Pipinchick started with just one Silkie over 10 years ago, there’s not much we don’t know about these gorgeous little chickens. With extensive knowledge on how to bring you perfect pet Silkies why go anywhere else? You can see our Silkie Chicken ranges below and email for more info.
They are a small bird with soft silky feathers and a docile, gentle nature.
Silkie hens are renowned for their clucky curiosity and their mothering instincts, often going broody even if they are not sitting on eggs.
They make fantastic pets and are great fun for children, they are ideal garden hens, they will not destroy your flower beds or scratch up your grass and will be content pottering around your garden with you.
Silkie cockerels are also docile and less aggressive than other breeds and make fine, caring fathers to young, even helping mum with her duties.
Silkie Chicken Suitability
Silkies are not an overly hardy breed, although suited to our British climate they prefer to stay dry and warm, as their soft feathers are not waterproof and take a long time to dry, Silkies do not like to be too cold or have their house in a draft.
They are however resilient and robust when being handled by children, they do go very broody and will often sit on an empty clutch so if you’re looking for a prolific layer the Silkie is perhaps not for you, they will give you 4-5 small white eggs a week through the summer months, they do not lay in the winter.
Their life expectancy is about 9 years.
Silkie Chicken History
Originating from the Orient the Silkie chicken is a light feathered large fowl not a bantam breed, however they are very small compared to a regular large fowl, they do also come in a bantam size these are known as minis, at Pipinchick we rear the regular Light Feathered Large Fowl.
The oldest records of Silkie existence dates back to the 13th century, when Marco Polo wrote of these fluffy birds on his travels to China. He recorded that they had black skin and the hair of a cat. The exact date the Silkie made it to Europe is not knows but they are believed to have made their way with traders and merchants navigating and passing through the Silk Route.