Baby Chick Decision Time - Help with Breeds and Silkie (yes or no)???

[chicks4erin]

I'd be grateful for any input -- we are finally pulling the trigger on our chickens this month after a year of wanting - we are finally doing

So after spending more hours than I care to admit researching chickens and coops (I swear I'm an addict). I think I've narrowed my choices. We are going to start building the gardencoop this weekend, we went back and forth with an eglu go with a walk-in-run, but knew in my heart we would end up with more than 3 chickens, hence the gardencoop. I think I've narrowed my choices to 4 breeds that I think will be hardy in a Chicago winter and would be docile enough for a 16 and 6 year old to handle and give us some yummy eggs. Those are:

1. Red Star
2. Australop
3. Buff Oprington
4. Plymouth Rock.

THEN, there's always a then, right??? My 6 year old and I start looking at pictures of Silkie's and reading about their adorable personalities ....well you know where that leads. It then just so happens we see that the feed store in the area is getting a shipment of Silkie's next week. Do I get 2 Silkie's too???

From what I read you can't get just 1 bantam, you'd need 2 small birds to stick together right? The feed store is not getting any other bantams in this shipment so 2 Silkie's would be it, they are getting leghorns, but not interested in those and wyandottes.

Here's the thing the Silkie's will be in next week, so I could get them and get them started in the brooder. The other breeds I have listed above won't be in for another 2 weeks. If we go the Silkie route I would only get 3 of the 4 listed above, I would like to keep our number at 5 for now in the coop.

Do I say forget it and just get the 4 sturdy chicks or do I get the adorable fluff balls and get 3 of the others? Here's another question, which of the 4 do we not get if we get the Silkie's?

You guys gotta help me here - please!!!! Have a great night!

Thanks.

 

[Silkie88]

Oh man! Im have 6 silkies chicks and 2 barred rock chicks right now and they are amazing! Four of the silkies are 2 weeks older than the other 2 barred rock and the other 2 silkies and they all get along great so far no problems I would get the 2 silkies, 2 barred rock and possibly 2 astroloup or orpington!! I also am constantly hovering youtube and google and soaking up as much as i can about chickens haha best of luck with your flock!

 

[chicks4erin]

Anybody??

 

[Peeps4me]

Get those Silkies! Besides the adorable factor, their personalities and antics are priceless. I have six, 6 week old Silkies along with two each of 6 weeks old Australops, Buff Orpingtons. The Australops are so sweet that when I put my hand in front of them, they walk right into it to be picked up. I do have my Silkies separate from the big chicks just because of the size difference. Enjoy your new chicks!

 

[Remudamom]

I have a small flock of about 25 silkies. I love them. I've got D'uccles, barred rocks, EEs, favorelle, Wyandottes, lots more, but if I could only have one breed it'd be the silkies.

 

[MadabtChickens]

From my experience with my chicks I'd recommend getting 3 silkies so if 1 dies you will still have 2. I started with 2 silkies and at 10 days old one of them died. I had to put one of my Delaware chicks in with the surviving silkie which was pretty stressful for the both of us, but if she stayed in the brooder by herself she'd chirp her head off. I went ahead and got 2 barnyard bantam chicks for her and now she's much happier.

You can always re-home one of the silkies when the brooding process is done, but there's always that chance of 1 dying. Actually, there's a chance of more than 1 dying, but it doesn't sound like you can let chicken math get a hold of you. lol

I have no experience with the breeds you want, but I really want Orpingtons and Australorps, so those are the breeds I would pick.

 

[chicks4erin]

Thank you, I was thinking last night that my chances of 1 or 2 of these Silkie's being a rooster is pretty high too, right? Since they are hard to sex. Has that been an issue for anyone? It sounds like your chances are 50/50. Maybe 3 would be the way to go and re-home like you mentioned or probably keep.... Oh dear, chicken math taking over already ;-)

From my experience with my chicks I'd recommend getting 3 silkies so if 1 dies you will still have 2. I started with 2 silkies and at 10 days old one of them died. I had to put one of my Delaware chicks in with the surviving silkie which was pretty stressful for the both of us, but if she stayed in the brooder by herself she'd chirp her head off. I went ahead and got 2 barnyard bantam chicks for her and now she's much happier.

You can always re-home one of the silkies when the brooding process is done, but there's always that chance of 1 dying. Actually, there's a chance of more than 1 dying, but it doesn't sound like you can let chicken math get a hold of you. lol

I have no experience with the breeds you want, but I really want Orpingtons and Australorps, so those are the breeds I would pick.

 

[DomesticDiva12]

I have 4 three week old buff orpingtons and 2 'red pullets', the buffs are definitely starting to be more friendly and I love the way they look. I wanted silkies, actually my kids really wanted silkies but I wanted 6 layers and ultimately didn't want to cram 2 silkies in (they'd fit technically but it'd be at Max capacity) and I fear that would lead to them being picked on. I think sometime in the future when I've acclimated my husband to the chickens enough to be open to the idea of a second 'fun' coop we'll do some bantams

 

[MadabtChickens]

Thank you, I was thinking last night that my chances of 1 or 2 of these Silkie's being a rooster is pretty high too, right? Since they are hard to sex. Has that been an issue for anyone? It sounds like your chances are 50/50. Maybe 3 would be the way to go and re-home like you mentioned or probably keep.... Oh dear, chicken math taking over already ;-)

Yep. My 1 silkie that I have left is almost 3 months old and she is looking more like a he right now, but they are so hard to sex you can't really tell until they either lay or crow. I wanted to make sure I had at least 1 hen that is guaranteed to go broody, so I really hope I don't have to change Sophie's name. lol