Tag: silkie chicken blogs in MInnesota
How To Give Your Silkie a Bath
There will come a time when you may need to give your little silkie a bath. Maybe she has been playing in the mud or maybe you have plans for showing her. Either way, giving a silkie a bath is a very easy thing to do.
First of all, gather all of the supplies you will need ahead of time so you won’t be searching for them while your bird is in the water. You will need some kind of shampoo and some white vinegar to use as part of a rinse. You will need towels and a bucket for the final rinse. A blow dryer should be handy too.
You have a couple of choices as to where to give the bath. A sink works well especially if you have a water sprayer attached. A bath tub can work too. I have used several buckets in a bath tub and then just moved the bird from bucket to bucket.
Start by soaking the bird in warm water. The water should not be too cool or too warm. Keep the water shallow enough so that her head won’t go under the water line. Water should never go into the chicken’s nostrils. Always keep one hand on your bird.
When the bird is soaked with water, you can start shampooing. Any shampoo will work. I like a dog flea and tick shampoo to start with. You might use a little blue Dawn dish soap on heavily soiled areas if your silkie is white. A bluing shampoo works well with white birds. Make sure that the bird is thoroughly wet before shampooing or the feathers will end up purple from the bluing.
Next you will want to rinse all of the shampoo off with the sprayer or by rinsing in a separate bucket. Lastly, dip her in clean water that has had some vinegar splashed into it. The vinegar cuts the soap film on the feathers.
You will want to quickly wrap your dripping bird up into a towel. Try to absorb as much water as possible with the towel. It is easy for the bird to become chilled at this point so keep her wrapped up and warm.
The blow dryer should be plugged in and ready to go. Make sure that you use it on the “low” setting. Too high of heat will burn your silkie. I start blow drying the crest while she is still wrapped up in the towel. Slowly unwrap the towel and continue blow drying the whole body.
Blow drying takes a long time. You can take short breaks and comb out the feathers with a slicker brush. It is important that she is dry when you return her to her group. If the weather is cool, she can become chilled. Never bath a silkie right before they go to sleep. They will still be damp under their wings which can lead to them being chilled.
They may not like it the first time you bath them, but the more you wash them, the more they get used to it. After a few times they will begin to behave and enjoy it. Do silkies need to be bathed? No, they do a nice job of grooming themselves. You will, however , be amazed at how fluffy and soft they become after their bath. Good luck with bathing your silkies!
For tips and tricks for raising outstanding silkies check out our Chicken Learning Center at VJPPoultry.com . VJP Poultry is an NPIP and state inspected hatchery located 30 miles north of St. Paul. We hatch out silkies all year long so we always have stock available. Like us on Facebook to get weekly updates on what we currently have for sale.
Victoria J. Peterson
Tips and Tricks for Broody Silkies
Silkies are a breed of chicken that goes broody regularly. This is important to know because the first time you experience it you may fear that your hen has developed some strange malady . I have people call me and are sure that something terrible is wrong with their silkie hen because she is acting so strangely.
A hen goes broody when she wants to set continuously on a clutch of eggs for 21 days and to have chicks hatch out. She may be sitting on real eggs, fake eggs, or imaginary eggs. Her hormones are telling her it is time to become a mother and nothing is going to deter her from her goal.
Some hens will never go broody, some will go occasionally and some will go very frequently. Conversely, it is very difficult to make a hen go broody if she is not interested. They have their own timetables.
The best way to tell if a hen has gone broody is when she wants to stay in her nest spot at all times. Even at night she will still be sitting in her corner. She’ll pull her feathers out, flatten her body over her eggs, growl or shriek if disturbed and peck or bite any hand that comes close.
A broody hen is wonderful if you are trying to hatch chicks. Silkies make excellent incubators. Many people purchase silkies for the sole purpose of having them hatch out other eggs. They can hatch other breeds of chicken’s eggs, duck eggs or even pea cock eggs. They will then raise these offspring as well.
A hen has a hormone surge prior to egg laying that causes her to create a nest and prepare . She will lay an egg every day. This is her clutch. Then she will settle down to business and won’t be moved. The broody period typically lasts for three weeks.
Broody hens will stop laying eggs and pluck out their breast feathers. This is known as “feathering the nest”. They only leave the nest for short periods of time to eat, drink and poo. Broody poo is easy to recognize as it is a very large, smelly amount.
Broody hens will lose weight. They can actually starve themselves if they take it too far. They will sit in their nesting box for 24 hrs a day and almost look as if they have gone into a trance.
Broodiness can be contagious and can lead to other hens going broody too. Sometimes I will have four or five in a heap together. One hen will come over and lay an egg and the broodies will all fight over who gets to sit on the egg. When one hen isn’t looking they will steal it and keep passing the egg around between them.
The key to breaking a broody hen is to cool her abdomen and vent area. It is the elevated temperature that signals her hormones so that she will continue to sit.
The best way to break a broody hen is to contain her in a wire bottomed cage. Put it up on a saw horse so that air can flow underneath. This air flow will help to cool down her vent area. A bird or parrot cage is often used. The best would be a rabbit hutch that is already up on legs. People call these cages “Broody Breakers.” Make sure that she has food and water but no bedding.
Other tricks to break them would include things such as collecting the eggs quickly and not allowing her any to sit on. Remove the hen from the nest and put her out in the run with lots of interesting treats to eat. Put frozen water bottles or ice cubes in the nest. Remove all nesting material and close down that area of the coop.
I have tried the water method. You dip the bottom of the hen in water in order to cool her down. This needs to be done on a warm, summer day so that she does not become too chilled.
If you are determined to break her, break her sooner rather than later. The longer she is allowed to sit, the longer she will need to stay in the cage and the longer it will take her to get back to laying eggs.
I do not break my broodies. I just leave them alone and let them cycle through it. Eventually, they all give up and go back to their former social existence. Keep a close eye on your broodies and make sure there is food and water close by especially if it is a hot day.
The most inconvenient thing about a hen being broody is that it is no longer laying eggs. Remember that she probably still has eggs under her because she is stealing other hen’s eggs. It is important to collect them every day or you may end up with a hatch of baby chicks.
Whether you decide to break your broody or not, silkie hens will give you plenty of experience with how to handle broodiness. Good luck with your silkie hens!
For tips and tricks for raising outstanding silkies check out our Chicken Learning Center at VJPPoultry.com . VJP Poultry is an NPIP and state inspected hatchery located 30 miles north of St. Paul. We hatch out silkies all year long so we always have stock available. Like us on Facebook to get weekly updates on what we currently have for sale.
Victoria J. Peterson
VJP Poultry 