Door too small for Jersey Giant?

[Clarabelle]

Hi there,

 

I've been lurking and reading with interest, but haven't posted for ages as everything had been going well for us until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately we had to have our first chicken put to sleep on Saturday as she had peritonitis. I'm still wondering if the stress of putting a bumper bit on at the beginning of August caused her problems, but I guess I'll never know.

 

Anyway, since doing a search for peritonitis I now realise that is a pretty common problem in hybrids. Is it less of a problem in less prolific egg layers/pure breeds? I didn't realise that we would only have Annie for 18 months - one of the reasons I gave up keeping rats is that I couldn't stand the heartbreak of losing them after only about 2 years and I was hoping that the hens would at least live a bit longer than that.

 

Obviously we need to get Clarabel, our remaining Pepperpot, a companion or several new friends. Silkies seem to have a great deal of pet appeal, so I was wondering if a couple of silkies would live happily with an 18-month old Pepperpot, after gradual introduction, ofcourse? My son is only 4 and he has seen silkies at farms etc. and really likes them. We love the eggs, that goes without saying, but we don't really need each chicken to be laying every day for us. I think we'd prefer to have some lovely pets that lay eggs as an added bonus, rather than the egg laying machine hybrids.

 

That's not to say that we didn't love Annie, she was such a hard worker, bless her, and so is Clarabel.

 

Thanks,

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm so sorry to hear about Annie . How sad .

 

I don't have any experience of Silkies but hope someone else will be along soon . You're right to get some new friends for poor Clarabelle, she won't be happy on her own .

[Clarabelle]

Thanks ANH. You've obviously got experience of pure-breeds, looking at your signature set. Did you make a conscious decision to go for them over the hybrids? Presumably they are more expensive and harder to come by. I've also read that they often come unvaccinated, was that your experience?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I didn't actually make a conscious decision, they were just what my local breeder had in stock . I believe they are unvaccinated (I asked 2 years ago on picking up my older girls and he laughed at me ).

 

I'm not great with breeds to be honest and am a bit confused as to what my new girls actually are . Someone on on the forum said that Poppy is a hybrid/Speckeldy but Cuckoo Maran is what the farmer called her.

 

They were all £15 (two years ago and this year too ).

[Space Chick]

I have a mix of pure breeds, hybrids and ex batts and that was a concious decision to get a range of girls. My pure breeds were between £32 and £39 each so were expensive, but were vaccinated.

 

Sorry to hear about your girl

[Falkor]

So sorry to hear about Annie.

 

I have a mini/bantam silkie and she is dinky and not the brightest in the world either. She is adorable though, very friendly and my favourite ( don`t tell the other 15!). She is laying most days at the moment.

 

Silkies come as bantams and large fowl. According the the GB Silkie Club standard they are:

WEIGHTS

LARGE FOWL: Male 1.8 1kg (4lbs) Female 1.36kg (3lbs)

BANTAM SILKIES: Male 600g (22ozs) Female 500g (l8ozs)

 

I have seen a couple of large fowl silkies and they are not very large. This would be my only major concern when adding them to hybrids/other large fowl. Silkie have a tendancy to go broody too so tend to hang out in the nesting box for consierdable amounts of time.....Pip took weeks before she decided she was bored in there

 

Silkies are reputed to be great with kids. My neighbours kids hang over the fence and don`t believe me when i tell them that the hairy looking thing with a blue face is a chicken

 

I only have two hybrids out of my lot and they are strong steady birds. I do love my pure breed Orps and the pekins but they do come with broodiness and lack of eggs in the winter. I have a very pretty looking cross bantam too and a funky looking cross too, still waiting on eggs from them.

 

On vaccinations you are likely to find that small scale breeders do not vaccinate and bigger suppliers do. This, I assume, is bacause the vacines are sold in such large quanities.

 

I seem to be rambling........

[Clarabelle]

Thanks and I don't mind the rambling at all

 

Strangely enough Clarabel ended up being bullied by Annie and she is pretty oven-ready looking. That's why I fitted Annie with a bumper bit, but I'd definitely think twice about using them again. I'm sure she wasn't right following that and the irony is that she still kept pecking at Clarabel even though the bit was fitted correctly. Grrrr..

 

Anyway, I think whatever I get as company for Clarabel will probably get picked on for a while as she is probably sick of being the under-hen! I'd definitely go for the larger silkies rather than the bantams, that's if I can get any at all.

 

Anyone breed silkies in Essex?

[xScrunchee]

Where abouts in Essex are you?

Anywhere near Dagenham?

[Clarabelle]

Hi Jay,

 

Not far from Dagenham actually - just a few stops on the District line!

[xScrunchee]

You could try ringing or emailing Lynsey.

Here is her site

 

Hennies 4 Pennies

[Clarabelle]

Great, thanks Jay. I'll try contacting them. All excited now as I thought it was going to be difficult to get hold of silkies locally

[xScrunchee]

Think they'll be about £20 ish

 

She is pretty near to Dagenham East station.

 

Let me know how you get on

[Clarabelle]

I guess I'll have a chat to her first to see if she thinks its a good idea to get silkies with my Pepperpot. £20 sounds pretty reasonable, I'd be happy to pay that. I guess she doesn't vaccinate though?

 

I'm relying on a lift from a friend so she'll be really pleased if we can get some from there!

