Six Silkie Chicks Grow Up
Silkies have been an important part of my flock from the time I got my very first chickens and I can’t imagine walking into the coop and not seeing a few adorable little fluffballs pecking and scratching with the rest of the birds. “Why Silkies?” you may ask. Silkies are not prolific egg layers, and the eggs they lay are small compared to a regular chicken egg. “Well,” I will tell you, “They are, as I’ve just mentioned, adorable little fluffballs, after all.” They’re definitely the French poodles of the poultry world. And they feel just as soft as they look. Holding a Silkie provides the same tactile experience as holding a kitten. They’re also sweet tempered, calm and social. It’s fortunate that a creature that looks so cuddly is actually okay with being cuddled. When kids visit my coop and want to hold a chicken, they get a Silkie. And if they hold the chicken awkwardly, the Silkies just calmly grin and bear it, while other chickens would probably freak out. And add to that the fact that Silkies are wonderful moms and make great surrogate mothers for baby chicks of any breed.
So, with the sad demise of Snowball the rooster early this spring, the last of my Silkie chickens, I knew it was time to seek out new baby Silkies. To that end, one bright Saturday morning last May, I took a short trip to Forest Lake, Minnesota - a suburb north of the Twin Cities. Forest Lake is home to VJP Poultry, a breeder of exceptional Silkie chickens. Victoria Peterson, owner of VJP, conscientiously produces high quality birds. But while the quality is high, hers is a backyard business, so the quantity is not so high. Thus, the demand exceeds the supply, especially in the spring when everybody wants chicks. But with persistence and luck I was able to drive home from Forest Lake that day with a small box containing four peeping babies—three little buff girls, and one little black girl—the last babies Victoria had available that day. You’re probably asking, “How did he know they were girls?” “Well,” I reply, “I didn’t.” Silkie babies are nearly impossible to sex using vent sexing techniques. We really wouldn’t know if these chicks were boys or girls until they were older. Since I was hoping for girls, calling them girls was simply my use of the power of positive thinking. Read on to see how that worked out for me!
May 12: A box of four hatchlings
After I got the babies home, I dipped their beaks into their water dish to make sure they got the hang of drinking, then I tucked them under the electric heater in a big blue plastic tub in one of our spare bedrooms - their new home. The next day, I shot this 20 second video. The little cuties were fairly subdued and sleepy hatchlings on Saturday, but by the time I shot the video on Sunday, they were exploring their humongous 2x3 foot world—pecking, peeping, pooping, and doing all the stuff normal healthy baby chicks do!
In a post I wrote last year called, “Getting Your Ducks in a Row for Raising Baby Chicks,” I suggested that a new chick owner “plan on spending lots of time with your chicks the first couple of days—they need your attention so you know they’re eating and drinking and finding their way to the warmth of the heater….Don’t plan any major trips the first month your babies are home—they’re babies, after all, and they need you! Spend time with your chicks. This won’t be hard to do. They are cute, playful, and so fun to watch! Also, if you don’t use a broody hen, they are all imprinting on you. You are their mom!”
Spending time with these four little characters was definitely not a hardship. Here’s a video I shot when they were just a couple of days old. I imagined they were acting out this scenario: “You're at a bar having a few drinks and a few snacks with friends. And there's the one friend who always has just a few too many and ends up jumping up onto the table—right in the middle! And just stands there peeping! And then they make you all leave.”
I was delighted with my new peeping bundles, but was a little uncomfortable with the idea that there were only four of them. I was hoping for hens, but with odds dictating that at least half would be roosters, I could only count on two hens, or less if luck turned against me. So the next Wednesday, I traveled to Forest Lake again. That day, I managed to get the last two chicks Victoria had available—one more buff and one more black.
May 16: Two more baby Silkies!
We drove home with the two new babies with the windows up and the AC off even though it was a warm spring day because we needed to make things as warm as possible for the chicks. It was in the mid-80's in the car, which was uncomfortably warm for us but still cold for newly hatched baby chicks. Then the little black chick started to peep forlornly, so I picked her up and held her loosely in my hand. Soon she snuggled in and fell asleep. Then the little buff chick started peeping, so I picked her up with the other hand (no, I was NOT driving!) and soon I had a happily sleeping chick in each hand for the remainder of the drive! Once we got home I gave each of them a little water and tucked them right under the heater for their first nap in their new home.
May 16: Babies on board—driving home with two more hatchlings.
On the one-week birthday of the youngest chicks, I piled them all in a basket and took this pic. At a week old, there were still no names for anybody—because there’s nothing worse for a chicken than going through life with the wrong name, so it’s important to take the time to do it right! And of course, they were Silkies thus were so very coy about revealing their gender. My plan was to just refer to them as “the baby chicks” until they were old enough to tell the hens from the roos - then I could dole out girl’s names and boy’s names appropriately.
