Windchyme Silkies featured on Backyard Chickens silkie breed page

Shipping on most of my birds now available!!!!

The foundation stock I started with for the silkies come from "Heritage Stock" that has it's roots 20 years back. I understand this bloodline before it came into my hands (and since) has had little if any of the current popular bloodlines crossed into it. My cuckoo pen contains what appears to be Eddie Travers crossed birds and some of them are among the finest birds I own and the only bloodline I currently know that I would gladly cross into these birds given the chance. The bantam cochins/frizzles come from some of the finest lines in the country even though they are in a mixed color pen. I maintain pet quality standard cochins for egg laying purposes and brooding when needed. My standard cochins are in a mixed color pen, the roos are exceptionally large, profusely feathered and sweet as the day is long, many of the hens are only marginally smaller. I am going for size and feathering in this pen along with laying and brooding ability (you should see how many eggs you can fit under one of these hens!!!) Beautiful color is important but not neccisarily pure colors.

My silkies are my main thing along with my dewlap toulouse and sebastopol geese and
while they are high quality, they are not perfect. All make gorgeous pets, most make good breeder
stock for those that are starting out or have only been breeding for a couple years, several make
good breeders for more advanced breeders, these make good new bloodline birds to refresh a flock.
I am truthful enough to admit that each pen has it's issues I am working on each year like most breeders deal with. If a buyer wants to know what issue a particular pen has they need only
ask and I will tell them what I percieve as the problem/s in each pen. I can also advise what
to and NOT to breed into these birds. Generally you do not want to breed fault to fault
in all animals, meaning, if one has toe issues you would want to pick a mate/s for
that bird that has better or perfect toes in order to try to counteract the bad. They are always
a work in progress.

Please email to be added to an update list to know about eggs and birds that become available. Please put "UPDATE LIST"
and the breed you are interested in (ALL if you want to be updated on all the breeds) , in the subject line of the email. List members
may be offered specials non list members will not get.

My place located in the California Gold Country
My "wild pet" Ca Quail	About Us	My "wild pet" Pheasant

I am not a commercial hatchery or a commercial anything, I (and my children) are private serious hobby breeders and exhibitors of mainly bearded silkies, sebastopol, dewlap toulouse, & saddleback pomeranian geese. Also breeding quality mixed color bantam cochins in regular and frizzle feathering and some nice mixed color standard cochins for beauty, large eggs and brooding. There is a few call ducks in snowy, grey, and working on black bibbed, & 2 pair of Pencilled Palm turkeys with limited space and resources. I take in rescue poultry on a regular basis and find homes for them as well. The newborns are born and raised in my house for the first couple weeks then go out to the garage to grow some more. You won't hear frantic loud peeping of babies in distress like is common at a feed store, instead at my house you hear the quiet background chitter chatter of content, well cared for happy chicks, ducklings & goslings.

This started out innocently enough as a 4H endevour for the children (the 4H poultry program around here is nearly non existant and of no benefit so the children didn't bother as they can well do this on their own). A small group of yard birds which we enjoyed more then we thought possible, turned into a plan for 1 large enclosed coop. After a viewing of purebred birds we rehomed all the hatchery stock within a week (yes the difference between the two is that dramatic), determined to have beautiful purebred birds which were worth showing and breeding. This turned into a need for many smaller coops to allow for color seperation for quality breeding and a search for the best foundation stock possible, which in turn has caused a need for more coops to really do the job properly and goose "pastures". 1 small incubator has turned into 5 and a savings plan for a large cabinet incubator. More incubator space means more space and facilities needed to brood the chicks which means a laundry room redo and a need to look into what needs to be done in the garage area where young babies grow until ready to go out to the pens and in the winter where youngsters grow out until they can deal with the harsher weather. In short, it has turned into a family hobby now. We all participate. Do I need therapy? Probably....LOL. Does anyone have a number for Egg Anonymous or maybe a chicken 12 step program cause truly, I'm eggdicted. (grins). We don't really make much of a profit if any, but the chickens pretty much cover their own expenses usually thank goodness, any little extra gets divided between the children as their only real spending money or for their specialized disability needs and on occasion sent to charity as my way of thanking god for his gifts in our lives.