Got to prepare the garden though so that we can do the introductions gradually.

 

Crikey, I'm excited now! Calm.....she might not even have any available

[xScrunchee]

I guess I'll have a chat to her first to see if she thinks its a good idea to get silkies with my Pepperpot. £20 sounds pretty reasonable, I'd be happy to pay that. I guess she doesn't vaccinate though?

 

I'm relying on a lift from a friend so she'll be really pleased if we can get some from there!

Got to prepare the garden though so that we can do the introductions gradually.

 

Crikey, I'm excited now! Calm.....she might not even have any available

 

First of all-I reckon she'll have some

Also, don't bank on them being £20-but I'm pretty sure they are about that sort of price.

Don't think she vaccinates but most small scale breeders don't and because they will be being kept in a small 'back garden' flock-they'll be fine

 

She will definitely say that silkies will be fine in with bigger hybrids. She says that I worry too much and read too much

[Clarabelle]

She will definitely say that silkies will be fine in with bigger hybrids. She says that I worry too much and read too much

 

Yeah, I'm a bit like that too

I think I'll give her a ring in the morning.

[xScrunchee]

Oooo, it's soooooo exciting

 

Best of luck

[xScrunchee]

Did you email/ring Lynsey?

 

[Clarabelle]

Hi there,

 

Yes I did, but she only has one silkie girl at the moment and I was hoping for two. She did say she has a very friendly white leghorn, but I was a bit put off when I read the Omlet description of the breed.

 

Not sure what to do now, whether to go for just one silkie or try someone else......

[xScrunchee]

Shame

Maybe start a thread asking if other people have Leghorns and what they are like??

Would have been handy for you if she had two.

[xScrunchee]

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52442

Just saw this

 

I'd probably go for it if it was me

 

They sound very entertaining and funny

[xScrunchee]

Any luck with sourcing more silkies?

 

Or did you decide to go for the one silkie and one leghorn??

[Clarabelle]

Still umm-ing and arr-ing at the moment, I just can't decide what to do. I really want the silkie but I think I'd be worried about the white leghorn escaping from the garden. I emailed Lynsey again but she hasn't replied, so I might call her sometime over the weekend.

 

I was looking at Kirsty's Hens4Homes site as I know fellow Omleteers have recommended her. She has Skylines and I quite fancy coloured eggs, but I'm not sure that they'd be right for our garden/my son. Plus she will only sell two or more hens and I'm not sure that my garden is big enough for 3 hybrids.

 

Hmmmmmm......what a quandary.

[xScrunchee]

Still umm-ing and arr-ing at the moment, I just can't decide what to do. I really want the silkie but I think I'd be worried about the white leghorn escaping from the garden. I emailed Lynsey again but she hasn't replied, so I might call her sometime over the weekend.

 

I was looking at Kirsty's Hens4Homes site as I know fellow Omleteers have recommended her. She has Skylines and I quite fancy coloured eggs, but I'm not sure that they'd be right for our garden/my son. Plus she will only sell two or more hens and I'm not sure that my garden is big enough for 3 hybrids.

 

Hmmmmmm......what a quandary.

 

It is tricky and I can see good and bad points for both options (Doesn't help you much does it? lol)

 

Erm.............firstly, I am sure that your garden will be big enough for 3. Even the smallest gardens can accomodate 3 hens I reckon so I wouldn't worry on that front

 

The coloured eggs sound good and you will have more choice at Hens4homes-does she have silkies?

 

My chickens from Lynseys are the friendliest chickens I have ever had to be honest. I think that's due to them coming from a family environment where they get attention and cuddles rather than being hatched by the hundreds and sent off to farms to be sold. I doubt those hens have much human contact-although of course they often become very tame anyway.

 

I have had 5 Omlet hens altogether now and none of them have been very 'friendly'. They tolerate us and come for food but that's about it.

My chickens from Lynsey hang around with us and want cuddles-that's a plus point.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about a leghorn escaping simply because I have a Sumatra who can fly the whole length of my garden about 3 foot in the air and she can fly onto perches in the run from ground to 4ft+ yet she never tries to escape out of the garden. She is quite happy scratching about and following us.

Other people have gingernuts or pepperpots who are escape artists so I would say that it comes down to the individual hen rather than it always being the breed.

 

What about flicking a coin?? Heads for a silkie and leghorn from Lynsey and Tails for a couple of coloured egg layers from Kirsty??

 

Hope I haven't made you more confused

[Clarabelle]

I would love to be able to cuddle my chickens - the one that we had PTS last week was friendly enough that you could stroke her, but Clarabelle is very wary these days. This week she has been hanging round the back door like a bad smell though and she is always around my legs when I put the washing out.

 

The fact that Lynsey breeds her own and is really local is a real plus. I've emailed her again and asked if she has anything else that could come with the silkie. I'll let you know what she says.

 

I need to clean the eglu/run this weekend so that it will be nice and clean for any newbies as I'd really like to get them next week.

 

Don't worry, you're not confusing me

[Clarabelle]

I emailed Lynsey again today and didn't get a reply. I hope I haven't offended her by saying that I wasn't sure the leghorn was right for us. I'm kind of warming to the idea of having her too!

 

Saw a couple of lovely silkie pictures on the Facebook chicken fans forum and it has made me really really want a silkie!