I’m so glad to have discovered your channel today. I am a Russian orthodox priest, and my wife and I just moved onto a small gentleman‘s farm with an outbuilding that is being turned into our church by our flock…pun intended. This is the life! I should’ve done this years ago. So I went out to get chicks and it just so happened that all there was available locally was four little bantam silkies. I think they’re just about three weeks old. Almost. They’re adorable, and I love holding them and socializing them. At any rate I could go on forever but it’s your channel and that’s your job lol. I look forward to even more informative videos like this. Thank you. 🙏 😊
Silkies are super flock oriented. My silkies just can't be separated from each other. They will stay right there next to the other all day long all night long constantly touching each other.
the broody aspect of Silkies is amazing and at least from the little bit we have been working with them they are so easy to manage as a broody hen (and that's coming from someone who has spend over a decade and a half working with broody ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens).
We enjoy sharing our journey and all the thought's that go along with it! I like the way you said it about "the challenges we are facing today" as it is amazing how much things both on the homestead and off the homestead change over time and how that all affects what and how you grow food on the homestead.
That was a really interesting fact for me (Chris) and a big factor on just taking the dive into raising them. I haven't talked about it much but home grown food is healthy BUT what if we could be growing food that was even more healthy (and not just chickens). Its an interesting rabbit hole to go down for sure.
Welcome to the channel, we are so glad you found us. Thank you so much for following along with our story. We look forward to your future comments. Merry Christmas.
I think I will stick with Silkies. I've had them several times already & I can't think of one thing to dislike about them. Really I can't see going to another type when it's a small space I have to work with and you can't beat them for their calm/gentle nature, getting along with each other, intelligence, easy to catch, (except for the odd fast one!) and broodiness with great mothering qualities.
So far they seem to be very decent producers. We have 16 adult hens in total and we get 8 to 10 eggs a day. Saying that, the last few days with the cold snap, the production has dropped, but we saw this with the Chanteclers as well. Weather is a big influencing factor and we do not light or heat them.
Just because a chicken is smaller doesn't mean that it uses less food. It can be way less efficient converting that food into either muscle or eggs. If a silky only produces one two to three eggs per week versus the other chicken breeds that produce 5 to 6 eggs per week then the resources required to support the same egg production or meat production will actually exceed the larger chicken breed. Also, silkies are not cold hardy chickens. They'll require more resources to stay warm in the winter. They're not waterproof so they have to have a better housing situation. Now if you already have all that infrastructure in place, that's fine. But if you're having to go out and purchase all new infrastructure for the silky over the conventional chicken, then it's going to be way more expensive.
I subscribed. Can't wait to see what happens. I got 2 silkie hens and and regular sized hen and it was a game changer for me. They were smart, respectful and followed all the rules. They even came to the back kitchen door to tell me it's time to go to bed. But the most important thing was they all survived the hawk that took every one of my chickens every summer. I'm talking huge barred rock. Anyway, I had it on my mind to get some black "crow looking " birds and found Black Old English Game Bantam. Cool birds. Some are black with red crowns, hens are black, look just like crows (which hawks hate crows) and the ones that bred with the large hen I got medium sized chickens. They are not fully grown yet but they are feisty little guys with attitude, which is cool. I'll keep you updated, this will be interesting because the hawk is out there waiting..
We are still in the process of analyzing this a bit (and collecting more info) so will have more thought's on this in the future. But our preliminary findings it appears that they get to a higher percentage of their adult size faster and they do seem to get to full adult size faster. But they are smaller and there could be a lot of factors affecting that (and obviously we need more data).
We have both quail and chickens, our biggest issue with quail is that they can not be allowed outside a pen. Plus our dogs will happily eat a quail if they escape, the chickens stand up for themselves.
I still toy with the idea of quail. I think in the coming years smaller livestock are the way to go for so many reasons. But like you say the silkies are a good compromise between the smaller sized bird but still something that you can let out of the coop as well and that's a big plus. Its nice to know you can keep them locked up if you had to for any number of reason (and they are still somewhat happy) but nice to know you can let them out to forage a bit to!
Yes they are the cutest birds in the world. Best ever at being mothers, raise their children until they are able to defend themselves. Will take on prey. But their skin and bones are dark ..... And they are so small...... XXX
The dark meat is certainly something that takes getting used to, but it's one of their best hidden (in plain sight) qualities at the same time! And nothing like the dark leg meat of chickens or turkeys either (it's pretty tasty). They are small, but at least the ones we have butchered seem to be well put together (obviously not broad-breasted meat hybrids, but not skinny little birds either).
