Silver Pullet Poultry

Come on Spring! I am dying for some nice weather! Gearing up for the poultry show in April, and to start breeding birds again. Hubby will be fixing the old building for my chick building....cannot wait!

Due to the amount of spam I am getting in my guestbook, I am disabling it.

Have not made a post entry in a really long time, sorry about that.  Birds have all been wonderful, got my new Buff Silkie Cockerel from Brens Cozy Silkies in TX and he is just a doll. REALLY good fertility in the pens, and even though I have not set any myself, I have shipped out 3 batches of eggs to people, and the first two people so far have had almost 100% fertility from my black/blue, white and buff pens. Unfortunately, neither of them had that many hatch, but, that is truly  why people just cannot guaranty you will get them to hatch. MY JOB is to get them fertile and to you in one piece. Your job is of course the hardest part, getting them to go to full term. I had recently read a very interesting article about improving your hatchability by adding 2 TBS of clorox to the incubator water (one time) and it will help kill any bacteria in or on the eggs. Apparently, during incubation this bacteria will keep growing and is isually the cause for late term die offs in your eggs. (Like around day 18-20) Now, I have not presonally tried this, but plan too first thing in the spring.

Pens are cold and muddy and messy, so my birds do not look good enough for pictures. I did go to the Feather Fanciers show in October, but due to the new job, did not make it to any others this year. I do not plan on attending the National Western Stock Show in January due to work and the fact that they put the show back up on the third floor. It is such a hassle to go there anyway and that just makes it more so. All my silkies are in fact locked inside most of the winter, but the large fowl do get to go out. Today I am Frontlining birds for bugs. I think I have around 80 birds?

My next show will be in April at the Colorado Poultry Associations Spring Show in Pueblo, April 24th (Its the last Saturday of the month.) Art Rieber will be the judge.

I DO currently have 4 pairs of birds for sale, that I am willing to have a friend take up to the Stock Show or I can meet someone here in Colorado to pick them up. I have a blue pair,, a black pair, and two white pairs. See my for sale page for more information to be updated today.

Well, this has been one strange spring for us. The weather has been RAINY for months, and now, the last few weeks have been much drier and normal thank god! All the birds were sick, and I had a few die unexpectedly, but all in all, its been okay. Kept 8 Rhode Island Red pullets and two Rhode Island Red rosecomb rooster to start my breeding program with next year. Sold my Ameraucana rooster so now done with breeding those. The rest of the Ameraucana hens will just be layers if  I keep them and for this year, I probably will.

I have raised a lot of silkies, though had a bunch of unexpected birds. I tried to put a blue male over buff hens as I was told I would get buff, and possibly blue, but all I got was blue with buff coloring leaking through all over the place. They look like a birchen, but with gold instead of silver. All will be sold as pets. I also hatched some whites from a black pair, but those whites have red combs and yellow beaks so all of those will be sold too. I do have one silver gene white I intend on keeping, however, it also has a bit of pink in its comb so I think I will try to keep it anyway to see what happens.

Hatched out only 4 Dutch chicks, 3 for sure are roosters. Fertility has been awful after the birds finally started laying, and I figure its because my rooster is old. So, one of the newly hatched ones will be my new rooster for next year.

Also hatched something that Hubby marked as a buff egg, well, the chick looks splash, which should not be at all possible with the birds I have. I own no splash.

I am not sure how many chicks I hatched, but feel I have about 20 blue/black chicks outside, and about 15 or so whites. I do still have a few in the house and two more incubators left to hatch out of. I think I will try a shipment in of buff eggs to try to get a new rooster, but that will be the last for this season. We have cabinets to paint and install in the laundry room, and crown molding to install there so we need the hatching to stop.

Was going to paint the house this year but had to postpone that idea till we have some more money. At least we are both still working, which in this economy, is a blessing I guess. I heard on the radio today that the recession is slowing down. I hope they are right.

Hoping to get to the Feather Fanciers show this year in October, but due to work, will likely be the only show I get to, until next year when I can get some vacation time.

Been busy around here lately. I tell you working full time sure does put a huge damper on my bird time! Got all the chicks out of my house now, for a few days at least. I had James build me a brooder box to put babies in, but, the juvie Rhode Island Reds and the Ameraucanas needed to go to a space where they could go outside now, so I moved them (and a few older silkies) to the breeder pen with outside access, put the little ones in the brooder box in the coop indoors, and put the trio of black/blue in the brooder box. They do not like it, but until I figure out a better idea, thats the way it is. I desperately need to get rid of some started birds and a few older ones so please, chick out the for sale page!

