Raising SILKIE CHICKENS: Why We Now Raise BANTAM Chickens On Our Homestead 

Silkies are super flock oriented. My silkies just can't be separated from each other. They will stay right there next to the other all day long all night long constantly touching each other.

I look forward to seeing how this goes, you give us so much information, thank you.

I had Silkies when I was a kid. They hatched out a lot of chicks for me because they are super broody.

Silkie is the funnest breed

Thanks for taking us on your journey. Insightful take on challenges we are facing today

I subscribed. Can't wait to see what happens. I got 2 silkie hens and and regular sized hen and it was a game changer for me. They were smart, respectful and followed all the rules. They even came to the back kitchen door to tell me it's time to go to bed. But the most important thing was they all survived the hawk that took every one of my chickens every summer. I'm talking huge barred rock. Anyway, I had it on my mind to get some black "crow looking " birds and found Black Old English Game Bantam. Cool birds. Some are black with red crowns, hens are black, look just like crows (which hawks hate crows) and the ones that bred with the large hen I got medium sized chickens. They are not fully grown yet but they are feisty little guys with attitude, which is cool. I'll keep you updated, this will be interesting because the hawk is out there waiting..

I think I will stick with Silkies. I've had them several times already & I can't think of one thing to dislike about them. Really I can't see going to another type when it's a small space I have to work with and you can't beat them for their calm/gentle nature, getting along with each other, intelligence, easy to catch, (except for the odd fast one!) and broodiness with great mothering qualities.

Very interesting, especially the aspect of carnosine. Thanks for sharing 👍

New subscriber...thank you for all the useful information. Merry Christmas from MI.

I'm also switching to bantom and silkie's less feed and grand kids love them

Dang you’re making me regret getting rid of our silkies this fall! 😂 I was wanting them as little garden chickens, but with our revamp and downsize, the Icelandic won out, mostly for their crazy colours. Silkie meat is delicious though!

Birds are wearing a down coat! I had two die of HEATSTROKE :( I felt horrible I didn't know that could happen. Mine do great in winter

And thanks for reminding me that I need to eat my roosters before thinking of giving them away.

Interesting will be following along ❤. What size would there eggs be comparable to?

We have both quail and chickens, our biggest issue with quail is that they can not be allowed outside a pen. Plus our dogs will happily eat a quail if they escape, the chickens stand up for themselves.

Yes they are the cutest birds in the world. Best ever at being mothers, raise their children until they are able to defend themselves. Will take on prey. But their skin and bones are dark ..... And they are so small...... XXX

You are getting out of Partridge Chantecler just as we are getting into them, our reasons are they make good free-rangers, cold hardy, decent camoflage, good winter egg layers, good dual-purpose breed, and of course a Canadian breed. It was very interesting however to hear your take on Silkie chickens vs. standard size chickens, and the pros/cons when it comes to cost of feed, and infrastructure.

You didn't mention the growth rate here. But what are you finding??

We have Silver Duckwing Phoenix Bantams and Heritage Rhode Island Reds. The bantams eat far less, so are much cheaper to maintain.

I see the evaluation. That's what everyone has to do: look for the "fit" for yourself. If you expect the birds to pay their way, put them into an environment that lets them thrive: off/on free range is incredibly good as if they're short something in the pens, they'll get i t outside, esp. in spring and summer. My biggest issue is off-leash large dogs, and dogs not under their owners' or walkers control. ONE incident and I have a year (or two) of genetics wiped out. I'm in town, have boarded up the holes off the hiking trail between me and the school (dogs through the holes chasing deer) and have cams out everywhere. (cheap insur. and I know what happened). You're in a layout where I would think predators would be able to get up close????! I have the occ. bear, skunks, corvids (ravens and crow nests) as well as the occ. fox or other predator, but have had ZERO issues with them in 4 years.

Just because a chicken is smaller doesn't mean that it uses less food. It can be way less efficient converting that food into either muscle or eggs. If a silky only produces one two to three eggs per week versus the other chicken breeds that produce 5 to 6 eggs per week then the resources required to support the same egg production or meat production will actually exceed the larger chicken breed. Also, silkies are not cold hardy chickens. They'll require more resources to stay warm in the winter. They're not waterproof so they have to have a better housing situation. Now if you already have all that infrastructure in place, that's fine. But if you're having to go out and purchase all new infrastructure for the silky over the conventional chicken, then it's going to be way more expensive.

I will need time to get used to the skin colour! Raw and cooked!

Like you people, I am switching to a bantam sized chicken for my farm. In my case, I cross Silkie roosters with good laying breeds(Leghorn, Lohmann, Rhode Island Red) to produced offspring that can be sexed at hatching. To get sexed offspring the Silkie rooster must be crossed with a yellow or white shanked hen. The male chicks will hatch with white skin & shanks while the females will have dark skin and shanks. The genetics behind this cross have to do with the (Fm) Fibromelanosis & (Id) Inhibitor dermal genes. The offspring being bantam sized consume a third of the feed that a full sized laying hen would. The Silkie/Leghorn bantam hens lay 310 small egg in a year as compared to 340 large eggs/year by there Leghorn mothers. The Silkie hen eggs are know for the large yolk to egg white ratio, which they pass to the Silkie/Leghorn cross hen. Since most of the nutrition is in the egg yolk, eggs consumed are very nutrient dense for there small size. I have a flock of Silkie hens which readily hatch out these Silkie/Leghorn chicks for me, requiring no incubator or power. Egg production on my farm is for my families personal consumption and part of an overall self-sufficiency plan.