Steele Creek Silkies

07/23/2024

Coop cleaning day has never smelled better!

Bug repellant ✅
Natural odor eliminator ✅
Safe for chickens, pets, and kids ✅
Smells AMAZING! ✅

Crafty Coop never lets me down 🙌🏼

07/18/2024

Brb looking for a place in my yard so I can buy this

07/12/2024

BCM cockerel 🆓🆓🆓

Crafty Coop lines. Approx 5-6 weeks old.

Local pickup in Bristol, TN.

07/11/2024

This old gal has figured out that she just has to sit a few days and I’ll give her some babies 🙄

She doesn’t growl or puff out like a turkey. She doesn’t put her head down and zone out. She proudly sits on her nest, looking around like, “where are they?” 🫠 She’s a dedicated broody and has refused food and water many times. She’s truly almost died to have babies.

She’s been broody about 4 days and she’s happy as can be 🖤🤍 no way I could make her sit 3 weeks.

07/11/2024

1.5 year old black split to lavender cockbird available.

He is spicy 🔥

His name is Richard and he lives up to it 🍆

He’s a terrible father but a great breeder and an overly zealous protector of his ladies.

He’s molting so he looks dumb af right now 🤡

He currently lives with my large fowl egg layers but I’m tired of having to put a bucket on him when I collect eggs.

Come get him before I send him to Jesus 😇

Bristol pickup only.

07/10/2024

Baby Sara 2.0 is thinking this Flock Block is looking better than the crumble she has in her feeder 😆

07/08/2024

Black cuckoo exhibition breeders — where you at? 👀

07/07/2024

✨✨✨✨DATE CHANGE!!!!!✨✨✨✨

‼️‼️AUGUST 17, same time and place‼️‼️

✨✨✨DATE CHANGE!!!!✨✨✨✨

We’re both running out of space, so we are moving this up!

‼️‼️NEW DATE IS AUGUST 17‼️‼️

Pullets, hens, breeding pairs, growouts, and chicks!

Mark your calendars & save your boxes! 🤗

07/06/2024

I kept her thinking she was a boy, and I kept him thinking he was a girl 🫠😅

He gets to stay though…he’s a Baby Becky son 🥹

07/01/2024

Blue =/= self blue.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

06/30/2024

Brows has been trying to reach you about your cars extended warranty 👀

06/24/2024

Mary Ann has been begging for a baby for over a month now so I finally gave in and 🥹🖤

06/24/2024

Excellent read about ALV & how it works!

LEUKOSIS IS A SILENT KILLER

To prevent it, breed from 4 years old hens. Older hens are resistant.
Leukosis is a virus that changes the immune cells (bursa) so that they do not work properly.
If a chicken has leukosis, it will die. There is no cure. Chickens that are four years old do not get it. This raises an important question about the age of a breeding bird. Four years old means that the bird has survived almost every disease that could kill it. Most chickens can easily live from seven to ten years or more, depending on their size (bantam or large) and how they are reared.

Leukosis is not a single virus, but a group of 'retroviruses'.
Most birds die young, but others die when they are about to become adults, and even two or three years later 'just like that', up to the age of four. You can happily breed from them the first year, especially show breeders who only show pullets and cockerels (young hens and c***s under 1 year old).
They look happy and healthy but there is a silent killer inside them, infected but not yet dead. You can buy such a bird.

Infected hens put the virus in the egg, the chick is born infected. Infected chickens spread the virus through their faeces, and depending on their immune system, they can live and shed the virus until they die from it, up to the age of 4. Leukosis attacks the immune system. They catch every disease that flies around once it starts.

It looks like this: they get sick, you treat them, they get better, just a week or a few weeks later it starts all over again, or some other infection, including bacterial. The death from leukosis is slow, the chicken 'wastes away', is often said, they become ‘drier’ and skinnier until they are a walking skeleton.
The bird may have chronic diarrhoea, but not necessarily, or normal droppings, then watery, then normal again.
You don't understand the strange health condition that jumps up and down.
The chicken becomes increasingly sad, lethargic and weak, and has difficulty standing on its feet and keeping its balance.
You can treat them for everything, but nothing lasts or really helps.

***
Leukosis is preventable and not necessary: breed from older hens. Four years is the general age at which chickens cannot get leukosis. Breeding from pullets or young hens of 1 to 1.5 years is not a wise idea and everyone is free to be unwise.

If you lose birds for any reason on the brink of adulthood, or if their health is poor until they give up, they may have leukosis. Older, immune hens will lay better and bigger breeding eggs and their chicks are bigger, stronger and immune to leukosis if their mother has survived her first 4 years.

There is not much you can do about leukosis once it has infected your bird(s). However, you can prevent it from spreading by breaking the chain of continuing infection. Also, it is not super infectious, you can clean the coop with Halamid, Cid 20 or any other disinfectant and prevent bacterial infections in your birds so that their immune systems are not challenged. You can control mites and some blood-sucking flies that can carry the virus.

As long as you breed from young hens that are invisibly infected with leukosis, which they pass on to the next generation of chickens, the cycle of dread is perpetuated. If you know you have this silent killer in your birds, it's best to put them down before they get any worse, to give them a better quality of life for as long as it lasts.

