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Meet the fluff balls!

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clothmama
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Meet the fluff balls!

Postby clothmama » Sun Mar 04, 2018 7:53 pm

So I finally managed to get some silkies today :yahoo: :widesmile: . The guy was really nice but his whole yard was all mud (i seriously considered washing their feet which I didn't realise would be quite as feathered!) They were inside locked up because of the rain in a little stable so it was a bit hard to choose the ones I wanted but I ended up with a pale cream coloured girl who is cute, she has straight up in the air hair. The other is a cuckoo with a full puffball head :giggle: not sure how well she can see thy may need a haircut LOL. I really had trouble getting close enough for good pics but I managed to at least get some to show you.
Image Image Image
I'm a bit sad as they are so scared of me and I don't think they have been handled much, I asked him and he said they weren't really picked up. My girls are picked up every day so huge difference. He couldn't tell me exactly how old they are somewhere between 1 and 2 so not sure if too old to get used to the way our little smallholding works with lots of attention. How old was yours when you got her @allie ?

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autumnalgirl
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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby autumnalgirl » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:24 pm

Cute! We've only ever really been able to handle the ones who were happy with it from the start.

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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby clothmama » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:39 pm

autumnalgirl wrote:Cute! We've only ever really been able to handle the ones who were happy with it from the start.

When you say the start do you mean from little or from the start of living with you? Have you ever had new adult birds or only chicks @autumnalgirl ? I'm worried I'm making a mistake with getting 2 adult birds maybe it is too late :-?

Been doing lots of research and I think she is either porcelain or Isabel. Also wondering if they were just totally freaked out by all the grass etc when they have been a/ inside alot b/ in a brown muddy yard when not. :fingerscrossed: :fingerscrossed: they'll calm down and love us soon!

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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby autumnalgirl » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:46 pm

Sorry, we've mainly had ones at point of lay, but de re-home a couple of adults. The adults sometimes tolerated us picking them up depending on mood/who. The others seem to have varied from bird to bird. We've got one that we can't get near to at all, ironically she was the one that I caught when we went to chose them so we thought we had a friendly one. She just runs madly and hides!

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Allie
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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby Allie » Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:29 am

They're lovely @clothmama, most of mine have been point of lay but my ex battery hens were scared of us when we got them. I eventually got them to trust me by going out to the coop after dark and picking them up when they were calm and sleepy. Might be worth a try...

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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby clothmama » Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:30 am

Sounds like it really is a lot down to personality I guess @autumnalgirl

Allie wrote:my ex battery hens were scared of us when we got them. I eventually got them to trust me by going out to the coop after dark and picking them up when they were calm and sleepy. Might be worth a try...

That is actually quite a good idea. I went this morning to say good morning and check on them and I picked them up - they weren't overly impressed @Allie :giggle: !

I'm tempted to do something about grey fluffballs fluff head as she can't see the poor love! I looked on BYC and lots of people either trim them slightly at the front or use a little hairband / vet tape to tie it back :giggle:

Plan today is to put a wire door on the plastic box thing (it is the back of an old huge TV) they have in the run so that the 3 big girls can sleep in there for a couple of nights until the A frame coop is done which means I can put the silkies in their little hutch so they are not in a box! Then hopefully all being well with J's back we can crack on with the coop and get a good way done today. I think I'll need to go and get some more supplies first though.

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Aeseldyr
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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby Aeseldyr » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:07 pm

Cute

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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby clothmama » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:54 pm

I forgot to say what happened yesterday with them. I tried to fence off one end of the run and put them out there. The Isabel (beige) one panicked and started trying to get through the fence and succeeded :shock: Clementine (our Brown Lohmann) attacked her and pecked her :( I eventually got her back in but now I'm really worried about integration hence getting them properly set up in the little coop as they may end up staying in there for a lot longer than I thought they would :-?

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Re: Meet the fluff balls!

Postby clothmama » Sat Mar 10, 2018 4:07 pm

Managed to get a better picture of them :widesmile: they are less freaked out and they seem to have perked up on the vitamin water I've given them.

I think the guy was very much the relaxed French thing with animals and I emailed yesterday and he never vaccinated them or anything so I'm guessing they wouldn't have had the odd lot of vitamins or anything like that. Even the food was only a mix of corn and other grains with some granules. Interestingly they were only giving him about 2 eggs a week. I've been doing lots of research on silkies and apparently they can do with higher protein feed more than regular chickens so I've put them on the higher protein stuff that I was recommended for the others and am putting oyster shells and grit on the side so I'm hoping with that they'll actually give me more than 2 eggs a week (alot of the peopel on BackyardChickens seem to get 5 a week)! Mind you at this point I'd be happy with any egg :hohoho: :hohoho: I bought 2 ceramic ones yesterday and put them in the little next area in their coop and this morning they'd moved them in to the main area where they sleep which I thought was pretty funny :giggle:

Anyway here are Fluffball one and Fluffball 2!
Image

The poor loves need some names!

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