So...silkies are the dumbest birds ever...*UPDATE!!!*

[astylishgirl]

I love my little Silkies too. I am glad to know that they need help roosting or that they might prefer hutch or den.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Once in a blue moon you will fild a silkie who likes to roost up high--my 3rd silkie, a splash roo, liked to roost about 4' high atop a wire fence.

If given something a few inches from the ground (2x4, 4x4, concrete block, some will roost on it. But most prefer to make a nice big silkie pile. On cold winter nights the pile is very compact. On hot summer nights the same pile that was 18" in diameter in winter may be 5' in diameter! Roos are almost always at the outer edge of the pile--favoured spot is center bottom--look for the head hen there. Older chicks who've joined the flock nestle under everyone.

 

[nstamper2000]

My two month old silkies either pile up on top of an old chicken transporting box that I turned up on its side, in a pile in the corner of their pen or I have made two long roosts that have a ramp leading up to it in one of the baby pens and they make their way up there sometimes. If I see two babies up there and one on the ground I will pick the other up and put it up there with its buddies. I have 3 silkies. Honestly I have never seen them fly. They hang out with my coumbian cochin baby. She was the smallest one in the bunch when I got my silkies and she was only a couple of weeks older than they were so they are all best of friends. I do have to agree that guineas are the dumbest of all. OMG we had five of them and all they would do constantly is squawk. Nothing but squawk!!!! They did that all day. I don't even think they came down out of the tree. They just sat in the tree all day and squawked!!! I thought they were at least supposed to eat some bugs or something!! Nope just stayed in that tree all day! Here is a pic of my silkies and my cochin when they were little.

 

[SilkieTime]

I have a silkie rooster that sleeps in a box 18'' off the grown. I have a 8 wk old lets say hen that sleeps on top of a box that's
30" off the grown.Thay have a ramp that only goes up 18" to the box. I don't know how she gets on top of the box, but she does every night. I have 2 older girls that have there own boxes on the grown. Looks to me they do what they like. Just like us.

 

[Glassman]

Wished everyone that had silkies lived closer to me.LOL Been looking for some and no one has any they want to part with.

 

[Kev]

My current ones are "pile sleepers" despite having roosts from 3 inches high, a foot high, 3 foot and 6 foot.... even the birds that are 3/4 or higher silkie but have 'normal feathers' tend to be pilers not roost-ers. So I don't know if it's not just their not being able to fly.. especially when all of my birds were completely free range.. gave silkie eggs to a not- silkie hen.. her babies all roosted in the tree.. did have to prop up a 2 x 4 from the ground to the lowest branches so they could get up. They had no problem hopping on the branches. Crash land in the mornings though.. they never learned to just hop down branches to the 'ramp'.. no, they had to shoot off into the air from way up and pretty much 'splat' on the ground.

 

[wanda047]

Crash land in the mornings though.. they never learned to just hop down branches to the 'ramp'.. no, they had to shoot off into the air from way up and pretty much 'splat' on the ground.

yep... I've seen my own do that, especially my roo! They are so funny.​

 

[Cuban Longtails]

haha, mine will roost.

They learn, eventually, by association with birds that do roost. Or... they get eaten.

 

[NancyDz]

When you breed for things like a vaulted skull... you tend to lose some brain power. Being lovable and being stupid are completely different things. They definitely arent very high on the intelligence scale compared to other chickens.

 

[ChickensInTheNorthWoods]

My Silkie rooster (that I got right here on BYC - Thanks again heyeddah) loves roosting with all his girls. When I lock them up for the night he is usually on the top roost (about 4 ft off the ground) with his 2 favorite polish hens!