What is a Silkie Chicken? The Silkie Chicken Saga

It happens all the time! It's the same conversation, and not the same. You see my husband is the logical one, and me, well, let's just say, I'm the dreamer. You might say I’m the more frivolous one. I’ll say something like, “I think it would be neat to….”, or “I want ….”, or “Why don’t we…?” And he responds with, “Why would we want to do that ?”, or “What would you do with that ?” The emphasis is always on the word “that”. My response generally amounts to four little words, “It would be neat!” By this time you can already guess where the conversation is heading, and I’m thinking to myself, “Why is ‘neat’ not good enough? Why does everything always have to be so logical?” In my world, it doesn’t.

Source: Microsoft ClipArt

Let's Be Logical About This

Which brings us to the matter at hand – the silkie. I’m trying to decide what chickens would work best on our homestead, and on the list that I share with my husband is the silkie. His first question was, “What is a silkie?” So I call a picture up on my trusty computer and show it to him. Now a silkie looks like a walking, breathing feather duster. So his response is, “Why would you want that?” Again emphasis is on the word “that”, and this time “that” was a silkie.
My response was anything but logical. “It’s so cute! It makes me smile! It would just be neat to have around, and I bet it’s really soft.” I can tell you that those comments really won him over to my side of the fence – NOT! But since I will be the one placing the order, who knows what’ll happen. One might just get slipped in “accidentally”. (You can smile now. I am.)

How can you look at him and not smile? I dare you!

He thinks the conversation is over – that he’s made his point, and that’s that. But that’s way too logical for me. My gears are still turning, preparing for the next influx of illogical reasons to hurl his way. He probably knows it’s coming, but he hopes I’ll be a little more logical about this. After all, we are talking about homesteading, and that means a lot of really hard work. Why would we have anything as illogical as a silkie?
But here we go again… “That’s exactly right. It’s because everything is so hard, that sometimes you just need something to help you kick back and smile - something to make the day a little easier, a little brighter.” I say this while pointing to a really silly looking bird on my computer screen. “How could you look at him and not smile?”
He’s trying not to smile while looking at this silly looking bird, and still have a logical answer. But he has to concede to the fact that that silly looking bird would make you smile. But now it’s back to being logical. Looking at all those fluffy feathers he says, “He would always be dirty and could never get out in the weather. He'd be dirty all the time.” Now I get to respond with a logical answer! “It’s a chicken! It’s been in the weather before!” Let him argue with that one.
Of course, Mr. Logical has a quick answer for me. “He just wouldn’t work on a homestead. It’s so small; it wouldn’t be any good for meat. And I bet its eggs are really small too. Why not just get a normal chicken?” Little does he know, that my list of mostly Heritage breeds, does not contain very many normal chickens. But I digress. Back to the matter at hand.

Inwardly, I groan. I want to say, “But a normal chicken isn’t this cute. A normal chicken isn’t this soft." Then finishing with a little more emphasis, "A normal chicken doesn’t make me smile like a silkie does.” But I know better. Those are not the logical arguments that will win him over. I know from 30 plus years of experience that those statements would pretty much nail the coffin shut on this conversation.