Chatterbox Silkies

01/02/2025

🥳Happy New Year everyone! 🥳 wishing you all success in this hobby.

Thank you to all the breeders who have shared their lines, their knowledge, their time, and their friendship. I have a lot to work on in 2025 and I’m excited to continue to work on mottled and self-blue. Forrest was looking so handsome so I had to snap a photo 🥰

12/29/2024

I’m definitely always learning that silkies blossom on their own terms and you have to give them time to shine!

Y’all look at these wings. They actually were never split as all primaries were present, but they were not folding correctly. The primaries kept getting stuck and overlapping and definitely appeared slipped and she was being lazy (lol). Well the wings matured nicely! The joint glides correctly and she’s holding her wings much tighter! And she’s squatting now 😍

She’s a gorgeous girl from Hidden Pines and will bring overall type, a big beard and a big crest to my pen.

12/27/2024

What a beautiful day here in Austin! 80 degrees and sunny. Our piggie Huxley and our boy Ledge were very interested in one another! I think they were comparing booties Ha!

12/25/2024

🎄🎄Wishing you all a merry and bright holiday season! Hoping your flock is safe and happy.🎄🎄 We have Christmas babies. Baby 2 has pipped.

I was awakened at 1:00 by Santa Blue barking because we had a baby chick #1 crying. I had lockdown scheduled for today so the chick’s leg was stuck under the turner 😢. The chick is just fine 🩷 I admit, I may have been off a couple days because I took these 2 test eggs from a broody girl.

12/23/2024

If *local* message me. If I wait to ✈️ I’ll change my mind and keep as a pet. I’m downsizing my satins and chocolates to focus on black mottled and lavender. Chocolate was never part of the plan, but I fell in love. I’ll still have chocolate but just a smaller pen. She’s Laying and pretty cute. Born early spring.

Incorrect toe spacing on left foot. If I am using the visuals and education from the show I attended, this would be duck foot due to a forward facing 4th toe. It was funny to see birds place high first show (first judge) and then get DQ’d for duck foot second show. Use your own interpretation/ critical eye 🙂

12/21/2024

I wanted to attend a couple shows to meet some people and to learn a few things. There isn’t much competition for self blues, NSV (mottled) or NSB (satins). I have a lot of work to do to create show quality birds, but we had fun either way. The judge for the 2nd show Bart Pals was at the show a couple weeks ago. He took time to show me DQs on other chickens. He has a strict definition of duck foot and showed me a few examples. I hadn’t seen split breast and now I can’t miss it. He pointed out the curtain a few times on some other birds so I still need to learn more to better understand.

I also got some shirts 🙂

12/15/2024

Anyone using Exzolt for treatment and/or prevention of mites? Mine should arrive next week and I’m super excited to use a poultry approved oral preventative treatment.

-it’s oral
-99% effective
-no egg withdrawal
-Treat day 1, repeat 7 days and then repeat at 12 week intervals.
-Pretty common practice in Europe, NZ, Australia etc.

12/14/2024

Checking fertility this week! I might need to trim some 🍑 feathers. Hoping Knox and gorgeous Finn make some beautiful babies 🩷! They both have great type and Finn is looking absolutely amazing towards the end of molt. Still lots of pin feathers coming in.

BC: the lovely Holly Ellis.

12/13/2024

This ends 12/15!
Check out my pinned post for details and direct links to the two charities!!!
Toys for Tots: $535.00 💚
Healing Hens: $160.00 🩷

You can win 🐣 and that gorgeous handmade Silkie mug. Like, tag, share, leave me a review and hopefully donate. Lots of ways to participate to bring joy to a kid or a nursing home resident.

If you participate today or tomorrow and you W!N you will also receive $50 off a future purchase.

Healing Hens was founded in 2023 as a 501c3 non-profit organization providing hens and coops to nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

❤️Holiday Giveaway 💚 I rarely offer 🐣. I’m trying something a little different for a good cause.

3️⃣ ways to participate

1) Donate DIRECTLY to

https://www.toysfortots.org OR
https://www.healinghensoftx.org

AND for every $5 you get 1 entry (send me a screenshot).

