Silkies

Silkies are another Asian breed of chook. Silkies are very strange in looks, rather than having standard feathering they have hair like 'fluff'. Silkies look like fluff on legs. They create a lot of curiosity as to how they origionated. Silkies unlike most other breeeds of chook have a black skin making them ineadible to those of us with weaker stomachs.

Silkies make eccelent childrens pets, they are quiet natured, cheeky, light weighing around 1.5kg, and easy to handle. The roosters have a very quiet crow (in my experience). Silkies come in a diverse range of colours, including white, black, buff, lavender and everything in-between.

Silkies are not very good layers. Most people say between 30 and 50 eggs is good- to keep a silkie laying you must remove all eggs, she will go broody very quickly. Sikies however are very reliable broodies and eccelent mothers, although it is best if yo ucan to cross them for mothering purposes to reduce some of the fluff. A good cross is OEG bantams.

Silkies are very popular and always in high demand.  Silkies come in two forms,  the first being the standard form without  beard - the second with a beard. The beard appears beneath the beak going from eac lobe to ear lobe. Coloured bearded silkies are quiet hard to obtain. We are concentrating on buff bearded silkies - but do have standard silkies available at most times.

Pros and Cons of Silkies

PROS	CONS
Great with children, good personality.	Very good mothers.
DO go broody.	Can be a bit flighty until tamed.
Interesting to look at, come in a range of colours.	Poor egg layers.
Large egg for a small chook.

Price and Availability of Silkies

AGE	PRICE	AVAILABILITY
Day old to 2 weeks UNSEXED	$8.00	Most of the year
3 weeks to 5 weeks UNSEXED	$10.00	Most of the year
6 weeks old UNSEXED Best time to buy	$12.00	Most of the year
8 weeks old SEXED	$15.00	Frequent
		Please ask

Photos of Silkies

	Silkie Hen - No beard
	Silkie Hen - With beard
	Buff Silkie Hen
	Day old silkie.