I have been setting eggs again, mostly blue/black silkies, whites fertility went down after I was not able to AI, however, I will be resetting some again to see if the nice weather has made a difference. I STILL have a pen of broodies.

 I have set some Dutch eggs, but almost all of them are not fertile. Maybe its too soon, or maybe my rooster is too old. I do not know. I have not hatched any buff silkies yet either, though I think I might have a few in the bators now. I plan on setting two more batches of eggs one with Black silkies and Buff Silkies and another batch with Dutch Bantams and Blue Silkies.

Many of my whites now have their butts clipped, and I have used food dye on a few to tell who is laying what. Poor luck with that though, I do know now what size,shape and color the black girls eggs are though and am setting every black egg I get.

Trading two East Indie Pencil Drawings for 4 Rhode Island Red pullets from House of Champions. Will get started on the drawings this weekend, as I already have the pullets in my possession.

Well my bird show is finally over. We did not do too bad, but I had absolutely no time to prep birds (with being show secretary and all). I was lucky to even see the birds at the show. The judge Marilyn Novat did a wonderful job and she really liked my buff silkies, as she placed a buff as Best Of Breed! My White Cockerel got Reserve Breed and I had my Standard Rhode Island Red get Reserve American.

I bought a three tired rabbit cage set up at the show which is currently housing my blue/black chicks and White chicks and the bottom cage is housing broodies to try to break them. I got it for a ridiculously cheap price.

For those of you who were wondering about the Status of the Zebra chicks, now that i have figured out how to post pics to my blog, I will post pics of them the next time. I have sold them to a lady in TX however, so they are no longer available.

I do not think I will be attending many shows at all this year, as I started a new job and days off are few for a while. I do not want to push my luck, I need a job more than I need to show birds! I do intend on going to the Rocky Mountain Feather Fanciers show in October though.

Hatching has gone so well that I have temporarily stopped setting eggs. I have 6 white broodies, and 5 blue broodies. None of my Dutch bantams are laying and very few of my remaining Ameraucanas are laying at this time. The weather has been on and off lately, good for a few days, then snow again! When will spring get here already???? Had some work done on the house, and with the economy, money is tight for everyone, even us. I have opted to not do too many shows this year due to finances.

I have approx 50 chicks, 14 of those are large fowl Exhibition Rhode Island Reds in Single and Rose Comb. I am contemplating whether I will continue raising Ameraucanas or decide to switch over to RIR's. The reds are fabulous birds, much different in temperment than the hatchery stock. The AOSB classes in shows are usually so small and I rarely see any other Ameraucanas in them so no competition. I will likely keep both breeds still to some degree, but trying to decide which of them I will be actively breeding.

I hatched out several blue silkies, actually, they all look blue at hatch, but it seems that as they feather, they change enough so that I am not aware of if they are black or still blue. I have a few that are looking black now though. Even my Black Ameraucanas have hatched out more of a blue shade, but they are black, no doubt about it as I have no other color. Also hatched out what breeders are telling me are either a partridge or blue partridge silkies. They are nice birds so far, but not something I will be raising.

Will resume hatching chicks as soon as I have some room in the pens for them to go.

Well, The hatching has officially begun! I am supposed to officially start hatching tomorrow, but as usual, the chicks cannot wait to arrive so they started a day early.

The first two that arrived are a bit unexpected. Yes, I knew I was hatching silkies, but, I was not expecting Zebras! LOL. The first two chicks are very much white, with wonderful black chipmunk stripes on them. They are adorable, but not sure where the color came from to be honest! One is very vaulted indeed, but these are out of my Black and Blue/Splash pen and by the normal genetic scenarios, I should only get Black and Blue chicks. These are neither black nor blue and are not splash, I have hatched splash before so I have NO idea what these are. It will be facinating to see what they turn into. The third chick to hatch is a black/blue chick, not sure which, but also extremely vaulted. I think he might be decended from Coneheads....come on people...remember the Coneheads?

More chicks to hatch tomorrow as I have 4 more pipped, and I have about 5 or so due in another week. All black/blue. In about 2 weeks, I have a mixed batch of blue/black and some white in there.

