Silkie Chickens (and Hatching Update)

If you saw the post from yesterday, you know we successfully have hatched silkie eggs! Officially, 6 tiny and healthy puff balls have hatched and are at home in the brooder in my office. (AKA, a cardboard box with a heat lamp.)

Four are white (currently they’re yellow but once their adult feathers come in, they will be fully white) and two have adorable splash coloring (a mix of various shades of grey).

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We still have our silkie hen, Penelope, sitting on about 7 or 8 more silkie eggs. I can’t wait to see how many more babies she’s able to hatch! It should be about 15 more days before we see any more babies on the homestead.

(Unless our new animal breed arrives sooner!)

Declan has been quite taken with these new babies. He’s been begging all day to see his “Chi-chi’s!”

I did want to share some information on why silkies are so interesting, as they truly are a unique breed!

Origin

Silkies are a very old breed found originally in Asia. They were recorded in the 13th century by Marco Polo. He described them as having “hair of a cat” and black skin. They are originally a bantam breed, meaning they are smaller bodied than the average chicken. Plumage coloring was traditionally all white.

Another interesting note on their history, Queen Victoria kept a flock of Silkies. Clearly, she had good taste. 😉

Interesting Characteristics

Silkies have blue earlobes, black skin, bones and meat, and five toes instead of four toes (as with other chickens). The two outer toes should also be feathered.

They are known for generally being mild tempered and make good mothers. They go broody significantly more often than other breeds. Since they are quite often broody, their egg production is usually much less than other chickens. A broody hen does not lay eggs during that time. You could expect about 120 eggs each year from your silkie hen.

The appearance of their fluffy feathers is due to a lack of barbicels. The barbicel of the feather is what holds everything together. Because of this, silkies cannot fly and their feathers do not repel water. Their inability to fly and small size (4lbs for males and 3lbs for females) makes them good ideas for backyard or urban homesteaders!

Coloring now accepting in silkies include white, blue, black, buff, splash, and partridge with other’s available but are not currently accepted as a breed standard.

On a personal note, the roosters have been extremely mild mannered. We currently have two silkie roosters in with our flock and while they definitely are the dominant members of the flock, they do not attack us, our dogs, or each other. I have caught one of the roosters sitting on eggs in the nesting boxes more than once!

Do you have a favorite chicken breed? What would your ideal flock of chickens include?