Silkies

[adamhartree]

Hi all, I have just brought a incubator and want to have a go at hatching some silkies. Has anyone else got silkies, what are they like,and is hatch rate usually good?.Any advice would be great :-)

[RichmondHens]

Petal will tell you all you need to know about Silkies. She's been breeding them for some time but I think she might be stopping now. You might find it more difficult at this time of year to get hold of fertile eggs though (fertility is higher in the Spring) and bear in mind that it gets more expensive to grow on youngsters through the winter months as they eat more. You will also need to keep them under heat for longer.

[adamhartree]

Thanks rh, I have just brought fertile eggs to pot in the inci and I am also using my shed to put them in over winter with heat. I'm lookin forward to hatching em now. N I do hope Petal will be on here soon to get some more info. Thanks for your help anyway

[petal]

I don't hatch past this point in the year knowingly....odd hens have been known to sneak off and return with fluffies in the middle of a snow storm though. Somehow they seem to cope.
just given up with silkies, kept one for ornamental value, she is a great broody. At around 12 weeks I was having to cull show quality males as market is flooded with substandard cockerels noone knows what to do with. You have picked a really difficult breed for what I assume is a first time hatch. Will you be able to kill the males when the time comes? they ought only be rehomed if they are really decent birds.
you will need to keep them under heat for a long time as they are fragile babies. Look out for mareks and cull anything substandard immediately- better to focus on the strong ones and not waste time on weaklings. Hope this advice helps.

[jessmorris]

I would say that advice goes for all pure breeds Petal. I'm coming to the conclusion that there's a lot of weakness (or can be) in purebreeds and there's almost no point trying to coddle them on as babies as they just die from something else later on..sorry if I sound jaded, just lost another Orloff from the same batch of dodgy chicks. the vet said there's nothing wrogn with her but 'a weakness in the caecum'. sigh.

[petal]

true, jessmorris, purebreeds are for the experienced only if such breeds are to survive , but what is particularly depressing about silkies is it takes so long to sex them due to feather shaft 'disguise' and general comb/wattle sneakiness.... and then you can't even eat them- even the ferret turns his nose up! I mean lets be practical- where exactly do people think all the male 'fluffies' go when they buy pullets- to cockerel fluffy farm?

[veggiechicken]

I can tell you where one male Silkie ended up - dumped in the woods near my home. Took me two days to catch it and a couple of days later I found out it was a cockerel
Such a pathetic little crow that the neighbours didn't even notice him. Lost him to a fox the following year