Avoid leukosis by breeding wisely, this is best for the birds and your mood and wallet too (if you plan to treat). Leukosis next to CAV is one of the reasons why breeders give up, it is very depressing to lose birds before their time. Especially in breeding you always need backup (great) grandparent birds, and if you can't keep several generations alive, well... Reconsider your breeding strategy.

Of course, there are always people who don't care if their birds die young or suffer, they only breed from the pullets that survive and get rid of them before they get sick. Keep in mind there are sensitive and less sensitive breeds in regards to leukosis, similar to Marek and other diseases. When bred for disease resistance, the chance is small your chickens are infected.

In any respect, healthwise, the older breeding birds are most valuable, they are the jewels in the coop. Try to get older birds when you are starting, IF you can buy them.

End of updated leukosis story.

Asked google how contagious leukosis is for other chickens: https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/viruses/avian-leukosis-virus
How contagious is leukosis subgroup AVL-A to other animals: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39980-y
There are leukosis tests, for example: https://www.idexx.com/en/livestock/livestock-tests/poultry-tests/idexx-alv-ab-test/

06/20/2024

When you don’t have a laundry hamper, a kitty litter bucket will suffice 😆

06/19/2024

PQ black straight run with gold leakage 🆓

Approx 6 weeks old, wing band 103.

Pickup in Bristol, TN ONLY. This chick is 🆓 so I will not hold or meet you outside of Bristol.

06/19/2024

Beard so thick you can’t tell she’s a showgirl 😍

NFS

06/15/2024

It looks like a massacre out here.

Thank you to me for plucking butt feathers and scrubbing waterers while it’s hot as hell and cleaning coops in the blazing sun and for continuing to hatch so I can perpetuate my own problems 🫣🤣

06/12/2024

✨✨✨DATE CHANGE!!!!✨✨✨✨

We’re both running out of space, so we are moving this up!

‼️‼️NEW DATE IS AUGUST 17‼️‼️

Pullets, hens, breeding pairs, growouts, and chicks!

Mark your calendars & save your boxes! 🤗

06/12/2024

Me: I’m gonna take a break from hatching this summer.

Also me:

06/11/2024

Mottled is wild 😧

This chick hatched with one single little black streak on her back.

Fast forward 4 months later and O. M. G. 🤩

NFS

06/08/2024

Sharing again for anyone unsure of how to triage a chicken! 🖤

Help! What’s wrong with my chicken?! 😫

I get a lot of questions from folks about sick and injured birds. I do my best to help, but I obviously don’t have all the answers in my head (I have 5 kids so honestly idk how much is left up there 🤪).

When I find a bird that is down or acting not quite right, here is my triage process:

➖ Eyes — are they clear? What do the pupils look like? Any crust or yellow pus?
➖ Beak — any snot? If so what color? Sneezing?
➖ Breathing — is it rattling? Labored? Any wheezing?
➖ Crop — is it full? Squishy? Hard? Any foul smell or fluid coming up?
➖ Demeanor — lethargy? Hunched up? Droopy wings? Head down? Isolated from the flock?
➖ Comb — is it red? Purple? Pale?
➖ P**p — is it normal? Bloody? Any worms? Diarrhea?
➖ Mobility — can they walk? Limping? Any external injuries on the legs or pads of the feet? Are they wobbly or off balance? Neck and head normal or are they twisted in an unnatural position?
➖ Physical exam — can you feel the keel bone sharply protruding? Has the bird lost weight? Check the vent, beard, & crest…any mites or lice? Any white discharge from the vent? Move the feathers around and check the body for injuries.
➖ Flock — is anyone else acting this way? Sit and watch a few mins…is the bird being picked on?

❗️Based on what I find after running down this list, I either know what to do from experience, or I go straight to the 🐔 Chicken Health Handbook 🐔 for answers. If you don’t own this book, get it! I’ll link it in the comments. ❗️

I’m a firm believer in the “ounce of prevention” theory, so my flock gets Red Cell and Vitamin B gel regularly. Good husbandry is essential for healthy birds. I clean with activated Oxine or Virkon (both can be found on Amazon), along with ammonia/water as needed. Regular brooder and coop cleaning will drastically minimize health issues in your flock.

Hopefully this can help y’all if you happen to find yourself with a sick or injured feathered friend! 🖤

Cute pic of Baby Holly because I love her 🥹 NFS

06/07/2024

My bestie did it again 😍

Ohhhhh Black Hill Homestead I love how your logo turned out 🖤

06/06/2024

Thinking ahead to the fall and planning another 💲ale❗️🤗

What would everyone like to see?

Chicks, growouts, breeding pairs, eggs…?

What colors are you looking for?

06/05/2024

I’ve got 71 eggs incubating and about 50 brooder babies 😅

Somebody buy these before I set them or feed them back to the birds!

I’ve got a dozen+ mottled 🥚 that can 🛳️ tomorrow.

❗️Full disclosure — I have a blue mottled NN that can throw partridge, so there’s a chance you could hatch some. If you’re not ok with this, please don’t buy them ❗️

➡️ I cannot guarantee your hatch rate.
➡️ USPS can be rough on eggs — shipping is risky, and I will not replace eggs.
➡️ I’ve had wonderful fertility from this pen. You could hatch black mottled, blue mottled, black or blue split to mottled, bearded and non-bearded NN (mottled or split), or a random partridge that could feather out blue or Mille.

PM for info.

06/03/2024

Sugar has the cutest face 🥹