Silkie Traits
Silkies are a bantam chicken breed, with soft silky plumage. Their feathers are similar to down and wisp around, making them look like balls of fluff. They are incredibly sweet, gentle birds that make the perfect pets for children. Silkie hens make wonderful mothers. They love to sit on eggs and hatch their own babies and they can even adopt other baby poultry if given the chance. Silkie feathers can be a number of different colors. The colors we currently raise include white, buff, blue, black, splash and paint.
Besides their unique feathers, the silkie breed has several other unusual qualities, such as black skin and bones, turquoise blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot, instead of the usual four. Silkies have heavily feathered feet, and mulberry colored cushion combs. The combs are typically only visible on the males, as the female’s combs are smaller and hidden by their crest. It’s not known for certain where the silkie breed originated but I read one theory that the breed was created for a Chinese emperor and took much work since they have just about every recessive trait a chicken can have!
Silkies lay small tinted eggs, and their yolks are relatively large compared to the overall egg size. Our silkie eggs typically weight 1.5-1.7 ounces.
Silkies are one of the few ancient chicken breeds we still have around today, originating from Asia prior to the 13th century, truly a heritage breed.
Silkie Feather Colors
Paint Silkies
Paint Silkies are created by breeding black and dominant white silkies. Paint feather coloring is fascinating and a bit confusing. Most white silkies are recessive white, but a dominant white is needed for paints. Chicks who receive a copy of black and a copy of the dominant white gene from their parents will have the paint feather pattern. Chicks who receive black from both parents will be black and those who receive two copies of dominant white will have all white feathers. The chicks who have one copy of each gene look painted because the dominant white doesn’t completely cover the black, leaving patches of black feathers among the white. The amount of black spots can vary both in number and size, so each paint silkie will look unique!
Our paint silkies started from hatching eggs we bought that produced okay paints, but we crossed a rooster from that hatch with our black silkies from Swanky Silkies to improve them and we are very excited about our second generation who will be the parents of our 2024 hatching eggs! More photos of paints coming soon.
White Silkies
Our original white silkies came from Swanky Silkies and they have the most beautiful fluffy feathers and docile personalities. Their combs and skin were a bit light, so we outcrossed them with a white rooster with darker skin pigment. This rooster we used hatched from our favorite porcelain silkie hen (who must be carrying recessive white!). We’re so glad to have her genetics in our white silkies as she is 7 years old, has been our best chicken mama over the years and is very healthy and beautiful.
Blue, Black and Splash
Buff
As I mentioned above, our favorite silkie hen is a porcelain hen, which is a combination of buff and lavender. We never found a rooster to pair her with that could produce consistent porcelain chicks, so we moved toward breeding her for buff and redpyle with two different buff roosters from Swanky SIlkies, and we love the buff babies we grew out in 2023. We will have a small number of buff hatching eggs available in 2024 since we still have a small number of buff chickens.
Brant E. (verified owner) –
Karissa B. (verified owner) –
We ordered hatching eggs from you over the spring and I just wanted to let you know that they ended up being sweetest and most adorable silkies. I love them like crazy. These are the two hens we got.
Tiffany (verified owner) –
Hi! It has been an unbelievably long journey. Our beautiful and beloved Silkie chicken was sitting on eggs before we were forced to get rid of our rooster. It turned out that the eggs were not fertile, so I looked around and found Better with Thyme farm to order some well bred silkie eggs. Sarah got back to me quickly and we eagerly awaited our eggs to swap out and hatch. They arrived beautifully wrapped and labeled with care instructions. Our hen was on them for almost a week when tragedy struck, our beautiful hen was attacked by flies and maggots that went unnoticed because she was diligently sitting. She had an incredibly large wound on her underside crawling with maggots! Determined to save our beloved hen, we soaked her in ivermectin and water, and soapy water, and picked each and every bug out of her with tweezers and a flush tube. Unsure if she would even Survive, we kept bathing her and flushing her wound for four days, followed by blow drying her. Needless to say, she had to abandon her responsibilities as a mother to survive. I covered the eggs with a moist cloth and hoped that our one other hen would adopt the eggs, but she did not until 24-48 hours later! We were not hopeful about the eggs and we were still caring for our wounded hen. I used vetericyn spray and watched the would slowly heal while keeping her inside as she got stronger. After a week we checked the eggs that seemed to miraculously be growing! How could we be so blessed to have our hen survive this tragedy and salvage the abandoned eggs?! The eggs took longer than 21 days, but they began to chirp and hatch on day 22-26. We got 1 beautiful healthy chick! First on Sunday night and then two more on Tuesday and another who needed help hatching on Thursday. By this time, adopted mama hen was done hatching, and unfortunately abandoned the late comers. We had some heartbreaking loss, but we are So thankful for the blessings we were given.
I have had an overwhelming journey, but I would definitely order again from Better with Thyme farm, after time strengthens me to try for more : ) Thank you so much for the help, and the wonderful eggs! Our hen continues to heal and we have chicks against all odds!!
