Integrating chickens that look strange

[Chikenshiken]

Title is a little weird but the story is all my chickens are brown and they hate white chickens (I know, silly.) But they were raised only around each other and I’ve tried to integrate a hen who was white and they absolutely hated her because she looked “weird.” They’re tolerant now but she’s at the bottom of the flock. She’s more of an indoor outdoor chicken now. Besides her, I’m going to try and integrate two silkie chickens but you all know how silkies look! White and fluffy, very unfamiliar to my chickens who are pretty flock aggressive. I want to have a more successful integration. Any tips? My flock is currently 4 chickens so it’s relatively small compared to other flocks.

 

[sourland]

The chicken social structure can be very unpleasant. All new birds introduced are subjected to abuse. When they look 'different' the abuse can be more severe. Monitor the silkie introduction VERY closely.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So you integrated a single chicken with a flock of three. Whether they are the home chicken or the chicken being added, integrating with a single chicken is often more challenging than if you have at least two in each group. Having two Silkies can possibly make it easier. What were the relative ages of the chickens when you integrated the one? More mature chickens can be pretty vicious to younger ones. Chickens can tell colors. It is possible the colors had something to do with it but it is also possible something else was going on. It is not always easy to tell what is really going on.

It sounds like you have successfully integrated a white chicken. If color had anything to do with it maybe since she is in the flock now the color of the Silkies won't be an issue. But Silkies do look different so appearance might make a difference.

So what would I do? The same as I do for any integration. As soon as possible, house the two across wire where the existing four can see them. My brooder is in the coop, my chicks go in there straight from the incubator so they essentially grow up with the flock. Not everybody can do that but I like to start the integration process as soon as I can. Mine start mingling with the rest of the flock at 5 weeks but you likely won't raise them that way.

How much room do you have, the more the better? When I let mine out they will probably get picked on by the adults when they invade the older chickens personal space. They quickly learn to avoid the adults and may form a sub-flock for several months, until they grow enough to be able to join the pecking order. So it is important that they have enough room to get away from and avoid the older.

The quality of your room matters. A run or coop where they cannot get out of sight of the older ones is not great unless it is huge. If you have something small like that you can improve it by adding "clutter". That means things they can hide under, behind, or even over the others. Since yours are Silkies that can't fly "over" might be hard. Widely separated feeding and watering stations can help a lot so the two can eat and drink without being bullied away. If your run is small that may mean one station inside the coop and one outside.

Try to not force them into small places with the adults. Try to give them enough room to get away. This is during the day and at night. Do not think that they have to sleep with the adults. They don't, not now. All that one big happy flock stuff can come later. When I'm integrating I don't care where they sleep as long as it is not in my nests and is someplace predator safe. When I'm integrating my only goal is that none get injured. It's that simple, no injuries. All that other stuff will come later.

Will this always work? No. We all have different chickens, each with their own personality. We have different set-ups, different amounts of room, different management techniques, lots of differences. But this is the way I'd try, regular chicks or Silkies, paying attention to what is going on and how they are behaving toward each other. Make your decisions on what you see.

 

[Red Mangrove]

Reds are extremely dominant because they're half Malaysian Gamefowl in origin. I wouldn't stick a poor Silkie in a coop with four old alpha RIR hens. That would be creating an extreme bullying situation

I have a large free range flock and my RIR are on equal dominance with Asil and American Gamefowl. They're excellent birds in their own way but need to be managed more carefully

 

[LaFleche]

If you really want Silkies, better provide a separate coop and pen/run for them unless you want to risk them being scalped or even pecked to death.

 

[Chikenshiken]

So you integrated a single chicken with a flock of three. Whether they are the home chicken or the chicken being added, integrating with a single chicken is often more challenging than if you have at least two in each group. Having two Silkies can possibly make it easier. What were the relative ages of the chickens when you integrated the one? More mature chickens can be pretty vicious to younger ones. Chickens can tell colors. It is possible the colors had something to do with it but it is also possible something else was going on. It is not always easy to tell what is really going on.

It sounds like you have successfully integrated a white chicken. If color had anything to do with it maybe since she is in the flock now the color of the Silkies won't be an issue. But Silkies do look different so appearance might make a difference.

So what would I do? The same as I do for any integration. As soon as possible, house the two across wire where the existing four can see them. My brooder is in the coop, my chicks go in there straight from the incubator so they essentially grow up with the flock. Not everybody can do that but I like to start the integration process as soon as I can. Mine start mingling with the rest of the flock at 5 weeks but you likely won't raise them that way.

How much room do you have, the more the better? When I let mine out they will probably get picked on by the adults when they invade the older chickens personal space. They quickly learn to avoid the adults and may form a sub-flock for several months, until they grow enough to be able to join the pecking order. So it is important that they have enough room to get away from and avoid the older.

The quality of your room matters. A run or coop where they cannot get out of sight of the older ones is not great unless it is huge. If you have something small like that you can improve it by adding "clutter". That means things they can hide under, behind, or even over the others. Since yours are Silkies that can't fly "over" might be hard. Widely separated feeding and watering stations can help a lot so the two can eat and drink without being bullied away. If your run is small that may mean one station inside the coop and one outside.