My stock (like the stock of most other small breeders) spends their time in either their specific 10 x 12 to 14 breed pen or ranging my acre which is less then it used to be due to repeated attacks, a couple deaths and many near deaths due to a hawk living in a tree across the road from my house. It sees my property as it's own personal grocery store. I hope to remedy this sometime soon with a perimeter fence and an outdoor dog with a fetish for large circling birds so I can again let them range more extensively. As it stands we're on half day free ranging per pen so they end up getting out about twice a week on the chickens and every other day on the ducks. My birds are not fed medicated feeds and are fed the best feed possible. Diatomaceous earth is used to contol external bugs as well as permethrin preparations, Oxine (which is safe enough for you to ingest at the proper dilution) as a sanitizer everywhere and algae inhibitor, neem tree oil for many ailments, ivermectin for internal and external parasites. I try to go as natural as humanly possible with my birds. My birds engage in all the behaviors that are normal to a chicken- they chase, catch and eat bugs and other small creatures, they take dust baths when it suits them, lay, sit or flap as it suits them, they have a group they recognize and are bonded to, females sometimes are allowed to sit on eggs, hatch out and raise their own chicks. I try as best I can to provide my birds a life that is as close to what they would choose for themselves as possible. I am actively engaged in figuring out enrichment activities for them in their pens to keep their minds busy and healthy.

My birds recieve regular preventative care- worming, nail clipping, beak trimming if and when needed, parasite control, calcium, pen/nest cleanings etc.

Factory Farms and Free Range Eggs

Consider this about commercial farms which claim to provide free range eggs and meat birds.

"There is no inspection system for companies that label their eggs "free-range."The popular myth that "free-range" egg-laying hens enjoy fresh grass, bask in the sunlight, scratch the earth, sit on their nests, and engage in other natural habits is often just that: a myth. In many commercial "free-range" egg farms, hens are crowded inside windowless sheds with little more than a single, narrow exit leading to an enclosure, too small to accommodate all of the birds at once. Birds raised for meat ("broilers") may be considered "free-range" if they have U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified access to the outdoors. No other criteria-environmental quality, the size of the outdoor area, the number of birds confined in a single shed, or the indoor or outdoor space allotted per animal-are considered in applying the label. As with "free-range" laying hens, many "free-range" broilers live in a facility with only one small opening at the end of a large shed, permitting only a few birds to go outside at any given time. Even Richard Lobb, spokesperson for the National Chicken Council admits, "Even in a free-range type of style of production, you're basically going to find most of them inside the grow out facility…."(2)According to The Washington Post Magazine, in the case of birds, the term "free-range" "doesn't really tell you anything about the [animal's]…quality of life, nor does it even assure that the animal actually goes outdoors."(3) "                                     http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php

Buy from a small local breeder and be SURE you're getting free range eggs from happy and healthy hens!

Charities Supported when we can.....

A portion of what I make from selling birds and eggs goes to various charities. I would not be able to afford this normally but when the birds do well for me I like to share. I have contributed at least once to these charities oftentimes more. It really is nothing to send out a $20 once a month to someone to help out in our world- that's only one dinner out, or less then going out to a movie and heck eating at home listening to the contented peeping of the chicks is better anyways.

The Worm Project - Provides worm medications to children in 3rd world countries.

World Wildlife Federation - The ultimate goal is to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.

ASPCA - help the ASPCA alleviate the needless fear, pain and suffering in animals' lives.

Second Chance Rottweiler Rescue - They rescue Rottweiler's from animal shelters, humane societies and other rescue organizations where otherwise the dogs would be euthanized. This is in memory of my Chance who was all the best things a rotty can be, started out as an unwanted street dog pregnancy and went on to change hundreds of lives forever as well as city and county policies and practices that will live on long after even I am gone. Save a rotty life, you don't know whose or how many lives you might actually save.

Marine Mammal Center - It is our responsibility to use our awareness, compassion and intelligence to foster marine mammal survival and the conservation of their habitat.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Now this is conservation truly my style (GO GUYS!!)- Enough wringing our hands and crying! These guys need a new ice reinforced ship so they can more safely see to business. Can we manage to get that for them?