Silkies

A few weeks ago I drove Maggie out into the countryside - even more country than where we live! - to get her a few Silkie chicks for an early birthday present. We braved a scary pack of cattle dogs (I was kind of afraid to put Maggie down amongst them) who BIT MY CAR as I was pulling out of the driveway, but it has been worth it to have these adorable little fluff balls as part of our ever-expanding farm livestock repertoire.

Maggie has wanted a Silkie ever since meeting our friend Flo's white Silkie, Popcorn, named by her daughters Amelie and Sera (they also have a chicken named Cup).

When getting chickens, we realized that if we want to actually have the goal of being somewhat self-sustainable that it would not be sustainable to consider all our chickens as pets. Chickens have a limited amount of time where they will lay eggs and then they go through "hen-opause" and are pretty much spent. Some folks have a hard time saying goodbye to their hens who have faithfully produced eggs. I am sure we will have a hard time too, when the time comes, but we know it just isn't practical to have unproductive chickens taking up the space that should be used by productive ones.

With that being said, we knew it would be tough for Mags to say goodbye (and possibly eat) birds that have been her friends. Silkies are a show breed that doesn't lay any eggs, so they're an easy choice for our "pet" chickens. These girls will never be eaten!

Speaking of "girls," we actually don't know if these little ones are... but our fingers are crossed! I personally would not mind ending up with a breeding pair, but really I'll be happy if there is just one gal out of the bunch.

One of my favorite things about chicks is the gawky, awkward phase they go through between being fluffy and getting their real feathers. An extra bonus of having Silkies is they get the most amazing little bellbottoms -- right now it looks like the little chicks are rocking some serious legwarmers.

This little lady is a few weeks older than the other two. 

She's been a great "mother" for them and is wayyyy more fluffy already.