Many European Polish lovers keep Polish-only flocks ~ too gentle to mix w/ standard breeds maybe? They seem too gentle to be around standard breeds... it was that observation yrs ago that kept me from mixing Polish into our standard flock even tho I was fascinated by them.
Silkie owners were saying how surprisingly hardy/easy Silkes were in comparison so I took the owners at their experienced word, tried them, & for our situation it worked for us ~ Silkies worked so well we've always had them in the flock as long as there was always more than one Silkie to toodle together.
Nov 2021 ~ L to R Dana, Violet, Suzu, Ginny
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Today ~ one old Dominique & 5 Silkies
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I got 2 Polish and one Bresse, chosen by DJ, as my first chickens. The Bresse terrorized my poor Polish. I added 7 full size pulleys, that I raised from day old chicks in the house. Both Polish let the 10 week old pullets, who were bigger than the were, know who's boss, and life was good for a while.
Then Jamie, lavender Polish, went broody. She would randomly come out of the coop and run screaming at everyone else. My lap chicken snapped viciously at me when I went to get eggs. She lived in the nest box house for 23 days, which is separate from the coop. Then she marched her floofy headed self back into the coop and returned to her former Number 2 spot, next to Big Boss Bresse who never learned you have to be a friend to have a friend.
Unfortunately this was Easter weekend and I was so consumed with visiting grandchildren, cooking, cleaning etc. that I didn't realize what was happening to her. Monday after the family finally left I went out to clean out the poop shelf. I noticed Jamie was getting pecked on the head by more than 1 evil chicken and not running away. I put her between my feet until I finished cleaning. When I inspected her I realized she had a bloody raw spot on her head and another on her back.
I cleaned her up, gave her Nutridrench, and set her up in a large dog crate in the run. When I saw 2 evil chickens pecking her through the bars and her still just sitting there and taking it, I had to wrap the sides in wire cloth.
She was wobbly when she walked for a few days, leading me to believe the Evil Ones did some brain damage. It turns out Polish have unprotected skulls under those crests. I told my DH she needed her own run with my other Polish. As usual, it took 3 times longer than planned and she lived in that stupid dog crate far longer than I would have liked. I just never trusted the big chickens around her again.
She is now queen of her own 10 by 10 run, has a cool roost tree, and is about to have a brand new coop. My black Polish had to come join her even though she held her own with the big girls. Jamie bosses Martina around. She deserves it.
