Grief and pecking order

[savvychickz]

One of my silkie roosters got killed by a hawk a couple days ago. (Walked out to the hawk trying to drag him away, he was just protecting his girls.. which I found down a hill, alive thankfully.. but still sad ) He and his 2 silkie girlfriends were by each-others side 24/7 and it’s sad to see him not there with them anymore. They want nothing to do with the main flock (I have 2 other bantam rooster and 3 standard) And they just seem to be kinda confused, don’t seem depressed. When will they adjust to him not being there/join the main flock? And did his death mess up the pecking order? My polish rooster is now trying to fight and scare off my main barred rock roo from the girls.

 

[Henry&Friends]

Your roosters are going to go at each other until one is definitely the winner. You might get two separate flocks, each with a roo on top. With the top spot open, the pecking order will change, and your silkies should join a flock, probably together. Sorry this happened to your rooster but now you have an open spot to preform some chicken math

 

[savvychickz]

Your roosters are going to go at each other until one is definitely the winner. You might get two separate flocks, each with a roo on top. With the top spot open, the pecking order will change, and your silkies should join a flock, probably together. Sorry this happened to your rooster but now you have an open spot to preform some chicken math

Okay thanks for that info! It seems like it’s that way already, my main rooster is now hanging around my slw rooster and a bunch of younger hens. Haha no more chicken math this time of year, I actually hatched 8 chicks two months ago from my silkie hens and the rooster that died which I am so thankful I did that now!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I would be concerned that the silkies - just by the nature of being silkies - might get bullied out of other flocks and that's probably why they are on their own in the first place right now.
But theoretically they should move in to a new flock. They'd do better in with smaller, gentler chickens than standard size birds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Lets see if I can summarize. You have five males of unknown ages. You have an unknown number of females of unknown ages. Your chickens free range. Your Silkies created their own flock, one rooster and two hens, all mature. The rooster was killed. Those eight Silkie chicks are probably in their own sub-flock. Are the others in one big flock or are they also split into various flocks like the Silkies were? Where do they all sleep, together or separately?

I just don't have a good feel for the dynamics of your flock. I suspect it is pretty big and possibly quite spread out. And I suspect it might have several immature cockerels and pullets in it, not just those Silkie chicks.

Even if I knew all that I would not know how to proceed but I might be able to make a suggestion. My gut feel is to leave them alone and let them work it out but there might be something about your set-up or management that calls for a different solution. I don't know what your goals are. What do you want to happen? Do you want those two Silkie hens with a specific rooster?

Chickens are prey animals. They do set up a social order so they can live in harmony and that order gets upset when one is lost. But they tend to get over it pretty darn quickly and readjust. I don't know what that readjustment will look like or what you have to work with to try to shape it. I don't know where he stood in the dominance/pecking order or how much his absence will shake that up.

 

[savvychickz]

Lets see if I can summarize. You have five males of unknown ages. You have an unknown number of females of unknown ages. Your chickens free range. Your Silkies created their own flock, one rooster and two hens, all mature. The rooster was killed. Those eight Silkie chicks are probably in their own sub-flock. Are the others in one big flock or are they also split into various flocks like the Silkies were? Where do they all sleep, together or separately?

I just don't have a good feel for the dynamics of your flock. I suspect it is pretty big and possibly quite spread out. And I suspect it might have several immature cockerels and pullets in it, not just those Silkie chicks.

Even if I knew all that I would not know how to proceed but I might be able to make a suggestion. My gut feel is to leave them alone and let them work it out but there might be something about your set-up or management that calls for a different solution. I don't know what your goals are. What do you want to happen? Do you want those two Silkie hens with a specific rooster?

Chickens are prey animals. They do set up a social order so they can live in harmony and that order gets upset when one is lost. But they tend to get over it pretty darn quickly and readjust. I don't know what that readjustment will look like or what you have to work with to try to shape it. I don't know where he stood in the dominance/pecking order or how much his absence will shake that up.

Nope, I know the ages of my roosters and most of my hens. My main rooster, is a barred rock and is almost 2 while the other four are almost a year old, one polish, one slw, and bantams are a silkie and duccle.. definitely mature. half of my hens are also two years old, while the others are coming up on a year. They all get along great (The roosters not anymore since my one died) and sleep together peacefully. There’s two groups. My main rooster, or not really sure if he’s main anymore considering he’s getting beat up by my polish and slw, which he’s totally capable of fighting back. The two silkies i posted about a couple of days are doing fine now (They are also a year old soon, got them with my duccle roo) they’ve seem to integrated with the younger ones.

 

[savvychickz]

Lets see if I can summarize. You have five males of unknown ages. You have an unknown number of females of unknown ages. Your chickens free range. Your Silkies created their own flock, one rooster and two hens, all mature. The rooster was killed. Those eight Silkie chicks are probably in their own sub-flock. Are the others in one big flock or are they also split into various flocks like the Silkies were? Where do they all sleep, together or separately?

I just don't have a good feel for the dynamics of your flock. I suspect it is pretty big and possibly quite spread out. And I suspect it might have several immature cockerels and pullets in it, not just those Silkie chicks.

Even if I knew all that I would not know how to proceed but I might be able to make a suggestion. My gut feel is to leave them alone and let them work it out but there might be something about your set-up or management that calls for a different solution. I don't know what your goals are. What do you want to happen? Do you want those two Silkie hens with a specific rooster?

Chickens are prey animals. They do set up a social order so they can live in harmony and that order gets upset when one is lost. But they tend to get over it pretty darn quickly and readjust. I don't know what that readjustment will look like or what you have to work with to try to shape it. I don't know where he stood in the dominance/pecking order or how much his absence will shake that up.

Also, the eight silkies arent outside yet, it’s getting colder where I live and I don’t wanna run heat, but yes i’m guessing they’ll just create their own mini flock.

 

[FathertoFeathers]

I had a similar incident with my ducks. A dog killed my Pekins best friend and hatchling buddy. He had been hurt the previous night before and she died protecting him from the dog. He was lost for weeks. He would just stay in the corner looking shell shocked. Eventually another duck came and they are now best buddies and do everything together. I hope this is the case for you.