The birds need a place safe from predators. It needs to be free of drafts and dry.

They need greens, oyster shell, and grit. The greens can be chopped up left overs from you kitchen like radish tops, spinach, cabbage, ... The oyster shell provides calcium, which is important for laying birds. The grit is most important for birds eating other than commercial layer ration (like scratch grains). We mix oyster shell and grit together and have it always available in small feeders for caged birds. You can buy both oyster shell and grit at the place you buy their feed.

For treats the birds like melon rinds, grapes, scratch corn, corn on the cob after you eat the corn, berries, ... White Silkies especially get soiled eating fruits, so be careful.

Feed beneficial bacteria, they keep digestion going correctly and fight disease by crowding out disease bacteria. You can just mix 1-2 teaspoons per bird of ACTIVE culture yogurt with a small amount of food and give this as the only food until they eat it. You can also buy lactobacillus at health food stores, pharmacies, Wal-Mart, and Lake's Unlimited. http://www.lakesinc.com

They need you to trim their beaks and nails every 3-4 weeks.

They need you to look them over once a week. Chickens are prey species . If they show a problem a predator picks on them first.

• Inspect for parasites. You might be surprised but mites and lice can easily kill a bird! If not they can weaken a bird to the point that it gets sick.

• Are there small bugs around the vent, on her head, or under her wings? These could be very tiny red dots (mites) they could be larger translucent/white/yellow (lice). Lice also show us as clumps (of eggs) stuck to the base of feathers.

• Are the leg scales raised and the legs large and rough looking? This is scaly leg mites.

• Inspect for injuries. Look for broken bones, missing feathers, swollen crop, beak too long, toe nails too long, hot spots indicating injury, swollen abdomen (bound egg or worse), abscesses around eyes and throat, pasted vent, unusual manure, bad odor near ears, discharge around eyes/beak/ears, and anything else.

• Silkies can have too many feathers around their eyes. Hold the bird at your eye level. If you can see the bird’s eyes, all is well. If not, plucking or trimming is necessary for the bird to thrive or just survive. If you don't want to show, trim. Trimmed feathers don't grow back until they are molted. If you will show the bird, pluck the feathers.
  

• You will need to pluck every 4-6 weeks
• Pluck above and below the eye
• Pluck the areas just in front and in the front 1/3 of the eye.
• Pluck and then check by holding the bird at eye level and looking for the bird's eyes.
• After you wash a bird, the feathers are fluffier and you will need to pluck again