Breeding silkie hens with non-silkie roosters

[NorthernFruit]

Morning. We're rehoming our flock and one friend wants our two little silkie hens for the purpose of breeding with her full-size, half-silkie roooster.

We were concerned that silkie hens might not be up to the task of breeding with full-size rooster. They are so small, but have been laying for about a year. Any thoughts? We thought maybe a silkie rooster can breed with any hen, but that silkie hens might be too small for anything but silkie and bantie roosters.

For the sake of their future welfare, we thought we'd get some feedback. We might be able to send those silkies elsewhere.

Thank you.

 

[grayjay11o]

That depends on how big the rooster is, but I think they should be fine as long as you keep an eye on them and make sure that they are doing fine.

 

[chickens really]

I had a smaller Bantam Hen and my big Brahma Rooster bred her without incident. I'm thinking it will be fine.

 

[Beer can]

Depends on how aggressive a breeder they are.
I've crossed silkie hens with a jersey giant. He was pretty gentle, kinda just put one foot on them they never got their backs tore up.

 

[Kathleen Sanderson]

I've had Silkie hens bred by full-sized roosters before without any problems. They should keep an eye on things and if they see damage starting to occur from the rooster then separate them, but unless he's a rough one, they should be fine.

 

[sourland]

It all depends on the rooster. An overly large, rough large fowl rooster could injure a silky hen.

 

[LeggyLeghorn]

I have a cross, Silkie and Polish, cockerel and hens.