Surrounded by Silkies

Today was a very exciting day. Late this afternoon, Nikki and Dylan appeared at the front door with a pet carrier containing three beautiful silkies! Birmingham Silkies has sadly had to sell many of her birds due to a house move. I have been following her online for several years and the silkies she breeds are absolutely stunning. I have wanted a white USA Silkie for ages and amazingly she had one available. Unfortunately for my husband, she also sent some photos of some other girls she was selling. Needless to say, I couldn’t just buy the one and ended up offering a home to two more, a blue splash and a golden. Happily, she is able to keep some of her breeding stock so I am hopeful that if one of my girls goes broody next year, she will be selling hatching eggs!

As always, there was a long debate about names. The white one was always going to be Cumulus after the white fluffy cloud formation. But having already used Stratus, I needed an alternative for the blue splash. I Googled ‘rare cloud formations’ and came across Arcus clouds. These are low level rolling clouds which are closely linked with thunderstorms. So Arcus it is! That left the gold silkie. I couldn’t find any cloud formations which were gold. I dithered with Nebula – a cloud of dust and rock found in space. However, it isn’t really the right colour. Pondering further, I thought about natural phenomena with different colours. Suddenly, it came to me – Aurora short for Aurora Borealis.

As the new girls explored the garden, the other silkies and Trixie watched from their run. Even when I let them out, the two groups kept well apart. Over the next few days, I hope they will mix a bit more as they get used to each other. Coco looked quite interested in the new arrivals. She has been very lonely without Winnie and despite regular visits, is struggling a little. So tonight, once the new girls have settled, I’ll pop her into the nest box so she can have some new friends to keep her company.

Winnie is miraculously still with us however, she is not eating or drinking without help. She is on an anti-inflammatory twice a day, poultry tonic in her water and being fed scrambled egg, grapes and peas. I am still very worried about her as she doesn’t seem to be improving. I’ve kept in regular contact with an American lady who is very experienced with poorly hens and I’m hoping she has a few more suggestions to help Winnie.

Thankfully, the American lady had some suggestions including giving her honey and raw egg. This evening, Winnie has had quite a bit of that plus had a good amount of growers pellets. Although Winnie is still struggling, she has managed to put on around 40g in the past ten days. It’s still very touch and go…