# Silkie chicken questions



## minister man (Jan 14, 2007)

I recently bought some silkie chicks. The plan is that they are to be next years incubator. I have a few things I am wondering about. 

I am reading that silkies don't fly, so do they need/ use roosts? One place I was looking said that the walls of silkie pens only needed to be three feet high, because they won't fly out. Is that true? 

If it is true that they don't roost, and or fly, I am thinking that I can stack some breeding pens, because they would only have to be a couple of feet high. Maybe 2'x4' pens for a trio? 

I was also reading on a site where they set small setting hens in what they called " broody Boxes". They were 24X 30 inches and 16 inches high. They contain a next about 12" square and thier food and water. Does that sound reasonable? 

I know these are a lot of questions, so maybe it would be easier, to have you explain what would you set up for housing silkies?

Thanks

Does any one know what the square foot/ bird is for silkies?


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

I plan on silkies again in the future but they will just be in the chicken yard and coop like all other chickens. They go broody easy and just take over the nest when the other hens lay. 

They dont fly but they can jump quite high, several feet!
I have had silkies jump over 3 ft fencing but not 4 ft.


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## minister man (Jan 14, 2007)

so when they are running around with the other chickens, where do you see them sleeping? are they on the roosts with the other chickens, or are they all snuggled up together on the ground, as one article that that I read?


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Silkies tend to sit down on something to sleep. Mine would hop up onto the top of the tubs in the coop.

They can't really fly....but they can hop pretty high and they sure can climb/flap/hop up the side of a 4foot chicken wire pen!  

They'll set in anything. a nest box. A shoe box. a chicken feeder. Those are the three things that I've seen with mine. And I only had them for 9 months. 

Transporting the little critters with their eggs is easy, too. Just plop the whole mess...chicken, eggs, nest material...into a box that's about the same size..and put a towel over them. (leave some air holes) Move them wherever you want. Won't matter. Hen won't leave, won't be upset.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

I have roost, 2x4's in my coop. They are at different heights starting at 2 ft, next one 4ft and then 5ft and I also have ledges 6 ft high.
My silkies when I had them jumped from roost to roost to sit as high up as everyone else.

My coop is huge. Its around 14x7 by 10ft tall. The door to it is 6ft tall by 4ft wide.

My chickens never had nest boxes. They all make nest in the 4 corners of the coop. 
The roost are not sitting above any of the corners so no poop falls there.
The floor is dirt and I always keep hay layered over it.
They use the hay and make regular nest in the corners. Broodies sit in those nest.


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## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

I have some older silkies that roost, some go up above the nest boxes. Some 6 month old are still huddling in a corner on the floor. So, I think any roost will be ok. They'll find a way to be comfortable.
I use regular size nest boxes. They are so broody, they will nest any where...big, small, pile of hay, etc. I let mine stay in the nest box when they are setting. I move them around the 2nd week. I've used rubbermaid bins, or other nest boxes in a vacant coop. They just settle right down, and STAY. Tried this with my cochins...not good!


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## minister man (Jan 14, 2007)

Dazlin, when you say a rubber maid bin, do you mean like a dish pan? What do your vacant coops look ? I am thinking that you are not meaning a building, since most of us back yarders don't have enough buildings to have a lot of extra ones. That is what I Am wondering about how I am going to have room to seperate them when they are setting.


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## Sanza (Sep 8, 2008)

You can do it like you said with stacking pens, maybe 3' X4' would be a good size. I made myself a loft in my coop for my silkies and its about 3 ft high and they have a little roost that's about 10" off the floor. The pens are 4'X5' and 2' X 8' and large enough for about 6 - 8 silkies in each one easily. I made a mistake and didn't make the front wire removable so it's hard to clean them out.  Next time.....
I also made a portable 2 level 2' x3' broody box. It comes in handy because I have 2 silkies brooding right now and the chicks could just slip through the bigger wire on their pens once they hatch - not good! I have a cuckoo marans brooding in the layer coop, with a australorp thinking about it now too, but the other hens don't bother the marans because I have enough nests for each hen, whereas the silkies tend to all try to pack into the same nest and then they squeal at each other.

Did you get different colored silkies? Tell us what you got!


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## minister man (Jan 14, 2007)

Thanks for the info. I can almost picture your set up in my mind. I can't really tell you what I bought, because I don't know yet. I bought them from a local poultry judge, but he wasn't sure what they are either. He said they are "buff and Partridge", it was hard to tell at one week. I am not clear if he meant that there are some of each, could be some of each, or if they are one or the other. I hope they are the partridge ones, the other ones look quite plan. Right now they are a brownish color with black stripes, really kind of like a little chipmunk! So I guess I bought a "Surprise pack". There are 8 of them, I hope some of them are females!


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## Ann Mary (Nov 29, 2004)

Another question here about using silkies as 'incubators'....I read were some people trim the undersides feathers off or use silkie mixed breedsto set on eggs so the long feathers don't strangle the chicks when hatched??? Anyone know if this is really a problem or not?


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## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

Minister man...I use the large rubbermaid storage bins. I put some hay on the bottom and just put the mama hen and her eggs in it. If you decide to use the lid..cut a large area out and fasten some screen over it. You may want to take the mother out daily for a bathroom call, and a stretch. Or, you can place the bin on it's side, and she'll go in and out.
The vacant coop, is actually a chicken coop, equipped with roosts and nest boxes. I have 4 coops, so I try to leave this one for a grow out, or bad boy's.


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