The Silkie Chicks!
We call them The Silkies. The Tener Silkies, that is, because they are definitely part of the family.
They are an ancient breed of chickens of Asian descent, first introduced in Europe by the Dutch as: the wondrous cross-breed between a rabbit and a chicken! It turns out that this is quite a believable description because they are absolutely fuzzy and soft, quite like a bunny. Note: The original version of this post had the phrasing "bunny rabbit" but Mara pointed out that "rabbit" is redundant because all bunnies are rabbits. Elena pointed out that "bunny rabbit" is more artistic.
I will just have to write this again, in case you didn't realize how extremely huggable they are. Fuzzy and soft, they feel all over like a silky-soft fur - the poofy head, the poofy tail, chest and back and wings are all soft fuzziness. I'd say they're even softer than you would imagine from my paltry description. Once you've hugged one, you'd likely continue to imagine and remember it for days afterward.
Past their lovely textural huggability (we declare this now an official term!), they have a wonderfully gentle personality, they love interacting with children, they are quieter than most chicken breeds and will be happy in smaller outdoor spaces than most - great for a suburb backyard. And on top of all that, they lay eggs! The eggs are smaller in size because they are a Bantam breed, but absolutely delicious and with a large golden yolk.
In two words: Dream Chickens.
Background
I grew up visiting my grandma Mamaia in the summers. All these years she's always been raising chickens on her farmstead. She was renowned in the village as she had the healthiest, best behaved hens, and people would come from neighboring villages to ask her for eggs they could hatch, or even a good brooding hen to borrow for the summer so they could get some healthy chicks.
In the heat of summer I used to spend hours by myself in her yard, crouching down and keeping very still with a piece of bread, trying to convince the birds to come close enough to eat out of my hand. It took a ton of patience - regular farmstead chickens are so independent, and veeery suspicious of children! But I loved those days immensely.
To me, chickens in the yard became equated with the bliss of childhood and its lack of worries, the warmth of summer and an intimate closeness to nature. I missed that utter freedom and joy when finally in the Fall we'd return to town, surrounded by cement and fancy buildings and with great schools. Both environments had their joys and I loved the healthy cadence between them each year.
The Adoption
In May 2020, once it seemed like we'd be working from home for multiple months, I finally saw an opportunity to start that life here as well. I had mentioned it to Greg many times over the years with no avail. But this time, it was like the stars were all aligned:
- We had redesigned our backyard to be full of greenery, yet the kids were doing virtual school so they were spending too much time in front of screens.
- Willow had disappeared, leaving our hearts shattered, we had a hole to fill in our family.
- Given the work-from-home months we finally would have the time to welcome a new pet with enough dedicated attention while they were young, to really shape their personality right.
- And most importantly: I caught Greg in a morning when he was extremely exhausted, after multiple nights of baby waking. He would have said yes to anything. So he said yes to chickens.
During that month we did extensive research of the best breeds of chickens. I did a lot, but ran my findings by the kids and Greg and had many discussions making the plans.
First, we researched the best coop, from Omlet, all the features, how we'd place it in our yard, all sorts of measurements for the chicken run. It took months for it to ship to us, so we got that ordered first.
We set up the final breeds on a matrix in the dining room whiteboard (see the photo), and as we discussed together Mara filled the matrix cells with the qualities each breed would met. At the end, we each voted. The Silkies ended up checking the most boxes, missing just the Rainbow Egg Basket mark because their eggs are a more common light cream color instead of unusual colors. Yet, they touted black-blue skin and bones due to a rare trait called melanism, and a very unusual polydactily feature: one extra toe on each foot! So they were just the right amount of special!
Then, we researched breeders, which turned out to be quite a task, given that we wanted a variation of colors so we can tell them apart. Many breeders only had one color of silkies, black or white. Others were more than a 6 hour drive away, which was infeasible with a small baby. We had multiple attempts at it, and found bad breeders who won't teach you anything and don't really care that the chicks survive the long car ride. And we found breeders who are very nice and ensure everything is in order for them to be in a good home. We ended up learning several hard lessons in those beginning weeks. For one, you need to set up and test your space waaay before the chicks arrive; our brood heater was not working well and absolutely nobody had any heaters available to buy, neither in-store nor online, due to everyone supposedly getting "pandemic chickens". A lovely neighbor saved us by loaning us her heat lamp for two weeks until our backordered one arrived.
Shaping their Personality
The most defining act that shaped these Silkies' personality, beyond choosing the right breed and breeder, was the way we raised them.
We adopted them when they were one week old baby chicks, and raised them to be extremely human-friendly. Based on our research and consulting with the local experts from Chick-n-Bees (go visit!!), there is one big secret to raising chickens as pets.
Most people raise their chicks in boxes/brooders on the floor, with a top opening. If you do that, you always end up picking up the chicken from above, like a predator would. They learn to tolerate your presence, and will come to you for food, but will never consider you as their family.
The secret is to (1) get them very young, roughly 1-2 week old, (2) raise them at kitchen-counter level with the brooder door on the side, so you approach them as a friend, eye to eye, every time. Then, they will look at your face and think of you as family and protector.
This foldable kennel worked perfectly for that, and we were even able to modify it to be a larger/smaller space as their needs change, by clipping panels together to switch between a rectangle, hexagon or octagon.
A whole summer of love was thus started. Mara and Gaius would take them outside every day, and feed them all the little ants they caught by hand. they would hold them and hug them, and tell them stories. Mara would pretend to be the mother hen, always choosing skirts/dresses that would cover the chickens on her lap and keep them cozy. Gaius would valiantly climb over logs, showing them the wonderful garden, then return and help Mara make cardboard mazes for them to traverse.
When the fancy Omlet chicken coop arrived, we had a blast assembling it together - it took multiple days, because we took our time.
Fae regularly inspects the chicken run, and all the chicken treats. She is pretty convinced the Omlet chicken coop is just the perfect Baby House too!
[FREE] The Silkie Chicks Book!
For her seventh birthday, Mara wrote her very first official book, about the Silkies. This was such a special moment, that I would like for her, Mara, to introduce the Silkies to you, in her own words.
Here it is below, or you can download the pdf book: "Our Silkie Chicks by Mara Tener". If you are having trouble, contact us and we can send it by email or mail you a printed copy.
Last but not least, let us know if you liked it, by any channels! Mara and I would love to hear from you!
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