Pablo and Lil Barn Cats: "Ah HAH! We demand an apology, hoomans! You were so quick to think that we killed that little dustbunny! We never laid a claw on her. Margie suggested it, and we ignored her. Now if you want to give us large amounts of catnip that will be fine by us! And extra cat food would be nice too."
@@GoldShawFarm just put Bernie in that wire cage, but out with the other chickens so she wouldn't be able to be attacked by them but at the same time they would slowly accept her.
Basically the Mrs. will support any chicken as long as it ain’t Margie, as That bird is a agent of chaos. Hired the cats as her muscle. Before this whole thing is over it would be great to see a T-shirt with Queen Margie on the iron throne.
homesteadwitchery it’s very possible seeing that her crest is very large, means she may have 2 creating genes. I have 2 Silkie mix hens and their crests aren’t as large as Bernie’s. You will need to wait and see what color egg she lays. Blue or green then she is a Legbar mix. Brown, tan, or white and she’s a Silkie mix.
I have got my Silkie mummas to raise all my ducklings and geese on my farm and they do an awesome job. Definitely don’t mix your silkies with your normal chickens they will get hammered. I also use my incubator to start some eggs then when I get a broodie Silkie I put them under her. I have one mumma that has 12 of my meat chicks now 7 weeks old and they all still sleep with her 🥰
A small Silkie will successfully do one egg, it’s just the turning of them can be an issue if there are two eggs together. A larger Silkie can do two geese eggs. They don’t even realise that their babies are 3 times bigger than them. After 8-10 weeks the baby goslings can usually manage on there own anyway.
Maybe Bernie could go out with the ducks. Someone below said they very gentle chickens so maybe she'd do well there? Either way I'm glad you found her and got new chickens. 😊
lolll my Cayuga is not gentle with the roosters... She protects the hens due to our old rooster he had used to attack the hens during mating, the duck attacked him to protect them. Now she is injuring my current feather footed Brahma... The other 5 ducks don't care... But this one, she is MEAN. cant do much right now though, until we either build a breeding pen, or finish the main chicken pen.
I've had chickens for 20 years. When Henrietta was injured after the rooster 's attentions, she should have been kept inside until her back healed, then she could have safely been returned to the coop. It isn't that Margie is evil, she is a chicken and the pecking order is real as is the need to peck anything that looks raw and meaty. Henrietta would likely have made it if she had been kept inside for a week or two. She needed time, warmth and safety from Margie to get well. The leghorns will be fine with Margie, they are old and big enough to handle Margie, with 2 others hens Margie won't have as easy a time bullying. I'm glad you found Bernie, she needs another silky and a good enclosed coop and run.
Permie Bird any time I have an injured chicken they go to the chicken hospital, a medium cat crate, with heat. It of course changes them into semi pets. My one frizzle was never fully accepted by the other chickens, and at night was put in a crate in the hen house. Every night she would wait for me to put her to bed. Wherever she was in the yard she would run to me as fast as she could run. I miss her.
I have a Silkie mix like Bernie, only he's a rooster Chirp. He lives in my laundry room. He's official the local church chicken, so I figure Bernie is a permanent fixture in the house.
Silkys are gorgeous I had no idea 🐔 could be so pretty and I'm no stranger to them so I thought I'm right below u in ct my hubby and I discussed a farm 🚜 but I'd much rather watch u. I saw the video on what it takes and not sure we are up to the task just yet.
you cant just dump chickens together and expect them to get along. they need to spend a couple of weeks seperate but able to see each other through the fence. that dog run in the barn would be a good place to put the new hens. then after a couple of weeks let the new ones out and they should get on fine. chickens are creatures of habbit and they need to get used to seeing new things before they are ok with it.
I loved this story and it has a happy ending! "She's your biggest fan!" Btw, I honestly thought you would do away with Margie because nobody wants a nasty chicken around their hens. Maybe those leghorns will keep her in check since they are bigger than her!
You need 3 or 4 hens to help even out the "pecking order" with only one other chicken, that new one is always gonna get the worst of it Good luck my friend! Edit: please change Margie's name to cersei😂 and the newbies to Tyrion and jamie😂. I'm so happy for allison💛
Chicken tip, when introducing a two chickens to each other do the introduction in a neutral zone. Especially if you have had one chicken longer than the other. That chicken would have already claimed an area which will make them want to fight over that area more fiercely. This can also apply to really any animals with "pecking orders".
Loved our silkie - they tend to be loners and ours (stoooopid bird) was always getting soaked in the rain. Probably because she loved the hairdryer. She used to lift one wing up so I could dry underneath and then turn around and lift up the other wing. If I didn't know any better I'd swear she got wet on purpose! So happy for Alison (or is it Allison - sorry, forget) - that is a beaming smile! Happy days - after stressful ones!
