6week old silkie protecting mother and sibling?!? started a brawl with"daddy"

[beeryfun]

some new and interesting behavior I witnessed tonight...
my female silky laid and hatched two babies on August 21st all natural. I currently have the three of them separated in a very nice set up. Lots of room and nice conditions. tonight I finally decided to allow Tyrone, the daddy, you have a supervised visit. Immediately the larger of the two chicks attacked him. So I am wondering do you think this behavior indicates that he is a cockerel? I am sure it does. And also has anybody seen a six week old baby protect his mother and siblings? This clearly was the case. He stood guard as his mother the entire time tyrone was visiting. The daddy had no problem hanging out in there. Did not display any kind of mating behavior or aggressive nest until he was attacked. And even still he was incredibly gentle. Either I have a big wimp on my hands or I just have protective baby. Most of my other chickens are standard sized besides my silkie rooster and 2 Cochin silkie cross. not really sure that's relevant lol. I got part of it on video. Kind of proud

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry, but I think it's mentally imbalanced... That extreme of aggression in a chick has never turned into anything good in an adult, that I've seen. It's not natural for a chick to defend its mother or siblings. Abnormal levels of aggression are common enough though, you get newly hatched chicks killing other chicks and so forth...

Well, hope I'm wrong for your sake. Best wishes.

 

[beeryfun]

Wow... So glad you replied. I'm surprised you understood the gibberish of my initial post. I was doing talk to text and didn't proofread. I agree that I've never heard of aggressive behavior like that at that age unless something wasn't quite right. although in my hours in hours of observation at never seen a single bit of aggressiveness out of this guy until Big Daddy stepped in. so here is background and a theory: I bought both silkie chickens from a woman who supposedly breeds them. I believe what she was doing was weeding out the imperfect ones because she wasn't going to breed them. I only wanted pets so I of course would not mind if they weren't perfect. I believe there was some pretty close inbreeding going on honestly. The smaller of the two babies that were hatched from these two parents is a cross beak.from what I understand there are several theories on what causes this condition but I am inclined to believe that it is mostly genetic. a few chicken enthusiast told me I should never allow those two parents 2 three together or with other chickens 2 allow them to hatch babies again.I wonder if there is something in that possibly inbred gene pool that isn't quite right? I am strictly a pet ownerso I do not plenty in or need to have any new babies.thank you for your time.

 

[chooks4life]

Wow... So glad you replied. I'm surprised you understood the gibberish of my initial post. I was doing talk to text and didn't proofread.

I agree that I've never heard of aggressive behavior like that at that age unless something wasn't quite right. although in my hours in hours of observation at never seen a single bit of aggressiveness out of this guy until Big Daddy stepped in. so here is background and a theory: I bought both silkie chickens from a woman who supposedly breeds them. I believe what she was doing was weeding out the imperfect ones because she wasn't going to breed them. I only wanted pets so I of course would not mind if they weren't perfect.

Often, the faults are not minor. You'd probably need to specify you don't want severe behavioral or social faults, or physical faults, when saying to them that you don't mind imperfect stock, if indeed you had the chance to say so. There are many common faults which cause them to live lives of misery, or short lives, or shorten the lives of others.

You're probably right... That's just about a given.

I agree, it seems probably genetic, but that said, I have heard from quite a few people on this site who have kept flocks for years, even decades, without outcrossings, which eventually produced crossbeaks, which they then breed and even inbreed without ever producing another one. I also suspect it's genetic but perhaps not very heritable; it appears a random mutation perhaps, one that is of very low heritability.

I have another theory about it, I'm still researching it... There is a deformity that occurs in response to a virus it seems, with low occurrence rates, causing eye socket deformity and sometimes absence of the eye or just deformity of it, on one side only. This occurs while they are developing in the egg, but the deformity being behind the eye towards the back of the skull means they aren't crossbeaked. Crossbeaked birds are crossbeaked because the skull stops growing on one side, in a certain area (around the eye socket area, towards the beak), usually after a few weeks of life, with them usually starting life normal before suffering a delay in growth or permanent cessation of it within a certain area that skews their mandible structure. I think crossbeaking may be due to a slower acting, or temporarily dormant form of the same virus. Just a theory though, of course. And multiple problems can cause the same symptom.

Possibly, and normally I'd agree, but going by other breeders' experiences, you may well be fine to breed them. Your choice, and don't feel bad about whatever you choose. Personally if they were mine, I'd want to know for sure how heritable it is, and I'd inbreed them a few times to see what crops up; but I'm fairly used to culling when necessary so it's easier for me to deal with 'duds' than a newbie, generally.

I wonder if there is something in that possibly inbred gene pool that isn't quite right? I am strictly a pet ownerso I do not plenty in or need to have any new babies.thank you for your time.

I suspect your breeder was interfering in the natural reproductive cycle by incubating and rearing chicks in an artificial system, since most hyper-aggressive chickens of all breeds come from many generations of such an unnatural rearing system. The vast majority of all social disorders domestic chickens have comes from their environment being artificial combined with their natural social structure being destroyed by such things as artificial reproduction, gender and age segregation, etc. It can take generations of rearing them under natural conditions to get them back to something akin to the species' natural social instincts. In the meanwhile, they tend to be seriously vicious and aggressive animals.

Best wishes.