This is the other brooding group. At night around 4 adult hens and 5 chicks (and two eggs that should probably be replaced) crowd in here to sleep. With a few well-timed runs to the farmer's market for Jidori eggs, the Silkies have now hatched a flock of 4 Jidori hens and a rooster. It could be the beginning of somethig beautiful.. Another hen is sitting on a couple of Silky eggs from this yard and Jidokko eggs from birds that a nice High School kid hatched from the Supermarket. The told me the little local, direct-from-producer farmer's market section of a nearby Supermarket offers JidoKko eggs ad that's how they got started...

Jidori is just easier to say and type than Jidokko. I'm not really sure if these chicks are Miyazaki Jidori or the mix that starts with them to get Jidokko birds..
#SilkyHens #SilkyChicks #SilkyChickens #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏雛

These 4 Silky Chicks have found a home.
I nice kid that does "Chicken Tractors" wants to exchange them for 3 Chabo birds. Chabo are tough little Japanese hierloom birds. I read somewhere that they are big Shamo Thai fighting birds with a recessive gene for short legs. So 1/4 of their eggs are unviable and 1/4 of their eggs revert back to being big tall Shamo birds? Can that be right. I'll have to find the Wikipedia artilces or whatever it was I read..

#SilkyChicks #烏骨鶏雛 #烏骨鶏中雛 #SilkyChickens

I thought four of these 5 chicks were taken by a weasel the other night. Yesterday morning they were not in the cage where they usually sleep. I set wire mesh and brick up to close them off in the rain the night before but didn't notice they weren't in there I guess. There was a lot going on, the rain, guests for dinner, the other 6 chicks whose bed-time box was commandeered (by me) for brooding hens... After the dinner I drove the 5 chicks I was able to box over to friends' place in a neighboring town.. The bigger rooster in these photo was able to run off and find another box to sleep in at night. That's unusual. The birds usually don't move much at night.. (ToriNoMe 鳥の目, having birds' eyes in Japanese means you can't see well in the dark...)
It was nice to notice them still alive after losing the rest of the eggs (two with fully formed chicks ready to come out, they had started breaking the shell and everything... Now I know to help a little by ripping the membrane so they can get air,, maybe.. They still might not have weathered to drops in temperature and rotation though: Need Better Incubator!!!) .

Now I can set up a friend of a friend with 4 healthy chicks on Sunday.. Knock On Wood, Cross the Fingers... The Houdini-like rooster will go to a neighbor's older sister in November. she ended up with all hens..
#SilkyChicks #SilkyChickens #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #烏骨鶏中雛
Confusing how the Kanji for Hiyoko雛 seems to be the same as for Hina 雛 , the words for a small chick and a slightly larger chick, I think...

This morning 🌄 I thought 4 of these chicks were eaten. They weren't in their box this morning.. I wonder where they slept.last night?
#SilkyChicks #BackyardChickens #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #烏骨鶏中雛

Goodnight birdies!!
#SilkyChicks #SilkyChickens #BackyardChickens #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雛

These 6 chicks are on their own. The last of their 3 mothering hens has decided to jump up on the roosting bar to sleep with the other adults. Time for them to go find a new home. This is when they get picked off by the street cats, when they are still small but not connected to an adult hen that will run interference against the cats..
#SilkyChicks #SilkyChick #烏骨鶏雛

Maron was out with her walking leash loop over a branch of a Sasanquaさざんか 山茶花 bush. She usually jumps up on the wall and looks around gets petted by passersby. Sometimes she looks a little too intently over at the birds, especially the little chicks.. Yesterda I look out the window and she crouched over in an odd way and it seems like there might be white silky feathers around her. So I run out and there under Maron is a dead chick missing a head. Disappointing. One minute there's a bright-eyed happy chirping chick and one uncontrolled urge later there's a limp lump of meat with organs starting to push up out of the neck hole. That was sad enough but then I had to get fierce with Maron so she couldn't mistake how wrong it is to kill a Silky, even the sparrow-sized silkies. Maron was contrite, looked guilty for a surprisingly long time. A few hours later I went out for our poop walk and a family that often visits Maron (and the trains) was on their way back. I explained the day's sad event. The Mom said she was wondering why they didn't get the happy up-beat tail wags they usually get. Maron, and her tail, were drooping yesterday.. not as much as the dead silky chick... This is the 2nd or 3rd chick that Maron has killed. She's lucky she's not Kristi Noem's dog. I'm guessing her (Maron, not Kristi) being here as saved more than 3 chicks with her smell and sounds maybe keeping away cats, weasels, and Tanuki racoon dogs..

#SilkyChickens #SilkyChicks #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雛

"Where's the feed?" --- apologies to the Golden Girl in the fast food commercial

#SilkyChickens #Silkies #BackyardChickens #烏骨鶏 #SilkyHen #SilkyChicks

I got back from work a little late and the Silkies seemed very judgemental about their meal coming late. They get that Old Testament prophet expression when they look at you.. That's what it feels like anyway..

Lunch with Slkies and books.
They can make you feel calm, relaxed!
Dirt Bath Relaxed!

#SilkyChickens #BackyardChickens #烏骨鶏 #SilkyChicks #烏骨鶏雛

GoodNight Birdies Photos from the Thursday when I put the three turkey spermed eggs under the cute young hen.

#SilkyChickens #烏骨鶏 #GoodNightBirdies #BroodingSilkies #SilkyChicks #烏骨鶏雛