Dutch bantams are not laying at all, unless they are burying their eggs in the litter or eating them as I have found NOTHING in that pen. Ameraucanas have gone on vacation as well it seems. Serves me right for wanting to get a jump on the chick business this year.

Well the stock show has come and gone. As far as I know, I only have one cockerel that has not sold yet. Stock show was wonderful, aside from being sick myself, which is not unual, as I am constantly sick.

Art Reiber did a wonderful job judging the show for us this year, and I talked to him about having the Avoca, IA show host the National Siklie Breeders Association's Western National this year.

All show results are up on the Show Results page, and we did well. There were 553 birds entered in the show this year, with 107 featherlegs. One of my White SIlkie Pullets got Champion Featherleg and got Reserve Champion Bantam. Which means it will be my 1st starred win of the year with the ABA. Totalling 5 all together, if both the shows of the double show I attended in September count.

I have had questions about who's line my white silkies are of and the answer is simply- MY LINE. The original pair I started with years ago came from a well know Master Breeder. At that time, I did not hatch any as I was not interested in raising silkies. They were just pretty. About a year after I purchased them, the white female passed on after some really cold weather.. So, I looked into getting a few more. The next whites that I got came from Texas, the farm was Broke Down Ranch. I purchased a white pair or trio, I do not recall exactly, at that time. I did hatch a few birds out of that pair and ended up with a few very nice white pullets that I kept. Which brings me to last year. I had a bad time last year with a bug that came around the spring, and had the vets at CSU come out to test birds. The results came back as nothing serious, and I was told to always have Tylan on hand. I managed to keep two white females alive, barely, it was truly a miracle, one white pullet that won Grand Champion at the National Western Stock Show in 2008 and the original girl from BDR. I hatched like mad, mostly out of the 2008 grand champion winner.. I hatched out around 30 birds from that trio last year, and it was around 20 females and 10 males. After culls, I had a very nice flock of whites, with awesome potential, keeping roughly 10 females and 3 males.

I have since added a white female from Harvest Breeze Farms, 2 White Pullets from Premier Silkies and a Cockerel also from Premier Silkies. My main breeding rooster, Frosty from BDR, past away last year and he will be missed. I kept one male, the best from them. I am also seeing if the older original cock bird will breed for me this year. He never has before but what the heck. The cockerel from Premier is in a pen with many girls, crossed over to the ones that I raised form last year. I will also be introducing a cockerel next year (2010) and possible a few pullets from a friend who purchase pure Kutch lines.

Well, boy, its been a while since I have posted on the blog. Have been pretty busy year for me with the birds and all the shows. I NEVER do this many shows, but was having a good luck year! Went to the Lincoln, NE show and the Hutchinson, KS show. Both were great shows and met many nice people and saw some great birds. Did not do as well as I had hoped, however, that could seriously be due in part to the fact that I did not bathe ANY birds prior to these shows. It was getting cold, and I had previously bathed them a month before. I will learn this lesson well for the next time.

My next show will be at the National Western Stock Show in January. Many of my birds are in molt, and so it probably will not be a great show for me, LOL.

After much consideration, I have decided to sell off my Light Brown Dutch flock. They have never really been of the same quality as the Cream Light Browns I currently have though they are still wonderful birds. I need the pen space for the Silkies and for hatching chicks, so have decided to just keep about 8 or so hens in Blue Cream and Cream Light Brown and a cock bird. This will free up a large 10x10 coop for raising chicks in.

I am also selling off all my Splash Silkies with the exception of one pullet I decided to keep. I will now be raising only Buff, Blue, White and Black.

This new year I am starting a path of feeding a new mix of seeds into my game bird feed I currently use. A friend of mine is currently using a mix similar, and the birds thrive very well on the diet. The few times I have fed them this, they have cleaned up the bowls exceptionally well! I have debated with the idea for many years, but could not find the seeds I wanted. I finally discovered a place who will order them for me. Its going to cost a bit more, but, I think in the long run, the birds will be better in condition. Oats, Barley, Safflower, Sunflower, and Flax will be my seed mix. My birds NEVER get scratch. Sometimes in the winter, I will rehydrate alfalfa pellets for them and add it to the mix. I think they like that as well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Years and hope to see some of you next year at the shows!