May 23 (1 week old): A basket of chicks!
By the time the babies had their 2-week birthday, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the blue plastic tub was quickly becoming too small for six active chicks. It was time for them to move into a larger home - this super-cool “kiddy pool chick habitat” in my office. The chicks got more space and I got to have the chicks up close and personal while I worked on the chicken blog. Win-win! Note that the blue tub became part of their new space - it was sideways inside the kiddy pool. The babies still had their old home but also had new territory to explore!
May 28 (2 weeks old): Babies in kiddy pool.
With all the extra space in the kiddy pool, I expected to see them playing more - or maybe running laps around the perimeter! In fact, they spent most of their time asleep or just hanging out under the chick heater. I had to remind myself that that they were still just babies!
May 28 (2 weeks old): Under the heater.
As a matter of fact, when they weren’t sleeping or basking under the heater, they were usually eating. These little girls knew their priorities and they stuck to them!
May 28 (2 weeks old): Lunchtime
And then May turned to June and the baby Silkies celebrated their three-week birthday. How did they celebrate? By eating! Of course!
On the eleventh of June, at three-and-a-half-weeks-old, the babies moved out of the house. Their new quarters were the old rooster pen - in the pole barn right next to Coop 2. Even though their heater and and all their familiar equipment went with them, it was still all new and scary. Here they're looking through the screen separating them from Coop 2 and saying, "Other chickens! Who knew that other chickens even existed! And OMG, they're HUGE!"
June 11 (3.5 weeks old): First day in the coop.
By the time they celebrated their four-week birthday, the chicks were definitely settled in and at home in the coop. How did they celebrate? Did you guess “by eating?” You’re right!
The purpose of the one-by four board along the door sill of the Silkie coop is to keep the pine shavings from getting kicked out the door. But if you’re a five-week-old baby Silkie, its purpose is to be a roost that’s just the perfect size and the right height!
June 21 (5 weeks old): Baby Silkies perch.
There’s a low roost about a foot-and-a-half off the floor in the coop. I assumed it would only be a matter of time before the Silkies found their way onto that roost. Well, the concept of a roost just didn’t seem to be in their brains - at six weeks of age, they still had their fluffy feet firmly planted on the coop floor. They were babies, after all. And Silkies. So, I gave them a little help by building "stairs” up to the roost with cement blocks. That was all they needed! They were hanging out on the roost by the next day!
The two-month-old Silkie chicks were getting a little cramped for space, so I built a new coop around the outside of their old coop, opened the door and voila! Their coop suddenly became five times larger! There was one big problem, though; nobody wanted to be that pioneer chick to venture into the great unknown. Even after the door had been open for over a day, they all gathered nervously at the doorway to peer into the inviting but frightening new world, but nobody would go beyond the door.
After a few days of hanging out fearfully at the edge of their new space, they finally took the plunge. And by ten weeks, they totally owned the space and were having a good time racing around, trying (with absolutely no success) to fly, and mock fighting. Here they're enjoying a sprig of clearweed that I’d picked just outside the coop. These kids like their vegetables!
August arrived and the babies celebrated their three-month birthday. And I gave them names. Ever the optimist, I gave them all girl names. I was still almost completely clueless regarding the gender of most of the chicks - but I was pretty sure about Sophia, who looked super-feminine with her cute little powderpuff crest from the day she hatched . The day I took this picture is the day Sophia crowed. Yup. I knew what that meant. So, no doubt, did Sophia. Um….I mean, so, no doubt, did Bob.
August 7 (three-months-old): Bob
A couple weeks later, three-and-a-half-month-old Bob’s solo crowing act became a duet when he was joined by Sophie Clucker, whose name I immediately changed to Raphael.
And then we had it figured out—the Silkies and I all knew that there were two roosters and four hens. The two buff colored roosters are Bob and Raphael. The two buff hens are Marilyn Henroe and Petula Cluck. And the two black hens are Vivihen Lay and Dorothy Laymore.
The latest milestone in growing up happened last week when I opened the door between the Silkie coop and the coop next door and the four-and-a-half-month-old Silkies got to meet their new roommates—the Cream Legbar hens. The four Cream Legbars were raised by a Silkie mom, and are shy and basically nonconfrontational. The Silkes are, well, Silkies. The bloodless confrontation between Paulette the Legbar and Raphael in the video below is about as bad as it’s gotten. For the most part the two groups of chickens avoid each other. I expect that as time goes on, these chickens will share the space and get along just fine.
And that brings us to October and the Silkie chicks are gone. In their place are six very fine young cockerels and pullets. Everybody, I’d like you to meet the Silkies, all grown up!
Vivian Lay and Dorothy Laymore (Viv & Dot!)
Raphael Roo and Petula Cluck
Bob Roo and Marilyn Henroe
