4-H Animal Science, Flocking to it Today

We are so excited as today is the day our 4-H members are picking up their chickens.  What kind of chickens you might ask?  This year the participants will be raising Silkies for the fair.  Silkies?!? Are those really laying hens?  I'm gad you asked that.  As a matter of fact they are.  They aren't big egg producers but they will lay about 120 eggs annually.  The eggs, like the chickens, are small, but tasty and have a cream colored shell.  The other great thing about these layers is because of their unique feathers (more like down) they stay fairly warm and will start laying when other breeds are just starting to warm up to the idea, and often they will lay well into the winter. 

One of the other reasons we picked this breed is that they are really child
friendly.  Their feathers will not allow them to flyto escape harm so as soon as they figure out humans will not harm them they want to follow, snuggle, and just hang out with them.  This is awesome, especially for our youngest 4-H members that can easily be scared of flapping wings and pecking. 

So the first challenge for these youth will be determining roosters from hens.  With silkies it is impossible to sex the birds (determine their gender) for almost 6 months.   So we are going to ask our participants raising the chickens to let us know how many roosters and hens they end up with so we can help the farmer determine his percentage in a straight run.

You might not have thought about this but due to COVID many of the hatcheries we work with were unable to provide chickens for us until possibly August.  Production was cut back and many were selling their rooster stocks.  Just one of those things you don't think of until you are trying to purchase a large number of chicks.  We were fortunate to find this family farm in Pennsylvania that raises silkies and had enough to ship to us.
I can guarantee that folks will be excited to see these unique birds at the fair this year as well as our 4-H members showing them.  If you want to check it out the Poultry Shows will take place at the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair onWednesday, October 7 at 7 pm.  Come on out and see how much these little chicks have grown and how much our 4-H members have learned.