Despite their small size, they will sit on as many eggs as they can cover, including duck eggs! Silkies are well-known for their broodiness instincts. Silkies are so quiet and unobtrusive your neighbors won’t even know that you have chickens. If you’re looking for a chicken breed that won’t annoy your neighbors, pick a Silkie. Heck, I’m a mother with two boys and I love to pet their soft fluffiness! Urban Friendly And tiny hands love to pet their soft fluffiness. They’re gentle and patient and quiet, and don’t have an aggressive bone on their body. If I had to pick just one kid-friendly chicken breed, Silkies would take the top spot. They’re so industrious…I imagine because it’s so hard for them to see that they have to work twice as hard as other chickens to find food. However, you’ll find that they’re great foragers if you let them out. Silkie chickens are adorable, and it’s hilarious to watch these walking balls of fluff out in the yard foraging for bugs. Pros and Cons of Silkie Chickens Pros Adorable If you count, you can see five distinct toes. FeetĪnother unusual characteristic is that they have five toes, unlike regular chickens which have only four. Silkie bantam roosters weigh 1.2 lbs, while hens will weigh 1.1 lbs. Large fowl Silkie roosters weigh in at 4 lbs, while hens weigh 3 lbs. That’s the case here in the United States, where only bantams are recognized. But, each country has different standards, and sometimes the Large fowl Silkies are not officially recognized. There are two types of Silkie chickens: large fowl and bantam. However, they will lay around 3 cream small to medium sized colored eggs per week. Silkies are not a “production breed,” so you won’t get an egg a day from them. They’re truly more like a pet than other breeds! Egg Laying When well cared for, Silkies can live between 7 to 9 years. While it’s shared with a few other breeds, such as the Sumatra and the Ayam Cemani, researchers have studied this trait most often in Silkies. Even their internal organs are black! This trait is called melanism. Silkies have black skin, eyes, beaks, bones, and feet. Silkies come in several different colors: This is why you see some Silkies with just a bit of fluffy ‘do, and others with an amazing bouffant hairdo that would make Tina Turner envious. Some Silkies have a vaulted skull, which allows the top head feathers more space, and thus a more prominent tuft. They also sport an adorable “tuft” of fluff on top of their heads, and have a beard below their beak.
Because they don’t have feathers, Silkies cannot fly. Their feathers are more like soft, silky fur. Silkies don’t have feathers with hard shafts like other chickens do. Characteristics of Silkie Chickens Feathers and ColoringĪ Silkie’s feathering is one of the characteristics that makes them so special. So, what makes this breed so unique? Let’s take a look.
Today, Silkies are one of the most popular breeds for backyard chicken keepers, with good reason. Their popularity took off, and even Queen Victoria raised bantam silkies. By 1872, they made their first appearance into the American Standard of Perfection. reports that today’s “modern” Silkie didn’t make an appearance until the mid-1800s. Other early descriptions of the breed called them “wooly hens.” The first written record of Silkies came from Marco Polo, who was traveling through Asia in the 13th century and remarked in his journal that he had come across “furry” chickens.
Silkies are one of the oldest recorded chicken breeds in history.Īccording to Ohio State University, researchers think that Silkies originated from Asia, or perhaps Japan, while others believe they came from India or Java.
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