Chicks & Chickens Archives

Silkie Chick Update + Bath Time

Stop what you’re doing, right now, and watch this sweet silkie chick enjoy a quick bath and blow dry! This baby chick is guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Silkie Chick Update

The chicks are doing so well! They have adjusted to the brooder and learned to go up and down the ramp to the fresh grass. I’m pretty sure they have almost doubled in size since they hatched, almost two weeks ago. The broody mama chickens are starting to go about their regular business, and everyone is settling in wonderfully. In three to four weeks we will take them out of the brooder and move them into their new home, The Silkie Shack!

If my instincts are correct, we should have four females and one male. The one that I believe is a little roo has bigger/thicker feet and is the first to go out of “his” way to peck my fingers (and latch on pretty well for a bitty little thing). I’m excited to see how that plays out.

Bath Time

When I got home from work I noticed one baby chick was just covered in yuck, all under its belly. So, I scooped up the baby chick and head toward the kitchen sink to run some luke warm water. Then, using just a tiny dab of Dawn, I gently cleaned up the chick.

Honestly, I expected a lot of flapping and chirping. Instead, the chick seemed to really enjoy the bath and the blow dryer (low speed and low heat), and actually started to fall asleep for most of the process.

It was precious, to say the least.

Moving the chicks

We decided to move the chicks into the chick brooder and away from the mama hens last night. Upon doing so we realized the chicks could fit through the wire on the brooder coop. We have used this coop before with other chicks and not experienced this problem. I think because the mama hens were still around, the chicks were a little more eager to escape than the chicks we previously bought from TSC.

Kev brought me some twine and I started to weave a temporary wall through the wire to keep the chicks from nosediving out. As the sun went down and everyone settled in for the night without escaping I thought we were okay…

When I went to check on the five chicks this morning, I only found four. Worried, but hopeful, I started toward the big coop where the mamas sleep.

At some point during the night, a baby had wiggled it’s was through my twine wall and found it’s way, all the way across the yard, to the big coop, and under a mama hen. I was relieved to say the least, but this also meant finding a better solution than twine first thing this morning.

Kev found some spare half inch hardware cloth for me in the shed. Using wire cutters, a staple gun, and a few zip ties, I reinforced the bottom layer of the run area and coop door. Seems to be working so far!

Baby chicks explore the grass in their new brooder

My hope is that the mama hens will go back to laying eggs and foraging the yard soon, but for now they seem content hanging out by the brooder.

The Silkie Shack

Cart before the horse…

Poor planning on my part last year to go ahead and buy a dozen chicks from without a chicken coop ready to go. “They’re just so darn cute.” Famous last words of just about every chicken mama… Luckily, we already had a small brooder at home to get us by for 4-6 weeks until we moved the newborns out to the yard.

This chick warmer is my favorite brooder essential. I feel so much more comfortable with it than with the heat lamps, the chicks all snuggle underneath it and can easily escape it if they get to warm.

Chicks in the chick brooder enjoying their chick warmer — Checking out the brooder!

New coop build for backyard chickens — Looking a little leany there, bud….

With a dozen chicks growing rapidly, as well as the smell of baby chicks, in my living room, we started to step up our pace. With most of our projects I have a rough idea in my head of what I think I want. I sketch or describe the best I can to Kev, and he usually works out the kinks for me and somehow our projects tend to come together pretty darn well.

Chicken coop build in progress for backyard chickens — Progress!

Chicken coop build for backyard chickens

This coop has earned its keep. It stays very dry, there is a lot of room for roosting, and it comfortably fit all 12 ladies. We also added two PVC pipe gravity feeders and set up a rain water collection and watering system, which has worked out extremely well for our needs.

Because this coop stays so dry, it will be the perfect home for our Silkie flock. Because Silkie feathers do not have the barbicels like normal chicken feathers, they do not repel water quite the same way, and therefore can have a hard time drying off and staying warm, especially in colder months.

Protecting the Silkies…

Silkies do not make great free rangers. They have fluffy feathers on top of their heads that often make it hard for them to see overhead predators. Also, they can only jump about 12 inches off the ground. Their special feathers make them very flightless birds, and even harder for them to escape or evade predators. Our plan is to keep them safe in their new Silkie Shack with supervised free range time. Once they get a little older of course….