're so stinking cute, lol!

There are 4 black, 4 yellow, and 2 this color. Will these be buff? Or is it way too early to tell? Pics with black background were taken with flash. The pic where the chick matches the carpet is without flash.

After this I'll go back to pg. 49 and keep working my way forward.

Looks like it might be a smutty buff or light partridge to me. I don't have a lot of experience with either though so hopefully someone with more experience can be of more help.

Here are our older silkies. One's an obvious cockerel, and the other two are being coy about disclosing gender. Any guesses about the ones my niece is holding?

My guess is pullets for the two you aren't sure about yet. At their size you'd likely see more comb development and more obvious streamers if they were cockerels. They are looking fairly girly to me anyway.

 

[TxChickieFan]

Yea! I've been starting to hope the other 2 are pullets, but I've only told my niece that there's no obvious signs yet that they're not.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

My silkie coop got a major overhaul today. Since we lost most of the silkie flock to raccoons a little over 2 months ago, we had been collecting them every night and moving them to an empty brooder in the screen porch and moving them back out Every morning.... it was a pain in the butt! Well finally, this morning, I was ready to make some adjustments. The plan was to just tighten it up and add some hardware cloth but I had to take half of it apart just to be able to move it so it became a major rebuild. I'm hoping that now, they'll be safe. Along with raising it a foot up off the ground and giving them more ground space, we added two hardware cloth panels on the front that will get covered with plywood in the winter so it should be airy in the summer but nice and cozy in the winter (clear plastic tarps will cover the walls of the run also). It's right up against the hardware cloth of the main coop with an opening so light will shine in to the coop from the run in the main

Before:

Now:

 

[LynnaePB]

My silkie coop got a major overhaul today. Since we lost most of the silkie flock to raccoons a little over 2 months ago, we had been collecting them every night and moving them to an empty brooder in the screen porch and moving them back out Every morning.... it was a pain in the butt! Well finally, this morning, I was ready to make some adjustments. The plan was to just tighten it up and add some hardware cloth but I had to take half of it apart just to be able to move it so it became a major rebuild. I'm hoping that now, they'll be safe. Along with raising it a foot up off the ground and giving them more ground space, we added two hardware cloth panels on the front that will get covered with plywood in the winter so it should be airy in the summer but nice and cozy in the winter (clear plastic tarps will cover the walls of the run also). It's right up against the hardware cloth of the main coop with an opening so light will shine in to the coop from the run in the main

Before:

View attachment 2285665View attachment 2285666

Now:

View attachment 2285667
View attachment 2285664

Aww so sorry to hear you were losing them. That new set up looks really nice, I hope it works out really well!

Did they manage to learn to use the ramp fairly easily? Some of my silkie flock always seem to be a little slow on the uptake when introduced to new things, I feel like it'd take them a while to master a ramp like that.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Aww so sorry to hear you were losing them. That new set up looks really nice, I hope it works out really well!

Did they manage to learn to use the ramp fairly easily? Some of my silkie flock always seem to be a little slow on the uptake when introduced to new things, I feel like it'd take them a while to master a ramp like that.

The older girls remember how to use it since it was attached to the side of my main coop before and they used to be in that flock. Hopefully they'll teach the younger ones how

 

[Hinotori]

I'm resigned that this chick is a girl. 8 weeks old now. No sign of the little reddening wattles starting that my boys have a sign of by now. Comb is looking more female.

On the plus side she'll probably be a very good mother if she follows example. The wheaten ameraucana that has raised her is still doting on the chicks. Much better than most my silkies who quit caring at 6 weeks.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Welcome to the silkie world, @TxChickieFan! Your silkies are beautiful!

I just introduced some new friends of mine to my flock and their first impression on seeing a silkie was, "What is that?" That question always makes me laugh, and I get to explain to them what a silkie is and how their feathers work!

A bit of happy news, Misty (a blue silkie pullet of mine) won Best Of Breed in my local fair against three other silkies! She has a bit of strange color leakage on her chest, but the judge picked her out immediately. I asked her to narrate what she was doing and learned a lot. She said the other three have too long of legs and aren't as fluffy, so she didn't mind Mist's color leakage.