My friends had a silkie named Slipper living inside for a bit because she was getting sick, unfortunately she had to become their eldest daughter's first time losing an animal she was close to, probably about 3 at the time.
I'm so glad you found Bernie. Allison is so sweet and loving. One think to keep in mind though, chickens sometimes sleep in trees so jumping a 6' fence really isn't that difficult.
Oh - YES! Please, Please, Please, PLEASE?????? GOLD SHAW FARM: I will BUY one of your hooded sweatshirts in RED, size 5X with Quacken and Bedtime logos front & back IF the NEW chickens are named: Foghorn and Leghorn. I need the described sweatshirt (fingers crossed) by the coming chilly fall/winter season.
I love hearing about all your bird drama. 😂😂😂 I have a friend who has turkeys and the unique and crazy turkey stories she posts on Facebook are so wild that almost defy normal imagination. My conclusion is that birds are mobsters. 😂
During yet another national lockdown, this story of Marty and Bernie is hilarious! You are not only a great farmer but a great story teller. Thank you!!
When we were raising our family in FL we had lots of chickens and we have no idea what most of them were. Our silkie would hatch random eggs she would find laid in strange places so over the years we had a bunch of mutts. She was the boss of the flock and would fiercely defend herself from anyone or anything. We had ducks, a pilgrim goose a yearly pig. Our Rhodesian Ridgeback kept order and forced all the cats to learn to swim. With the majority of the children on the south end of the island at our house to swim in our 60x90 foot pond every day it was chaos. Silkies can be very resilient. She was quite the character and "Phyllis" lived a long and productive life. She refused to sleep with the rest of the chickens at night and when she wasn't hatching eggs she roosted on a 2x4 behind the washing machine in the barn.
The smile on your wife's face when you found Bernie was adorable. Silkies are too nice to keep around the bigger chickens. Can't you keep them with the ducks since they're going to help with the eggs anyhow? I'm not a chicken expert by any stretch, but that's what makes sense to me.
I love silkies! We have two--Janis and Pearl. They're both so sweet and docile. We also had a house chicken briefly, when we first got our youngest Americauna, the other chickens bullied her too much. We kept her in a big crate in the house for a month or so until she was big enough to defend herself, and it worked like a charm! But man, it's *a lot* of upkeep having a house chicken 😁 Of course, Bernie is naturally small, so she won't get big enough to really defend herself, but having her in the house will be good for her while she gets acclimated, and until you get a few more to keep her company!
as someone who has gotten pretty good at reading bird facial expressions Bernie seems to be a very happy chicken now. then again my only real experience with facial expressions are parrots, crows and that one Swan that lives at my local park.
I can't say that I've ever been happier to see a chicken! I totally get why Allison wanted to cuddle on her for a bit, and why you now have a semi-housechicken. You can get diapers for them, y'know? Yep, little birby diapers to help out while getting her house trained, because it is entirely possible to train a chicken to a litterbox!
So, I have watched a couple of your videos and just wanted to say as a sort of fatherly person you and your wife are such neat people! You have a great sense of humor and I wish you two the best with your farm full of animals!
I think that introducing one chicken alone could definitely be a problem, especially when that chicken is significantly smaller than the other chicken. To remedy this I would add three or four chickens to give them strength in numbers, especially when the one chicken is used to picking on other chickens. I’ve had the same problem myself. Good luck!
Keep honing your skill , you are becoming a very good story teller. Imagine , I was drawn into a cockamamie story about a lost chicken , and sitting on the edge of my seat. Take care and be well.
Ditto on the silkie is a silkie mix. She's a little on the larger side for a silkie and the fluff isn't consistent. But that doesn't make her any less adorable! And I totes sympathize with Allison. Having lost most my flock last year, it's incredibly heartbreaking and makes you very sensitive to everything chicken. They're really sweet birds with great personalities.
Hey, Keep up the good work! Bernie isn't a pure silkie it is crossed with something else which is why it has actual feathers, whereas normal silkies have fluffy feathers. From my experience of breeding silkies they are not the hardiest of breeds, but as it crossed that'll probably help it out, as silkies fluffy feathers are not water proof at all, but Bernie's feathers will be more water proof, which is a good thing of course. When it comes more into spring/summer she will most likely become broody as silkies are one of the broodiest breeds. When i used to breed them out of my 20+ hens at least 15 of them would go broody each year, and they make excellent mothers all the ones i allowed to hatch eggs got good hatch rates and took care of them. :D
So glad Bernie is happy and well along with your dear wife. I think you all have an excellent plan and especially getting some more Silkies. Those new white ones look like the leghorns we used to raise, maybe call them Leggy and Horny. Haha!
I keep Silkies and Cochins together. They are the same size and have the same docile temperament that means they tend to get bullied by other chicken breeds. Also, they are great brooders and give super cute tiny eggs that I love to eat.