Deems M (verified owner) –
We were able to hatch two. Very cute, one blue and one like a blonde copper color. She kind of looks like a little chipmunk has two dark brown stripes down her back and the cutest dark brown eyelids. They hatched on June 8th. I first saw a pip on one of the eggs that day. Also a third one was born but did not make it I’m not sure what happened. He was completely perfect and fluffed out. Another was alive but did not make it out of the shell I probably should have done something but I wasn’t sure so I didn’t do anything. My broody kicked out two eggs and pecked one open after the first seven days. All seem to have a hard time getting out of the shell. I’m thinking maybe I should have increased the humidity in the coop during the last 3 days. It’s been very hot and dry here in Florida.
Denise Y. (verified owner) –
Great again this year, 6 out of 8 hatched. 1 had a deformed leg and didn’t make it but other 5 doing well. Like the surprise of not knowing what I’m going to get.
Amanda (verified owner) –
I received 12 eggs, 9 of them started developing, and 8 hatched!
Kathy (verified owner) –
I just wanted to let you know that I received 8 eggs about 4weeks ago, 5 ended up being viable and 4 successfully hatched. This was my first time hatching chickens and it was a wonderful experience!!! My 4 beautiful little silkies are healthy and happy! I definitely plan on doing this again next Spring.
Denise Y. (verified owner) –
Eggs arrived intact without any cracks. Well packaged. Received 8 eggs (6 ordered) and 6 eggs hatched! All chicks doing well. Very happy with purchase.
Genevieve Robson (verified owner) –
The eggs all arrived safely with no cracks at all. I got a 4 adorable, sweet, and healthy chicks out of 7 eggs. It was my first time hatching anything, and I can’t believe I was successful. It was a fantastic experience. I love them.
auberryallison (verified owner) –
I ordered some silkie eggs back in late may and they arrived in early June! We asked for 2 extra eggs and 6 out of the 8 silkies hatched into chicks with the cutest personality! I definitely recommend better with thyme as they made my first hatching experience amazing and leaves me wanting to do more!
A Lauren Trapp (verified owner) –
I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the eggs that I received and the hatch rate! I have ordered hatching eggs from other places and could immediately tell that the ones that I received from Better with Thyme were a step above.
We had 22 of 24 eggs make it to hatch day and of those, 18 hatched. 6 Silkies, 8 Lavender Orpingtons and 4 Cream Legbars.
Kaitie Gomez (verified owner) –
Had an amazing experience ! 9/10 silkies hatched and they are super healthy and adorable! Planning on ordering more silkie eggs soon. Thank you for fulfilling my dream of having this adorable breed ! 10/10 recommend them !
Devorah (verified owner) –
Our eggs came very well packaged in a very cute box which I kept! Although we only got 4 to hatch, I attribute the loss to our many broody hens playing musical brooding boxes, constantly switching who was sitting on whose eggs, and in no way is associated to any problems with the eggs. I ordered 6 and got 4 extra (very nice), and did candle them, they all seemed fine and were developing well. We had a lot of weather fluctuations going from very cold to hot in a span of a couple of days lasting over several weeks, so that may have had something to do with it. All four are white, fluffy and cute as can be! Highly recommend!!
Jenni –
Everything went fantastic and I have some adorable, colorful, fluffy babies. This was such a great experience compared to may last attempt with shipped hatching eggs. Everyone arrived safely and the packaging was great. I had 8 eggs, 7 were fertile and started developing but, lost one midway through development. Six hatched but, we lost one shortly after hatching (we think something just went wrong with the yolk). Thank you so much for the colorful assortment! We will definately be ordering again soon.
Nichole (verified owner) –
I ordered half a dozen and received four extras. The eggs all arrived intact and appeared in good condition. It was a long way to travel and the instructions for preparing eggs for the incubator were very helpful. 7 of 10 eggs hatched, which considering the very long way they traveled I was very happy with. The chicks all appear healthy and happy, most of them were white with one black and one that I think is a splash. A bonus for us is that during this pandemic all of the baby chicks hatched on Easter Day which was really special for us!
Emily C. –
I would give you more than 5 stars but 5 it is! This is my second year hatching Silkie eggs purchased from Better with Thyme. I incubate the eggs every Spring in two Kindergarten classrooms at my school. This year we had 20 of 24 hatch 🐣 The chicks are all healthy and adorable. The eggs arrive well packaged and in great shape. Sarah is terrific to work with and the eggs always arrive when I requested them. Thank you Better with Thyme for our Silkie chicks and the joy brought to many watching the amazing process. 🐥
Alicia G. (verified owner) –
I have enjoyed the experience and all the eggs hatched beautifully! I struggled to find some of the unique breeds that you offer, so it was great to not only find the breeds, but to find such a great chickens as well! Ordered silkies and lavender orpingtons, incubated 8 and all 8 hatched!
Anna S. (verified owner) –
We ordered 6 eggs, and they surprised us with 12! Four hatched, and they are now cute fluffy grey and brown silkies.
Melissa C. (verified owner) –
I love that eggs are available year round. Chicks are doing good 🙂
Julie N. (verified owner) –
They arrived in good shape. Chicks are doing great perfect, although no white silkies. I love them. I thought the hatch was ok. Incubated 16 eggs, 9 hatched.