You are getting out of Partridge Chantecler just as we are getting into them, our reasons are they make good free-rangers, cold hardy, decent camoflage, good winter egg layers, good dual-purpose breed, and of course a Canadian breed. It was very interesting however to hear your take on Silkie chickens vs. standard size chickens, and the pros/cons when it comes to cost of feed, and infrastructure.
Dang you’re making me regret getting rid of our silkies this fall! 😂 I was wanting them as little garden chickens, but with our revamp and downsize, the Icelandic won out, mostly for their crazy colours. Silkie meat is delicious though!
lol, I know the Icelandic chickens are hardy and, like you say, so many colors. The silkie's meat is a huge consideration for us, though, and you are right it is delicious!
I see the evaluation. That's what everyone has to do: look for the "fit" for yourself. If you expect the birds to pay their way, put them into an environment that lets them thrive: off/on free range is incredibly good as if they're short something in the pens, they'll get i t outside, esp. in spring and summer. My biggest issue is off-leash large dogs, and dogs not under their owners' or walkers control. ONE incident and I have a year (or two) of genetics wiped out. I'm in town, have boarded up the holes off the hiking trail between me and the school (dogs through the holes chasing deer) and have cams out everywhere. (cheap insur. and I know what happened). You're in a layout where I would think predators would be able to get up close????! I have the occ. bear, skunks, corvids (ravens and crow nests) as well as the occ. fox or other predator, but have had ZERO issues with them in 4 years.
Predators of all kinds are certainly something to think about. We are fairly lucky here, and yes, you are right. We have a pretty wide assortment of predators, BUT for the most part, except for Racoons (they have to be the worst), we have had very few losses to predators since moving here. Locking the birds up at night really helps, but most of the wild predators won't come into the yard or area around the barn in the daylight, so that helps (as does fences but fences are expensive and time-consuming to install). Dogs can certainly be problematic as they tend to do it just for fun and can do a lot of damage in a very short period of time, so in your situation, I can imagine that has been a big issue to overcome! I like the way you put it to everyone needing to find that "fit" for themselves and their property and expectations, etc. I think that's the part sometimes that gets lost in translation on some of our talks (like this one) and I'm glad you can see what we are saying here and why it's a good solution for us where we are in space and time!
it is very deferent from other chickens that's for sure. But it's kind of like eating a blue potato the flavor is really the same and we actually all like the taste quite a bit (even the kids).
Like you people, I am switching to a bantam sized chicken for my farm. In my case, I cross Silkie roosters with good laying breeds(Leghorn, Lohmann, Rhode Island Red) to produced offspring that can be sexed at hatching. To get sexed offspring the Silkie rooster must be crossed with a yellow or white shanked hen. The male chicks will hatch with white skin & shanks while the females will have dark skin and shanks. The genetics behind this cross have to do with the (Fm) Fibromelanosis & (Id) Inhibitor dermal genes. The offspring being bantam sized consume a third of the feed that a full sized laying hen would. The Silkie/Leghorn bantam hens lay 310 small egg in a year as compared to 340 large eggs/year by there Leghorn mothers. The Silkie hen eggs are know for the large yolk to egg white ratio, which they pass to the Silkie/Leghorn cross hen. Since most of the nutrition is in the egg yolk, eggs consumed are very nutrient dense for there small size. I have a flock of Silkie hens which readily hatch out these Silkie/Leghorn chicks for me, requiring no incubator or power. Egg production on my farm is for my families personal consumption and part of an overall self-sufficiency plan.
We have really come to like the silkies. The colour of the meat doesn't bother us (that's a bit plus actually) so when you have extra roosters its a good way to help feed your family!
I look forward to seeing how this goes, you give us so much information, thank you.
We are curious how this will go to. So far its been a positive switch with some positive surprises as well.
I’m so glad to have discovered your channel today. I am a Russian orthodox priest, and my wife and I just moved onto a small gentleman‘s farm with an outbuilding that is being turned into our church by our flock…pun intended. This is the life! I should’ve done this years ago. So I went out to get chicks and it just so happened that all there was available locally was four little bantam silkies. I think they’re just about three weeks old. Almost. They’re adorable, and I love holding them and socializing them. At any rate I could go on forever but it’s your channel and that’s your job lol. I look forward to even more informative videos like this. Thank you. 🙏 😊
Thank you glad you enjoy it and enjoy your silkies!
Thank you for the silkie info!
Silkies are super flock oriented. My silkies just can't be separated from each other. They will stay right there next to the other all day long all night long constantly touching each other.
