Variety

SILKIE

Large Fowl

Origin: Asia
Lifespan: 8 – 9 years
Eggs: 100 – 120 per year
Egg Color: Tinted / Cream
Beginner Friendly: Yes
Cold Hardy: No
Purpose: Eggs / Meat / Ornamental / Exhibition
Classification: Light, Soft Feather

Silkies are birds with sweet, friendly temperaments and feathers that feel more like hair. They have very dark almost black skin and bones, 5 toes that are covered with feathers, walnut-combed, a fluffy head crest, black eyes and oval shaped blue earlobes.
They are very broody and devoted mothers to anything that hatches from an egg – they’ll even adopt other chicks!

They are content to be confined, but if allowed to free range are great little foragers. The area in which they forage should be a ‘safe zone’ since they cannot fly to escape predators.
They don’t have waterproof feathers so they require sheltered runs since they will not cope so well with very hot, cold or wet / muddy conditions.
Silkies can be tamed and considered a real pet which makes them especially suitable for children.

Perhaps because of their easy going temperament, they are usually fairly low on the pecking order and can be subjected to bullying with larger more assertive birds.