Adding Silkies...yes or no?

[Chicalina]

I have a mixed flock including silkies. They all do fine. They are just chickens and it seems like you have plenty of space and experience to move things around if you need to if integration issues arise.

Here in the UK, we have Large Fowl light breed silkies and bantam silkies, so 2 different size standards. What do the hatcheries supply? Do you just have one size standard? Since both are smaller than birds like cochins and brahma then I'd just ensure they weren't overmated by large roosters.

But I'm sure you won't have problems. They need a dry place if it rains is all. And feathered feet don't like mud. You probably have factored this in already.

Get them!!

 

[janiedoe]

oh my gosh I thought this was an incidental post in one of the off topic threads I was in

I wouldn’t have replied with my non info if I’d been paying attention to where it was! Sorry!

No! I enjoyed reading your reply. And it is Never non info because someone will come along, read it, and realize that they need multiple silkies, not just one.
See, you did someone a service...they have an excuse to buy more chicks!

 

[janiedoe]

I have a mixed flock including silkies. They all do fine. They are just chickens and it seems like you have plenty of space and experience to move things around if you need to if integration issues arise.

Here in the UK, we have Large Fowl light breed silkies and bantam silkies, so 2 different size standards. What do the hatcheries supply? Do you just have one size standard? Since both are smaller than birds like cochins and brahma then I'd just ensure they weren't overmated by large roosters.

But I'm sure you won't have problems. They need a dry place if it rains is all. And feathered feet don't like mud. You probably have factored this in already.

Get them!!

Per the hatchery website the females should be 2lbs. Of course, you can never be sure with hatchery stock.
Some of my smaller standard girls are around 3lbs. My rooster, sadly is almost 11lbs. but I can limit his interaction with the bantams.
I do intend to keep at least one of his boys in that pen though. I hope it won't be a problem. I've been blessed with some very cute feather legged chicks this year, I'm sure at least one will be a male.

 

[janiedoe]

P.s. love that avatar @Chicalina

 

[Chicalina]

Thanks! I do love my silkies

 

[MykaMom]

Ok, Silkie pros, I need your opinions. My question backs onto this thread, I think.

Last year through a series of very unfortunate events, we ended up with one lone bantam cockerel, a Japanese white black tail. We were desperate to get him a companion, so adopted a grey Silkie cockerel. They became bachelor buddies.

Fast forward to this year and I finally have a flock of mixed brown layers. I have 8 3-month-old pullets, plus 9 6-week-old chicks growing up to join the others.

Next year I will add 7 more pullets for a total of24 layers.

Am I asking for trouble between the boys? The girls won't be laying for a while yet, but I want to be prepared just in case.

 

[Chicalina]

That's plenty of girls between them. It will all depend on their individual personalities as to whether they get on as well when there are hens to compete for.

If they are young, then prepare to ride out teenage hormones for a while before they settle down.

You are going to have a series of flock integrations over the next few months, so loads of disruption. You will just have to see how it goes. I would be minded to keep the boys together on their own until the first pullets reach POL and then try and mix them.

And plan B, do you have separate housing quarters for if you have to run 2 different flocks in the long term?

 

[Flockincrazy]

I got my very first silkie this yr and I have since then adopted 4 more silkies they are the sweetest nicest most huggable loving chickens i have ever owned if you have the chance to get silkies do it

 

[Aunt Angus]

I also know someone who has them and they're almost always broody so they don't spend much time free ranging anyway

Yes! This!

My two Silkies were broody this ENTIRE year until we moved 3 weeks ago. While we were transitioning houses, my flock was at my mom's house. They free ranged in her backyard because we were setting up her run here. My mom's house backs to a 320 acre open ranch that has a bazillion hawks. My big girls are pretty hawk savvy, and mom's yard has tons of cover and good hiding places. Plus, they were all Coopers hawks, and though I know they'll go after big chickens, I felt pretty sure they'd leave my big ol girls alone (all are over 7 lbs). But I was not at all worried for my Silkies (2 lbs) because they were broody the whole time. They'd come out to eat, drink, dust bathe, and then run frantically back to the nest. They never left the area over which we'd stretched a tarp - lol! Silly girls...

 

[MykaMom]

That's plenty of girls between them. It will all depend on their individual personalities as to whether they get on as well when there are hens to compete for.

If they are young, then prepare to ride out teenage hormones for a while before they settle down.

You are going to have a series of flock integrations over the next few months, so loads of disruption. You will just have to see how it goes. I would be minded to keep the boys together on their own until the first pullets reach POL and then try and mix them.

And plan B, do you have separate housing quarters for if you have to run 2 different flocks in the long term?

I have the room to set up a second coop and run if necessary, I just hope it doesn't come to that. In typical Silkie fashion, Hearty nests himself on the ramp while everyone else is on the roosts. Conversely, during the day, the girls tend to hang out with him rather than Squeaky the bantam.

Hearty the Silkie always seems aggressive when the coop is opened to the run each morning. As of now, it only lasts a few minutes, like he's reminding the girls HE is in charge. Squeaky seems content to be second fiddle for now.

There's a hardware cloth window between the brooder pen with the younger chicks in it and the coop. Right now it has a plexiglas window over it so they can see each other but not interact. In another week or two I will pull the plexiglas so they can interact a bit more.

I want them all well acquainted before they all merge into one flock.