Try to not force them into small places with the adults. Try to give them enough room to get away. This is during the day and at night. Do not think that they have to sleep with the adults. They don't, not now. All that one big happy flock stuff can come later. When I'm integrating I don't care where they sleep as long as it is not in my nests and is someplace predator safe. When I'm integrating my only goal is that none get injured. It's that simple, no injuries. All that other stuff will come later.

Will this always work? No. We all have different chickens, each with their own personality. We have different set-ups, different amounts of room, different management techniques, lots of differences. But this is the way I'd try, regular chicks or Silkies, paying attention to what is going on and how they are behaving toward each other. Make your decisions on what you see.

Thank you! My chickens are actually all free ranged and sleep in a coop at night. But in the day they have a huge yard to roam so I don’t worry about spacing too much. I actually ended up getting two silkies there around 6-7 weeks old. The first chicken I ever integrated was the 1 white bantam. She was probably 8 weeks old when I introduced her to my flock. For now, I put them in a big run in the yard so all the animals can see but not touch. Though my small bantam was really interested and wanted to join them. Not sure if it was aggressiveness (it didn’t seem like it but I’m not going to risk it). They were being housed with older chickens as well so I hope it makes it a bit easier on the chicks. For my adults I don’t know yet. They were super interested at first now they don’t really care but I do know one of my hens can be extremely aggressive so I’m going to just wait it out for awhile before I try to let them roam free. I’m mostly worried about if I introduce them too young they won’t be able to defend themselves since I mostly don’t interfere with chicken fights because I think it can be healthy in deciding the pecking order. But I also don’t just want to watch them get relentlessly bullied. Thanks for the tips though! I know I should probably add more clutter throughout the yard for them to run and hide so I’ll try to implement that when I start letting everyone free roam.

 

[Mrs. K]

Do you have a pre fab coop? Often times they say they will fit 6 birds, but they won't.

Do you have real winter? In SD, mine are roosted about 15 hours a day, during the dark nights of winter. Often times people think they can get by with a too small coop because they only sleep there, but winter makes for long nights and can cause a lot of problems.

Full size birds and bantams often times do not mix together. It can be pretty ugly behavior. So would you rather have all bantams and let some of those egg layers go? There is a pretty good possibility that this is not going to go well in the long term.

I think a separate coop for the silkies might very well be a better idea. I would not depend on getting the weird birds into the flock.

Mrs K

 

[ljkraemer]

@Ridgerunner hi there, I was just wondering how integration of the two silkies has gone? We just got two Cochin/silkie pullets, and have 4 2 year old hens. Curious if you have an update and any tips? Thank you!

 

[ljhnz]

If you really want Silkies, better provide a separate coop and pen/run for them unless you want to risk them being scalped or even pecked to death.

Absolutely agree here! I had a similar situation with a pair of pullets - a Polish and a Houdan. Hatched them myself, along with the older bunch of heavier breed birds I'd planned to integrate them with (4 months age difference). Before I finally started letting them have time in the run with the older ones (after two weeks of living in a pen within the run) I trimmed their eye feathers so they could see fwds backwards and above. Plenty of room to escape the big girls - jump up spaces, things to hide under and shrubbery & comfrey forests for cover. Seemed to be working well for three or four days. I was still bringing them indoors at night to sleep . One of the pair (Morticia, the Houdan) still managed to get an extreme fright from an older bird and ran full tilt into the cage portion of one of the Eglu Cube coops situated in our run area. Knocked herself out, thought she'd died actually. A bit of mouth to beak and tiny chest pumps got her gasping again, but she was "stroke like" in her abilities thereafter. Clearly had concussion/brain damage. Over a period of three weeks she regained control of her head, learned to walk again but never again self fed, drank or chatted with her Polish hatchmate. She'd walk around, but seemed robotic almost. I crop fed/watered her the whole time. Anti inflammatories, antibiotics, high protein supplements, ground up pullet pellets etc. She eventually succumbed to some kind of bloating disorder which the vet couldn't turn around. Her Polish buddy (Martha) was very distraught at losing her friend, she'd been quite happy keeping her injured mate company through her recovery, even though she clearly wasn't the same as the "old" Morticia. I managed to find another Houdan around the same age as Morty, slowly introduced her to Martha then later added two young Polish chicks that a friend gave me (I raised those girls from 10 days old). This little group of fluffy heads now has, and will forever have, their own dedicated area. They are totally different personality wise to the bigger girls, super friendly, chatty and more pet like. I will never again make the newbie mistake of attempting to run vastly differing breeds together. (in my particular situation at least) I think Silkies, Polish and Houdans are similar in their needs with regards to needing more protection from other birds and predators. That which makes them so adorable (their unique head feathering and placid natures) also endangers them to a certain degree.

 

[Chikenshiken]

@Ridgerunner hi there, I was just wondering how integration of the two silkies has gone? We just got two Cochin/silkie pullets, and have 4 2 year old hens. Curious if you have an update and any tips? Thank you!

It went GREAT. Way better than my last attempt. I kept them in a run for two months in clear site of all my chickens and when I finally integrated them there was absolutely no hiccups of course for a few pecks but no actual aggression!! My small bantam has taken a liking to them and hangs around with them now since she’s slept next to their crate