I had Silkies when I was a kid. They hatched out a lot of chicks for me because they are super broody.
the broody aspect of Silkies is amazing and at least from the little bit we have been working with them they are so easy to manage as a broody hen (and that's coming from someone who has spend over a decade and a half working with broody ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens).
Thanks for taking us on your journey. Insightful take on challenges we are facing today
We enjoy sharing our journey and all the thought's that go along with it! I like the way you said it about "the challenges we are facing today" as it is amazing how much things both on the homestead and off the homestead change over time and how that all affects what and how you grow food on the homestead.
Silkie is the funnest breed
We are enjoying them a lot and I (Steph) have to admit I love all the colour combinations.
Very interesting, especially the aspect of carnosine. Thanks for sharing 👍
That was a really interesting fact for me (Chris) and a big factor on just taking the dive into raising them. I haven't talked about it much but home grown food is healthy BUT what if we could be growing food that was even more healthy (and not just chickens). Its an interesting rabbit hole to go down for sure.
I'm also switching to bantom and silkie's less feed and grand kids love them
I feel like this can be summed up very quickly, "we think their funny" 😂
New subscriber...thank you for all the useful information. Merry Christmas from MI.
Welcome to the channel, we are so glad you found us. Thank you so much for following along with our story. We look forward to your future comments. Merry Christmas.
I think I will stick with Silkies. I've had them several times already & I can't think of one thing to dislike about them. Really I can't see going to another type when it's a small space I have to work with and you can't beat them for their calm/gentle nature, getting along with each other, intelligence, easy to catch, (except for the odd fast one!) and broodiness with great mothering qualities.
Interesting will be following along ❤. What size would there eggs be comparable to?
I’m also curious about the relative egg size and production.
I'm wondering the same thing.
We did a short on their size, but I'm not sure if you saw it. But basically, 3 silky eggs are equal to 2 regular eggs.
So far they seem to be very decent producers. We have 16 adult hens in total and we get 8 to 10 eggs a day. Saying that, the last few days with the cold snap, the production has dropped, but we saw this with the Chanteclers as well. Weather is a big influencing factor and we do not light or heat them.
3 silky eggs weigh about the same as 2 Chantecler eggs 😀
Just because a chicken is smaller doesn't mean that it uses less food. It can be way less efficient converting that food into either muscle or eggs. If a silky only produces one two to three eggs per week versus the other chicken breeds that produce 5 to 6 eggs per week then the resources required to support the same egg production or meat production will actually exceed the larger chicken breed. Also, silkies are not cold hardy chickens. They'll require more resources to stay warm in the winter. They're not waterproof so they have to have a better housing situation. Now if you already have all that infrastructure in place, that's fine. But if you're having to go out and purchase all new infrastructure for the silky over the conventional chicken, then it's going to be way more expensive.
I subscribed. Can't wait to see what happens.
I got 2 silkie hens and and regular sized hen and it was a game changer for me. They were smart, respectful and followed all the rules. They even came to the back kitchen door to tell me it's time to go to bed. But the most important thing was they all survived the hawk that took every one of my chickens every summer. I'm talking huge barred rock.
Anyway, I had it on my mind to get some black "crow looking " birds and found Black Old English Game Bantam. Cool birds. Some are black with red crowns, hens are black, look just like crows (which hawks hate crows) and the ones that bred with the large hen I got medium sized chickens. They are not fully grown yet but they are feisty little guys with attitude, which is cool. I'll keep you updated, this will be interesting because the hawk is out there waiting..
You didn't mention the growth rate here. But what are you finding??
We are still in the process of analyzing this a bit (and collecting more info) so will have more thought's on this in the future. But our preliminary findings it appears that they get to a higher percentage of their adult size faster and they do seem to get to full adult size faster. But they are smaller and there could be a lot of factors affecting that (and obviously we need more data).
We have both quail and chickens, our biggest issue with quail is that they can not be allowed outside a pen. Plus our dogs will happily eat a quail if they escape, the chickens stand up for themselves.
I still toy with the idea of quail. I think in the coming years smaller livestock are the way to go for so many reasons. But like you say the silkies are a good compromise between the smaller sized bird but still something that you can let out of the coop as well and that's a big plus. Its nice to know you can keep them locked up if you had to for any number of reason (and they are still somewhat happy) but nice to know you can let them out to forage a bit to!
Yes they are the cutest birds in the world. Best ever at being mothers, raise their children until they are able to defend themselves. Will take on prey. But their skin and bones are dark ..... And they are so small...... XXX
The dark meat is certainly something that takes getting used to, but it's one of their best hidden (in plain sight) qualities at the same time! And nothing like the dark leg meat of chickens or turkeys either (it's pretty tasty). They are small, but at least the ones we have butchered seem to be well put together (obviously not broad-breasted meat hybrids, but not skinny little birds either).
