The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

Okay.. I have a question. Are silkie chicks harder to raise than other breeds. Amanda has told me that they are so fragile and hard to raise.. So when I don't hear anything from the brooder I'm a bit freaked out.. Check, sleeping.... check, playing... check... etc.

No different than any other chicks but I'm just going by TSC 'silkies', they are a little bit on the large side for a 'bantam'. Fastest birds I've ever had start laying also and laid great which they are not supposed to so I imagine they have a little leghorn mixed in at some point.

 

[Beer can]

 

[Blooie]

Okay.. I have a question. Are silkie chicks harder to raise than other breeds. Amanda has told me that they are so fragile and hard to raise.. So when I don't hear anything from the brooder I'm a bit freaked out.. Check, sleeping.... check, playing... check... etc.

Not at all!! I started all of my Silkie chicks outdoors in a wire pen in the covered run along with the rest of the chicks and nothing but Mama Heating Pad for heat. Our springtime “chick season” temps can be in the twenties and dip into the teens, yet they thrive! I do absolutely nothing different for them. They are off all heat by the end of their third week and fully integrated with the flock by 4 weeks, at which time we remove the brooder pen. I do this with all of my chicks, by the way.

They are kept with the Standards. They eat, sleep, explore, free-range, and live with the entire flock. I make one concession….I do have one roost that’s only a foot off the ground. But many of them manage just fine to get up on the main roost. A few choose to cuddle on the floor at night. I don’t insulate or heat my coop. I have found Silkies to be just as hardy and active as all of my chickens.

I agree with my dear friend @CapricornFarm….there does seem to be an odd ratio of hims to hers. I hatched 9 Silkie eggs. I got 9 roosters. <sigh> Truth be told, except for being good broodies they’re kind of worthless…small eggs, kinda stupid….just pocket lint with legs. But they are eye candy, and every flock needs a little eye candy!

I took these photos when my Silkies were 4 weeks old and coming out of the brooder for the last time. Right after I took them, the brooder came out for good.

Tank, our Light Brahma, was always at the portal door to greet the chicks as soon as it was opened in the morning.

Gladys, my oldest EE, making sure they were all coming out. She’d been through this routine for 8 years!

And out free-ranging as soon as we opened the door.

Yep - eye candy! This is a favorite photo of Smudge and Dufous…mirror image.

 

[CSolis]

Not at all!! I started all of my Silkie chicks outdoors in a wire pen in the covered run along with the rest of the chicks and noting bit Mama Heating Pad for heat. Our springtime “chick season” temps can be in the twenties and dip into the teens, yet they thrive! I do absolutely nothing different for them. They are off all heat by the end of their third week and fully integrated with the flock by 4 weeks, at which time we remove the brooder pen. I do this with all of my chicks, by the way.

They are kept with the Standards. They eat, sleep, explore, free-range, and live with the entire flock. I make one concession….I do have one roost that’s only a foot off the ground. But many of them manage just fine to get up on the main roost. A few choose to cuddle on the floor at night. I don’t insulate or heat my coop. I have found Silkies to be just as hardy and active as all of my chickens.

I agree with my dear friend @CapricornFarm….there does seem to be an odd ratio of hims to hers. I hatched 9 Silkie eggs. I got 9 roosters. <sigh> Truth be told, except for being good broodies they’re kind of worthless…small eggs, kinda stupid….just pocket lint with legs. But they are eye candy, and every flock needs a little eye candy!

I took these photos when my Silkies were 4 weeks old and coming out of the brooder for the last time. Right after I took them, the brooder came out for good.
View attachment 3061261
Tank, our Light Brahma, was always at the portal door to greet the chicks as soon as it was opened in the morning.

View attachment 3061263
Gladys, my oldest EE, making sure they were all coming out. She’d been through this routine for 8 years!

View attachment 3061264
And out free-ranging as soon as we opened the door.

Yep - eye candy! This is a favorite photo of Smudge and Dufous…mirror image.
View attachment 3061269

Wonderful bit of information. I notice Poof Poof is laying about once every 3 - 4 days.. She's the oldest pullet I have, also a gift.

 

[microchick]

The bluebells just seem to have just come up by themselves in my flower beds in front of the house. I don't mind!

Mine were here when we moved in and I have no idea where they came from. I can't imagine the Amish woman who lived here before us planting them as where they are coming up was once nothing but scrub brush and sapling trees. Tore down the fences, mowed the grass, cut down the volunteer saplings and the next spring there they were.

Do they grow wild?

And! Can you transplant them?

 

[CSolis]

Gator is a chicken magnet. Honestly don't know what to think of that... Where ever he is, someone follows.

 

[microchick]

That's priceless. Tiny Dancer is still inside? Girl you need to get that boy some bantam lady friends and raise a bunch more just like him

 

[CSolis]

That's priceless. Tiny Dancer is still inside? Girl you need to get that boy some bantam lady friends and raise a bunch more just like him

Yup, he's still inside.. And it just as funny as the day is long. He follows Gator everywhere in the house. He went in and baby sat the young ones in the bathroom while they were out. But it's funniest to watch him find some 'treat' on the floor and try so hard to get Gator to come see.

 

[microchick]

My boys get so excited when they find a treat for the girls that I sometimes think they are going to throw themselves into a stroke calling them. he must think Gator is a big featherless hen that if he just impresses him once .....well you get the picture.

I hope to hatch a few bantam eggs this summer. DH asked me what I was going to do if I hatched more boys and I said love them. It isn't hard. Those little roosters have more personality than any regular sized rooster that I own.

 

[CSolis]

Good Morning OF.. Kind of dreary out this morning. Got nearly an inch of rain last night. Hope the kids that went outside yesterday didn't float away... The light over the silkie brooder went out at some point last night... I freaked... but they were all just fine..huddling together in a corner but safe and sound. Now flopped out in the warmth of a new bulb.