New chicken mama

[devonjameson]

Hi everyone! I have raised mallards for years, but I just recently bought some silkie chickens. I ended up with 3 roosters and 1 hen. I bought 2 more hens and kept them Ina separate pen temporarily. The roosters were not getting along so I gave one to my friend and I am planning on rehomig the other 2. They were really aggressive towards me, their hen, and brutally attacked the 2 new hens when I tried to introduce them. I moved the 2 roosters to one pen and moved the hens in together. Will it be okay to just keep 3 little hens together without any roosters? I think the original hen is a little sad without the roosters. Any advice will be greatly appreciated! I know it's kindof silly to be so stressed out about their well being, but I feel guilty about separating !

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[drumstick diva]

It's not silly to be concerned about their well being. That just makes you a good owner. Silkies are extremely hard to sex before 4-5 mos. of age and sometimes not till they crow or lay eggs. When there are too many roosters and too few hens, the boys can overbreed them and cause physical damage. You have done well by eliminating them from the flock

Your girls will be fine without them. Welcome to Backyard chickens, nice to have you here. You may also want to check out the "Silkie thread," just put that in the search box and it will pop up.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. As DD rightly says, girls are fine without a roo - my flock seems (to me at least) a lot less stressed without a roos "advances". A side benefit is that even the most flighty girl will squat for me, so i can pick them up to check them out now and again - bonus!

CT

 

[KeyFlock]

I'm glad you joined us!! Drumstick diva and CTKen are both right- your girls will be better off without the roosters.

 

[N F C]

As the other greeters have said, your girls will be fine (and probably happier) without the males around. Hope you are enjoying the silkies, it would be nice to see a picture of them if you'd care to share.

Thanks for joining us!

 

[NickyKnack]

There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to join the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around the run. Vote those roosters off the Island.