Silkie thread!

[drumstick diva]

My friend has serama and silkie house chickens. The seramas bully the silkies and the dog. Polish generally get picked on just as badly.

 

[Zgm12]

Hello everyone! I currently do not have any silkies but am going to get 2 silkie chicks in the spring. I am either going to get a blue silkie and a white silkie or a black silkie and a white silkie. 

I have three questions:

#1 Should I get black and white or blue and white? What I know for sure right now is that I am definitely going to get a white silkie. Not sure about the second one though. Blue or black?

#2 For the names I am thinking to name one copy and one paste. Copy and Paste! My sisters really don't like those names but I really do and think it is very cute. What do you guys think? 

#3 Can someone please post a picture of a silkie hen next to a large fowl hen? I currently only have large fowl hens and I have heard the silkies living with them shouldn't be a problem as long as I introduce them slowly and carefully. I just wanted to see how much of a size difference there is. 

Thanks! 

It is never a good idea to combine silkies with LF hens. I have both and whenever we let the silkies free range we have to keep the LF hens in. Otherwise, the silkies would be chased and hurt by the bigger ones. It doesn't matter how close they are. I have LF hens raised by one of my silkies and they killed their own mother a few years after she raised them. On the other hand, I have guinea hens in with my silkies and they are so nice to them. They even cuddle with them at night on the roost. I don't know why they get along, but they seem to like the silkies and even protect them, too. If you get silkies you are probably going to have to house them in a separate coop and let then out at different times then the LF hens. Good luck!

 

[Suzierd]

Some of our babies. They grow too fast!

That third pic is ADORABLE!

 

[chickiebaby1]

This is one of my pretty girls. Anna

 

[K Epp]

I hand 4 coops and a barn. All my LF sleep in the barn. The silkies have their own coop. Although several have moved into the other bantam coops at night. I turn the coops out and feed them first. After they have lost interest I open the barn. The only time the LF ever pay attention to the bantam is when they break up a fight. Its funny to see a big Ameraucana roo jump between two Silkie roos, but he does and looks at them like a principal looking at schoolboys. They free range together but I wouldn't house them together.

 

[DesertChic]

Hello everyone! I currently do not have any silkies but am going to get 2 silkie chicks in the spring. I am either going to get a blue silkie and a white silkie or a black silkie and a white silkie.

I have three questions:

#1 Should I get black and white or blue and white? What I know for sure right now is that I am definitely going to get a white silkie. Not sure about the second one though. Blue or black?

#2 For the names I am thinking to name one copy and one paste. Copy and Paste! My sisters really don't like those names but I really do and think it is very cute. What do you guys think?

#3 Can someone please post a picture of a silkie hen next to a large fowl hen? I currently only have large fowl hens and I have heard the silkies living with them shouldn't be a problem as long as I introduce them slowly and carefully. I just wanted to see how much of a size difference there is.

Thanks!

1 - Silkie color is most definitely a personal choice. I had considered getting white, but for reasons stated by Sylverster017 as well as the fact that white chickens are more frequently targeted by aerial predators than any other color, I decided to go with tan. Here in AZ we have a lot of dusty earth and the tan ones somehow managed to always look good ever after a dust bath.

2 - The names you chose are adorable. I've heard more really cute names like this for Silkies than any other breed. I believe someone on this thread named one of their birds, "Poptart" and another "Marshmallow". Have fun with the names no matter what your sisters think! The birds will love you no matter what you call them.

3 - I have a mixed flock of 4 Australorp pullets (my eldest birds, currently at 11 weeks), 3 Silkies (currently 9 weeks), and 3 Barred Rocks (currently 8 weeks). I don't know what the future holds for this mixture, but right now my Silkie cockerel named Gingy is dominant over my other Silkie cockerel, Tika, and my Barred Rock cockerel, Shadow. My largest birds, the Australorps, are at the BOTTOM of the pecking order and all three of my Silkies boss them around despite being so much smaller than they are. Even my weakest bird, my little Silkie pullet named Didi, will force the Australorps to wait until she's found her place at the feeder before they can close in on the food. It's an interesting dynamic to witness...but I also know it may be fluid and everything could change as the other birds continue to grow larger and heavy, and my little Silkies stay small, but for right now the mixed flock is working for me. That said, it could also be very different for you as you'll be introducing these birds to your flock and all of mine grew up together.


This photo is from when they were all finally in the coop together about a month ago.



And these are from the winter solstice when we finally completed the run and set them loose in it. The Barred Rocks are a week younger than the Silkies but are already considerably larger...not that the Silkies realize that. The Australorps are two weeks older than the Silkies and even larger than the BRs.



The darker BR in the back of this photo routinely snuggles in and dust bathes with the Silkies.

 

[mom of silkies]

They are adorable! I have white, black, and blue, and one splashed girl and I love the buff color! I don't have any but I have been thinking about ordering some!

 

[Bloveschickens]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I am very bummed that so many people are saying that I should not mix silkies with large fowl hens

. But there are also so many people who say they have not had a problem with it and there silkies get along with large fowl hens just fine. So now I don't know what to do. Should I just not get the silkies?

This is making me very sad.

 

[stephward20]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I am very bummed that so many people are saying that I should not mix silkies with large fowl hens  . But there are also so many people who say they have not had a problem with it and there silkies get along with large fowl hens just fine. So now I don't know what to do. Should I just not get the silkies?      This is making me very sad. 

I have both together. Granted my LF breed is extremely docile, even more docile than my silkies. I haven't had any problems to speak of.

 

[stephward20]

Turns out this little guy has quite the attitude!!! Lol