Can I mix these type of birds?

Date sort Score sort
HeatherGrill

HeatherGrill

Hatching
5 Years
Mar 7, 2014
5
0
7
Hello! We are getting started with a brand new flock, I have one son set on having a few Silkies and the other sons are waiting 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Sliver Laced Wyandotte and 1 Easter Egger.

My question is, Can I mix the silkies with the LF? I plan on getting the Silkies when they are about 6 months and the other three as chicks. Can they be raised together? Should I make a separate run/coop for them? Anyone have ideas how this might look?

I hate to ask my husband to keep building onto our already growing chicken castle but we have plenty of yard to do this...and since we are still in the construction stages....

TIA

Our Chicken coop and run will be the back half of our future greenhouse....this is where we are so far.



FYI, This is my vision for our future greenhouse.....

 
welcome-byc.gif


I think it's going to be a "try it and see how it goes" kind of thing. Some folks keep silkies with a mixed flock, others swear it can't be done.

The silkies being older will help, give them a head start on being dominant over the other chicks. I'm sure your run has enough space by the numbers, I'm just not sure it's enough space to keep this type of mixed flock if the dual purpose birds decide to make life hard on the silkies. I'd say give it a try, but have a contingency plan for housing the silkies separate if need be.
 
As donrae says, you can give it a try, but I would personally not mix the Silkies in with the standard sized breeds as I'm afraid they will take a beating. I used to raise Black Silkies and had to remove them from the standard breeds for this very reason. The only standard breed that I was able to keep them with were my Golden Polish which I also had to remove from my main flock as they were badly picked on by the standard breeds. The Silkies and Polish got along fabulously together though and some of the most beautiful chickens I ever had were their Silkie X Polish offspring.
 
I keep a few silkies and I always keep all of my chickens together except when in breeding pens. The only problems I had were when I had no silkies and brought home two nearly grown silkie pullets. Some of the other chickens just didn't accept them. The silkie chicks that I have raised since that time, both by themselves and with other chicks have always grown up fine with the other chickens and became a part of the flock. The amount of abuse they receive is no different than any others in a pecking order group. That is just my experiences.
 

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