Bantams and Red Sex Links

[susanlouise1122]

We have 7 red sex links that are about 12 weeks old. We want to get 2 white Silkie Chickens they are about 8 weeks old. Would it be on to put the right in the coop with the sex links? Or how should we go about introducing them?

 

[Michael OShay]

I would not personally recommend putting Silkies in with Red Sex Links as they will likely take a beating from the larger sex links. I've raised both breeds (technically RSLs are hybrids and not a breed), and we had to remove our Silkies from the flock and put them in a separate enclosure for that very reason. We had to do the same with our Polish which were also being badly picked on, so we put the Polish and Silkies in together and they got along fabulously. If you decide not to follow this advice then you need to integrate them slowly and carefully using the "look but don't touch" method. There is a good article at http://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/introducing-new-chickens explaining how to do it, but again I wouldn't advise it.

 

[susanlouise1122]

Oh thank you! What breed would you recommend to put with them. It definitely don't want them to get beat up and get hurt. Thank you!

 

[Michael OShay]

Oh thank you! What breed would you recommend to put with them. It definitely don't want them to get beat up and get hurt. Thank you!

You're welcome. Are you asking about the Silkies? If so, they would do well with most other bantam breeds, and with the crested standard sized breeds such as Polish (which I mentioned in my post above, and which tend to get picked on by other standard sized breeds because of their crests). If you're asking about the Red Sex Links you can keep them in a mixed flock with any standard sized breeds and they will do fine as long as they are not overcrowded. Overcrowding can quickly lead to aggession, fights, biting and feather plucking, and even cannibalism with any breeds.

 

[feather13]

We have ten two month old chicks, including two Silkies. They are in a small coop inside a large run and we have slowly been introducing them to our flock of older hens (we'll do this for two more months... they can get to know each other, but are separated except for a few minutes each day). Our Red Sex Link, Welsummer and Wyandotte are fine with the chicks, but the Australorp is really aggressive and predatory (she is the lowest in the adult bird pecking order, go figure). We used to have an Old English game hen bantam with a flock of standard sized hens and she was fine and never got picked on. I think you can have a flock of mixed bantam/speciality/standard birds as long as you have plenty of space and no aggressive personalities. I like the advice in the article Michael OShay posted about putting food treats or CDs in different parts of the coop when you're introducing new birds. I'm going to try this as we slowly integrate the two bird populations.