keeping silkies with the laying hens?

[4acresNachick]

I have a 4 silkies roughly 5 months old and a Cochin bantam that hangs with them and I am wonder if having them live with the laying hens is a good idea. I never see them happier then when they have the coop and run to themselves when the hens are ranging around. Right now both groups sleep in the same coop but go their separate ways when the door opens in the morning. They seem happy, everyone is growing and healthy but I wonder if they might be happier if I divide the coop and run in half and keep them permanently separate? my 6 month old pullets pick on the silkies but never any serious attacks or injuries, just a little chasing. I am new to raising chickens and am now a little over my head. I am madly in love with my silkies but I am afraid I am not giving them what they need. Any advice would be great.

 

[TwinMapleRanch]

I am interested in the replies to this post too, as I am pretty much in the same predicament. We will be building a bigger coop this fall, and I am wondering if I should make two separate parts, one for the silkies and one for the rest of the girls? I know there are lots of silkie owners on here... what say you??

 

[TGreenhut]

I keep my silkies in with my laying hens with no problem at all. It was a little rough at first, but no worse then adding regular laying hens to the flock. Once the pecking order was established, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. You just need to make sure you have nesting boxes on the ground because silkies can't fly to perch.

 

[mysweetgypsy]

I'm sure someone on here with more experience may have a better answer, but I'm not sure why you'd seperate them? I have a flock of 16, ranging in age from 6-20 weeks, mostly large breed, and my 4 fluff balls

Sadly they segregate themselve to some extent, but I think they'd be lonely without eachother. My regular roo keeps the larger breeds in check, and the silkie roos watch thier girls. One of the silkie roos will be rehomed soon, along with the BLRW roos, so my numbers will dwindle a bit, down to 11. But I still wouldn't want them seperate, they enjoy eachothers company at least 95% of the time

And I'm really hoping my EE roo will teach my silkie roo how to really guard the flock. The EE got all his hens in tonight, but the silkies were all out milling around in the twilight, silly chickens

 

[TwinMapleRanch]

Thanks for the reply Teresa! I will definitely make sure there are nesting boxes on the floor for my adorable little puff balls! Good to know they can all get along.... hope we can integrate rather smoothly when the time comes!

 

[TwinMapleRanch]

Thanks mysweetgypsy... I'm going to try to keep mine together too and see how it goes.

 

[JodyJo]

My little one is with the rest....no reason to separate as far as I can see....mine chugs along behind the larger girls and nobody seems to care....

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Quote:
We had a silky roo, and he was our only silky, he did great with all the birds! He got along great with even all 9 of our other roosters too! We lost him to frostbite unfortunately

 

[TwinMapleRanch]

Quote:
I've heard the roos are really laid back. Mine are just babies yet, so I haven't had any first hand experience in that yet. Sorry to hear about your boy... that is sad!