Can anyone tell me if the silkie with the red face is a normal thing.I don`t remember it being that red when I first got her.
red faced silkie
Here is another of her
I think that may be a he not a she. Roos will have redder faces, bigger combs and waddles. it looks rather rooish to me.
I agree with smidgeikles, looks kind of like a roo to me too. Does it have bigger feet? Most of ours we can also guess by the size of their feet and legs.
Very cute :)
Well I thought sure it was a hen,the person that gave her to me said it was a hen.She or he was in the nesting box today scatching around but no egg,I thought she or he had layed an egg before but must have been wrong,will have to really watch and see if its her or the other one that lays the eggs.I only have the two brown ones and the rooster who I know is a rooster cause he crows.Now I`m really curious!
How old are they?
I take that back..........
It LOOKS like a roo.. but I'm no good with Silkies.. Hopefully Silkiechick will come along..
Catscan is better at Silkies than I am..
Don't ask Haystack what ever you do!
This message was edited Jun 27, 2009 6:04 PM
LOL ZZ
green, I got 3 chickens from a teacher who had raised them as a school project.
When I picked them up, they told me the white one was a leghorn, and that they said they had a neighbor who was willing to take it when it started laying eggs.
I didn't have the heart to tell them that the leghorn was really and Easter Egg chicken, because it had tufts. And that the neighbor would have been waiting a long time to get eggs from it, since it was a rooster..LOL
Calling Catscan!!!!!!!!!!!.
This message was edited Jun 27, 2009 8:18 PM
This message was edited Jun 27, 2009 8:19 PM
We have Silkie hens and Silkie Birchen mixes. The Silkie Birchen mix roos have the redder face and bigger comb. It looks more like pictures of Silkie roos I have seen. My guess is still roo but Silkiechick would be the best on that one. Also the stance in the first picture just looks rooish. Beautiful what ever it is.
Well.. The comb points towards roo.. I mean big time..
BUT.. the other one points towards Silkie roo to me.. the swept back hairdo.. the sickle feathers... and the stance..
They are crossed with something else or they would have a walnut comb..
So it depends on what they are crossed with.. if they were crossed with like a RIR or a Leghorn (why someone would do that I don't know) but if they WERE.. then the big comb might not mean roo..
You ARE getting an egg? LOL
I love this..
The only other chickens I seen in this guys coop was sea brights
ZZ? A RIR or a Leghorn jumped the fence and got mixed in? LOL Oh turst me, that can and has happened. We have some mixes.
Now I'm waiting to see what this one is.
I showed my boyfriend the picture and he said rooster. But he's far from an expert. That we know all to well!
This isn't the best picture, but this is a picture of one of our Silkie Birchen roos. The comb and waddles are bigger now as this was taken about a month ago. You can see the red face here.
Awwwwww, how cute he is :)
o he is adorable! I am hoping my silkie isn't a roo... Its swept back hair do has since fluffed forward due to humidity.
Hmmmmmm silkies have hairdo's?
Just kidding
We got 1 hen and two roos out of this mix and they all have the softest feathers.
They look like they have soft feathers.
Question?
Could they handle Wisconin winters?
I love my silkies hair do & Matilda the polish chicks hair too. She's getting highlights of black throughout the front of her hair. Its very cute. The humidity makes her go spiky, kinda a punk rock look right now.
Here is a picture of my rooster,he looks alot like the one in the picture above.I know he is two years old I don`t know how old the other two are.What is a birchen?Is is another breed?
Yes, Birchen is a breed of Cochin bantam. This pic is of our Birchen Roo and his 3 Birchen hens.
kassy I'm not sure how they would fair in Wisconsin. They do have a lot of plumage. Silkies have the fluffy almost hair like feathers that are very soft and Cochins have lots and lots of feather plumage that is very soft as well. They also have feathered feet. They are small size birds. We don't have a Silkie roo and our Silkies were with a Birchen roo (have 2 of those) so we ended up with Silkie Birchens. Interesting the traits they pick up from the different breeds. All 3 have 5 toes like a Silkie, they all have both Silkie and Birchen feathers and they have the markings of Birchens. One roo looks more Silkie (the other picture I posted) the other looks more Birchen Cochin.
I think my rooster must be part cochin or all,the picture I took wasn`t a very good one,it was raining and he is afraid of peaple so he moves away from you when you try to get near him,he was not handled were he was and that makes a differance.
Birchen is the color... It is black and white/silver.. Cochin is the breed.
Yes, there are lots of Cochins types, Birchen, Blue, Buff, Silver laced, etc. All are so pretty. My sister has Silver laces ones.
Thanks for the lesson in breeds and colors
The silkie(that we were not sure of the sex) has layed two eggs this week but both were very soft shells and were broken when I found them,is this common when they first start laying?My other hens never had that problem.
YEA!!!
Glad it was a hen :)
I'm sure your feeding her calcium along with the food, so give her some time for her system to get it right. keep an eye on her though, because I have also read it could be caused by a bacterial infection.
Remember the small egg pictures. We also had the small eggs. Mainly with first time layers. So give her time.
Occationally we have had a soft shelled egg too.
My BR says they lay they because they don't hurt as much.......LOL
Glad to hear it is a she :)
Me to! I do have oyster shell in her pen but I don`t think she eats it,and I also have a good layer pellett but I don`t ever see her eat that either,the man I got them form only feed them scratch and thats what they are used to,I know there is not much in that scratch its like a treat and I do give that to them once in awhile but maybe I should stop and she would eat more of whats good for her.
Yup green, my BF suggested not to give them scratch too for now. Trust me, they will eat. Ours have stripped their runs clean, and now love eating and having dust baths in the dirt.
We let them out from time to time, but can't now as our black raspberries are almost ready to pick, and the chickens have this habbit of helping themselves to them :(
I pick grass and weeds that I know that they like and throw them into them.
She layed another soft shell one out in her pen and her and the rooster were eating it.Couldn`t get in the pen in time to get it away from them.
This is nothing to worry about and it will most likely resolve itself.
A soft shelled egg is one that went thru the egg development process to fast and didn't acquire a shell.
The egg moves thru the egg process and at different stages it has the white and yolk then it's encased in membrane and finally coated with a shell.
Sometimes young hens internal egg process hasn't quite matured and they will lay the soft shelled eggs.
They will begin to lay them with the shell in time probably in the next day or two
I would only worry if it continues for a long period of time then that would mean her system has a genetic defect and she will continue to lay these types of eggs (this is rare)
Calcium is given to chickens in theory to strengthen the shell it will not help them to produce a shell.
I have never used oyster shells or any type of calcium in the eight years i have been breeding chickens and my hens lay very hard shelled eggs sometimes they bounce when i pitch one to my dogs LOL
I also do not feed oyster shell or calcium, never have & the eggs we get will also bounce when dropped. You also have to hit them pretty hard on the marble counter to crack the shells but my chickens are all totally free range chickens. We also have extremely hard water. The level of calcium & heavy metals is very high in it. So maybe they get enough calcium from the well water they drink.
I have often wondered whether the calcium in our hard water was in a biologically useful form. I think it is mostly calcium carbonate, which should be able to be assimilated. (?)