2) Leave me a review if you have any of my 🐥 = 1 entry

3) Like and follow my page (this is easy to verify 😬) ➕ Share OR tag 2 people = 2 entries.

What you will receive

💚1 dozen+ mottled 🐣
❤️1 handmade Silkie mug (the best ever)

R U L E S
This ends 12/15 as long as donations exceed value of 🎁! Otherwise, 12/31.

12/10/2024

NB chocolate mottled boy. Edited….. flew the coop 🥰

12/09/2024

This is why you don’t let chicks leave lol!! A repeat local customer drove in to get some juvies today and surprised me with a visit from one of my babies. I definitely regret letting this one go, but super happy she’s loved 🩷

12/09/2024

I’m sure you all remember Nutmeg. My big combed crowing DNA confirmed girl with no streamers or spurs. She dances and half squats and I’ve never seen her mate. And her best friend is the rooster Elvis……….Well I somehow keep hatching chocolate mottled even though my chocolate mottled boy Cornbread has been separated since September!!

So as I hatched more chocolate mottled this morning I came to the realization that Cornbread is either the most fertile rooster in the world OR Nutmeg is in fact the girliest BOY in the world!!!

So I’m going to dna test again 😢. Her breeder Holly H and M FARMZ always said boy 🤣.

Who needs chocolate mottled babies? 😍

12/08/2024

This Red Barn pullet has a lot of filling in to do , but she’s pretty cute. Her beard is wet at the moment. She looks type-y so far with nice cushion. Nice dark eyes. Good wings and feet. I studied all the silkies yesterday at the show and took a lot of notes.

Her name is Wednesday 🥰!

12/07/2024

Having such a fun time! I Met Mary with Leland branch silkie ranch who achieved Master Breeder status today with her whites. Her beautiful girl Betty White won Grand Champion in 2020 here and showed well today. Her husband cried. I cried. Her blacks did very well too and she won Reserve Champion Featherleg.

I also met Pat Dunlap today who is so sweet and helpful. Her birds are beautiful and it was nice to finally meet her.

I got my own RV and BV cards. And Forrest took Reserve in NSV and my satin pullet from Hidden Pines took Best NSB. The judge really liked my mottled naked neck, but said the pink skin is of course non standard.

Didn’t know I signed up for 2 shows! So that’s next.

12/07/2024

After not making it to my first show in October, we are for real going this morning 🩷!

Are my birds show quality? Nope
Are they gonna win any awards? Nope
Are people going to whisper negativity? Maybe

Can we still have fun and learn a thing or two?
Definitely and always!! Don’t get in your own way- and this applies to all things. We all have our own journey. Learn as much as you can, share that knowledge with others, and find people who support you and support your birds. And when you make it big (chickens lol) always be kind to those walking in your footsteps even if they are miles behind 🩷!

12/07/2024

This boy has to get integrated into the family.
Meet Zara ✅🩷 that look on her face.

I always invest a lot of time in the boys because I need him to know our cat is a friend and to know that my dog Blue will herd them. My chickens listen to Blue.

12/06/2024

Mr. Krampus is so handsome 🩷! I asked for type and a big cushion and look at him! I think it’s also apparent I love the boys!

I’ve really been developing my critical eye and learning the standard the last few months. We can pick apart any bird because the flaws will always exist. But I think it’s really helpful to focus on all the positives first and your goals for your program. Obviously, he didn’t make the cut at Red Barn. His comb is too big. His toes are nice, but I personally like more spacing between the 4th and 5th toe. But perfect toe spacing and perfect comb are not my goals as a new breeder.

So don’t judge your birds so critically that you miss the big picture and overlook all the positive traits. Always find the positives FIRST before you look for the negatives. This boy is really going to help my pens and I’m super excited to add another boy/another line this year. Knox from Diva Girls will always be extra special because I got to share him with my daddy before he passed🩷

12/05/2024

It might be a long quarantine in the house 😂! The boy likes to crow. He should be asleep, but nope he’s crowing! (Inside until vaccinated, then outdoor quarantine coop).

My husband wants to name him Krampus (scary Christmas movie) 🤣.

BC: Red barn;