Birds are wearing a down coat! I had two die of HEATSTROKE :( I felt horrible I didn't know that could happen. Mine do great in winter
You are getting out of Partridge Chantecler just as we are getting into them, our reasons are they make good free-rangers, cold hardy, decent camoflage, good winter egg layers, good dual-purpose breed, and of course a Canadian breed. It was very interesting however to hear your take on Silkie chickens vs. standard size chickens, and the pros/cons when it comes to cost of feed, and infrastructure.
We have Silver Duckwing Phoenix Bantams and Heritage Rhode Island Reds. The bantams eat far less, so are much cheaper to maintain.
That is what we are finding. We keep asking ourselves "how do they exist, they eat nothing"
@@HickorycroftFarm Haha! I have thought the same thing. The Rhodies are eating machines, whereas the Phoenix bantams exist on little to nothing.
Dang you’re making me regret getting rid of our silkies this fall! 😂 I was wanting them as little garden chickens, but with our revamp and downsize, the Icelandic won out, mostly for their crazy colours. Silkie meat is delicious though!
lol, I know the Icelandic chickens are hardy and, like you say, so many colors. The silkie's meat is a huge consideration for us, though, and you are right it is delicious!
I see the evaluation. That's what everyone has to do: look for the "fit" for yourself. If you expect the birds to pay their way, put them into an environment that lets them thrive: off/on free range is incredibly good as if they're short something in the pens, they'll get i t outside, esp. in spring and summer. My biggest issue is off-leash large dogs, and dogs not under their owners' or walkers control. ONE incident and I have a year (or two) of genetics wiped out. I'm in town, have boarded up the holes off the hiking trail between me and the school (dogs through the holes chasing deer) and have cams out everywhere. (cheap insur. and I know what happened). You're in a layout where I would think predators would be able to get up close????! I have the occ. bear, skunks, corvids (ravens and crow nests) as well as the occ. fox or other predator, but have had ZERO issues with them in 4 years.
Predators of all kinds are certainly something to think about. We are fairly lucky here, and yes, you are right. We have a pretty wide assortment of predators, BUT for the most part, except for Racoons (they have to be the worst), we have had very few losses to predators since moving here. Locking the birds up at night really helps, but most of the wild predators won't come into the yard or area around the barn in the daylight, so that helps (as does fences but fences are expensive and time-consuming to install). Dogs can certainly be problematic as they tend to do it just for fun and can do a lot of damage in a very short period of time, so in your situation, I can imagine that has been a big issue to overcome! I like the way you put it to everyone needing to find that "fit" for themselves and their property and expectations, etc. I think that's the part sometimes that gets lost in translation on some of our talks (like this one) and I'm glad you can see what we are saying here and why it's a good solution for us where we are in space and time!
My neighbor has 6 month old silkies and wants 25 dollars per hen is that high?
Pending where you are, no. Hens seem to really hold value. 20 to 30 canadian seems to be the going rate around us.
@HickorycroftFarm alrighty thanks 👍🏻
I will need time to get used to the skin colour! Raw and cooked!
it is very deferent from other chickens that's for sure. But it's kind of like eating a blue potato the flavor is really the same and we actually all like the taste quite a bit (even the kids).
Like you people, I am switching to a bantam sized chicken for my farm. In my case, I cross Silkie roosters with good laying breeds(Leghorn, Lohmann, Rhode Island Red) to produced offspring that can be sexed at hatching. To get sexed offspring the Silkie rooster must be crossed with a yellow or white shanked hen. The male chicks will hatch with white skin & shanks while the females will have dark skin and shanks. The genetics behind this cross have to do with the (Fm) Fibromelanosis & (Id) Inhibitor dermal genes. The offspring being bantam sized consume a third of the feed that a full sized laying hen would. The Silkie/Leghorn bantam hens lay 310 small egg in a year as compared to 340 large eggs/year by there Leghorn mothers. The Silkie hen eggs are know for the large yolk to egg white ratio, which they pass to the Silkie/Leghorn cross hen. Since most of the nutrition is in the egg yolk, eggs consumed are very nutrient dense for there small size. I have a flock of Silkie hens which readily hatch out these Silkie/Leghorn chicks for me, requiring no incubator or power. Egg production on my farm is for my families personal consumption and part of an overall self-sufficiency plan.
And thanks for reminding me that I need to eat my roosters before thinking of giving them away.
We have really come to like the silkies. The colour of the meat doesn't bother us (that's a bit plus actually) so when you have extra roosters its a good way to help feed your family!