AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Okay a long story I will try to keep short as possible.

I bought a silkie rooster from this bloke. When I went to check out the roo, I gave him the once over.
The once over being - I checked his eyes, nose, around his face, listened to his breathing, smelt his breath to make sure there was no bad or unusual odour coming from his mouth, looked inside his mouth to make sure there was nothing unusual going on in there and finally checked his legs. I noticed that he was looking a little worse for wear and his legs were covered in mites and his toe nails and spurs were in need of a bad cut - but having said that I felt sorry for the little fella and took him home to try and fix him up. I knew this would involve more money, but I didn;t care.
Took him to the vet to see what I should be doing in order to get him looking his best again.
The vet said as he was so badly neglected the best thing for him was to put him to sleep. Reluctantly, I finally agreed.

Then a lady comes and gets some hens off of me and starts telling me about this lady, who her husband looked at strangely and thought she must have been on drugs or something, because she was doing the above to check over him and make sure he was ok to buy, and as it turns out the lady she was talking about was - ME!!!!!!!!

When I had finally calmed down, I emailed her telling her she shouldn't go around bad mouthing people when she herself doesn't know anything about chooks, as she told me she only just found out what a pullet was.
She thought it was an unsexed chook, being under the age of 12 months!!!!!!
She also told me that my silkie rooster is a cross bred because he has red colouring in his feathers. Isn't that just a genetic mistake or something similar.

Sorry for the long topic, but I just had to let off steam.

Hi Chookgirl, you did the 110% right thing by giving him the once over, that is great to read. You are obviously a true bird love to find the problems and still buy the bird, good on you. It truly is a small world when the wife comes to your place to buy hens, i'll bet she didn't do the same checks as you? which says everything. In stead of bad mouthing others she should look closer to home (her backyard)

Red or Buff in your silkie roo does not make him cross breed, he could be one of a number of different colour varieties. If you send a Photo we'll post it in the Gallery, I'm sure a number of Members will know.



Thanks
Peacocks Australia

Thanks so much for that.
You've made me feel soooooo much better.
You're right - she didn't even bother to check over the chooks.
Silly twit of a woman
cheers
chookgirl

P.S.
I will post a photo of my little rooster. But first I have to sweet-talk my brother in law in to borrowing his camera.
chookgirl

Look forward to receiving the Photo's you can send as many as you like of any of your Poultry. Please email them to: admin@peacocksaustralia.com




Thanks
Peacocks Australia

Sorry Chookgirl newbie here, What sort of chooks to you have? I am looking for some in the near future once I get out to Maryvale. Think you posted Ipswich when talking about rain last couple of days, am I right?

Cheers Damaris

PS I am glad that the rooster is not at that place anymore. How horrible. Are their other chooks in the same sort of condition - Should the RSPCA know about it?

Thanks Damaris

Yes I live in the Ipswich area - One Mile. Close to the back gate of the Amberley RAAF base.

I have all sorts of chooks. Sussex, R.I.R, and a mixed bag of the larger chook breeds. I'm not into breeding the large breeds
At the moment I'm trying to breed silkies. I'm wanting to cross them with a frizzle rooster to see what I come out with.

If you are after chicks or point of lay hens, a good place to go get them is out at Stocks, out along the Warrego Highway at Blacksoil.
They have such a good range there and they always have plenty in stock.
That's where I get my chooks a lot of the time.
What type were you after?

CHEERS
chookgirl

Thanks for the info. I am after RIR mainly as they are a good dual purpose chook. The only problem is that I tend to get hooked on them and the intention is there for them to be dinner but they don't end up that way......

Cheers Damaris

I agree with you totally with the way you checked him over, the only thing I do not do is go the Vet. Some Vet is too quick to put down animals.

I medicate all my new fowl, worming them, then a drink of an antibiotic, then lots of TLC. If they are not suffering, they stay alive, regardless.

Silkies are known for their long toe nails and if they have been neglected, I trim them hard and use corn flour to stop the bleeding.

No bird suffers on my property and sometimes I have 1 - 2 birds die a week, mostly of old age. I do not believe in killing a bird just because it is old or out lived it purpose. I own lots of “old age pensioners” that I but at auction, (a pen of 5 old layers for $1) or get given.

My current “flock” numbers around 500 +.

With reference to “bad mouthing” let your birds do the talking, if you look after your birds, when you sell them people quickly relieve who is the best breeder.

With reference to the red colour in your silkies, there will always be “experts” out there that do not know a thing about the bird and what is new. Each breed is getting new colours nearly every year. So just disregard them, you know how they look after their birds, so how can they know anything about the colours in the breed.

Quote broken bird "Some Vet is too quick to put down animals" i agree some do. 500 in your flock! thats going to keep you very busy.






Jeff